Hey so I’ve lurked here for awhile. Mostly lurked threads about prior service going Army.

Well after losing 85 pounds here I am! Poor service marine currently a Soldier.

My experience was/is during the Rona. So my experience may differ from your future experience.

Starting from the beginning

Talked to a recruiter, lost the weight and went to MEPS. Normal physical. Due to my extremely rapid weight loss program I put myself on my body ate a good bit of my muscle as well so I had difficulty with the crab walk, as in couldn’t do it. My body literally has eaten all of my rear end muscles. It’s bizarre. Anyways thankfully a Dr understood that I just needed to recondition and passed me.

Passed then physical and then onto the service liaison (guidance counselor) to select my job. It was an old civilian, former army. He did his computer thing then called HQ Army. Talked with the dude who answered the phone. I was asked what MOS I wanted. I said any 15 series. Nope can’t do that you can only get a 4 year contract (I was 4 years active 4 IRR. E4 with 8 years TIS limited time a 4 year enlistment so no 5 year wing enlistment)

I had a list of MOSs prepared and next was 12R. Electrician. HQ Army said ok and that was that. Signed some paperwork about it and got a print out of training dates.

Fast forward a month and a half. I ship out.

NOW ONTO THE ACTUAL EXPERIENCE THUS FAR.

It’s been horrible. Awful. Terrible.

I fly into STL and that’s where things get stupid. I get there and it’s nothing but a sea of recruits for basic. Drill sergeants are there in the airport hooting at people. Anyways bus in to leonardwood.

As soon as I get there it’s a COVID test. After that we give our orders up along with the rest of the recruits. Mind you I’m with RECRUITS. So there’s no differentiation between me and a recruit. Long night ends with hey any prior service? Yes drill Sgt. Tells me that I’ll be in separate barracks and have my phone etc I’ll be treated differently. So that was cool.

Long night gets longer waiting for what I thought was no reason. COVID tests come back and I’m positive. As I understand it the Army uses antigen tests which are notoriously unreliable. My wife and other 2 room mates test negative a couple days later. So I was a false positive

So from here we Wait. Wait until 5 am. Eventually a duty driver comes and picks us up and takes us to the isolation barracks. Racked out @ 6am, up at 630 for chow and the day .

Spend 10(!) days in isolation. It’s essentially prison. Stay in your room. No ordering outside food. Drill Sgt’s there. Stuck with recruits. Typical recruit BS. Mind numblingly bored. 1 hr outside directly in front of barracks.

I eventually get out.

Here’s where it gets STUPID.

LT in charge of chopping out the isolated soldiers chops us ALL to the 43rd. No differentiation between PS and recruits. Mind you we don’t have uniforms yet as we popped positive and went straight to isolation.

Get to the 43rd. Drill sgts into us like we are recruits, as they think that’s what we are. Myself and the other PS say we are PS. Drill Sgt says “cool. I don’t care” and sends us with other recruits. Those were the words out of his mouth.

So for an entire day I’m doing recruit BS. Squad bays DS yelling. 3 hour trip to chow hall. Acting like a recruit etc. our phones were taken. My wife never expecting me to have my phone taken is upset understandably. Hear from other recruits reception is taking 15+ days now. It’s cold AF and snowing and I’m stuck being a recruit. Terrible day.

Myself and the other 2 PS eventually go down to the quarterdeck (not sure what army calls it) and talks to the drill Sgt when he tried to take our phones. We say we are PS and have orders for AIT in like a week.

Dude finally relented and says OH you’re THAT kind of PS.

Chops us out to PS barracks. Finally.

I hear from other PS here processing takes like 2 days for us

I DODGED A BULLET.

PS barracks are sweet. No recruit BS

If you are PS speak up, often! Announce you are PS! You should NOT be integrated with recruits like we were.