There is a process

The next logical question is 'what happens now?'. Not a lot for a while, at least near term. In the next few weeks, I will be focusing on turning my day job over and getting the family prepped for my departure. The Navy's part in this phase is pretty low-key, I have a bunch of web training to knock out (M-16 familiarization, a variety of general military training stuff, anti-terrorism training, etc). That, and sending info to my first Navy stop (clothing sizes, etc). A great improvement over the past, as they gave me more than enough time to get ready - not days or a couple of weeks as they did initially.

My employer has been really good. They are working to replace me in my day job with sufficient time to turnover and give a decent handoff. The process there is pretty easy - I fill out a form and give a copy of my orders, and that's it. They are also supportive on the pay side - they will pay me the difference between my current pay and my military base pay. There are plenty of horror stories of folks who go from good paying jobs to essentially borderline poverty since their employers don't take care of them - not an issue with my company.

My first Navy stop will be NMPS (Navy Mobilization Processing Station) in Gulfport, MS. This will be five days of stuff that could easily be done in a day if the process was optimized, but the typical Navy way is to set the schedule to the least prepared person in the group. So, I expect it will be the stereotypical 'hurry up and wait' Navy exercise. That will be aggravating, as I know I could have spent a couple extra days at home. So be it. This place will transition me from being a civilian back to a full time active Navy officer, and it focuses on medical and paperwork readiness.

Next is three weeks at Ft Jackson in SC for "NARMY" training - the Army trains us how to be quasi-soldiers. I am not sure of all the details, but basically it gets you used to wearing body armor and shooting lots of weapons. If you have never dealt with the Army, the individuals are normally great people but systemically the Army is a bit painful... so I am not looking forward to dealing with that. The weapons stuff sounds like fun, however.

After that, I believe that I hop on the big bird for the Middle East. Again, not sure where I go yet.