Thursday, August 5, 2010

What is DEP Like?

Yesterday was our DEP meeting. That stands for Delayed Entry Program. Here's what happened, since some people have expressed curiosity:

We walked into the office. An American flag stands on the right side of the door as you come in. You're supposed to turn to the flag, salute, and turn to the front, salute and ask, "permission to come aboard?" I did all that, and my Petty Officer granted me permission.

Next, you have to sign yourself in your book. Then a lot of things happen at once: some people get random drug testing, some fill out survey things, some people have to get taped and weighed, etc. I usually have to do none of those things, so I sit awkwardly in a corner.

Finally, when everyone is done shuffling around, the leader of the Navy recruits calls us to attention. We all rush to form a somewhat disheveled line, and then we do a "duress right" at close interval, which means we all stick our elbow out and touch the person next to us to get our spacing correct. At that point we recite the Sailor's Creed, which I talked about in my last post.

Then, we get to introduce ourselves and answer a list of things about us. Mine usually sounds like this: "I'm Angel Renee, from Hoskins. I enlisted on July 12th, 2010 and my ship date is March 8th of 2011. My job is Crypto-Technician-top security level Intelligence. My recruiter was Petty Officer Eric Oberhauser, and I am entering as an E-3. I joined the Navy to travel, serve my country, and be part of the global force for good." :D

We get vocabulary lessons next. They write down words we are going to need to know, and we have to put the definition. Last meeting, one of the words was 'scullery'. That means a place to do dishes. One of the recruits said it was a 'hard hat'. Another said, 'a fancy artwork of the skull.' That's how it's done, folks. Welcome to Nebraska!!!

After THAT, we have the actual lesson of the day. This meeting was on First Aid. We were divided into groups and given topics to prepare presentations on. Mine was bleeding and tourniquets. I am already certified, so I tried my best not to look bored. One funny thing our handbooks told us was that we can't use tourniquets on head or neck wounds or you can die. I used that in my presentation and everyone laughed.

Yesterday was special. We had a Master Command Officer, I think, visit. She has worked all over, including the Pentagon. She was very impressed about my job, saying it's a hard one to get into. She told me that when I get out of the Navy, the CIA and FBI will certainly be trying to give me a job. Wow!

So, we finished the meeting with some new commands. These were commands that taught us how to turn, with our feet, and how to stand at parade rest. The Pentagon lady also gave me a letter of recognition from an Admiral or something for getting seamen recruit Pisces to join. That was kind of fun.

Then we were lucky enough to be forced into going to play frisbee. I ran my guts out, chasing Recruit P all over the field. I'm not very good at frisbee. Of course, it was she and I against 10 big guys, so we both were kinda retarded. Oh well.

That is basically DEP. Now I'm going to go plan my honeymoon cruise.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, just wanted to help you get this right, BEFORE you get to boot camp.

It's "dress" right, not duress.

Good luck, gal. I'm sure you'll do fine.