MEPS - Day 2
Day 2 at MEPS
Day 2 is medical evaluation day. You have to wake up very early. I woke up at about 3:50am. You’re supposed to meet downstairs in the briefing room at 4:30am to check in and then you get breakfast.
Forewarning, breakfast at MEPS is not good! It was probably some of the worst food I have ever had; gross watery scrambled eggs, cardboard tasting sausage links and a hard chalky biscuit. But if you don’t eat, you’re going to be extremely hungry all day, so try your best to get something in your stomach.
You start lining up around 5am and then get onto the shuttle to head to the MEPS location. When you arrive you will check in at your branch office again and then they will send you to check in at the main desk in the lobby. Heads up, you’ll do a lot of back and forth at MEPS.
Once you’re fully checked in you will get a name-tag sticker with an ID number on it and then they will send you to the medical wing to start your medical evaluations. You will have to get your blood pressure taken, get your vision checked, get your hearing checked, have a briefing, get blood drawn, pee in a cup (supervised), and have an interview with the doctor.
The blood pressure check was quick and easy. With the vision check, they have you do a color blind test by flipping pages very quickly and seeing if you can read the numbers or not. Then they have you do the depth perception test, this is not something you are able to practice, it just looks like a bunch of circles and you have to say which ones stand out.
If you fail the color blind test or depth perception, it does not disqualify you from the Air Force, it just disqualifies you from certain jobs that require those abilities. Then they have you do the basic vision test where you read the letters all the way down. If you are someone who wears glasses or contacts, you have to do this with and without your glasses/contacts in.
Next is the hearing test. You will go into a room that has a soundproof box, you will sit inside of it and put on headphones. They will play a series of beeps and you will press a trigger that you will be holding in your hand whenever you hear the series of beeps. At some point you will go into a room to have a briefing about MEPS, during this time they will go over info and tell you not to lie and they will also have your take a breathalyzer to ensure that you hadn’t had alcohol since being at MEPS.
Next you will get your blood drawn. Then you will have to go pee in a cup. You will be supervised while peeing. There will be a nurse or doctor of your gender in the room and possibly the other recruits. Although they aren’t able to see you, in my experience they were all in the bathroom. After you pee in your cup, you have to hold it and stand in line to take it to the doctor's widow. This part was so gross because everyone was just standing around with their pee cups.
The next thing you will do is have an interview with the doctor. DO NOT bring up ANY new information. You should not be holding anything back that you have not talked to your recruiter about.
Once you have gone through all of these steps, then the next part is the physical evaluations. You will go into a room with everyone of your gender. You will fill out a scar, tattoo, birthmark form and mark any of these things that you have on your body.
Next, you strip down to your underwear (bra and underwear for females). While everyone is standing there in their underwear the doctor will have you do some basic exercises.
Next you go into the doctor's room and get FULLY naked and the doctor will check your genitalia. It is a very quick process. For the Air Force, they also have to check out eardrum movement.
Once you pass all the medical evaluations, you are basically done! You feel like you can breathe again! You will check out of the medical wing and go back to the lobby for more back and forth between the main desk and the Air Force office.
Then you will have another interview with another person and they will have you check info on your contract and will take your fingerprints. For the Air Force, when you go into the Air Force office, they will have you lift a weight. The amount you can lift helps you qualify for jobs. Some jobs have low or no weight requirement, while some maintenance jobs might have a higher weight requirement. See our Air Force jobs list for each jobs weight requirement.
Now, you have passed MEPS! You then wait to do the ceremonial swear in! I finished up with everything around 11:30am and they had a bagged lunch for us with a sandwich, chips and fruit. Then I had my swear in at 12:30pm.
Then, if you drove yourself you can check out and leave. If you rode the shuttle, you have to wait around for the shuttle to get there to take you home.