Counting down that is!! In 9 days we are leaving to go to Fort Jackson for Family Day and my our son's graduation. In his last letter he told us don't bother to write back because they won't be getting any more mail until they 'return' the night before family day. He also said the DIs and others in his company have nicknamed him but I don't know if it is a good thing or not. What do ya'll think? Is a nickname from a DI a good thing or not? Anyway, I am so happy, excited and on edge waiting until we leave!!

My husband graduates from Basic Training at Ft. Benning in 9 days! I'm just as excited as you, as for the nicknames, I don't know.
My husband got a nickname that his platoon mates gave him but as for the Drill Sergeants, I don't know, I know he had some trouble there with them so it wouldn't surprise me at all if he got nicknamed because of that. I guess it could go either way!

And thanks for the note about writing. My husband told me to keep writing (he also assumed he'd have more time to write) but I'd rather him not end up with a mass bundle of letters next week.

lol. . . I thought so. Thanks. Well, he isn't too creative, calling him Rambo. HHHMMMMM Maybe its the big nose. Oh well. Countdown 5 & 1/2 days till we leave. 7 till we see him!! We ordered our shirts for family day, hope they don't embarrass him.

When my daughter was in BMT, her TI nicknamed her "1990", that was the year she was born. She was the youngest in her flight. He also called her "Alvin the chipmunk" because of her chubby cheeks! Have a good time with your son on Family Day.

"Rambo" just called. They returned from Victory Forge, their 7 day last hurrah before 'kicking back' this week and just doing pt 2 times a day and graduation practice. He said he was chosen by his DI to test for soldier of the cycle for his company, and was made squad leader. I am so proud of my baby, who, even though he will be an official soldier in 5 days, he is still my 17 year old baby. I got the biggest kick out of his phone call.

First thing he asked for was us to bring a gallon of milk and a bag of chips ahoy cookies. Someone in the background yelled "Hey Rambo, my folks can't make it, can they bring me some OREOS?"" lol

Next we discussed schools schedules. We live in a small area where all the teachers and guidance counselors know everyone so his counseler tracked me down to verify his intentions for after graduation. To give a little background information on this story, Our local Spanish teacher HATES athletes, whethere they are 4.0 students or slackers,male or female, if they are athletes, she hates them. Jaime is a 3.8 student who happens to play football, so they didn't jive at all. HE made it out of Spanish I, but barely and swore he would never take her again. In Louisiana you have to have 2 foreign languages for college. So when I asked him about Spanish II, he said, "Mama, I been shot at, yell at, cussed and thrown hand granades and that was the easy stuff. There is nothing she can do to me that will cause me to back down from my goal. Put me in there!!"

Now that is what the ARMY has done to my son. They took a 17 year old who would rather go around a hurdle to avoid confrontations and made a man out of him who will do whatever it takes to reach his goal. And I thank God for that, because the ARMY has made a better man out of him than I or his daddy ever could!!

Just had a son graduate from Ft. Jackson on 07/18-awesome experience seeing him at first on family day, (yes you'll have tears. I was told by him to stop or he was going to cry). The army changed a few things about him-like getting used to the idea of not knowing what he was doing in the next hour/day/week. He has always been very goal-oriented and from the time he was young in his own mind he always had his own agenda and heaven forbid if something messed that up! He was squad leader for his platoon and put in for soldier of the cycle also. During family day when we were at barracks, he was still doing the "Company attention!" when DS & Commander appeared. When he didn't get SOC his DS wanted to know why, went to talk to whomever makes the determination and came out laughing-she said they ran out of questions to ask him because he knew everything. He had told us that earlier in BCT that she said he remembered "every daggone detail for no reason at all". He thinks he didn't get it because he only was up to 264 on PT and you aren't a PT stud until you get to 270. Our son was, however, selected to carry the Company flag @ graduation, walking in front of the platoons and right behind the company commander...easier to find him that way!

Anyway, just some notes of things I noticed. The info we got in mail said family day started at 10. WRONG! It started @ 9:00, summer hours. Thank goodness we had a taxi driver at our hotel that knew his stuff-he was retired from Ft. Jackson, took us the back way to Hilton field and got us there on time, (awesome guy would like to refer him to any families that aren't renting a car). Get there early, (I'm guessing 7:30-8:00?) if you're driving a vehicle-the traffic lines up, big time! I thought we'd go to water park on family day-that's fine to do IF your soldier doesn't mind sitting there watching you. They must remain in uniform the entire day. The dinner was ok, but, never did find the "coffee bar" where we could sit and talk quietly in air conditioning afterwards. Oh yeah, it was hot, sunny & humid-dress for the weather, not for fashion! PX is very busy-they all want to go shopping,(son bought Nintendo DX, they were flying off the shelf). Food court packed all afternoon, plan on waiting in line or find a "Plan B". Graduation day-we weren't taking him to AIT so we stopped at mall on way back to hotel to get a game they didn't have @ PX. He wanted coffee! Got to hotel, got him coffee, 2 cups. He went swimming w/brother for 15 mins, came back to room saying he was too tired, (he also said his muscles/joints were sore last 2 days-he thinks because they weren't busy 24/7). He read a little, rolled over on his side and w/i 20 seconds was lightly snoring...for over 2-1/2 hrs before I woke him for dinner. He said he'd had 4 hrs sleep the night before & the way he said it was like that was plenty and the norm.

You'll be amazed at the changes in your son. Mine asked if we noticed difference-he said he's more confident and that's BCT made him grow inside. He also said he'd never again procrastinate on his school work, (which he is an double-major honors course college student so I'm pretty confident he never has much).

Another thing, he didn't smile that much-constantly had to ask him to for photos. I think it takes them a while to know it is OK to do so again. My son is at AIT now & I think he's a little bored. I would guess it takes a while to ramp it down. Congratulations though & I wish the best for you and your son!