All recruits for all services arrive at Boot Camp late at night. It’s more disorientating and they keep everyone up late so they can start the next day tired.
My son said that he was running on 4 hours of sleep for the first couple of days, but this weekend he got to catch up a bit. They have apparently been getting them up at 4:45 am every morning to start their day.
When I entered basic they got us there a week prior. The first night was an all nighter forcing us to watch crappy movies as the rest of the recruits showed up. If you nodded off they woke you up and made you do push ups or jumping jacks. But basicly they got us there the first week for indoctrination and receiving our gear, vaccinations and other fun stuff. Basic as far as I know in the Army has really always been 8 Weeks +1 week.
Our youngest started two weeks before yours. So far here is what has/will happened.
9 June - shipped out, MEPS, tranfer to Ft Benning
10-17 June - Reception, shots, uniforms, adjustment to Army, 2 phone calls
18 June - transfer to Basic company, short phone call
25 June - received letter from son and his commander, sent 20 June
20 Aug - Family Day, son has pass starting noon Friday ‘til 1600 Sun
23 Sep - Turning Blue, parents pin on Blue Cord
24 Sep - Graduation
Like your son, ours wants Ranger, he should find out at end of Basic whether seleced for Ranger Indoctrination Program (RIP), if so, 3 weeks of Airborne, then 3 weeks of RIP, then who knows, needs of the Army and all
His mother and I were USAF (retired)
Made reservations @ Candlewood Suites, can’t make on post reservations ‘til 30 days in advance, she couldn’t wait
Well, Reveille is at 5 AM each morning, at least it was back in the early 60’s.
Not true about all recruits arriving late at night. Many times while we were out on the parade grounds either doing calisthenics or marching we would see buses pull up to the receiving area where new recruits first were dropped. Since due to the extreme heat in Texas in the afternoon (I was there from August through Sept), we were out on the parade grounds at about 6 AM, right after breakfast.
We would also see the new troop buses loaded with kids in civvies dump their confused cargo at other times during the day. Perhaps the AF did it different since being tough wasn’t really apart of what the AF is all about, at least not back then.
When I was in the UK we used to have TDY Army troops drop in from time to time and they were always amazed at the on base housing and chow hall we had compared to what they had to endure. The likened it to being on permanent leave.
We told them we were treated this way because we were the brains of the military.