Boot Camp - Questions

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Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on August 6, 2009 at 9:04am

Your recruiter can provide you with his ship and division number in a couple of days. Once you have that, look on the right sider of the page here at NavyDads and you'll see a link to Contact Your Sailor at RTC that gives addresses to RTC.

The goal at RTC is to "cut the apron strings to home" in the first couple of weeks so once you get the call, the next item will be the "the box" and the form letter. After that you will not hear anything for about 2-32 weeks....that is normal! Remember that "no news is good news" and that the Navy actaully does know what it is doing withyour kids and that they are in good hands.

We've all gone through this, some more than once and the eight weeks passes more quickly than you think.....

There are a lot of posts in the Bootcamp group and the PIR- Tips and Hints groups that will answer most of your questions and concerns.....

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Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on August 6, 2009 at 9:12am

NavyDads Admin said:

Your recruiter can provide you with his ship and division number in a couple of days. Once you have that, look on the right sider of the page here at NavyDads and you'll see a link to Contact Your Sailor at RTC that gives addresses to RTC.

The goal at RTC is to "cut the apron strings to home" in the first couple of weeks so once you get the call, the next item will be the "the box" and the form letter. After that you will not hear anything for about 2-32 weeks....that is normal! Remember that "no news is good news" and that the Navy actaully does know what it is doing withyour kids and that they are in good hands.

We've all gone through this, some more than once and the eight weeks passes more quickly than you think.....

There are a lot of posts in the Bootcamp group and the PIR- Tips and Hints groups that will answer most of your questions and concerns.....

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Permalink Reply by Larry Huffman on August 13, 2009 at 9:24am

Tim,

By all means, begin sending letters as soon as you get his address. His recruiter should have it after a few days. In each of our kids cases (our son went through boot last summer...our daughter this summer) we had the address the week after they left. We all began writing as soon as we had it. Now...they will hold those initial letters...but your recruit will get them all, and appreciate them more than anything. Number your letters, especially at first, since he could get 3 or 4 from you all at once in a couple of weeks. Do not send mail to the main camp address...I am sure he will get it if you do...but that will almost certainly delay the letter. Contact his recruiter. If your recruiter cannot help, just sit tight (write the letters...it helps...and jsut do not address them yet)...the first letter you receive will be a form letter...where your son will inform you of his graduation date as well as include information about attending. In that form letter they will have 5 or 6 lines to write a quick personal message...and they will send you their mailing address. Once you get that, you will be able to send any letter you have queued up.

I understand how it is hard to take them being out of communication. But, as the posted information says, they are trying to cut what they call the apron strings on these kids. They want them to be able to function on their own, without the level of support the average teen or young person has from their family. And so it seems drastic. It is not. At the end of boot camp your son will have grown up beyond what you thought possible in such a short period of time. When my son went through last year, he was already a mature kid...so we did not expect the level of maturity we saw when we met him at PIR. And it was very good to see...we sent a young man who was still a teenager out and we got a full grown man ready to start his life and career. We are already seeing things in our daughter's letters from boot camp this summer that says that she too is growing up and maturing.

Let me tell you...these two months will fly by...for you and your recruit. Just know that your son is in very capable hands. The Navy has been doing this for a lot of years...and they know what they are doing. Even the stuff your recruit will complain about in his letters is almost sure to be a planned tactic of the trainers to shape and mold your son. For example...almost all recruits are told their division is the 'worst they have ever taught'. And miraculously they will be a sharp and polished division come PIR. It is a tried and true program that they go through...far more scripted and planned than most people think. That includes the lack of contact with the outside...and honestly they get a lot more contact than I got back in the early 80s when I was in (and not surprisingly, my dad scoffed at what I went through as if I was at a picnic - lol).

So...write lots of letters...and you will find yourself doing what most other boot camp parents do...waiting at the mailbox every day looking for the next letter (we gather the whole family around and read them out loud). And you will be looking for phone calls from 847-area code...or any that say payphone in the caller ID. hehe.

And feel free to ask any advice from those on this site. This is a good group...with lots of knowledge on here to help. I am fairly new to this site, but I have lived my life Navy...(my dad was a lifer and kids are both 4th gen US sailors)...and so if I can help, I am happy to.

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