My 19 year old son just enlisted in the Air Force! I know nothing about the Air Force, so help!

Sorry for the double posts, but you’ll hear a lot of horror stories about TIs. Some of it is true, and some of it is BS.

When Hallboy first started, he HATED his TI. The TI was loud, cursed, had high expectations, but by the end of BMT, he truly respected his TI. I started to hear him talk differently about Msgt. L. about week three or so, so it didn’t take long for the respect to start in.

He told me later that recruits are told exactly how to do everything, and if an Airman doesn’t do it right, it’s not because he wasn’t told exactly how to do it.

Be prepared for those first few phone calls home to be very difficult, for both you and your Airman. He may be emotional, especially during the first call. He will be exhausted both mentally and physically (even if he’s in great physical shape when he gets there), and he will have information pushed at him constantly that he’ll be expected to remember. (He will remember it all eventually, and most of it will become second nature.)

nitpick For the Air Force, it’s called Basic Military Training (BMT).

For the Army, it’s Army Basic Training. I believe bootcamp is typically the Marines.

But you’re right about no care packages during this time.