I’ll add that I’m confused by the idea of going home during boot camp too – starting in week 6 or 8, IIRC, we were allowed to leave the base for the weekends (assuming good behavior). I suppose if my parents had lived nearby I could have visited, but they didn’t, and I’m not sure if I would have wanted to. Do you happen to live very near your daughter’s Army base?
Nah, in the US Army (can’t speak for other branches or other nation’s armed services) if your basic training class happens to run during the Christmas holiday season, the allow you the option of going home for a bit. Hey Drill Sergeants often have families they want to spend the holidays with too. A bit of further clarification, Drill Sergeants, when I was in basic, had a duty cycle of 72 hours on and 48 hours off. I don’t know what kind of break they had between classes.
holy crap I just realized I’ve capitalized ever instance of Drill Sergeant I’ve typed with out even thinking:eek:
Sorry for the length…
OCS? Their training is designed to make them into crazed people. Dont they throw everything at them including the sink? We saw before and after. Yikes! Nothing I would want to go thru! <shudder>
yeah what is that all about?
Shit loads of gorgeous girls in my company and the DI’s never sexually harrassed us. I am sure being male they looked every minute of the day and talked amongst themselves and I’m not saying it couldnt or has never happened
They dont let recruits go that fast. (They’ve invested a lot of money thus far) If she cant pass the first time around and they give you a lot of help to get there. Otherwise you’ll be sent back to the beginning and believe me you dont want to go there. We heard about people that went back to the beginning. You want to stay with your group. Each week it will get better. Once its over you will be so proud. Friends at home will be jealous.
I am not sure I cared about how things were at home but lots of mail is the best thing!
You so funny!
If you dont have time to think you would not be unhappy. Time off, you get to think. Yeah, phone calls at the beginning. Time and time again to cry
All we had for support and was allowed time to go visit a minister or whatever their religion called for. Otherwise we did not get off at anytime and just remembered, everywhere we went it was doubletime. Our first trip to the PX was great!
very true but she’ll be better for it. Everyone in her future will “appreciate” her training and service. She would be placed further up on the pedestal in most everything she attempts especially enlisted in war time
Big time
I led a very sheltered life and went in a month after graduating high school. I rarely lived away from home and had trouble being away but if I could be kept busy which you were, I had no time to think about it
Mental games, yes. A lot of that. I guess it depends on the DI’s. It has to be a bit different from different platoon, companies etc. Our companies all had competitions. The DI’s fought to win anything they could. In the end the DI’s were very proud of their recruits and how far they had come
Yes great idea about sending self address stamped ANYTHING. Towards the beginning any free time is between midnight and 4am. Ya ain’t got much time to write but keep the letters coming from home. (put the stickers on the inside) Getting mail anyday was a big highlight of the day. Sad if not but then you have no time to think about nothing getting one. Encouragement, big time encouragement about how proud you are, how she can do it. She’s strong and you know she can make it! Course every letter can’t say those things. Encouragement would have been great for me. I really dont remember what was said in my letters received but mail from everyone else she knows helps a lot. Tell her, she’ll get time off eventually and will be able to return home. (She’ll find home quite a bit different from her view. Also basic training is big time cultural shock.)
Of course it could have change but we got care packages all the time and we shared. When I was in there was a certain separation mostly between the black girls and whites but not so bad as it sounds. If she is not prejudice, she’ll be fine. At the beginning it isn’t much comerdaery but its gets so much better and everyone learns how to work together, the whole point.
Hope she is an organized person. Everything had to be the same in everyones locker or whatever they are calling it now
Nope. Basic is the hardest thing a person will ever do unless they’ve been thru worse or they grew up neglected. Hopefully she grew up knowing how to respect all races of people and those in control
To me further training (after basic) was like school. So easy and carefree. I suppose in war time it might not be that way.
Being in great shape in the end is a great feeling. Takes a lot of work to maintain it!
I should have remembered this, based on what my son said happened if you referred to the Drill Sergeant in any other way. He said one did not say “Yes sir” or “No Sir” - you said “Yes Drill Sernt” or “No Drill Sernt”. Yes, it was pronounced that way. Anything else was a smokeable offense. Fortunately my son figured out that was one of the head games.
This +10.
Regards,
Shodan
- She had to meet certain requirements after she signed up, running a mile under ten minutes, etc. She hit those goals before she left.
- Not really. She’s a bit on the stubborn side and she and I have butted heads many a time.
- God yes
- After boot camp she’s going to medic training.
She should get a medal for that two week break right in the middle of training. Basic is disorienting enough without having to get a taste of reality followed by another dip into the weirdness.
Is she at Fort Jackson? If so, tell her she’s damned lucky to be here in December. Other people are here in July. I’ve lived here almost all my life and I seriously can’t fathom it.
My husband works for the post newspaper, if that’s where she is. If it’s any help to you, consider the insane number of kids they put through basic training there. They graduate a class every single week. They very rarely accidentally shoot one. (Although you would be amazed at how often the drill instructors have to save somebody’s bacon on the grenade range. Forget I said that.). The Army is extremely good at this and once they’ve invested in somebody they would prefer not to lose their money. It won’t be fun but she’ll get through it just like thousands of other kids this year. It’s a well oiled machine and if some of the doofuses I’ve met can make it through…
If you can come for graduation, do. If it’s Fort Jackson I am sorry to say we lost your lake in the flood, but come and regard the mud flat with your kid if you can. It means so much to them. It was just awful when they had to cancel graduations because of the flooding - people were coming from all over, a lot of them who couldn’t really afford to. Some of them didn’t get notified in time and it was just so upsetting. I’ve happened to be on post a few times on Wednesday and it’s so sweet to see how proud the kids are showing their parents around.
She’s in Missouri, Fort Leonard Wood. Her Florida butt is hating the cold weather. I don’t think I’ll be able to get the time off work for graduation but I’m hoping to send Ivylad and maybe one of her aunts.
the best description I’ve ever heard about boot camp (from someone who went through it) is:
“They teach you a lot of stuff! —So much stuff, that it would take two weeks to learn it all.
Then they JAM-PACK it all into the space of 8 weeks.”
You are constantly under pressure, rushing around at high speed, and accomplishing very little that is actually worth learning.
It only takes a couple hours to learn how to shoot a gun, a couple hours to learn some first-aid, an hour to learn how to use a field radio, etc. You don’t need 2 months for all that.
But what you need the 2 months for, is to learn to be a soldier.
And your daughter is doing that right now, and apparently doing it pretty damn well.
I know because:
Right now, she’s as frazzled as her hair. But she’s also doing fine, and the frazzle will get straightened out. Partly by herself, and partly with the help she is getting from --*and giving to *-- the rest of her platoon.
Be proud of her.
Good old Fort Lost In The Woods, in Misery.
I am, very much so. And you guys are a big help to relieving my mommy worries. If you want to drop her a line, PM me!
one of the lessons the military teaches is discipline this is done by forcing people acknowledge authority. its not a game like some people treat it or appear to. it is good to become subservient almost entirely loose all ties to what your brain tells yourself you should do and actually admire and respect people, tell the truth and speak in plain facts followed by ‘sir’ and try to sound like you enjoy it, in fact enjoy it and learn to enjoy it.
i mean personally, this might make me sound nuts, but you should ask yourself why you joined there are many reasons such as ‘as a means to better myself spiritually through discipline or as a means of education’ in such case fighting isn’t going to be top of your lists of fun things to do. and its worthy making a mental note of this as there are many positions in the military that don’t feature heavy combat and many that are valued as non combatants such as a petty officer in one of their specialist fields.
i mean if you want to shoot terrorist. then you need to keep that in mind. the military loves that kind of attitude
so basically what I’m saying is she needs to focus on whats she doing because its much more likely to start happening and inevitably it will happen.
attitude is hard to learn, difficult to force and can be a real pain with no experience. but pain is not the enemy here if it hurts your probably winning right there. when an officer pushes you its not criticism, it is belief in your ability. he doesn’t talk like that to anyone else because they do not have the same potential.
Who is Ivygirl?
Cold? It’s been in the 50’s in the daytime. Great weather for hard PT. Much better than August.
As a former Drill Sergeant, I can tell you that you are worrying about nothing. She will be fine. Getting the rifle taken away, the hair thing… it’s all minor. I guarantee that drill sergeant doesn’t even remember who it was he had to take a rifle from in chow the other day. Stuff like that is so minor and happens so often, it all just blends together. For each soldier, it is a significant personal event. For the drill sergeant, it’s all just a blur.
As for the 2 week vacation thing. I will recommend to you the same thing I recommended to all of my initial entry soldiers. Don’t do it!!
Yes, every training base in the Army shuts down for 2 weeks and allows the soldiers to go home. It’s really the worse time to ship off and her recruiter should have explained this to you.
There are some things you should keep in mind, and you’ve already touched on one of them. It is difficult to go home for a few weeks and immediately get back into that training mindset. There won’t be a transition day. She will get back on Sunday and get right back to training on Monday morning! I would be better for her training if she opted to just stay there for the 2 weeks. She will be able to use the phone and internet and call home. She will still get some free time, but she can use that time to focus on PT and other training instead of falling back into old ways and old habits. Basic training is all about the transformation from a civilian to a soldier, and I believe taking 2 weeks off in the middle of training makes it harder, not easier!
Next, you have to pay for the round trip ticket yourself. Had you recruiter explained all of this, you could have just opted to ship out after the holidays instead of shipping her off and then having to pay to bring her back and then ship her off again.
The leave is not FREE. A soldier earns 2.5 days of Leave every month. Your daughter is going into the hole right away! It will take her 6 months to earn the 15 days of leave she is about to take!
Normally, soldiers like to take leave after basic training or after AIT. She is not going to have Leave available to take. Depending on her MOS, she may be at her 1st unit by summer time. Every summer, units take block leave. Everyone will be taking 2 weeks off for the summer. She will not have any leave available to take. She will definitely want to take leave next Christmas, and at after that, she will be back at zero again. That’s assuming she didn’t take leave over the summer. If she took leave over the summer, she wouldn’t have leave available for Christmas.
Anyway, just understand that she is going to have leave debt when she graduates. Starting off in the hole like that just isn’t a good idea, in my opinion.
No Soldier who has taken that advice has ever regretted it. You originally weren’t expecting her home for the holidays anyway. Let her stay there and get in an extra 2 weeks of PT and 2 weeks of studying all her Warrior Tasks and Drills. And then she will have earned leave available when it’s time to take leave again in the future.
She just left home. It is such a waste of time, money, leave, training and effort to take that 2 weeks off.
That’s my advice anyway.
Oh, and just so you know, there will be a drug test the day she gets back. Even if you’re in a state where it is legal, she can’t smoke weed. Just want to put that out there. No drugs, and no using the prescription drugs of any family members if she’s really sick or sore or something like that.
You’d be surprised at how many Soldiers start training for a couple weeks, go home for Christmas vacation for two weeks and then piss hot when they get back. They are immediately out-processed and sent back home permanently.
Ehr… I think you somehow understood that my brother was saying basic was easy? He didn’t, he said it was a lot harder than anything which came later, so you actually agree. The exercises you do in school when you learn math, or grammar, or whatever, are a lot harder than the actual application. Like, the biggest grammar analysis I did in school took up four DIN A4; the biggest one I’ve done that was not related to schoolwork was just finding the subject.
Maybe you went to an easy school?
Ivylass’ daughter.
I am from the U.K. none military. I have three daughters my youngest is 36 and guess what all three are still my princesses, the truth is when it comes to Family they are more like Dobermans against any threat. Daughters are tough but because we love them we see their soft nature
I think it’s a mistake too, but I don’t think she was given an option. They’re shutting down basic training for Christmas. She called me before ticketing day to see if I’d purchased her ticket home. If not, she was going to have to do it. So one way or the other, they’re sending her home. She could have waited to start after the holidays but she didn’t. So we’ll have to muddle through.
Well if she’s gotta come home then she’s gotta come home. Make it easy for her:
- Give her a mile long chore list every day.
- The chores must be done in order
- Some chores must undo previous ones (i.e. fold the laundry, put it away, wash the laundry)
- Tell her she’s “not moving fast enough” with the laundry while the washing machine is still going.
- Get her to bake and frost a cake.
- While she’s making the cake dump all of her clothes, bed sheets, and mattress onto her bedroom floor.
- Eat the cake in front of her while she’s washing the dishes.
- When the dishes are washed, dried, and put away…hand her your dirty plate.
- If crumbs fall off the cake while you’re eating it, make her do pushups.
- When you’re tired of watching her do pushups, take her to her room and freak out about the rathole of a mess she’s living in.
- Inspect her clothes, find something that looks dirty, have her redo all the laundry