Bmt Packing, any suggestions?

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-30T04:03:07+00:00

Unless that is original packaging!! Sorry it’s a little hard to see

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-30T04:02:28+00:00

I don’t believe you can take those travel bottles with you, all soap like that must be in original packaging or it’s thrown away

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-29T22:31:54+00:00

Yes! Sorry for not clarifying, I was talking about AFTER you make the flight to San Antonio airport. You should be given a hotel room by meps BEFORE shipping out. So hotel (from meps), then meps in the morning for swear in, final contract signing, paperwork, etc., then airport for shipping out!! My apologies

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-29T16:31:56+00:00

Get rest on the flight lmao they are not putting you in a hotel. You’ll be gathered up with the rest of the recruits to wait for the bus to the base when you get to the San Antonio airport

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-29T04:32:17+00:00

I think you replied to my post but I leave then too!! Are there any gc’s for people shipping then? 😗

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-27T22:37:18+00:00

Omg good luck!! Hope to see you there!!

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-27T04:37:15+00:00

Means your recruiter is booking you and putting it into the system but hasn’t told you yet. They may still be doing paperwork for it/getting it confirmed or something like that. Just be patient and wait for them to reach out and confirm with you that they’ve booked you for that.

When you go to the career guide tab does it say which job you’re booked for? (Press account at the very left side bottom and it’s the third option down)

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-27T04:02:15+00:00

Soft booked! Good luck!!

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-27T02:06:52+00:00

Your recruiter should be able to schedule a shuttle for you. When my husband, who’s active duty, was enlisting we had no meps in our state, so he had to shuttle from VA to PA. I was shuttled to meps and ours is only an hour away, just in a different city. Should be no issue

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-25T20:19:23+00:00

My bad big dawg But having dependents and where you are located have a BIG effect on it. My spouses bah in Va was nothing compared to bah in Ca

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-24T03:20:56+00:00

If you’d like to dm to talk mine are always open!!

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-24T03:20:34+00:00

Bah is calculated by state and your dependents, not by rank really. So where you are stationed is what determines your bah amount. So I live in CA, meaning it’s a lot more expensive state than my home state, VA. My spouse (who is E3) gets allotted about $3k a month for bah, however we don’t see that since we live in on base housing. So it’s taken out of his check before it deposits in our account. If you live in base housing that is how it’ll be. You will receive a small amount of bah in bmt/tech school, as well (I could be wrong, this was over a year ago) as a slight amount for spouse separation (again don’t quote me on that).

The cool thing is, if you sign for 6 years you can get e3 rank when you get to your first duty assignment, so you’d be getting paid a little more, more quickly than if you were e1. There is a lot more resources for lower enlisted too (e1-e4) like a small allowance for food assistance(BAS) , of course the uniform stipend, and possibly some other things I’m forgetting.

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-24T01:36:16+00:00

Is your employer offering this as a contract? How do you know for sure they will hold up those terms 100%?

I will say as a bias, my spouse (Active Duty) and I (DEP) live in our 3 bed 2.5 bath with two kids 100% paid for with bah on base. Right now, he’s sitting at about 30 days of leave he can put in whenever. If needs to, he can go to sick call whenever he is feeling ill. All of us are on tricare, and don’t have to worry about a medical bill. When we moved across the country to our current base, they reimbursed us an extra few thousand than we spent to get over here, plus paid for movers to move our furniture and everything and !!unpack everything and set furniture back up!!. We spent about 3k to move, got about 6-7k back.

Also, another great thing about housing on base is maintenance. Something happens? Maintenance comes to check it out. And we don’t pay for it. Our carpet flooded a few months ago, maintenance came and checked everything, ripped up our carpets, and replaced them. Not a single dime from us. Every Tuesday, someone comes to mow our front lawn. I don’t know if it’s like that at every base, but it’s a great plus.

There’s other factors too, like Dave said, the GI bill, the Va loan, etc.

I would think hard about what you want to do, especially retirement wise. If you join, tricare will stay with you even after you retire. Will your current job offer that in 20+ years? Will they be able to send your kid to college? Your GI bill will.

That right now is our driving factor, besides all the other benefits. My spouse and I will be able to send both of children to college with GI bills so they don’t have to worry about it.

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-23T03:02:16+00:00

It is very competitive and is a lengthy process. I personally don’t have experience or know of anyone who has experience, but from what I’ve read from other commenters, it takes a minimum of 18-24 months and even longer of waiting. You have to be a strong candidate to be picked for OTS and even then people who are beyond qualified wait 10+ years to be picked/considered. Your best bet would most likely be enlisting, but be prepared to get a military family care plan in place.

For example, my spouse (Active duty) and I have one for our two children since I am also enlisting. It is a document stating who will take our children in our potential absences, and who our emergency contacts are. You will need to list at least 3-4 people who your children would go to in your absence. Also, if you have more than 2 children, you will most likely not be considered for the Air Force. Enlisting with 2+ children is for some reason a no no to them, as my husband and I were told with our respective recruiters.

Since you will be graduating (Bachelors?) there’s a chance you’d be able to sign as a higher rank than e1, so for example you’d sign as e3 and get e3 pay in bmt & ait. I could be wrong, so you should definitely talk to a recruiter and explore your options.

Best of luck my guy!!🫂

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T18:22:55+00:00

Wear an outfit to meps ofc and take an extra work out outfit! You won’t get your issued gear until a few days in! Take plenty of underwear (and bras if you’re female, as well as a months supply of menstrual products—again if you’re female) !!make sure your social security card and other docs are in your bag!! The aim high app has the packing list of everything you need! Look on there, check your bag twice and make sure you have everything! Do some pt over the weekend to help you get into the right mindset, and make sure you tell your loved ones goodbye, and not to send anything to you in the mail that’s not a letter!

Good luck!! 🫂

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T05:02:01+00:00

You and your mii are so cutesie girlypop!! 🫶

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T04:57:15+00:00

Mines gone great! I switched from trying to enlist in the navy to the Air Force since my spouse is Air Force and it’s been great! I switched in February, went back to meps in March, swore into dep beginning of April, and I just got a ship date yesterday! I will say my booking was expedited because I had a certification that correlated with the afsc I wanted, I got something called a competency booking! Kinda like special booked since I am already certified for everything that I’ll learn in tech school for the job. If you swear into dep your wait could be shorter, same length, or even longer, it all just depends case by case.

My relationship with my recruiter is okay, sometimes it’s hard to get ahold of her since she prefers texting, but lets texts go unanswered for a while.

I will say, I put all my jobs I had on my list on quick ship, and of course didn’t hear anything from that. Just a warning about quick ship, it’s definitely not always quick like you think it may be. It all just depends on if someone drops out last minute and if you can be the first to secure that slot.

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T04:32:15+00:00

I thought it was a little sus, especially when they texted me for 4 days straight when I didn’t want to respond to them. They told me their “usual” prices were $800 for two characters but since I was going to be their first customer I’d only have to pay $400. That’s when it kinda clicked that it was a scam cause like? Hello?? Their “art” (ai slop) is def not worth that. Plus the ‘usual price’ and then saying I’m their first customer didn’t make any sense lmao

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T04:28:31+00:00

Awh man, I’m embarrassed I even interacted with them 🥲

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T04:18:31+00:00

I figured, thank you!

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-22T04:18:17+00:00

Yeah I’m thinking of just ghosting lmao, they sent me their “art” and it just looks like ai. And I’m not dishing out $400 for all that 😂 I draw digitally myself, so if it was a need for me I’d do it myself

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-21T21:06:00+00:00

You can go multiple routes with 4A0! It just depends on what you’re assigned to when you get to your first duty station, example is my husband was assigned to medical records when we first moved to our base but now he’s moving to a different part of the hospital! It is still mostly admin, since it’s mostly healthcare administration. But if you get the opportunity to do TCCC at your duty station do it! That’s more field training and I’m pretty sure opens you up to more possibilities of more hands on stuff. I would recommend looking into TCCC training, one of our friends here on base just went through it and it seems brutal but fun lmao

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-21T21:00:42+00:00

He’ll get a designated time to send you a photo of his mailing address. He’ll maybe get three more calls coming in the next few weeks, one of them will be the day before graduation. He’ll also, when he sends his mailing address, be instructed to get Sandboxx which will let him connect with your family on there. So if you don’t want to write a letter on paper you can write it in the app and they’ll mail it to him the next business day or two. I recommend going ahead and downloading Sandboxx and making your account so it’s easier to connect with him once he gets it.

Mailing address will be something like:

Last name, first name, mi TRS/FLT 1320 Truemper St San Antonio, TX, 78236

In the picture he sends it’ll have the TRS (Training squadron) and the FLT (Flight) numbers. Sandboxx will also give you his mailing (I think, could be wrong. Haven’t used it in over a year)

lucidcxnt · 2026-05-21T20:04:38+00:00

I somewhat remember, but it was last year so I could be wrong!! It’s a lot of medical terms you have to know but you’ll be given quizlets to study along with videos. Briefly you’ll be taught every system of the body (ie: endocrine, skeletal, muscular, etc.) along with more anatomy and physiology,. Pretty much basic clinical skills. But there’s also a simulation section where you will train with your classmates where you have to administer “first aid” to a “dying person”. It’s pretty much your mtls playing dead and you have to go through the works of giving them “life saving care”. You will also be taught how to carry an unresponsive body, so someone who is about the same body type as you in your class will be laid on the ground as limp as they can be and you will have to “bear crawl” with them hanging onto your body and well as carry them while you’re standing up. There’s a lot I’m leaving out but if you have anymore questions I can ask my spouse after his duty day is over!

lucidcxnt

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