Good Morning,

BobertM,
Thanks you so much for your support and words of encouragement. It really is appreciated. It's great to know there are people out there cheering them on beside family and friends.

Mommy3K & Mimi,

Getting together Wednesday evening sound good to me. We are the lucky ones with only a 4 hour drive. We will probably be arriving there around 7:00 or so.

Jesse is E-787-1. I don't know if that tells us if they are together or not.

Jesse will be going back next summer as well.

Jesse didn't mention anything about fireworks on Sunday either. I did ask him in a letter if they got to do anything special. I haven't heard yet.

Later,
JW's Mom

Jesse is with my son who is also in E-787-1. It seems to me that I was told there were 4 units (not sure of the correct term for them) but I could be wrong. I believe BJ will be going back towards the end of summer next year as we asked for a little time to do graduation parties, etc. He thought that he may be leaving next August but that is so far away and I'm sure he'll be doing anything he has to at that point. He was happy that I was talking with Kayla's mom on here so I know he will be quite surprised when I tell him I am actually talking to another mother with a child in the same unit as him.

We'll all have to figure out where each is staying - maybe one of the hotels will have a nice reception area where we can all meet - or maybe over dinner. I'm up to anything.

Good talking with each of you. Take care.

MyReality - congratulations on your new adventure. We were so worried about our children as I'm sure your parents will be with you. As you can tell by this forum, each of our children seem to be doing well. They miss home terribly but with each passing week it seems to get easier. Keep your chin up and an open mind and you'll do just fine. Best of luck to you! Keep us posted.

Mimi,

I made reservations at the Ramada. I will see if I can find out what unit Jesse is in. I will ask if he knows BJ (Jerald) in letter I am writing today. I haven't heard when Jesse will be heading back for AIT. Hopefully it will be a few weeks after he graduates.

Good talking to you!

JWSmom,Mommy3k,Mimi its great to see young kids deciding to join the military.It shows they want to serve their country and are proud doing it. I am a vet and I still wear my dogtags, and US Army ring I got in BCT at Ft Leonard Wood. I am very proud of those who served and are serving this great country. You all have raised very great kids, and in a few weeks will be very excellent soldiers, and you should be proud of them like we all are.

hmm... reading these stories on these forums makes me wonder if my mom will be on here when i ship off at the end of the month. Somehow i dont think so lol.

Hello Everyone,

I received a letter form Jesse yesterday. He said that they did get to have some sort of concert on the 4th. I think that's great.

He has stress fractures in his ankle. Yikes! He said he is "fighting through the pain."

Family day is on the 21st, but he doesn't get an off post pass. We will tour the base and eat dinner there as well. That kind of stinks.

quote:

Originally posted by OMGWTFBBQ:
hmm... reading these stories on these forums makes me wonder if my mom will be on here when i ship off at the end of the month. Somehow i dont think so lol.

OMGWTFBBQ,
I sure hope your Mom shows up to support you when you ship. Being a mother, I can't imagine having a child join the military that you wouldn't be proud of.

Later,
JW's Mom

She's proud of me, no doubt about that. She used to be a police officer before she had me, so she knows that i'll make it fine, and by me somewhat following in her footsteps (taking one level up lol) she's the proudest she's ever been. She's a nurse and a volunteer EMT now.


-Andy

quote:

Hello Everyone,

I received a letter form Jesse yesterday. He said that they did get to have some sort of concert on the 4th. I think that's great.

He has stress fractures in his ankle. Yikes! He said he is "fighting through the pain."

Family day is on the 21st, but he doesn't get an off post pass. We will tour the base and eat dinner there as well. That kind of stinks.

Oh man a stress fracture is really painful. He really needs to be careful putting pressure on his ankle he can break it and that will be a huge setback. Keep us up to date on his ankle and lets hope he can make the rest of BCT. I know what the pain is like I did the same thing repelling out of a helicopter landed wrong and was sidelined for 6 weeks, I was glad I wasnt in jump school at the time. He should be ok he sounds like a tough kid.

I'm sorry to hear about Jesse ankle. I sure hope he will be okay. I made a mistake in my son's unit he is in E-787-2 so they are not in the same unit. Close enough though. BJ said he has a shin splint and is trying to recover from that. He did tell me he is doing well and that he has a goal to master all the situps, pushups and the run for a perfect 300 score - whatever all that means. He sure has set a bunch of goals and I hope he achieves them. I hope Jesse can baby that ankle a little, without jepardizing his time in basic. Tell him we are all saying a prayer for him.

OMGWTFBBQ - good luck with everything. You can certainly let your mom know we are out here. My son also comes from a family of fire fighters and EMT's - my husband, my daughter and myself are all involved in these areas which is why my son picked the military - he wanted to be doing something as well, but a little different from the rest of the family. I sure am proud of him. I know your mom is proud you as well. Good Luck!

Hi Mimi and JW's mom. I think E-787 means they are in the same company. 787 is the battalion, E is the company, and the number after that (1, 2 or 3) is the platoon. I believe the 1 or 2 after the 787 is which platoon they are in, within that company. Kayla said the Company has three platoons and it is around 220 people all together.

We got two letters today. I'll post details tomorrow! Time for bed.

KK's mom

OK folks, this is gonna be a LONG one...bear with me!

Finally, we have a letter from Kayla at FLW (787th MP Bn)! Actually, it is two letters because she wrote to her brothers also. I'll try to summarize as best I can with information that applies to most of us in a general sense.

As I mentioned before, she is on profile for having an infected ingrown toenail removed. Profile means no running, jumping, marching, pushups, or pullups, according to Kayla. Lots of gory details about changing the bandage the next day (I'll spare you that). Her battle buddy, Nicole from WV, helped her out a lot with that. In fact, she and Nicole are great friends! She said when she went to sick call, Nicole helped by carrying her stuff and shen Nicole went to sick call, Kayla carried her stuff. She says they take care of eachother and they "balance eachother out." They are both Christians, and she is really glad she was paired with this person.

She was supposed to get off profile on July 8 (the day after her letter). She said she hates having to miss out on things, and they have their second PT test that day, and hopes her injury will not hinder her in doing well on that. If she passes the PT test, she will get her first post pass ("YAY").

She answered a lot of my questions. For example, she actually shipped downrange on June 16, but did not start basic until June 20 because they had to wait for all the platoons to get filled. Therefore, she was only in reception for 6 days, and sitting around at her company for 4 more days. We had thought she was in reception for 10 days.

The shopette reminds her of one of those large truck stop gas station stores, but with a barber shop on the side (LOL). The area around FLW, she describes like this. "Well, foresty, green (plants), red (rocks/dirt), clean, hot and humid, are good words to describe it." She said it is a lot like Ohio (except for the "clean" part, LOL). We do live in a major city, so I can see how she might feel that way.

She said the MP Bn is really nice there. She can't wait until we come see it, "It's indescribable". She said she thinks they might be at high altitude, but she's not sure because it was dark when she arrived there.

They will be getting 15 minute phone calls this weekend. Time goes fast, but it still seems like she's stuck there forever. "Yes, I'm still happy with my decision."

The platoon is males and females and there are 74 people. The platoon nickname is "the Regulators" and she really likes most of the people. She said there are a few "idiots", but the DSs know that they are just "joking around". She says they've only been smoked three times total as a platoon. Once for leaving a guy in the PX by himself. the second time was because people kept referring to the 1st Sgt as DS. The third time was for being 10 minutes late for formation (which she got out of doing because she is on profile). They have to do their own laundry (I had read somewhere about a laundry service and asked her about that).

The bay (barracks): There are 58 females in her bay (the only female bay). She said it is a big gym-like room on the top floor. The bunks are kind of lined up with huge wall lockers behind them. She drew an actual schematic of the room, including a legend...this is a really cute part of the letter...wish I could show you guys! A girl from her home NG unit is in the same bay. She said it is always cold in there, which is nice during the day, but not so much at night "shiver"!

She then reverted to her classic modus operandus and asked for money! LOL. The pictures, yearbook, class ring, etc. will cost $212, and she's wondering if we could help a little for that! I don't think she realizes that her checking account will probably have more money in it than ours by the time we're there for graduation!!!

This week, they are doing Land Navigation and will switch to White phase. "Pray that we all do really well and that my toe does not fall off in the process, LOL!"

Then she went on to describe the bayonet course. "Fun stuff right there! Towards the end of learning our sweet moves and practicing them, the DSs asked for one female and one male from each platoon (there are three platoons in my company, pretty much 220 people all together), and I was nominated by the rest of the people. So, I ran up and stood behind the male with the other two pairs of people in the middle of the dummy field. All the platoons made a fromation around us, and the DSs, 1st Sgt.,, and the Company Commander went up to the sound/demonstration platform to watch.

"The three females would go first in a 'who's most motivated/has the best technique' competition. DS B called out different moves (e.g., slash, thrust, smash, stroke) for different parts of the dummy (e.g., head, torso, groin, sword). "

Then they had to execute the moves while giving "war cries". Kayla said it was really fun because she "went crazy on the dummy, KILL, KILL!" Long story short, she says, she won for the females. Because of this, the DSs nominated her for the commander's coin. She is one of 57 females, and was happy to be nominated (a male from 3rd platoon got the coin).

"The 4th of July here was fun. I got to help set up for the show and the 'fair-ish' stuff for the first part of the day. We set up so much stuff. By the time we were done, I couldn't believe it! There ended up being 20,000 people there.

The best thing about the 4th wasn't the fireworks or the festivities, it was the FOOD. Normally in Red phase (which ends in three days), we can't have 'fatty cakes' or candy. But, on the 4th, 1Sg let us have all the fatty-ness that we wanted. We freakin gorged ourselves! For breakfast, I had two doughnuts. At lunch I had two chocolate chip cookies, and at dinner I had a cup of chocolate ice cream. at the Fourth of July field I had a funnel cake, a bag of caramel kettle corn, chips, and som Skittles. YUMMM. You wouldn't believe how much I miss sugary food. but, red phase is almost over so I'll be allowed to have snacks whenever soon!"

(Not sure how right she is about that one! Sounds too-good-to-be-true to me!)

Kayla provided us a list of stuff she needs:

Wipes
deodorant
band-aids
pictures
stamps
Starburst candies
lotion (preferably form Bath and Body Works) LOL
scotch tape
Neosporin
Dryer sheets

She asked us to pray about her big toe which has been really sore since they removed the nail. so, those of you readers of the praying type, feel free to do so!

That's it for now.

Kayla's mom

Mommy3K - it sounds like you had a letter full of information. The funny thing is that I recently received a lot of the same information. My son BJ said that he should be in the white phase this weekend and he was pretty excited about that. He had finally figured out who your daughter was and said she was from Ohio. I didn't really know where you all were from so I told him I wasn't sure. A lot of what you described from Kayla's letter he has sent in recent letters. I just got back home from North Carolina and I had three letters from BJ. He talks about the marching, the chants, the obstacle courses, etc. He also talks about his buddys and some friends he has made. He was allowed 15 minute phone calls last weekend and we were thrilled - you will enjoy that so much more.

BJ stated that he gets his first all day pass this weekend and some friends and him will be going bowling. He can't wait. He was also hoping his phone charger gets there before then so he can use his phone and, of course, text messaging. He said it will also be nice to get a little bit of junk food. Boy how these kids miss their junk food.

He said that for graduation he will be getting a pass or something of that nature and that he could go out to dinner with us. He also said that he was told he would be released right after graduation which is to start at 9am so if we didn't want to stay another night we could head home. Sounds like an anxious kid trying to get back home. I don't think I will cancel my Friday night reservation quite yet as it is a 12 hour drive home.

BJ also mentioned the pictures but not the class ring. I will have to find out if he wants one or not. He said his pictures were around $112.00.

I must say I also had a very disturbing letter from him. This is where the mother in me comes out and I just want to go and ream someone out. He said that he was in the bathroom writing this particular letter to us when someone came in to use it. He said he would be done in a minute - the guy came in and got right up in my sons face and started arguing with him. My son went back to his bed and the guy came out there and ripped off his covers, threw his note and pen and wouldn't stay out of my sons face. They were both standing when the kid pushed my son. Then a bunch of the group got inbetween them and held them both back. Now you have to know my son - he is not a fighter and uses a lot of restraint in those situations. He said that he is stressed out enough and certainly didn't need this guy pushing for a fight. The funny thing is I don't ever recall a time when my son didn't get a long with someone so I was pretty upset. I guess I just have to get over that "protector mom" syndrome.

Other than that, he certainly sounds good. He also said in his letter that they had got smoked for the DS, 1st Sgt error. It must be something each platoon is making errors with. Good to see that it isn't just one platoon.

Let Kayla know we are all praying for a speedy recovery and I certainly hope she gets through it all without too much difficulty.

Jesses Mom - hope all is going well with your son. Update us when you can.

To everyone elses that has been encouraging us - thanks - it certainly has been a great release for us.

Take care.

quote:

Originally posted by Mimisinthehose:

Mommy3k - I think I remember you send Kayla her bible. Can you tell me what size it was? My daughter wants to send my son a version of the bible that my brother who is a minister gave her. She said it was written so you can understand it. The thing is it is not pocket size and I want to make sure they don't take it away like the book I sent to him. I can't remember if you sent that to Kayla in your care package.

Hi Mimi. I forgot to answer this question. Kayla's bible is actually pretty small. It is about 1" thick and 6" long by 4" wide. I believe the military cannot prevent a soldier from practicing their religion, so I would go ahead and send it. Kayla said she went to a Gospel service last sunday which is much better than the Protestant service she had been going to. I wrote to her that I'd also seen on the FLW website that there is a contemporary praise and worship service she might try.

Kayla also asked about your boys, Mimi and JW's mom. She was requesting last names (they don't really know eachother by first names there!). If you want to PM me that info and where you're from, I'll let her know. Although, it sounds like BJ may have already figured it out :-)

Don't worry, my daughter will not be fraternizing...she is a good Christian girl who is waiting for a husband, not a boyfriend, and not any time soon ;-)
I'm sure she's just curious like BJ was as to whose mom I've been chatting with.

I hope the guys' injuries have healed and that they won't have any lasting effects.

Tomorrow should be call day...yay!

Kayla's mom

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mommy3k,

Hi all

My son Jon left for Ft. Knox on July 2and arrived their July 3 after they took a 15 passenger bus from Montgomery, al. I have seen a lot of moms and dads from FLW and also Ft. Benning but not to many from Knox. we have heard from our son one time, hoping to hear from him tomorrow.
Thanks
Jon's mom Donna

Donna - as hard as it is to say - be patient. I went for almost two weeks without hearing from him. That was the longest time, but on day 12 I heard from him. Generally he calls on Sundays. Hope you hear from him. Best of luck to him.

Mommy3K - it's not allowing me to PM you - says I am not authorized. Not sure what I need to do about that. If you know how to do this, please advise. Thanks.

Heck Mimi! I don't know either how to make that work! just e-mail me at mommy 3k3 at yahoo dot com (no spaces, etc...you get the drift)

quote:

Originally posted by NGmom08:
Hi all

My son Jon left for Ft. Knox on July 2and arrived their July 3 after they took a 15 passenger bus from Montgomery, al. I have seen a lot of moms and dads from FLW and also Ft. Benning but not to many from Knox. we have heard from our son one time, hoping to hear from him tomorrow.
Thanks
Jon's mom Donna

Hi there Donna
Like Mimi said, it does get easier. everyone here has been very friendly and supportive. We're here for you!

Kayla's mom

Thanks
kayla's mom

I appreciate that.

I am glad I don't need to wonder where he is. this afternoon a 16 year old boy drowned and we just found out he was from our town and they are still trying to locate the parents. So sad all I can do is pray it isn't someone we know.

Donna