View Full Version : Moment of truth
Ever since I first enlisted and went to MEPS almost one year ago, I have heard the words "Moment of truth". I know it is a chance for recruits to fess up about anything they lied about during there enlistment process. But that has always sounded mysterious to me. So I am just curious as to what really happens in that room, like what questions are asked etc... Just curious. Thank you for your time.
Donut Brigade
07-29-09, 02:15 AM
Ever since I first enlisted and went to MEPS almost one year ago, I have heard the words "Moment of truth". I know it is a chance for recruits to fess up about anything they lied about during there enlistment process. But that has always sounded mysterious to me. So I am just curious as to what really happens in that room, like what questions are asked etc... Just curious. Thank you for your time.
When you show up for boot camp, they will gather you around in a giant room and some Marine will tell you to disclose EVERYTHING that you've ever done wrong, including running a red light and stealing a dollar bill from your grannies purse, because apparently they already know it anyway. They will even put up some random picture of the globe with interconnecting dots to complete the effect. It's all BS, and I knew it.
They told all the recruits to stand up, and then they asked everyone who thought they should fess up to something to sit down. In the end, there were 8 people standing, and I was one of them. They pulled us out and put us in front of the company. The Marine asked us "for one last time" if we were sure we had nothing to disclose. We all said "YES, SIR!" and then he said "Look at these recruits! By today's end, I guarantee two of them will go to jail". None of us went to jail, or anywhere. Some lady in front of the computer asked me if I had any sickness or disorder that I wanted to tell her because; she told me that she was looking at my health record from when I was ten years old. I told her "No, ma'am" and decided not to tell her that I immigrated from Ukraine when I was thirteen and there are no health records for me before that, because they don't exist in Ukraine...
Supersquishy
07-29-09, 05:38 AM
Yes Moment of Truth, they will find out if you lied, so don't lie. Tell them everything you did or pay the consequences. Donut, it may seem like BS but it is not. Just like the Lie detecter test they give you after they think you are NOT telling the truth. It is 99% accurate, You will go to the brig if you are caught!
Poolee, DON'T LIE. Tell your buddies the same, you don't want to go to the brig and be sent home for a stupid lie.
fjmas1976
07-29-09, 01:17 PM
Lie detector test? If the Marine Corps knows you are lying about a particular thing before you ship, you won't ship. They're not going to send you off to Recruit Training and ask you questions, while waiting for you to lie so they can administer a lie detector test and prove what they already know.
The best bet is honesty. If you disclose everything during your recruitment/DEP phase, you have no worries and the "Moment of Truth" will not be an issue. At the time for me, it seemed like the "Moment of Truth" was when scared Recruits decided to use it as a way to go home. One guy I shipped with decided to admit he had lied about the scars on his chest. They separated him and I never saw him again. I had been honest and had a clean record and nothing bad in my past, so the "Moment of Truth" was not a big deal.
However, the Marine Corps did scare me into getting a drug waiver before I shipped. At MEPS they gave me the whole speach about pee tests, and how we would get kicked out,sent home,labled with shame, etc. They made us beleive that if we had even been around drugs, we would pop positive because the test was that good and accurate. Well, I had never done drugs (clean record, my Dad was a cop) but I had recently come home from college where I had been at parties,etc, where people were smoking weed. I freaked out and was thought I better get one of those drug waivers! It was not a big deal, it took like 2 minutes while at MEPS. Like I said, I had never touched the stuff, but I was a young dumb Recruit:usmc:
Supersquishy
07-29-09, 01:25 PM
fjmas1976 PM sent to you.
fjmas1976
07-29-09, 01:53 PM
Yes Moment of Truth, they will find out if you lied, so don't lie. Tell them everything you did or pay the consequences. Donut, it may seem like BS but it is not. Just like the Lie detecter test they give you after they think you are NOT telling the truth. It is 99% accurate, You will go to the brig if you are caught!
Poolee, DON'T LIE. Tell your buddies the same, you don't want to go to the brig and be sent home for a stupid lie.
I have to stand corrected on my last statement. I was talking to a Marine buddy of mine, who is a cop that I work with now. I asked him about his "Moment of Truth" and if anybody got a lie detector test. He said that when he was at the "Moment of Truth", one of the guys that he shipped with was separated from the group. I guess the guy had stolen some things when he was a kid or some dumb crap and decided to not tell during DEP. They actually did make the kid take a lie detector test, which he failed with flying colors. Long story short, he got sent home, RE-4 Fraudulent Enlistment.:evilgrin:
Moment of truth is crap. They're not going to search all of your medical records UNLESS something happens to you. If you tear your ACL and you had surgery on it when you were 15, they will find out about that, but if you don't mess anything up, you're fine.
I didn't have any issues with anyone in my platoon (or company as far as I know) and the recruit network is strong and full of gossip so that woulda flown around like a wildfire if something did happen.
But that being said, be honest. I mean, don't tell them if you got stitches or a slightly sprained ankle, but if you had any major surgeries and you think it may impact your performance, tell them now and work it from there.
Drug use, stealing something and not getting caught, whatever. It is what it is. Be honest I guess but if you're not, don't sweat it too much.
I can say with all honesty and sincerity that the Moment of Truth is a very tense time at Boot. You're still dragging @$$ from getting there, then some Marines file in, (one of them was a MSGT, when I was there). They tell you that will run your record, they do, that they WILL find out about every little thing you did, (they won't) and that you will pay a hefty price, (you might).
My recruiter had told me to glue my butt cheeks to the seat because once I shipped, everything I had told him was the stone cold truth (which it was anyway). The thing of it is, when you have a MSGT right in your face, telling you that you're a liar and that they will get you, it's intimidating. You start to run back through everything you've ever done, you think about everything you told the recruiter, then you think about it again, and you look at it in the worst possible light. At that point a lot of recruits break. They jump into the confessional, and sometimes it is something they need to tell, other times the Marines look at you like you've just sprouted a second head.
So, I had nothing to confess that the Corps didn't already know, so I didn't move out of my seat. There were about 8 or 10 of us that didn't. The MSGT said, "Alright, I know I'll see all of you in front of me in the next 30 days." Then he turned and walked out.
After that, I heard from some guys about what they went through when they confessed, mostly it was loss of their signing bonus or some other thing like that. I remember hearing later about a couple of guys that were sent home, but it could have been for other non-MOT related things.
So, the long and short of it is be honest with your recruiter, tell them everything you think might be problematic and you can discuss what will need to go into your file. Then the MOT will be a cake walk.
Thanks for all the information, this was very informative. Everything in my life that has happend to me medically, which is very little has been told to my recruiter during my enlistment process. Along with that I have never been in trouble with the police ever. My biggest worry is that I will be so scared and want to go home at that point, that I make something up. I believe I will be fine tho, since this has been my dream for a very very long time.