(15AUG2008)
In preparation to deploy, the first step is to get medically cleared at my home station. As I have deployed a few times before, the administrators, nurses, and doctors at the clinic on base know me well and are very helpful in getting me in and out of my appointments almost entirely in one day (a new record, I think; this is often a process that takes at least a week or two).
I have my vision tested (with contacts in, no problem), and my hearing (I am told that over the course of my deployments I have lost the ability to hear opera singers; I'm okay with this fact), and I sit down to discuss my medical history with my main healthcare provider. This goes smoothly, though she does tell me that she should not be my main healthcare provider because I only see her when I deploy, but that's more than I'd see any other physician.
I visit the lab where I'm stuck multiple times in both arms as a lab tech searches for a vein, in vain. His colleague steps in to help and finds one on the first try – I end up with large bruises on both arms from all the failed attempts. The blood and urine tests come back clean and healthy, though you'd still get mad if you got any of either on you.
At immunizations, my records are reviewed and I receive a new typhoid vaccination and the next in my series of Anthrax shots (I think this is 3 of 6). The Anthrax shot burns just a bit going in (the first in the series was much worse) and leaves a small but noticeable knot in the deltoid that lingers. Last time, this knot was with me for about 5 months. I also get a PPD (test for TB) which a nurse will have to examine next week, and the dental clinic signs off on me based on a thorough examination I received in December 2007 prior to another deployment.
The other hoops to jump through at my home station are almost entirely administrative. I sit down with payroll who tell me about all the problems that occur with pay when you deploy (some of which I've experienced previously) and how they are helpless to prevent or fix them.
I meet with the Chaplain and Army Community Services who kindly offer assistance to the wife and children I don't have and therefore will not miss me. I meet with a lawyer in the JAG office who offers to draft a will for all the assets I don't possess (he says that if I don't have a will my parents will get everything, to which I reply "They're good people"). I sit through a security briefing which consists almost entirely of "be careful over there". Another security briefing, arranged by my unit, is a little more useful in providing me a fairly thorough SITREP of the area I'm deploying to.
The last step at my home station is a sit-down with an administrator who wraps everything up and gives me the "Go/No Go" (in this case, "Go"). This is where they ask questions about my beneficiaries should something happen to me and what I want done with my remains.
It's also at this last meeting that I receive my dog tags (which they tell me they're not allowed to call "dog tags" anymore, though I never get an explanation why) and they remind me that there are two tags on the chain so that when they find my body and can't evacuate me immediately, they can take one tag and leave the other with my carcass. I'm pretty sure she said "when" and not "if", though maybe she didn't say "carcass".
PPD = Purified protein derivative (I just looked that up)
TB = Tuberculosis
JAG = Judge Advocate General
SITREP = SITuation REPort
