NAVY BOOT CAMP

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Comment by Tim Richardson on September 3, 2009 at 1:42pm

Thank you Larry for you and your children's service to me and our great Nation. I was not in the service and I truly feel like I missed a great opportunity to serve my country. But I have a strong sense of pride in America and great Honor and admiration for those who have and are serving this Nation and the world. May God richly bless you and your family for their unselfish service.

Comment by Larry Huffman on September 3, 2009 at 12:05pm

My thoughts on boot camp...as our children prepare to graduate. I know it is long, but wanted to state it. :) :

From the outside, it seems silly when you think about it. Spending an hour to teach a group of young adults just how to fold a towel, making each fold precise and placing the folded towel exactly in it's place in a locker. It is easy to wonder about the logic and purpose behind such training. Those of us who have gone through it, however, understand all too well.

There is not a day that goes by where my boot camp training and experience does not come forward in some form or another. Maybe it is the confidence with which I go about a task. Maybe it is my willingness to pitch in and do whatever needs doing, even if others would consider the work below them. It shows in the attention to detail that I place on my daily tasks. It shows in my willingness and ability to work with a team on a project, leading or following as needed. Boot camp taught and solidified these traits and others in me

Many people hate boot camp while in...and just about every person in boot camp cannot wait to get out. In the beginning that is because we are miserable and homesick...towards the end, however, it is the fleet that is calling us. In those last weeks of boot camp things begin to become apparent to us regarding boot camp. As we march, calling our cadences and showing off a little, we see it in the eyes of the new recruits just beginning. It seems like it was years ago, but it was only 5 or 6 weeks earlier when we were those scared looking recruits. We begin to realize that this is not just some club that anyone can join. We think about what it took to join in the first place...how everything had to be just so...and then we think about those who still did not make it as the early weeks of boot camp became too much for some to handle. We are not sad for them now. At first we were...we were crushed when a new friend got sent back or sent home. But now, anyone sent back or sent home early should have been. Cold as it is, we see that our jobs will have other people's lives in the balance and we do not want to graduate with any but the best. If they cannot get through the early weeks of boot camp, they cannot be part of us. We get it, and appreciate it.

We arrived confused and scared. We spent parts of our first few weeks seriously wondering what the hell we had gotten ourselves into. We PTd in our scivviis and we got shots and we were verbally abused beyond what we thought we would ever be able to take. After a short time the confusion melts away and it turns to resolve. We may not understand quite yet just what boot camp means, but we do know we want to get through it. We see those senior companies marching with pride and honor...because they get it now...and we want to be like them, if only to get our company commanders off of our backs.

Amazing things begin to happen. In our company, where just a week or so before there were fights and dissention...where it looked like it would be impossible for the motley bunch we were there with to actually complete the course...now there is unity and team work emerging. Now, when someone does not get something, they are not ridiculed, but they are helped. Once folding a towel and placing it in our lockers seemed silly and petty...now it is of utmost importance and we approch it the way any adult would approach a very important and serious work related task. We are earning flags and drawing the praise of our company commanders more and more. They are not babysitters anymore, but leaders of a company of future sailors that can already taste the sea spray and feel the pride of the uniform. When we march, we carry ourselves with pride and honor, because we are starting to understand just what it is we have accomplished.

When we leave boot camp, we will be confident and self assured. The US Navy, truly one of the most elite organizations in the entire world, has seen fit to count us among it's own. It is no longer our company commanders' navy...it is our navy, and we take that serious. Our ship mates in boot camp have gone from being total strangers to being something like brothers and sisters. We have all learned to put our personal and regional views aside and work instead towards the end goals of our company as a unit. In doing so we gain a trust and respect for our ship mates that was most certainly not there when this began. Even the most cocky and egotistical recruits have been knocked down, only to be built back up with proper confidence and attitude. Now instead of being every person for themselves, we are looking out for and pulling our ship mates along, so that none of us at this point get left behind. Anyone who can get this far must keep going or it reflect badly on all of us. Two weeks earlier, someone being sent back was just and proper...now none will fall...we will see to it.

We will soon leave...and most likely we will not see each other again. We have not developed friendships in the traditional sense. We do not know too many intimate details about these people we have shared our lives with. But we have all come together with a common sense of purpose, and now, as it is about to end, we are both excited and sad. Sad to leave boot camp? Yes. Believe it or not, it can be quite sad to walk away from that company that has meant so much. For many it is the only place they have found in their lives where they truly belong. For others, it is the most important thing they have ever done. Still for others, it has taught them the value of trusting others and working together. All of this tends to make it rather difficult to leave a place that just a few weeks earlier we would have gladly bolted from if given the chance.

One last hurrah...graduation. It is the time when we as a company will perform for the very last time. We will put on our best uniforms...the uniforms of our nations' proud and strong Navy and we will show what we have learned to family and friends, and most importantly to ourselves. We will demonstrate that 80 green, scared and confused kids can come together and be made into a cohesive military unit that is capable of serving this nation with dedication and pride. We know that already we are broken, for after graduation...immediately after...there are those who will travel to their schools and we will most likely never see them again...over the next few days we will all disperse to far flung places. After graduation we will never be the same. This is truly it for our short lived company. Short lived but not ever forgotten. We know, even in our youth and excitement that we will always look back fondly on our time in boot camp, our ship mates and our company commanders. Bigger and better things await us in the fleet. We will go to our schools and then to the fleet where we will do a wide variety of jobs. Many will enjoy their time in the Navy and it will be all that was expected. Some will not have good experiences and may find themselves unhappy in their jobs and commands...getting out the first chance they can get. But...right here, right now...as we march with pride in our company...we are all on the same page. We are tough and determined. We are sailors.

Most former military people cherish their time in boot camp. We love what it did for us and how we grew because of it. Parents who have not been in the military will have concerns for their children going into boot camp, but those parents who chose this path themselves years earlier, know that there is nothing better for a young, dumb teenager than to get a dose of boot camp to make them grow up.

Your children are on a great adventure. It can take them far beyond boot camp in Great Lakes. They can be serving on board majestic and powerful ships at sea, showing the United States firepower and committment to helping all over the world. They can be involved in combat missions where our military is doing what it can to make the world safe (politics aside). They can be stationed on bases all over the world, or perhaps training commands where they will help develop future sailors. They may even come back and bring new recruits through boot camp. But...whatever they go on to do...boot camp will be there as the opening to this chapter in their lives. The chapter is adulthood and boot camp is the adventure that takes them there.

Obviously I love my Navy...which is now our kids' Navy. I do cherish my time in boot camp. I care a great deal for those 79 other men who I spent those 9 weeks with over 25 years ago, even though I only remember a few names and am not in touch with any of them. These thoughts came because I now have my second child completing boot camp in a week, the first having done so last summer. The pride and joy I have in my sailors could not be greater. I know my emotions are coming to the surface because of what I know and love about the Navy and how proud I am of my kids and your kids and all who enlist...so I figured these thoughts may also help other parents to see the big picture and see just what their children have accompliished. Congratulations to all parents who's kids have made this decision...and thank you for raising them to see that there is a price on freedom and it is paid with service to this nation. And thanks to them for heeding that call and serving.

Comment by Tim Richardson on September 3, 2009 at 11:50am

I understand all too well about lack of communications. I don't dissagree with isolation and separation proceedure. I am all for the way they do things. They have been training Navy personnel way longer than I have been alive. I was just making conversation with other Dads and trying to get the best idea of when we might hear from my son. I appreciate this site and really like to hear from other parents who love their kids. I love my son and really miss him.

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on September 3, 2009 at 11:38am

There seems to be a lack of understanding about the scarcity of communications between home and recruits during the first few weeks of bootcamp. This is normal and to be expected. I’m reposting something that Larry wrote awhile ago that explains what is happening at Great Lakes very well and why. Parents- please understand what is going on at RTC and how important it is for training command to have your sons and daughters concentrate on their training and not on home. You will see them at PIR is a few short weeks and understand the reasons and means for this. As Larry so eloquently wrote:

“The isolation and separation from family and friends is done on purpose. The navy wants your kids to severe the strings and be as independent and self sufficient as possible, in order to be what the Navy needs them to be. Thus the lack of external communication. Trust the Navy, however...they know what they are doing. It may be rough on us emotionally as parents but it is for their own good. And...the real eye opener is this...even though it feels longer and worse...it is only 2 months.

My advice...get his mailing address from his recruiter and begin writing letters. You will begin receiving them from him soon...the first will be a form letter that they have a few lines to write on. After that it is up to your son to write, which I am sure he will. Mail call is a real special thing for recruits. They will want letters every mail call if possible. Get as many of his friends and other family members to write as well. Send pictures, pages from puzzle books...we sent both of ours Suduko puzzle pages...for something to do on those rare free times. If your son is into news and current events, send newspaper clippings that would interest them. Just do not overdo it with stuff...but write as many letters as you want.

Generally speaking, the recruits get calls on week 3 and week 6 (right after passing battlestations). If they are getting a security clearance and need more information in order to get it, they will get phone calls for that as well. In our case, while we did not get the "I've arrived" phone call...we did get 2 additional calls in week 2 while she was trying to piece together her clearance information...we got to ask a couple of questions, but for the most part, it was just for her to get the info and that was it.

Oh, and while the "I've arrived" phone call is good to get...it would not have been any more than a scripted message to you that he reads to you. You get to hear his voice...you may be able to sneak in a couple of y/n questions (I asked my son "are you doing ok?" he quietly said yes...I asked "No regrets?" he whispered "Nope")...but no real conversation.

The time will fly by...really it will. Our daughter is halfway through and it seems like yesterday I was watching her be sworn in. I find writing helps a lot...and when you get his letters, make them a family event. Gather everyone around. You will laugh and cry. And do not put too much in your son being shocked or even upset at his choice in those early letters. He will come around. The first letter from boot camp always seems to have a level of "what have I got myself into" in them. They will adjust and be fine. By the time he is in week 7 the letters will be full of pride in himself and his division.

Good luck to you and your son...and thanks to your son for his service! And if you have any more concerns, just ask here...there are a lot of knowledgeable people here to help! :-)”

I’ve been through this twice and through the separation anxiety can be difficult, please realize that your sailors are in good hands, that training command has done this before….many times, and that seeing your sailor at PIR will make it all worthwhile!!!

Comment by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on September 3, 2009 at 10:29am

it's roughly three weeks... and only then if the division has earned the priviledge of writing home.

Comment by Tim Richardson on September 3, 2009 at 10:19am

Greg,
I was wonderin how long it took to get his first letter after the form letter came. I write my son everyday. I have heard that it takes 3 weeks for the first letter to come. Is that true?

Comment by Greg Yee on September 3, 2009 at 9:17am

Good Morning Everyone
Got two more letters yesterday from our guy, he sounds down but determined to stay focused on the task, we have written him several times and plan on doing so, I tell him I know how he feels and recount my boot camp days, we tell him to be strong and hang in there and it will be over sooner than he thinks, he's even more busy now with all the training and PT going on so I figure he wont have too much time to miss home and his company and division and passing all of his test will take place of the homesick feeling, his PIR is 10/09/09, looking forward to seeing him march out proudly, till then will keep writing with words of support.
To all you parents out there write as often as you can, because as our sailor in training says " its what keeps them going".
Good luck to all and take care.

Comment by Suzanne on September 2, 2009 at 4:19pm

Thank You as well, Larry for the great info.! Yes her father and I both will be attending PIR!

Comment by MikeU on September 2, 2009 at 1:18pm

Great insight Larry! Thanks. I did notice last weeks letters were shorter and more focused on accomplishments. The home sickness seems to be fading. Looking forward to 9/11 PIR.

Comment by Robert D on September 2, 2009 at 11:22am

DITTO - Very refreshing Larry!!!!!- Thank you so much!!!!!

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