Report on NAMI

In my last post, I noted that the next step was to travel down to the National Aeromedical Institute (NAMI) at Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola in Pensacola, Florida. I am pleased to report that I completed that trip 17-20 April. Here's the report.



The flights to NAMI were successful and uneventful. When I landed in Pensacola, I received a phone call from the LNO¹ informing me that he would not be able to pick me up as planned and that I should instead get with two other guys who were going to be in the airport at the same time and take a cab to the airport with them. No problem.

And so I first met Andrew Kimble and John Long, both prior enlisted Marines who joined straight out of high school. Kimble has actually been out of the Corps several years, is completing college, and recently married; Long did 2 years active duty and 4 years reserve while he went to college. Both great guys. I ended up hanging out with the two of them frequently.

I had intended to keep detailed notes about my experience so that I could type them up later. Well, after I got to the hotel and checked in, the note-taking ended. I just didn't want to be on my phone the whole time typing up what I was doing instead of actually doing it! So the rest of this post is from my month-old memory.

After walking down to the Navy Exchange (NEX) to grab some supper, all the candidates, 13 of us all counted, met back in the hotel lobby for a briefing with the LNO, SSgt Paul Travis, regarding our schedule for the next couple days and the paperwork we needed to complete that night prior to reporting to the lobby at 0645.

To review the schedule for the medical aspects of the trip, check out my last post. The actual dates of the trip were 17-20 April instead of 10-13 as had been initially posted.

I got my paperwork done and, having nothing else to do, I turned in early, before 2200. Of course, this meant I was awake and ready to go a full 2 hours before I needed to be up! I awoke well before my alarms, alert, excited, and anxious to get this under way. Prohibited from doing any actual exercise, I couldn't help but do some jumping jacks and pushups to let out some of my excitement. It was not far from my mind that the day, Monday, 18 April 2011, was exactly two years since my sister passed away. This gave me a sense of fulfillment; it seemed fitting to be where I was on that day.

Finally, time caught up with me, and I went to the lobby. We turned in some of the papers we'd filled out, kept the rest of them, and piled into the van. Upon arriving, we signed in and started getting things done. I stepped up to go first. There were many of us, of course, so not everybody did everything in the same order. SSgt Travis kept a spreadsheet on a clipboard on which he checked off whenever one of us finished a requirement, then he'd tell us where to go next. I started with getting my blood pressure, height, and weight measurements taken.

Much of what was done at NAMI had been done before for DODMERB, and I almost wondered why they'd bothered to fly us all the way down to Florida (one guy had been flown in from Hawaii) just to re-do all the same things again. Although, they did take a lot more blood than I'd had drawn before. I couldn't believe how many vials he needed to fill. But it was soon over, and I was fine. I got a little light-headed and nauseous as I was walking to my next station, but putting my head between my knees fixed it, and I had no problems after that.

I had to do the same depth perception tests, color-blind tests, "puff of air" test, and so on, as usual. They looked through their scopes at the inside of my eyes a lot longer than the DODMERB eye doctor did, though. And, of course, not all my paperwork was in my file from my PRK. That would've just been too easy, I guess. I asked for a fax number so I could call Whitson Vision and have the files sent over. By the time I got the fax number and the list of the files that were needed, the eye drops to dilate my pupils had kicked in, so I couldn't read anything! I had left my phone in my room to limit distractions, so I didn't have the number for Whitson Vision either. Candidate Long let me use his phone, but we had to work together to Google the phone number and make the call because all of us had our eyes dilated and were unable to read. It was actually a bit funny, the situation, but we managed, and I got the files faxed over eventually.

I did the same hearing test I'd done for DODMERB again. I had some chest x-rays taken.

I had an EKG. The Navy girl who administered it commented that my heart rate was almost too low for the machine to take a reading, but it did work after all. I was glad for that, because a few of the others did have a heart rate too low, which required them to do more testing the next day. One girl—THE one girl—had to wear a heart monitor for 24 hours. (She was upset because the guy who put it on her didn't think about how he attached the wires, so she couldn't take her sports bra off without disconnecting them, which she wasn't allowed to do. I'm glad I'm a guy.)

After all that stuff was done, I was called back to meet with a flight surgeon. He reviewed my file with me, commenting that I had excellent vision and superb hearing. He had questions about my heart since I had to check the box on the forms that my sister had heart problems. Thankfully, it turned out to be a non-issue, requiring no additional testing or waivers. He tugged on my knee pretty hard to check out the ACL replacement; he remarked that the surgeon had done a very good job. All in all, I was in good health and he recommended that I be approved for the flight program! (I spoke with my OSO last week, however, and he said that the official approval has yet to be granted, but he expects that it will be.)

We were finished up by lunch time and returned to the hotel. Kimble, Long, myself, and a fourth candidate by the name of Mike Langan, a graduate of Embry-Riddel who is already a civilian flight instructor, met and went to the chow hall for lunch. Since Long and Kimble had military ID's showing they were Marines, they were each able to get Langan and myself in as guests. Good eats, that chow hall! Well, as good as any college cafeteria is. After lunch, we checked out a beach, which was only a hop and a jump from the chow hall.






Throughout this post, click any image to enlarge it.



Then Long, Langan, and I went on a hike around the base; Kimble had to stay behind to work on homework, a book report, of all things. (I'm glad I'm done with college.) We went about 5 miles and got some good sun. It was beautiful outside. We had wanted to make it to the actual air port on base to see some planes in action, but we had to be back in time for supper, so we didn't get far enough. Sadly, I forgot to turn on Runtastic to track our hike with the GPS.

We met Kimble again, and the 4 of us went to the chow hall again. Joining us this time was a friend of Kimble's whom he'd known from when he was in the Marines before who just happened to be at NAS PCola while we were there. After dinner, we hung out at the Enlisted Club for a while before turning in again. The club shuts down at 2200, but it was empty before then as the sailors and marines had to be back in their barracks by curfew, also at 2200.

The next day, we were picked up and driven to get our measurements taken. I didn't really know what "anthropedic measurements" were, but it looks like it was a typo. The correct term seems to be "anthropometric measurements." These included sitting height, standing height, weight, arm length (measured weirdly, with you leaning back against a wall and pushing our arm out while she presses against your shoulder), and the length of your femur.

Next, SSgt Travis took us to the National Museum of Naval Aviation. This was very cool; I could spend a couple days in that place. But, I knew we only had a couple hours until he picked us up again, so I adopted an attitude of understanding that I could only browse the place, seeking the most interesting factoids and planes, as opposed to my normal approach in a museum—read everything!






Finally, we had our dental check-up, which consisted of a few x-rays and then a check for cavities and so forth. No, they don't clean anything for you. After everybody was done with dental, the group of us walked over to get some food. They had an A&W stand, so I got that. Others got Pizza Hut or Taco Bell. When we were about finished, we gave SSgt Travis a call, and he came to give us a lift back to the hotel since we were done for the day.

Langan, Long, and I went for another hike. Here's the GPS track, though I started it after we'd already walked over a mile: click here. We saw an awesome light house and some nice, long, white sandy beach. The light house has some interesting history behind it.












After our walk, we three took a moment to clean up again before heading to get supper at the Taco Bell and hang out at the E-Club again. While we were at Taco Bell, a pair of pilots in their flight suits came up and ordered right after us. One of them had a patch that said, "USMC Aviation • Prowler Instructor," so obviously I had to say something. It turns out the two of them had just arrived at the base within the half-hour, and the Marine had spent time flying both Harriers and Prowlers before becoming an instructor. In yet another example of the Marine Corps being a small world, and even smaller within the aviation community, the Marine knew Langan's uncle back when he was flying Harriers.

The next morning, I got up and went for a short run before catching my shuttle to the airport. It felt good to be running again after not being allowed to work out for the 5 days before the trip. It was incredibly humid and foggy, but it was great to just get out there and enjoy running in Florida. Here's the GPS track of my run: click here.

As we were on our way out, Langan, Long, and I realized we were on the same flight to Charlotte. When we checked in, we arranged for our seats to be together so we could keep talking. When we landed, I had just enough time to make it to my next flight, which started boarding almost immediately after I reached my next gate, so I didn't get to hang with them any more. But we've kept in touch a bit. Due to our situations, Langan and I expect we'll be in OCS and TBS together.

In closing, I want to give a few notes to any applicants and candidates who are going to NAMI soon and might have stumbled across this post.

1. Bring a black pen. Keep it with you.
2. It's Florida: bring your sports sunglasses. After your eyes are dilated, you'll prefer to have your own sunglasses over the roll-up ones they'll give you. Sporty shades normally hug the face better, so those are better than your driving shades.
3. It's Florida: consider packing sunscreen. You don't have to pack it, but just take a moment to think about if you want it. I didn't even think about it, but I wouldn't have packed it even if I had.
4. It's Florida: pack shorts and your swim trunks. You'll be glad you have the option.
5. Leave your phone in your room on exam days, but write down any numbers you might need, such as your eye surgeon's office. You won't be able to read anyway after your eyes are dilated, but there are magazines in the waiting room—good ones.
6. Spend time talking to the other candidates because you'll likely see them again as you all progress through flight training.
7. Don't worry about stuff! It's going to be a great trip and you'll be well taken care of by the LNO. Enjoy it.

See more photos from the trip on my Flickr: click here.


1. I'm not actually sure what LNO stands for, but he's the Staff Sergeant who is in charge of hauling all of the applicants and candidates around base and taking care of us while we're there. ↩ (What's that arrow mean? It jumps back to where the footnote was. Based on John Gruber's implementation, explained here.)