Thursday, July 17, 2008

It's OFFICIAL - Tim II has joined the ARMY...


This is the letter I sent to family - well two emails combined because I forgot something in the first one.

Hey y'all. Tim II (I really can't keep calling him Timmy now can I?) joined the Army, yesterday. He actually went to MEPS on Monday afternoon. He spent the night in a hotel and was taken to the facility around 5am on Tuesday. I waited and waited all day for a call. Nothing. Around 9:30pm - he called and said he was still waiting to go into negotiations. Around 12:30 AM on Wednesday MORNING - he called to say that he didn't decide on anything. He told them he needed to see more options and that he was not going to sign away 4 years of his life after sitting there for 19 hours. They sent him back to the hotel and told him to come back in the morning. He went back on Wednesday morning and started negotiations again. He said they would not offer him anything in the medical field like he wanted. They only had one medical field option and that was Food Inspector. He didn't care for that. He did finally find one job that he thought he might enjoy. It isn't something like Xray tech that he will have a skill after he gets out, but it is something he would like to learn and will get him through. The official title is Click here: GoArmy.com > Careers & Jobs > Field Artillery Automated Tactical Data System Specialist (13D) . He did really good negotiating for his best interest. He got a $40,000 bonus and $63,000 for college money. That is about as good as it gets! Now for the news that makes his mom's heart sink. He has to go to Fort Sill Oklahoma on August 4th (my dad's birthday). Wow! I was thinking this whole time that he would do boot camp at one of the close places. There are several around where we live. Fort Sill is 17 hours and 8 minutes away. Yes, I checked as quickly as I could. He will do 9 weeks of Basic Training and then 7 weeks of AIT there in Oklahoma. He doesn't know where he would go after that. He is going to be here in SC for a couple of days and then he is going back to Florida for a week or so. I wanted to thank you all for your prayers and hanging in there with me. Now, I need to you hang in there with me some more. I will keep you all updated to where he is and what he is doing. Keep him in your prayers and pray that I don't fall apart when he leaves. Also, can you pray for Savannah - she is trying hard to be brave that he is leaving, but I know she is going to have a hard time! Thanks everyone!

P.S. I forgot to say how PROUD we are of him and the decision he made. He worked so hard to get here. He lost something like 60lbs and studied to get a good score on his ASVAB test. We are pleased with all that he has done!

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