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All Hands Magazine's full length documentary "Making a Sailor": This video follows four recruits through Boot Camp in the spring of 2018 who were assigned to DIV 229, an integrated division, which had PIR on 05/25/2018. 

Boot Camp: Making a Sailor (Full Length Documentary - 2018)

Boot Camp: Behind the Scenes at RTC

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Always keep Navy Operations Security in mind.  In the Navy, it's essential to remember that "loose lips sink ships."  OPSEC is everyone's responsibility. 

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OPSEC GUIDELINES

Events

**UPDATE 4/26/2022** Effective with the May 6, 2022 PIR 4 guests will be allowed.  Still must be fully vaccinated to attend.

**UPDATE as of 11/10/2022 PIR vaccination is no longer required.

**UPDATE 7/29/2021** You now must be fully vaccinated in order to attend PIR:

In light of observed changes and impact of the Coronavirus Delta Variant and out of an abundance of caution for our recruits, Sailors, staff, and guests, Recruit Training Command is restricting Pass-in-Review (recruit graduation) to ONLY fully immunized guests (14-days post final COVID vaccination dose).  

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR UP TO DATE INFO:

RTC Graduation

**UPDATE 8/25/2022 - MASK MANDATE IS LIFTED.  Vaccinations still required.

**UPDATE 11/10/22 PIR - Vaccinations no longer required.

RESUMING LIVE PIR - 8/13/2021

Please note! Changes to this guide happened in October 2017. Tickets are now issued for all guests, and all guests must have a ticket to enter base. A separate parking pass is no longer needed to drive on to base for parking.

Please see changes to attending PIR in the PAGES column. The PAGES are located under the member icons on the right side.

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For those that have shipped, what electronic device did they take?

Views: 403

Replies to This Discussion

Our son forgot to take one and also just grabbed a random book the night before he left. We drove him to MEPS and spent the night in the same hotel so we could see him off the next morning. The evening before departing we had a nice dinner and stopped by a Target store so he could find a better book. While there we found an old classic hand held that had Galaxia, space invaders, & asteroids on it. He left 9/1 and hasn't mentioned yet if he enjoyed the old games or not? LOL When do you ship?

My son ships tomorrow. This is our second time around as our older son has been in the navy for 6 years. But this has been a totally different experience from back then! We ended up getting a Kindle Paperwhite. He can download a few books, no camera, etc. My oldest sone has one and loves it especially when deployed, requires very little storage space compared to actual books

That sounds like a perfect device for ROM at Fort McCoy. I'm sure he will be glad that he has it. From what our SR wrote it's not to bad there but We could tell the boredom really set in around day 8. The RDC's started getting stricter towards the later days. I'm guessing that was by design as they were getting closer to shipping to GL for night of arrival. He did tell us the go to GL to make their call and get their gear before heading to Wisconsin

Good morning!! Thanks for sharing Kim.

JaneNavyMom - I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. I don't know what the entire restrictions are on the electronics as my son was at BC three years ago. But I have a Kindle Paperwhite and my sailor has the old version with no backlight. 

First of all, Kindles can still receive a WiFi connection if they are not in airplane mode. I don't know if that is an issue at BC or not, so your son should be prepared with some other "paper" options. The Kindle is great for in the fleet and my sailor uses his a lot as well as downloads audio books from our public library. The paperwhite takes more battery life though than the version that my sailor has - so make sure he has the charger for it, and a good cover. I tape a card with my name and address inside the flap of my cover if it is lost.

JaneNavyMom - Please be sure to post at least a hello down in the comment section of the BC Mom page, just below where the discussions are. We have some other new members and it would be helpful to them to know that they are not alone, there are others who are just starting on this boot camp journey. I hope you figured out the electronics and be sure to let us now what your SR says about them being acceptable or not. We can our best information from past experiences. 

Hi everyone, my son shipped on November 12, 2020.  We bought him a Kindle and loaded it up with audio books/print books.  We were so happy to hear from our son on Monday, November 16 - he won an inspection and the prize was a call home (we felt so very lucky).  He told us that he was not allowed to keep the Kindle - he was given two Navy books to study and that's it.  I don't know if these sorts of things change frequently, but this was his experience.  

Sally423 - Thanks for sharing! It is good to hear from you. 

I am honestly not surprised that they would not allow your son to keep his Kindle. It seems like anything electronic is being denied but until we get first hand information from family members we are "in the dark" to some extent. 

I do think that those SRs who are returning to ROM, once they are in training are given the opportunity to read regular books that RTC has. 

Your son will still appreciate his Kindle when out in the fleet, so it is not ill-spent money.

Hi Marcd2k - SR (seaman recruits) have not been allowed to keep their cell phones during BC since way before COVID. In the past, they mailed the cell phones home. Now they keep their cell phones and other belongings that they arrive at RTC in their "box" that is returned to them once they are ready to leave for their A school. 

So, yes, just regular, old fashioned communication. If they did not take a pay phone phone card with them to BC then they will be allowed to purchase one at the NEX there at RTC. They have a 2 week quarantine and then they have they start their processing days. It now takes about 4 - 5 weeks from the time they left for MEPS & GL before you will receive the "form letter."  This form letter will not have much information that is current for now, since there is no live graduation, but it will have the mailing address for your SR. 

We recommend that you start writing your letters now, and some will number the letters and/ or envelopes and when you have the mailing address then you can start mailing your letters. 

Marc -

It did sound as if your daughter's recruiter was not very forthcoming with information. We do our best to keep as up to date as we can on this site, but we also glean mostly from the families who share. We are all just volunteers on this site - most of us either still have a sailor in the fleet that help out on the BC Mom group, but the site admins like B'sNukeMom and others - their kids have completed their enlistment and are out in the civilian world now. 

Be sure to connect in the BC Mom group we will do our best to help you along this journey.

I feel this same way about our recruiter. He never even mentioned that all ROM is now at McCoy and has been since August, he was still talking about staying at hotels. I feel like I am getting current info from people online and he has no clue and I can't seem to verify any details with him. It's very frustrating.

We were planning to send our son with an old gameboy but lots of comments I'm seeing on various youtube channels from recent SRs who just passed PIR is that those who brought game devices were not allowed to use them and only physical books were allowed. Can anyone confirm this? My son leaves tomorrow so I think we're going to have him bring the gameboy and a couple books anyway and find out when he gets there. 

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