Ideas for OCS letters

[LizV]

My son just started OCS. I'm looking for ideas on what to put in our letters to him. Can I include crossword puzzles or Suduko? Any creative ideas? Thanks!

[M's mom]

Welcome LizV,

It depends on how strict his Drill Instructor wants to be, but with my son's OCS class, we were told not to send any loose enclosures in the letters, like no cartoons or loose photographs, etc.  I was able to get around that "permissibly" by photocopying cartoons on letter paper and inserting photos into the body of the letter on letters typed on the computer.   You could probably photocopy a Sudoku onto letter paper. 

They don't have a lot of free time to do puzzles, etc.   The only free time they have is when they could be sleeping.  But if your son really likes that sort of thing, you could ask him.

Fill your letters with lots of encouragement and all the news from home.  The first few weeks of OCS, they are kept isolated from the internet, TV, newspapers, etc., so letters from home are their only contact with the outside world.  Send him all the news of his favorite sports teams, or anything else he is into.  They get so discouraged sometimes because OCS is so stressful, physically and mentally, that some of them quit.  Just keep up the encouragement and tell him it gets better after the first 3-4 weeks, and that he must keep "his eyes on the prize" and hang in there so matter what!!!

Good luck to your son!

[applecrispnh]

RE: we were told not to send any loose enclosures in the letters - who told you this and how did they convey this information to you, and when?  Thanks!

[redheadlass]

I sent my son a newspaper clipping of a major news story at the time while he was at OCS and he asked me not to do that any more in a letter to me... He said he could get in trouble for doing that so I stopped sending that kind of stuff. This was in summer of 2018. 

[redheadlass]

I don't know, When my son was in OCS,(he just graduated 9/21/18, I sent him a news clipping from something that was big in the news, and after he received it he told me not to send any more to him, that he could get in trouble. But then someone else told me they sent something similar and it was fine. What is good for one class may not be good for another class. I just sent letters, typed, and talked about what we were doing, what was in the news, encouraging words of support, etc.. I thought what I was typing was boring,but he seemed to enjoy all the letters.  But, the crossword puzzles and the suduko sound like a good idea but bear in mind, they have almost no free time to do those things until possibly the last three weeks of OCS. 

[barb1930]

I would retype a few jokes in the letters I wrote to my son. He told me later that he would share them with others.

[Noni]

Please for your son's sake, don't put anything in your letters.  Stick to the guidelines which are a plain envelope and standard writing paper. 

[Anna]

I will add just a little bit to your other responses - if you want to send puzzles or crossword, copy them onto typing paper and write your letter around them.  What you don't want is for anyone to be able to "feel" anything extra in your envelopes.  As long as all your letter and extra are on regular computer paper no one will know what all is your "letter".  I would send my daughter little clip art pictures to make her laugh at some of the crazy stuff she had to deal with.  Like this little "ruler guy" picture I found online when she was going through RLP and everything was measured by the drill instructors!!!!  Gave her something funny to think of while dealing with all the BS!!!!!!  Good Luck to your son!!!