Duty in a MEPS is the height of routine - enforcing a strict schedule to ensure buses of new recruits get to the airport on time, taking care of all the steps to make it happen every day. At a large, busy MEPS like New York, it's routine times a thousand. The days run into 1/

one another, this Commander's welcome to applicants at 0600 runs into that one, this request from Army recruiting mirrored in that one from Navy tomorrow, this inventory of blood/urine like that one last week, and so on. The swearing-in ceremonies are many - you're going to 2/

do 6 or 7 on a given day, but for the young men and women in front of you, there's just that moment, the one when they DEP in, and then the one when they are shipping out, maybe (hopefully) with friends or family there to see them off, in the room to witness their making 3/

that promise. You want to make the ceremony to be special for each one of those volunteers. You hope your words before the oath will resonate; that this variation of the speech you've given so many times before remains authentic, sincere. And then in January 2009 4/

you have a new inspiration. You stand in front of six young men, from various parts of the city. It's 11am. You depart from your normal speech and remind them of what's going on in our nation. "Today, down in DC, a man is standing in front of our Capitol. He's about 5/

to make the same promise that you are. To support and defend the Constitution of our United States." You see the young men stand taller, chests out, smiles forming as they recite the oath. Twelve years later, on the eve of another important day, you pray for the man about 6/

to once again make his promise to our nation. You pray for the young men and women staying in hotels, waiting for the 5am wake-up and the bus ride to their MEPs, where tomorrow they'll get poked and prodded and then stand in a beautiful flag-filled room and vow 7/

to support and defend the Constitution, against all enemies, foreign and domestic. You pray for all the others who've made that promise, that they remember it.