Well, she’s supposed to be in bed by 2200 and wake up at 0500, but on the day she flew home she had been up for nearly 40 hours.
I had one female in my basic training squad who basically went crazy during basic. They tried everything to allow her to stay in but it seems she had issues before she joined. Ended up with her flipping off the commanding general of the post.
A quick side note for anyone thinking of joining the military:
They’ll probably all bond over a shared love of lip-synching old Motown hits into hairbrushes after lights-out, too
The above is a very, very bad idea. Unless you have to make a late night run to the latrine you’d best not be caught out of your rack unless the barracks is on fire.
Phu Cat
I lost only five pounds or so in basic, but a lot of people thought I’d lost a lot more, because what was left had really got shaped up.
And our food was good. Not haute cuisine but well done and we got plenty.
Heh! I gained 45 pounds and was fat
Shin splints *suck. * I made it through Basic with them, but they made it considerably worse. I highly suggest finding an ART practitioner - mine were solved in three sessions.
As far as the swearing - when I got home my Mom said “You look amazing, but your language!”
“Please pass the MFing potatoes, Mom?”
It took some focus, but I got it worked out. Also, the gallows humour. It took me a while to realize that what was funny to my fire team partners and I were not funny to my family and friends. 
ART practitioner?
Holy crap. Those poor soldiers.
My daughter is flying back on Sunday. I checked the St. Louis airport…flights seem to still be on time as of now. I hope everyone who stayed behind is okay.
that’s a sigh of relief, I saw that story on the news the other day and thought of you and ivygirl with a wince as I wondered if she had gone back yet.
It is too bad about the soldiers, and their families, that’s a tough thing to deal with.
Active Release Technique. It is a sort of massage generally pushed by chiropracters. Like chiropractic, there is no real evidence that it works.
My best to ivydaughter.
Regards,
Shodan
We’re leaving for the airport in about 15 minutes. She’s in uniform and has her bag packed. The flooding in Missouri seems to have eased and her flight is on time.
She thanks everyone again for their cards and letters. She’s scheduled to graduate Feb 25.
My dad was career military (enlisted) and really enjoyed it. He started in the Navy and switched to Air Force after I was born. Life after boot camp gets much more normal. I guess it depends on your job. No one was yelling at my dad or demanding pushups. He was comfortable in the organized command structure, always punctual, followed the rules, and it was home to him. He was a supervisor in the Instrument shop for much of his Air Force career. They rebuilt and repaired flight instruments. His last assignment was First Sergeant of the squadron. He had hearing loss from working on the Flight Line and they gave him that position before he retired.
It helps a lot to have a family and get out of the barracks. I grew up in base housing.
One tip. Never, ever be late.
A classmate of mine joined the Navy and had a good assignment on a ship. He reported late for duty a couple times and got reassigned to an engineering crew on the lower decks of the ship. A very rough crowd, some had gang backgrounds, drugs and so on. He told me his last two years in the Navy were miserable. Couldn’t wait for his enlistment to end.
I guess like any job a certain amount of luck and personality plays into it. My dad got through over 20 years and had learned how to work within the system. What rules to rigidly follow and which could be bent. He did work some long hours but compared to his hard life on a farm it wasn’t bad. Dad always said some people adapted well to military life and others don’t. He hated having to deal with the screw ups when he was First Sergeant. He was the guy that got called (late at night) to bail out guys at the jail. Mostly he handled paperwork. Leave requests, promotions and other paperwork, and acting as the contact person when enlisted men had questions or problems. He only did that job a few years and then retired.
I did find something out…apparently if you travel in uniform you don’t have to pay to check or carry on your bag. It’s called military baggage and it’s free for the active duty soldier.
But her flight did get delayed by about 90 minutes.
I just read this whole thread. Please keep us updated on your daughter’s progress. I’m an Air Force brat and my late husband was Army. Fill us in on how she’s doing! Best to both of you!
She’s landed safely and is waiting for the shuttle to take her back to post. All goes well, she’ll graduate in late February.
best of luck and wishes for you both.
As has been said, please keep us posted.
That’s eight more weeks of updates for us! 
Ivygirl won’t be able to call us until two weeks before graduation, but her battalion’s Facebook page keeps us updated.
That still slays me.
Anyhoo, Monday was a day spent getting everyone back into recruit mode, doing inventory, and getting haircuts.
This week they’ll be learning first aid. As my daughter is going to be a medic, I hope she finds this very interesting.
It got colder in Missouri, but as I pointed out to her when she was home, it’s better to do basic in the winter than the summer…less bugs.
You can’t say that enough! As I’ve mentioned before I did my basci in South Carolina. In August and September. The latter was a lot better, the last couple of weeks at least, but August was hell.
One place not to go in winter? Ft.Devens, Massachusetts. Coldest temperature I ever experienced, 33 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, that’s minus 36 Celsius.