This is it.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin, Tim on August 24, 2012 at 12:01pm

Gary,

     I only have one thing to add to this: No matter how prepared you are for your son to go to basic there's a whole new void when the youngest one is gone. When my youngest son left for basic we didn't know what to do for the first couple of days. When Trevor left for basic we knew he was doing the best thing that he could think of to support his young family and although we missed him very much we still had Ethan at home. When Ethan left for basic the house was empty with just us looking at each other asking what do we do now? We had had kids in the house from year one of our marriage and here 22 years later we had no kids to keep up with, to make sure they got up for school on time or made it to some sort of practice. 

     Enjoy yourselves and prepare for the long but short 8 weeks of basic. As they slowly crawl by the 1st 4 weeks and you find yourself being the biggest cheerleader in the world for your son as the 80 something kids in his division go from work as 8o something to the last 4 weeks that seem like 4 days as these 80 something kids come together as one. Just remember to remind him to "Keep calm and Chive on" and when you see him again in 8 short weeks you will have a young Sailor that will be strutting around chin up chest out. 

     I had 2 wonderful young men as sons but I was amazed at just how much Basic changed them into the men that they are today. Remember to take mom a box or 2 of tissues and if you find yourself reaching for one or 2 of those tissues yourself no worries because there are very few dry eyes in the drill hall.

Permalink Reply by Jay O. Butler on August 24, 2012 at 12:14pm

Get set as my daughter is in day 10 of boot. We did receive a 2 sentence packed in "the box" that arrived last Friday. Still waiting for the Official navy thank you letter that will give us PIR date and her address. Daughters best friend just graduated this week so hope to go ahead and get a feel for what they do in basic now as a lot has changed in the 30 years since i did it.+

Permalink Reply by Scott DeSantis on August 24, 2012 at 12:29pm

Gary,

  I too have to agree that this page has helped my wife and I get as prepared as we can be.  Ironically, my son leaves next week for Boot Camp also, he arrives Thursday.  So we are also spending as much time as we can with him.  Its amazing all the support here, facebook and face to face with other families that we have gotten.  

  Here is a crazy thing , we live 45 minutes from Great Lakes but have to take our son Wednesday to a Recruiting Station 1 hour west of us, so he can take a bus to Milwaukee.  But as my friend told me, every journey has to have story.

  Good luck..

Scott & Lori DeSantis

Permalink Reply by Phil Shannon on August 24, 2012 at 12:56pm

Enjoy the weekend Gary. And I agree with what Tim says 100%. We dropped our oldest (she is 20) off at MEPS Boston the day after memorial day. She made it through BC and is now at school. Our youngest is 19, and is about to head back for her 2nd year of college. We have a big 2,200 sq ft house, and it's starting to get lonely there, especially now that our youngest is never around. At 46 it's time to go through some sort of crisis I guess with the empty nest. They say it's supposed to be such a great thing, but so far I don't like it. I miss my girls, it's hard to made this adjustment after spending the last 20+ years with them every day!

Luckily I could see this coming and we made a point to spend some quality family time together before she went to bc. It's so bitter sweet because I am so proud of our girl, and she loves the Navy so much. It's a perfect fit. Just gotta start to stop feeling sorry for myself I guess.

Permalink Reply by Gary Luna on August 24, 2012 at 1:16pm

Thanks everybody ! We have been very blessed with the 3 great kids we some how managed to instill in them a good work ethic,morals and pride in themselves . The emotions of him leaving for the Navy added to the empty nest syndrome is going to be some roller coaster ride . My wife admits she is still in the denial stage but that's sure to change come Monday morning . It's definetly not like sending him off to a college dorm room I keep telling her ! All's we can do is write,write,write and look forward to P.I.R in 8/9 weeks .

thanks again for all the support I will let you know how Monday goes...lol