If you’re talking about “Top Gun”, that was the Navy.
For the OP:
Times have changed considerably since I was in (1988-1992), but the single biggest thing you can do to help your son through Basic is to start lining up people to write to him. And send him off to basic with a book of stamps so he can write back.
Basic is tough. It’s designed to be a high stress environment. Lots of yelling, running, classes, criticism, menial labor, and not much fun. The bright spot of every day is Mail Call. It’s usually after a meal, sometimes lunch, sometimes supper, but it happens every day (except maybe Sunday–I don’t remember), and every single airman in the flight looks forward to it all day long. Getting something…anything…a letter, card…even a postcard…really means a lot. Not getting anything sucks. Not getting anything for several days in a row sucks hardcore.
A tip for him…do not show up at Lackland with long hair, wearing an earring, wearing tye-dye, or even wearing a concert t-shirt. Do absolutely nothing to draw attention to yourself. You do not want any extra attention from the TIs. Think of basic as an exercise in conformity. Be like everybody else.
Also, he should plan on going to church in basic. Doesn’t matter what he believes. Going to church is an hour or so each week away from the TIs and other stressful things. Go, and listen to the sermon, sing the songs…or just sit there and relax for an hour.
Its been sometime since I attended Boot camp but somethings you never forget and somethings don’t change.
he will not need a comb
all his clothes and footwear will be issued to him.
They will make a run for toiletries should he need anything.
his civies will be worn if and when there is a squadron or base pass granted.
His first three days will be very tough, his first two weeks will be almost as tough, he will find his groove in week three hopefully.
he will meet some interesting and like minded folks from across the country, some of those relationships will last his lifetime.
He will never forget his time in the USAF, and hopefully will be proud of it and himself.
A family friend was trained in linguistics, Russian if I remember correctly. Not exactly sure what he did but he did not like it, said the job was isolating. We trained along side them in text school for a short time, they were an interesting bunch.
Maybe he qualifies for or is interested in Pararescue, an elite bunch of committed young men. We trained along side them for a week in text school…they were cut from a different cloth!!!
then off to text school then permanent duty station.
Tip O the Hat to you and your son. Good luck Rainbow!!
posted the same time as the post above who recommended writing often. I agree, Write often, it will be brutal on his psyche should he not receive any mail regularly!!!
I don’t know if this is as much of an issue in the AF, but the biggest single mistake I see in the army is getting married too damn fast and then having a couple kids to damn fast and then two basically pretty nice people drive each other slowly insane because being married and having small children through deployments and the complicated boy’s-club code of the army takes really advanced relationship-maintaining skills that the nicest 24 year olds in the world just don’t have.
Split the difference. He’s going to have to wear some sort of footwear to get to the recruit training center anyway. They might as well be comfortable running shoes. If he’s permitted to, he can decide after he gets his shoe issue if he wants to keep them around or not.
When he does his intake paperwork for financial, he will be allowed to autodeposit into a savings account in addition to his main account [as I remember you can split your paycheck into up to 4 different financial institutions.]
Set the main account to the local Air Force Fed Cred Union, set a second deposit into your home town bank savings only account with NO debit card.
With your savings only deposit, decide on an amount like $100 per paycheck or whatever he feels comfortable with. Do not touch this, it is a retirement nest egg. Adjust the percentage of deposit as his income increases with time and rank in rate.
Why?
Because he will be provided room and board and other income, and if he gets used to always having the fixed amount go into savings without having to do it himself each paycheck he will not miss the money and he will have a growing nest egg.
Also, firmly resist the idea of getting a girlfriend out in town and an apartment, and getting married. As was pointed out, the AF is the slowest branch to get promotions in, as a friend who was AF joked, it was getting rank by divine accession, your superiors have to die off to open up a slot.
And when he gets around to wanting to get married, point out that many marriages in the military fail because the woman wants her husband to be home all the time, and the military doesn’t care and will ship him off, or keep him overnight on duty, and leave can be cancelled on you at any time [I was at Pennsic back in the day when the Pittsburg MEPS sent busses to the campgrounds to pick up the military who got recalled for the festivities in the Gulf] so he really needs to find a woman who grew up as a military brat, or is retired military. She needs to be able to manage running a household without his support and sort out maintenance issues and manage bank accounts and credit accounts.
This. This. This. He needs a home base account, preferably with a credit union, not a bank. He should get an account with the local AFCU too. When he starts out, he will actually need very little money, and it’s better to put most of it away rather than blow it on partying and cheap junk. He’s going to be moving frequently, and he’ll either have to move his cheap junk or pitch it, and either way, he’s going to spend much more money on that junk than it’s worth. Yeah, he can get a few toys, but for the most part he needs to be saving that excess money. And I don’t know how it is today, but when my husband was living in the barracks, a lot of desirable personal property grew legs and wandered off…so tell him to avoid buying top of the line toys, too. He shouldn’t buy anything that’s too attractive. And he needs to mark his toys, in case they do wander off.
Question re letters: My son is worried that we’ll send him too much mail and he’ll stand out because of that. He’s really focused on keeping his head down. Can anybody offer insight on that? Should we try to be consistent - a couple letters a day from various family? Should we go for random and let the occasional gap or excess occur? Should we go for excess? I know at least once the children from a youth group he works with were thinking of sending him a card shower.
I’d go for 1-2 letters a day, with an occasional gap. Definitely nothing certified or otherwise requiring a signature, as I have no idea how that would be handled. Also would not recommend a “card shower”, assuming that means a large number of cards all arriving on the same day or over a couple of days. Part of the issue is storage. He will have very little room to store personal items in basic, so keep that in mind.
My sister sent me cookies when I was in Basic. Believe it or not, I did get to do push ups for that. I also had to convince the drill sergeant that the cookies were healthy and therefore something that could be eaten. I also had to share them all out. So I recommend waiting until he gets out of Basic before sending anything like that, possibly even technical school as well.
We were thinking of stocking up on postcards to send. Less bulk than a letter, and can be stacked together into one envelope as he receives them.
Does that sound like a decent plan?
“We” being mom, step-dad, and brothers. We’ll leave heartfelt, declarations of love letters to be the responsibility of his “girl back home”.
a couple a day?..maybe a couple every other or day or one a day. The guys that stood out were the ones that did not receive anything or the guys that received to much.
Think of it like this. The TI’s entire existence revolves around finding a way to get into somebody’s face. Look to be average, average does not attract attention. Be a star in text school, not in basic.
Preferably high tops. He might need to wear them in formation and they’ll stay on is feet should he get out of step and the recruit behind him steps on his heels.
Don’t over think it so much. You don’t need a plan. Basic is going to go by in the blink of an eye for him. One or two letters or cards a week is more than enough. Especially if his friends and other relatives are writing him too. By week 5/6 he’s not going to care about mail anymore because he’ll be too focused on finishing and day to day life in basic will seem normal by that point.
It’s tough for the first couple weeks but it’s not traumatic.
FaerieBeth, I think your son has made an excellent choice… My older brother and my nephew both joined the Air Force and never regretted it.
I remember one thing my brother stressed to my nephew before he left for basic training. He advised him to start immediately on getting in the best physical shape he could be in. And to take vitamin supplements while doing this. The training is very hard and if he’s in great shape when he gets there, he’ll be so much better off. Running was the main thing he told him he needed to start doing, every day! Then he advised him to take a few days off before he left to rest up a bit.
I also remember how much he looked forward to letters from us.
Good luck to him and your family. I wish you all the best!
Might want to double check about him taking a cell phone with him–I’d heard that they weren’t allowing them for the new Airmen, even if they’re locked away (which they will be). Hallboy got to use his during his once a week phone call home.
I would recommend NOT sending postcards–they’ll leave your Airman up to be exposed (ie. extra attention). I would recommend keeping letters to no more than one per day. You cannot send packages–they simply won’t receive them–especially not food.
I would also recommend NOT purchasing sneakers prior to getting there. BMT will want them to have specific sneakers, and if they don’t have them, your Airman will be able to buy them (and anything else they need) while there. They’ll get a debit card (that will come out of their first pay) to use for anything they need while there. As far as being dropped off at Walmart–not sure what planet that poster was on, but the first time Hallboy even went off base was during graduation weekend. They are typically NOT taken off base, especially since everything they need is on base.
If you’d like to, feel free to PM me and I can answer any questions (or just post here and I’ll try to remember the info I know).
