New here. My daughter left for boot camp Nov. 23rd!!!

[AlishaNicole SHP11DIV54]

I'm waiting to receive her PIR date and my "kid in a box"!

[Navy Aunt (AF Wife)]

Welcome to our group!!! : ) Oh wow! She just left a few days ago and if you are like all of us, it feels like years not days!!! : ( It will get easier and I am glad you are on here for support. On Monday, try and call her recruiter and ask if your daughter's address is available yet. The recruiter should have one to give you. The address will be a temporary one that you can use during her processing days which usually last a week when not in holiday season. Since your Recruit went in right before Thanksgiving, her processing will last longer than a week. Use the address the recruiter gives you until you receive the form letter from your daughter. The form letter will have the address you should use for the rest of her time in BC. (Important: put the form letter in a safe rememorable place because you will have to have it later on to get your parking pass to get into RTC for PIR. Each form letter has a password on it that you will have to use in order to print off a copy of the pass.)

Letters: some of us were lucky and got upbeat ones, others (me) got ones that caused torrents of tears. Cry if you get a sad one, but when you get ready to pick up that pen to write your letter, compose the most enthusastic, motivating and encouraging one you can. (I know that you have it in you... ALL Moms do and so do Auntie's-lol! ) Your daughter is going to need to feed off of your strength in those letters until she gets over the shock of BC and adapts. Here at home, we have loved ones to lean on while the Recruits are having to put their trust into strangers that are introduced as teammates. I do hope you get a good letter!!!! Fingers crossed! How did her arrival phone call sound? Let us know if you need ideas on what to write-- some on here sent questionaires which end up getting some funny and odd replies.


You are more than welcome on here, but there is a more current November group called November 2010 Boot Camp that consists of families whose loved one reported this month to BC. This group is from last November. So we are the been there, done that group and they are the ones going through it now. : ) You will get responses in both groups, but theirs will be more of an everyday response, so I suggest joining their group as well as staying on here.

The kid in a box made me very excited and sad. I was going to wait to open it when my hubby got home, but he said to go ahead and open it as he could tell I was about to go nuts-lol. Our Recruit's jeans were missing. Ended up finding out he just threw them out. We didn't send him to BC with a cell phone (didn't know we could). If your daughter had one, most likely, you will find the cell phone in the toe of one shoe and the battery in the toe of the other shoe. Listen to the voicemail when you get it because she may have left you a message on it. : ) Our Recruit sent back his calling card and stamps. He said that they were so rushed that he didn't even think about keeping them. If your Recruit sent them back, it's okay, just send them back to her in your first letter. They also get a NEX card to use in the shoppette (comes out of their pay, I believe) that she can use to buy another card and stamps if needed.

Suggestion for you! The Recruits have limited space so I suggest making a copy of each letter you write so that your daughter can throw away letters when she needs the room. Your letters are going to be special keepsakes for her and she will want to keep them as treasures of her time in BC. If you have copies, she can have the assurance that your words will be safe and sound at home for her later and she can have the freedom to toss the duplicates. Another option is sending her a prestamped manilla envelope folded into a regular envelope so that she fill the envelope with letters you have wrote and mail them to you at home.

Good luck to you!!!! Let me know if I can help you out by answering questions or just providing an ear to listen. This is a GREAT group and you can get a lot of good info on here, so feel free to post on the discussion wall! : )