What is your 'favorite' memory from MEPS?

Meal consisted of a single cheeseburger, fries and a drink at Burger King. NOT a Whopper, NOT a chicken sandwich. The equivalent of a kids meal... I had a 2 hour bus ride to the station and a 2 hour bus ride home..basically an all day physical, and tests. Yes, folks in 1983, the USAF recruiter would not give anyone a ride to the MEPS station, so I had to go to the BUS station and get a ride to the MEPS office. I remember the rejection rate was about 80 to 90%... you would have been amazed what kind of people tried to enlist, back in those days. I seem to remember only about 1 in 20 in high school actually passed the ASVAB test.

I remember my first week and one situation come to mind
Drill Sgt to me “are you a f***ing idiot (right off the Bus) yes drill Sgt I am

Since I enlisted in 1965 long before MEPS had come about I find the following posts very interesting,my memories of the induction process must sound prehistoric to current Service members

My favorite memory of MEPS? Well, I had gone through a day-long processing at the Memphis MEPS center back in early 1967. I was waiting in this one area as I was told to do. This guy came out and called out my name and escorted me into the doctor's office. The doctor looked at me with a great big smile and said, "Good news, you are underweight and will not be drafted!" I just looked at him for a moment and then I said, "I wasn't drafted. I volunteered for the Marines!" He gave me this strange look and then said OK and signed a waiver. I guess he thought he was doing me a favor. LOL

I joined the Navy in England so there was no MEPs. I joined under delayed enlistment in March and was told that my departure date would be sometime later in the year. Not one day later I get a phone call telling me I'll be shipping out in April. I flew out of London's Heathrow Airport on April 24th and arrived in Orlando where I was met at the airport by the USO "greeters." They put me on a bus and a few minutes later I was at the boot camp in Orlando, Florida.

Only thing I recall about MEPS was my second trip there for my actual day to leave for Basic Training. It was the wee hours of the morning and my mom, step-dad and I where driving to the MEPS station when my step-dad asked me what exit do we need to get off at. I had no idea. I had driven myself there close to a year before for all the initial processing but had never returned since. It was somewhere in downtown Columbus, OH. Fortunately it was right off of an exit and somehow I recognized the area as we came to it.

Ummm favorite??? I wouldn't sy favorite, but being scared as all hell of the unknown!!!

Just before taking the oath I was pulled out of the formation. I had to wait until the next day because of a paper work problem.

Capt Brandon Charters for me MEPS was a great experience over all. It meant that I had really lost enough weight, and gotten myself into good enough shape to pass the tape test and go into the Navy. So despite doctors with cold hands, the fear of answering a question wrong and being sent home, and my oath of Navy enlistment being conducted by an Air Force Major, I loved the whole day spent at MEPS.

I had a MEPS staff member (pushing 70) hook me up to an EKG, told me there would be electric charges sent through the wires, then left the room. At 21, needless to say my readings were off the the charts.

I recall on 3 Feb 66 standing in. A cold hallway in Whitehall Street induction station in socks shorts and t-shirt with a small cloth bag contains my valuables hung around my neck when two Marine sergeants counted off the twelve guys ahead of me and said take two steps forward. Congratulations you are now members of the Marine Corps.
13 has always been my lucky number.

1982... Having to get a waiver because my body fat was too low. Not weight, body fat %.

I got laid at MEPs. I had been talking to this cute little gal, she was going to the Airforce, on and off when we arrived the night before. We had been flirting with each other all through dinner and then we all got the "Boys and girls should stay out of each others motel rooms" speech.

I would say 45 minutes later she knocked on my door, we kicked my roommate out and she stayed the night. When they came for us in the morning, we got all kinds of nasty looks and got a talking to by some officer once we got to the MEPs facility there in Oakland. They gave me a ton of shit for not following directions, except the Marines. That gunny seemed fond of me...

About a year or so later I was on a 96, and I ran into her at Nellis Air force base and we spent that 96 bumping uglies at the Mandalay Bay. We hooked up again a few years later when we ran into each other in Hawaii.

We still chat from time to time she is married now and so am I but we still have a good friendship.

April 1969. Marine draft was in full effect. We'd all heard stories about how they worked it. First, we were all taken into a room where each one of us was asked, "Army or Marine Corps?" Some said Marines, most said Army. After that, we fell out into a corridor, Marines needed eleven more guys. Two Marine Gunnys told us to count off. Soon as it got to eleven, they stopped us. Those eleven guys were off to San Diego. The rest of us went to Fort Knox. By the way, I was number 13.

I do not know if it is my favorite,but i'm probably the only one who flunked their first physical because of zit.

Walking down a double column of medics with air guns, giving vaccinations.

Favorite memory, is telling testers and new recruits they needed get probed, so i wished them luck and hope they packed tons of lube.

I never thought much of MEPS? Do others have fond memories of this place?

In 1990 I was assigned to MEPS Jacksonville, FL as a PSSP. My job was to interview any applicant enlisting into an MOS that required Secret and above clearance. Some of the stories I could tell about applicants I disqualified were amazing!

Our in-processing was done at Medina AFB; the only thing I remember before that was testing done at the recruiting station (AFOQT). My clearest memory of the process was being assigned a service number and the clerk looking up and saying "Damn, that's a great number!"
And it was. 03 for the month of March; 223 for the caliber of the M-16; and 777 which I just had to memorize.