Our Son

Started BCT on Friday. I guess we won't get to hear from him for a while now. No idea what will happen with the holidays as it seems we have had some conflicting info. Doesn't make sense to let them go home and have to quarantine again. He is doing OSUT.
 
He's "officially" 11x right now, which doesn't exist. My understanding is that how he does in the first 9 weeks of BCT will determine where they slot him for the second half (AIT) of OSUT.

They have masks. Again, he's at reception so they wear those. Not doing regular PT but they "get smoked" a lot. LOL
They were tested for Covid yesterday and I can't remember if that was his second test but I believe so.
Unless something has changed OSUT is just pretty much regular basic and infantry training rolled into one length of time, specialty(mortar/javelin) training comes afterwards. As far as getting smoked all they were allowed to do to us when I went through reception was stress positions, things like "the electric chair" and "riding the motorcycle" were favorites of the NCOs'. It was only those types of things so they didn't break the kids coming in prior to going downrange.

I hadn't realized they extended Infantry Basic to 22 weeks as of last year, which IMO is a great thing. After the cycle my 1st Sgt. and Lt. had this sort of informal pow wow with us asking if training could be different what would we suggest. When they got to me I said more focus on things like land nav, the mine class, and more medical would be more useful to an infantryman than all the damn time wasted on d&c.

Lastly you should inform him not to trust the drills if they're being nice, it means they're up to something. [laugh]

With my cycle it was after rifle qualification, they let us order pizza and soda(which was normally verboten) with a time limit to down it all because the company did so well. Guys were ordering two large pizzas and 2 liters of soda and stuffing their faces as fast as they could(I went with a small and a 20oz because they were never nice). After the time limit came we were instructed to clean up the company AO and fall in, it was time for a 3 mile company run. We weren't a ¼ mile into it and guys were puking left and right, it was awesome. [rofl2]
 
Last weekend I was chatting with my son and a couple of his Army buddies. Apparently basic training has changed.

No more Shark Attack. It's a kinder, gentler approach.

And they said recruits didn't have to pass the PT test to finish basic training. They had up to a year after basic to pass the PT test.

This weekend his unit was introduced to the "new and improved" firearms qualification test. The goals are different.

It's no longer just marksmanship. They've added components to test shooting abilities during combat. As a result soldiers will need much more practice and training. It's more rigorous and challenging.
 
Started BCT on Friday. I guess we won't get to hear from him for a while now. No idea what will happen with the holidays as it seems we have had some conflicting info. Doesn't make sense to let them go home and have to quarantine again. He is doing OSUT.
The Commanding General of the Maneuver Center is on Twitter - so I asked him! And an Army buddy was TRADOC Commander. One of their minions should respond within a day or so.

"Is it known if mid-cycle Infantry OSUT soldiers will be sent home for the holiday period, or held on post due to Covid concerns? TIA
@FortBenning @PatDonahoeArmy @TRADOC"
 
Best time of year to be there. May through end of October is awful, have to stay "wetted down" for much of the day. Columbus, GA, not much of a fun place to be. He'll get some culture shock from his New England upbringing and it will be an education. Good for him.
 
Congrats!



Pro tip... if your son can get a gig in the military that requires a top secret clearance he'll have a golden ticket to the job market when he finishes. They are in big demand.

second that. Proud of my son. 26, and basically rockin' it. USMC . 'nuff said.
Best wishes to your son.
 
Use sandboxx (google it) to send letters. It’s a website. You type the letter and he’ll get it a day or so later, and you get to add one photo per letter. Also includes stamped return envelope and paper. It’s like 1.50 a pop. Totally worth it. My brother in law graduated Sill last month and that’s how I sent him letters. It worked awesome, and was painless.

The army is weird and does block leave, even from BCT for the holidays. The USMC didn’t. I think policies probably vary by installation given COVID. I’m currently in TRADOC land at USAACE and we will have one week to quarantine/handle matters remotely before training comes back in full swing after the new year.
 
A Jewish friend of mine was at a funeral we were attending for a friend who died far too young, and when in the buffet after the service looked at me and said "Rob, I have a problem ..... free ham". I guess being Jewish he has some sort of license to say that sort of thing.

But the election presents an interesting dilemma for some Jewish liberals - do they vote for the president who has been extremely supportive of Israel in every respect, or for the one who wants to take everyone's guns?
 
I have to post this letter our son sent us. He wrote it a day after I last got to actually talk with him and I DID warn him about the MRE's. We got it just a couple days ago and it was so funny it took me probably 10 minutes to read it out loud as my husband and I were both laughing so hard.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

20201027_123205.jpg20201027_123215.jpg
 
Wait, didn't he just start? Why're they eating MREs already?

I remember DFAC food as being pretty good, most of the time. Plain, solid food. The problem was the speed with which we had to eat it.
 
Wait, didn't he just start? Why're they eating MREs already?

I remember DFAC food as being pretty good, most of the time. Plain, solid food. The problem was the speed with which we had to eat it.
after the first week in reception they were "moved" (but still in reception) and basically quarantined for 2 weeks (after taking 2 covid tests the first week) and fed MRE's. Go figure.
 
after the first week in reception they were "moved" (but still in reception) and basically quarantined for 2 weeks (after taking 2 covid tests the first week) and fed MRE's. Go figure.

Wow.

Yup. That'll block you right up. I'm sitting here trying to think, and to be honest MREs were VERY rare for us in BCT. Even during the FTX, they usually sent out chow.
 
Wow.

Yup. That'll block you right up. I'm sitting here trying to think, and to be honest MREs were VERY rare for us in BCT. Even during the FTX, they usually sent out chow.
with Covid right now it's SOP to give the troops in quarantine MREs as it's too hard to send out that many hot meals. If you actually test positive for covid and get quarantined alone, I think you get hot meals some of the time though.
 
with Covid right now it's SOP to give the troops in quarantine MREs as it's too hard to send out that many hot meals. If you actually test positive for covid and get quarantined alone, I think you get hot meals some of the time though.

I'd be curious to see how they do it; if a soldier tests positive in Basic after quarantine, what's the plan? Do they get quarantined and recycle to a different class?

They really shouldn't test positive at all; BCT should be a pretty closed system, unless the armorer or one of the drill sergeants brings it in.
 
I'd be curious to see how they do it; if a soldier tests positive in Basic after quarantine, what's the plan? Do they get quarantined and recycle to a different class?

They really shouldn't test positive at all; BCT should be a pretty closed system, unless the armorer or one of the drill sergeants brings it in.
yes as far as my understanding goes. just like any other "medical" that causes you to miss part of training.

my husband has a facebook page so I just checked out the page for our son's training unit and they are getting briefings from the chaplin, legal, medical and some introduction classes this week. they will also do the leaders reaction course and repelling and intro to mines this week. It's a "slow" week.
 
Use sandboxx (google it) to send letters. It’s a website. You type the letter and he’ll get it a day or so later, and you get to add one photo per letter. Also includes stamped return envelope and paper. It’s like 1.50 a pop. Totally worth it. My brother in law graduated Sill last month and that’s how I sent him letters. It worked awesome, and was painless.

The army is weird and does block leave, even from BCT for the holidays. The USMC didn’t. I think policies probably vary by installation given COVID. I’m currently in TRADOC land at USAACE and we will have one week to quarantine/handle matters remotely before training comes back in full swing after the new year.
The Army is saying NOT to use Sandboxx. We mail letters all the time. He writes us almost more letters than the two of us combined write to him!

HBL is ON! He has his bus tickets to the airport and back and we got him his plane tickets of course. However, they changed his start date to 18 Dec which more than doubled our cost in points. HOWEVER, a couple months ago when I was wondering whether I should change our "funds" to points, this is what I anticipated and we are able to use our points for him to fly. So that's all good.

A few of y'all have met our son when he was still shorter than me. I will post a couple of pics here. The first is the day we last saw him when we were going to drop him off at the recruiter's office. I'm the short one. :D He's in the middle. His dad is a bit further back so they look closer in height but there's probably a 5" difference there. He's a good looking man. And that's not biased, that's honest!

The next one is a picture we downloaded from a website that does pictures on base while they are training. Pretty cool to get to see pics of what he's doing. He's number 218. And then his company on the obstacle course.
 

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The Army is saying NOT to use Sandboxx. We mail letters all the time. He writes us almost more letters than the two of us combined write to him!

That’s odd. As of September it was good to go for Ft Sill. Either way, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I still think block leave during basic is weird. I think I personally would have preferred to just stick it out. It would have been a challenge to get back on a bus to Parris Island after a two week break, haha.

Looking forward to this years block leave though. It will be my brother in laws first time home since Juneish and mine since March. The perks of being a student. Pre-Covid travel during 3-4 day weekends would have been much easier.
 
That’s odd. As of September it was good to go for Ft Sill. Either way, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

I still think block leave during basic is weird. I think I personally would have preferred to just stick it out. It would have been a challenge to get back on a bus to Parris Island after a two week break, haha.

Looking forward to this years block leave though. It will be my brother in laws first time home since Juneish and mine since March. The perks of being a student. Pre-Covid travel during 3-4 day weekends would have been much easier.

Right?! I get it though. All the cooks, drivers, cadre, medical and the dozens of other support jobs required to keep the trainees progressing through would not have holiday leave either.
 
i went thru benning in 91-92. going home at christmas was literally the worst part, but unless you had a really really good reason, they made youy go home. would have rather just pushed thru.

congrats to your boy
 
Wow. They really improved the frame options for GI glasses, at least.

I remember getting those silly brown BCGs that they'd been issuing since like 1964. Built like tanks, though.
 
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