Best thing is don’t speak unless spoken to, and, it’s” Yessir, No sir, Me sir? No Sir, Him sir” (said all at once in a sentence).
This is his last night home before training and we’re going out for dinner, so please don’t be offended if I don’t respond to any posts right away. :-)
Never volunteer for ANYTHING! :-)
I wouldn’t go, I hate Obama!
Travel light to Basic. Bring only what he *needs*. It’s all going to be searched and then civilian clothing will be locked away...
Never say YOU!
Tell him to go to Embry Riddle or Florida Tech for four years and the re-evaluate his life. Much will change. He needs a quality education. (I’m a Fl Tech grad student).
If he is enrolled in an ROTC program, he will be able to defer any deployment.
If he wants to end up in either of those fields, he needs outstanding grades. Intelligence will require above-average fitness. SF requires superhuman fitness.
I served in the Air Force 150 years ago (or it seems) so can’t offer advice about Army Basic.
But can say Thank You for raising such a great kid. I wish him success and safety. We need more like him (and you).
I attended Embry-Riddle.. why didn’t he join the USAF? As far as basic training, keep your mouth shut, do as your told without questions, and don’t volunteer for anything!
Do not volunteer for anything.
Don’t ask don’t tell...oh wait, nevermind.
He might be sleeping in a tent....
The most important this is not to believe anything a recuriter tells you. Opps.. ;-)
Tell him to be careful.
More people are hurt or killed in the military by being careless than for any other reason. Always stay keenly alert to what is happening around you.
I lost a fellow sailor to carelessness. Driving, he swerved to avoid hitting someone in the street, hit the curb, and because he wasn’t wearing a seat belt was thrown out the windshield over the hood of the car and killed when his car rolled over him. He was driving about 25 mph.
Knew a Marine who was attacked by a very large tire she was rolling too fast. It became unbalanced and she was trapped under it. One of her feet was crushed. Today she is a nurse and doing fine but her injured foot still bothers her and perhaps always will.
Tell him to stay vigilant, stay careful, follow safety regs and he’ll come home OK. I and many others have in the past.
The food will suck the first week but from then on it will be OK. Toward the end of basic he will be asking others “are you going to eat that?” and if not, he will be grabbing it off their tray!
My nephew just finished One Station Unit Training (OSUT) for infantry and is now in airborne school. He dropped out of college because he decided that it wasn’t right for him right now. This almost put his mother into cardiac arrest and sent ripples through her left wing family. He comes from a well to do, politically connected family from Chevy Chase, MD. All of the kids in the neighborhood go to tony private boarding schools and then to the Ivy League. He did the first, but not the second. He went to Ft. Benning.
His mother is now a rabid supporter of the U.S. Army, Ft. Benning, the Infantry, and the Brotherhood of the Airborne. She fully understands that when he finishes his training he is headed to Afghanistan. She will rip the heart out of anyone who criticizes any of this. Why the change in attitude and behavior? I attribute it to Facebook. Ft. Benning (and I’m sure Ft. Leonard Wood) has a facebook page for each training company where the wives, mothers and friends of trainees can see what’s going on in training, talk to other family members, and understand what the Army is doing. She is a changed woman.
I went to graduation with them and was the only veteran in our mini-family reunion. Their eyes were opened when they saw first hand how good these soldiers are, how good an organization their sons have joined, and how important this all is for our country. Sweet.
Fort Lost-in-the-Woods is charming this time of year ;-).
When my daughter was in Coast Guard boot camp, about a year and a half ago, I tried to send her a note every day, so she’d get something in the mail, even if it was just a few lines about the pets. Later she asked for reading material, when she was in the Rehab Unit with a foot injury, so I cut magazines (Field and Stream, Auto Week, American Cowboy) into small sections and mailed them. All the kids in rehab were really bored, which you don’t have time for during regular Basic.
In today’s “modern””Military” “Don’t drop the soap”!