March 4th was rescheduled to March 18th - in an hour or so he takes his oath and ships out. Next time we see him he will be a Marine.
I appreciate the support here and shared this thread with my son. We managed to get quite a bit of riding in throughout the colder months - few thousand miles. Sometimes to nowhere but always good times.
It probably will be a few days until you hear from him. And when you do it will be a short phone call. Letters from friends and parents will be their only communications for a couple months, so write often. When my son went through basic 3 years ago I wrote to him almost every day. There also were a couple guys in his platoon that weren't getting any mail, we started sending them letters too. The first 3 weeks will be the worst, that's when they break everyone down to get them to work as a team.
I sent my son off to basic with a pre printed letter and stamped envelope for each week. I said I know you won't have much time to write, but I expect one letter a week. I sent some of the same letters to a girl I used to coach that went through Navy OCS last summer. She loved them. Here is the pre printed letter I made:
Well it's one thing for fellow service members to call Marines crayon eaters, it's another thing when the Marine Corps is a huge customer of yours.
As for sending them to Drill Sergeants, I have heard they will have nightly smoke sessions until they figure out who mailed them. It's much more difficult for them to figure out if the crayons are mailed from some random place on a cross country motorcycle ride so the recruits have no idea who sent it and there is no similar return address on other incoming mail. Of course even without receiving the crayons the DS would probably still have nightly smoke sessions.
Well it's one thing for fellow service members to call Marines crayon eaters, it's another thing when the Marine Corps is a huge customer of yours.
As for sending them to Drill Sergeants, I have heard they will have nightly smoke sessions until they figure out who mailed them. It's much more difficult for them to figure out if the crayons are mailed from some random place on a cross country motorcycle ride so the recruits have no idea who sent it and there is no similar return address on other incoming mail. Of course even without receiving the crayons the DS would probably still have nightly smoke sessions.
The Marines LOVED it! I was following along as it happened on Instagram. The Marine feedback and that of our military in from other branches was over the top positive, but Colonels don't allow any fun.
Hey folks - got the call from my son yesterday. First time hearing his voice since he left for basic. Now officially a US Marine.
Expert rifle, 1st Class scores on his PFT and CFT. Could not be prouder. Pics below of our ride together the day before he left. Two more weeks to graduation.
Check this one out. Our company bought out our ESOP program this year. We had four or five 'millenials' that started with us last April. They worked, if you want to call what they did work, (see above comment), from April to Thanksgiving, and made approximately $65K. They were given a full share of stock when we were bought out. A share was valued at $18,000 and change. They, (the millenials), claimed that was bullshit, because they had heard that other long time employees were receiving in excess of $100K. They couldn't comprehend that the longer you worked, the more $$$$ you received, lol. What maroons!!!! I explained to them that even though they received much more than they earned throughout the season, getting this windfall added another, on average, $700+ a week to what they already earned, and I hate to use the term 'earned'. They didn't want to hear it. In their minds, even though they were on their phones all day, listened to their Ipods all day, and got carried by other workers, myself included, they should all be making LeBron James kinda money. You should have seen their faces after I explained to them that they will owe 10% of that money for a penalty, another 27% to the Feds, another 5% to the state, then another percentage to the city they live in. It was priceless.
God, I have been in the navy for 17 years, and I am just now starting to deal with these "im owed it" people. I have guys that work for me, are 19 years old, don't understand why they have to wait to get a promotion, why they need to help others, why they cant go home because they are "salary and the job can wait til tomorrow" or why this old guy is yelling at them cause they WONT SWEEP THEIR WORK STATION AFTER THEY MAKE A MESS. im tired of the "im owed it" generation.
Send `em down into the snipe hole to scrub some deck plates with a wire brush for a little "extra duty", and let them know what work is all about.
Congrats to your son. Big accomplishment to get through that first session.... break 'em down then build 'em back up. But good he made it.
Please thank him for his service!!
03-19-2019, 07:48 AM
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