Before the Board

Now that you know what happened when I walked into the board, this is how I got to the board.

Enlisting the assistance of Connie and other soldiers that had already been before the board, I drilled them for every detail and piece of information I could get from them. Military appearance was of the utmost importance so guys always got a fresh (buzz) haircut and the women had to ensure their hair was tightly and neatly pinned up. I knew just the person to help me with that, Connie. She assured me the day of my appearance she'd do my hair for me. Next in military appearance was going over my uniform, making sure it fit (back then I ate so little and worked out so much that I often lost a lot of weight and my uniform would be too big), getting it dry cleaned so it would be freshly pressed and making sure all of the rank, emblems, etc were up to date. I also had to shine my brass and put my awards on but that wasn't usually done until the night before. My shoes had to be every shiny but I had the patent leather kind so to those all I had to do was make sure they were clean and give them some fresh edge dressing to the souls.

Also to prepare I had to study the uh, study guide for the E5 board and make sure I was very up-to-date on current events. That might not seem that big of a deal to you but may I remind you yet again --no Internet, no cell phones, no TV or radio (other than the Air Force channel) and really not even a news paper. We did have the Army Times available to us and some local paper --I think a Division publication or something. So getting outside information was a bit of a challenge. The study guide covered a multitude of subject areas such as history of the Army and leadership. I even had to know the history/progression of the Army uniform. And when I say history of the Army I do mean dating all the way back to the Revolutionary War and General George, as in Washington, himself.

And to think in 6th grade I argued with my father how useless History class was and I was doing so poorly in it because it was a dumb class I'll never need or use again.

Every night I read the study guide cover to cover. Connie would quiz me on things and I'd write down whatever information I was struggling to remember. All in all, as time approached for my board appearance, I was pretty confident I knew the materials very well. What I wasn't ready for was my uniform. That needed some work.

You see, I think I've mentioned this here before, the men have it easy (as usual cuz you know, we got that whole giving birth thing too) with their uniforms because they have two breast pockets on their jacket which makes for very easy and very neat and very straight placement of their awards. They just line them up on the pocket. Done. Females don't have the pockets, first of all but also each woman's body has their own contours and so you have general guidelines where your awards are to be placed but basically, it really depends on the woman's own ahem shape (or lack there of, dare I say?). So you take those general guidelines and go from there. Then you have to try the jacket on and make sure everything is straight and make adjustments as needed. Its was a big pain.

Hmmm who do I know that knows the Army inside and out? Who knows AR 670-1 (the Army regulation that covers military dress) backwards and forwards? Think, Melissa! Who? Oh right! Sergeant Newsome knows that stuff. Huh. Interesting. Maybe he can help.

So I go to SSG Newsome and ask him if he would help me get my uniform ready for the board. He was glad to help, he told me. So we made plans one evening after work I'd bring my uniform over to his apartment and he'd get it all spit shined and polished for me. He was going to polish my brass for me too and oh heck, he told me I might as well bring my boots over too and he'd throw a spit shine on those as well. That had nothing to do with the board --he was just throwing that one in to be extra nice. You gotta love military romance, huh?