Member-only story
A US Navy Veteran’s Story
A veteran remembers 9/11 and going on deployment
For almost a decade now, it has been a family tradition that on Veteran’s Day we meet up at the same restaurant and partake in a meal free to all who’ve served. While there, we talk amongst ourselves or to others around us about which branch we’ve served and what we did. Typically, whenever I answer that I didn’t have an MOS (job rating), I receive confused looks and have to explain the situation. The U.S. Navy is the only branch to enlist personnel without offering a job and school, labeling them as strikers or undesignated, making life tough for those of us without an MOS.
That Call to Enlist in the Military
I enlisted in the United States Navy on leap year day, 29 February 2000. I remained in the delayed entry program, waiting for my time to go to boot camp, which came on 2 October 2000. On 3 December 2000, I graduated boot camp and went to Pensacola, Florida for three weeks of training. This was my first Christmas away from home. Boy, I was crushed when I couldn’t go home to be with my family. Then it hit me; I’d be missing quite a bit of family time and a lot of holidays.
