my son is in denial about boot camp coming soon

Let him work it out . I think it's nerves. My son Not leaving til Feb2 and he has been quite about it too. And if I ask question trying to motivate him he brush me off.

As a mom with two boys who went Navy, one athletic, the other not as much - they both did fine.  Your son's recruiter should also be talking to him regarding this and other expectations of boot camp.  The number one comment both my boys made was that they were thankful I taught them how to clean a bathroom and to not cringe when the drill Sargent barked at them.  One other thing - don't include confetti, candy, etc in your mail to them - it will get them in trouble and they have to share the candy and clean the barracks if the confetti gets everywhere.

It's not denial. The kids are just taking advantage of their last opportunity to be kids before having to abruptly grow up. They'll be fine. But they'll kick themselves later when their shipmates advance to E-2 and they don't.

The folks in true denial are the moms who show up here for the first time after their kids have already left home, totally in the dark.