I got a letter from Darian's capt. We are invited to Family Day. Its an 11 hour road trip. Yikes, but I want to go so badly. I miss my son and haven't heard from him since he went back from Christmas exodus. Thinking that we can swing it, but not sure if 2 kids can handle that long in car. LOL!! Any advice??

11 hours each way to spend 1 day with your son? Yes, that sounds like too much time in the car to me. But, if the other two are good travelers and you don't mind pulling them out of school, go for it. Of course it also depends on where you are traveling to and from and if the weather will cooperate so that the trip doesn't end up being longer than 11 hours.

Family Day is actually Family Weekend so it's not just for one day. We drove from Atlanta to Ft. Knox for Family Day and it was well worth it, both for him and for us.

Depending on where you are, it may be cheaper to fly into Atlanta or Montgomery and then drive from there. Southwest has some really good rates going right now and so does Jet Blue. Depending on how old your other two children are, you may want to leave them with family for the trip and take them for graduation. There is not much to do in Columbus so you're talking a couple of bored kids for four or five days.

Well were driving from Illinois to Georgia, and my fiancee is an old trucker, lol. But yeah one day to spend with him, the rest in the car. It would be worth it for me. Just to see his smiling face. But yeah was thinking the kids should stay home. Graduation is in March and they will definitely go for that.

Depending on where you are in Illinois, the trip might not be all that bad. I did Edwardsville to North Atlanta in seven hours on a motorcycle. It's almost all interstate roads so you can really move.

Coolness I am near Springfield. I am ready and just waiting for it to arrive. I love Road Trips.

mturnb,

My son just left last week for Ft. Knox. He's there for OSUT, Cav Scout. Are all family days for OSUT really weekends?

Also, he was told at MEPS that he may not get a family day because of his MOS. Ever heard of Cavalry not getting family days?

Were trying to figure our travel plans. Our first son will graduate his AIT the end of March (medic, Ft. Sam), then this son's family day and then his OSUT graduation........yikes.

Humm I am not sure, new to this myself, really. My son graduates March 6th. He had Chris. Exodus and then just the one night pass a month ago after basic before AIT. And after Christmas exodus no pass after graduation.

Cav Scout (19D) definitely gets family day. We picked up our son on Friday afternoon and brought him back to the post on Sunday afternoon.

There are some restrictions. The Army doesn't want them leaving the immediate area, no driving, no drinking and, of course, no drugs. I can't stress the last enough. He will have a drug test on Sunday afternoon.

If you bring his girlfriend (if he has one) then no big smoochy send off on Sunday afternoon at his troop area. Doing so will result in lots of push-ups.

It's great to see them. There is a slide show that goes on before they all march in. It's really interesting and shows some of the evolutions they have performed.

The down side to the weekend is that there is almost nothing to do in the area. By Sunday afternoon my son was ready to get back on base to be able to do something. But I would not have missed that trip for anything.

It's funny but your son and mine went in at almost the same time in the year. Thursday marks his two year anniversary. Of course, the big deal for him is that he gets a pay raise.

At least you're experienced with the whole basic training thing. For us, the time to Family Day just seemed to be forever. The time to graduation, on the other hand, seemed to fly by -- probably because his brother had so much stuff going on at the same time.

When it comes time to travel there, we found that flying Southwest into Nashville was cheaper than taking Delta, United or American into Louisville.

mturnb-

Thanks for writing back. Is your son a 19D? Did I read that on another post? If so, I'd love to hear what he's been doing?

Trust me, it's not any easier the second time around! At least I can talk to my first son on his cell phone or text him. I haven't heard from Brandyn yet. I was hoping for a call on Sunday, but nope.

I read on another post that the recruits will only be released to family members on family day. The problem is my husband was recently temporarily laid off and we may have to choose between family day or graduation. Brandyn's GF is wanting to go to family day, but if we are not there, will they release him to her?

Also, crossing my fingers that his grad doesn't fall the same weekend as my 3rd son's high school graduation! ugh!

Thanks for the tips on flights. We flew into Birmingham, Alabama and drove to Columbus, Georgia for our first sons BCT graduation and saved alot of money. At his grad, we had 3 of his battle buddies with us (their family's were not able to come) and we asked what they'd like to do. They all just stared at me. Without a DS telling them what to do, they were unable to think. It was quite funny. Eventually they were able to think on their own again and decided they first wanted a Starbucks coffee and then a big steak dinner!

Yes, my son is 19D. He's already done his first tour in Iraq and is back in Georgia for a few more months. Right now, he is just pushing papers but I think they will be headed out in the field for training pretty soon. One of the nice things is that they are finding all kinds of excuses to give them four days passes. This last weekend he got a four day pass for presidents day. He got a three day on Halloween and the squadron had a Halloween party for the families.

It looks like the division is still going back to Iraq. There hasn't been any noise about them going anywhere else and they're still talking about going. The downside for my son is that he is due to be discharged in just over a year. He will still be in Iraq at that point so they will stop loss him. At least he gets extra pay for that and has come to grips with his three year enlistment turning into four.

When we picked up my son, they were telling us that it had to be family members to sign them out but then they later changed and said basically that a responsible adult needed to sign them out. They cannot sign themselves out which, apparently, they can at Benning. We signed out 1 or 2 others when we picked up my son. In fact, for one of them, he was checked into the motel before his father got in town.

Regardless of who goes to visit him, there is a decent place (certainly not what I was used to at the Marriott in Chicago ) just outside the main gate. I think it was only $25 a night with no extra taxes or any other extra fees. The rooms are clean, they have free internet and there is an outside deck (although it may be too cold to use it) with picnic tables and a couple of grills. I don't want to get into advertising but it is an inn in Knoxville if you get my drift. There is a hotel on base but it fills up pretty quick. We didn't have any complaints about staying out in town and it was close enough for me to walk to a DQ.

There is a decent Mexican restaurant in Knoxville (El Nopal I think but I could be wrong because I eat Mexican food anywhere I go) and a Chinese buffet. We went to the Chinese buffet the first day with about a half dozen guys and their families. The stories they had were absolutely hilarious. Ask them what their radio communication training was like. Some of the DI's are very no-nonsense so it is "Bravo One - Bravo Two, over" but some of them have a perverted sense of humor and the call signs are great.

Good luck on the dates. It sounds like you have some exciting times coming up this Spring.

Hello mturnb-

Brandyn called this morning It came at 6:30 in the morning so of coarse I FLEW out of bed because I was NOT going to miss that 2 minute very rushed phone call. He's doing well. He said it's colder there than home (Oregon) which surprised me. They only have been smoked one time so far, made to stand outside at attention in the freezing cold. Since it was a holiday weekend, there was no processing going on so they just cleaned the barracks, then they cleaned the barracks, oh, and then they cleaned the barracks some more. I called my older son At Ft. Sam Houston and he just laughed when I told him about the cleaning. I guess It's better then getting smoked non-stop. That will come soon enough. He sounded good, though, so that made me feel much better.

What did your son do in Iraq? Was he doing 19D things or another job? I ask that because I read somewhere that today's army doesn't really use the recon type things anymore. Is that true? I am not looking forward to those days. I can say, though, that I do hope my boys go to Iraq rather than Afgan. Sounds crazy, huh?

Brandyn signed up for 3 years as well. We'll see what happens. Is your son stationed in Georgia?

At Benning, we did'nt have to sign any one out. They were dismissed on family day after a short presentation, and told to be back for formation at 9pm. The same on graduation day.

I know what you mean about funny stories. We had rented a van because we knew that Kyle's buddies were coming with us, and those guys started singing some of there cadence songs inside the van. Song after song. Some of them were not so nice. Loved hearing them sing though.

Also, shared with us how they'd take turns going to the 'bathroom', which really was their oppurtunity to get in a 10 minute catnap. Their battle buddy would stand guard, wake them in 10 minutes and then they'd rotate. Tricks to surviving I guess.

Thanks for the tips on hotels and restaurants I think I got it.

I'm glad you got your phone call. One thing we learned very quickly was to always have the cell phone with us. Unfortunately, my son seemed to pick the most inoportune times to call. Invariably he would call on Sunday morning during the sermon. After a few weeks, we just took a hiatus from church services until he graduated because we were always walking out in the middle of the service. If he wasn't calling in the middle of church, he would call just as the waiter brought food to the table. We ended up eating in shifts, even at restaurants. We hadn't done that in about 14-15 years (our baby is 18).

I wasn't clear in my last post but, yes, my son is stationed in Georgia with 3ID. This makes it nice for him because he grew up in an Atlanta suburb. He goes back to Atlanta for most four-day weekends. In fact, he was just up there last weekend.

I don't know what it was like for most of the scouts in Iraq. My son's troop worked with the Iraqi Police Department for the most part. They were in the heart of Baghdad so they weren't out dong recon. But that was just a small part of them. I know that many others were out patrolling the streets every day.

I have confused feelings about whether I would rather see him in Iraq or A'stan. Iraq is much quieter than it was but the troops are supposed to start pulling out soon. That means less people to cover the same area and possibly an increase in violence. On the other hand, the locals in A'stan have been doing urban and guerilla warfare for a long time. They successfully held off the Soviets for many years. I just pray that he stays safe where ever he goes.

The last time he left, I told him that I wanted him to come back with all of his parts and no extra holes. He thought that was a pretty good idea and followed my advice.

I'm glad your son is a good listener and followed your advice

I always have my phone next to me, just waiting for the phone calls. During church services I turn it on silent and watch carefully for it to light up! I missed one of Kyles phone calls when he was in basics and it made me sick to my stomach! I ALWAYS transfer my calls to my cell now.

My older son, Kyle, took his last written test today and now is ready for the STX & FTX part of his training. He's doing so well. He's thrilled to be done with the days of 8 hours in the classroom.

Brandyn said he had written a letter so hopefully that will come tomorrow.

Have a good night.

Debbie