While my Air Force Recruiter prepared me well for what to expect in basic training, he also told me how well the Air Force treats their members and what to expect in tech school and in my regular duty station. My recruiter also told me that during my trip to MEPS, Military Entrance Processing Station, the recruits would be put up in a hotel room and given a pass to eat at a nearby restaurant the night before going to MEPS. He stated that this pass was an “all you can eat” or anything that we would want from the menu because the Air Force had a contract with the hotel and the restaurant to treat their recruits with first class service to show their appreciation and to get us used to the first-class treatment as a member of the Air Force.
After arriving in Atlanta and checking into the hotel a few of us that came from my hometown decided to walk over to the restaurant to eat before turning in for the night as we had to be up and ready to get picked up by the bus taking us to MEPS at 4 a.m. the next morning.
When we walked in the restaurant, we presented the vouchers that we were given by our recruiter and the hostess asked us to wait while she went to get the manager. We waited and watched several customers that came in after us get seated right away. Finally, the manager came and took us to a back room that was closed off from the dining room the other customers were using. This room looked like an over-flow room that would be used if there was a private party with a large number of guests. We were the only ones back there. It was four of us. The manager handed us a very short menu with only a few items listed. I asked why we were being segregated from the other customers and given a short menu that did not include all items on the menu. She said, for these vouchers, this is the menu and the only place they could put us. I did not really get a good answer from her, and I didn’t really push it because I was not sure what type of contract, they had with the Air Force, but I was determined to let my recruiter know about it the next time I talked to him.
I got an opportunity to talk to my recruiter a few weeks into basic training. We were given an opportunity to sign up to go back and work with our recruiter for two weeks after tech school and before we had to report to our first duty station. This opportunity was to give us a chance to work with our recruiter doing paperwork or various jobs, whatever they needed and also to give us a chance to be at home for a couple of weeks without having to spend any of our leave. We had to call our recruiter to get their permission or approval before we could sign up for this opportunity. During my phone call to him I mentioned how we were treated at the restaurant, and he was not happy about it at all. He asked me if I would write a letter to him detailing what happened and how we were treated so that he could forward it up the chain of command. I did that and submitted the letter to him but never heard back as to what action the Air Force took. However, my recruiter did tell me during our conversation that someone else had scored the same as me on the ASVAB test. When I took the test, he told me that I had scored higher than anyone since he had been there as a recruiter. But now there were two of us. lol
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