Enlistment Day, August 16, 2007

Today at 0930 I enlisted. My wife and children watched the two-minute ceremony in the headquarters of my new unit: Echo Company 2-104th Aviation Battalion, Fort Indiantown Gap, Pa.

First call to my recruiter

After thinking about joining for way too long, I called SFC Kevin Askew on Maundy Thursday, April 5, 2007, and asked him about joining the Army National Guard. We talked for more than a half hour. He told me that the Army National Guard has a unit that both looks for WMDs and provides Hazmat response support in the region. He said to send in my DD214s, pay statements and any other paperwork I had that would establish my prior service and he would determine if I could actually join. I collected the papers over Easter weekend and started faxing them on Monday morning.