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"Mum, our drill sargeant is a really great guy, we are so special he hooked us up with the gas chamber today!"

If they can keep their sense of humour, they are half way there!

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Heidi

Proud Mum to Russ
11Bravo/Airborne
OSUT, Fort Benning now

Son has been in Reception for six days. During a phone call from Reception this morning we had the following conversation:

Son: When I get my address to you, I need you to send me a box.
Me (very curious): How big of a box?
Son: One big enough to hold the boots that I wore on the way here.
Me (now very curious): Why do you need a box for your boots?
Son: They take up too much room.
Me: Why can't you tie the boot strings together and attach them to your backpack on the outside?
Son: I did that.
Me (wondering why the boots are the only problem if they are attached to the backpack): Then WHY do you need a box?
Son: So I can ship them home.
Me (restraining my laughter): Christopher, when you get to your actual training barracks, they will take all your civilian stuff and lock it up in a room somewhere. You will no longer have your boots or anything else in your way then.
Son: Oh. Well, never mind then.

_________________
~Barb
Proud Mom of PV2 Chris
Cav Scout
National Guard

There's just something about a Soldier with an M-4 and a Sippy Cup...

Priceless!

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Sally

US Army and USAR Veteran, SGT, Former USAR Unit Administrator GS-7
Proud Mom of James, PFC, USAR, 68W, at FT. Lewis for Phases 2/3 M6 Training - 3rd Generation Army

OH GOSH I cant pass this one up: These arent comments but stories. The comments I have got a ton of

Jeff was home before heading to Korea and he and his battle buddie who lived an hr away from me, spent quite a bit of time at our house with some of the funniest stories. I literally laughed for a week straight while they were here (BTW Soldiers thanks for the new wrinkles) Anyhow... several stories stick in mind..

1st - he told a story during BCT where they catch zzzz's whenever they can - so he had to go to the potty and his battle buddy went with him and sat outside the stall on a bench. Jeff was so tired that he fell asleep on the toilet - he is 6'5 so when he woke up his legs were asleep he actually had to pull himself up by grabbing hold of the door and pulling himself. When he opened the door his battle buddie was sound asleep on the bench

This one is a classic - he and battle buddie had to take turn showering (very common) so they are busy taking turns when someone yells the code for a fight breaking out - they both ran out of the showers, out of barracks butt stinkin naked - throwing their arms around as if they are throwing the punches when some of the other soldiers turned around looked them up and down as if saying "Ah your naked" and they both looked at each other covered themselves with their hands and went right on watching the fight.

Oh gosh, seriously I wish I could remember them all because seriously it almost sounded like they had wayyyy too much fun there.

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If God brings you to it, He will bring you through it!

BECKY PROUD MOM OF PVT JEFF
BCT @ Ft. Jackson 5/27/09
Echo Company 3-60

Proud mom of 3 - Justin 22 yrs, Jeff 20 yrs and Sable 3 yr old

This isnt from Basic, but I figured it would fit in here better than anywhere else.

(Keep in mind we are from Alabama, and my son is at Ft Dix NJ for pre-deployment training)

Text message from him about 6am today:

Didn’t know it was gonna snow last night! Everything covered. More than I ever remember seeing.

And a second one a few minutes later:

Truck with plows everywhere. Funny. Hehe.

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Paula

Mom of PFC Justin - 25U - (Nat'l Guard)
OIF - 2010

Mom of Lachelle - Pharmacy Technician
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My son is in Reception at Ft. Knox. They recently got near a foot of snow. There is one guy in his group from Hawaii, who's never seen snow before...what an introduction! Another guy is from Alaska. He's wondering what all the fuss is about.

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~Barb
Proud Mom of PV2 Chris
Cav Scout
National Guard

There's just something about a Soldier with an M-4 and a Sippy Cup...

My fiancee has had a very bad head cold in basic for the past few weeks and writes- "I completed the gas chamber today. It was not that bad, all the snot came out of my nose and cleared my sinuses. I feel so much better now and would do it again. When we came out we all had to run around flapping our arms like a chicken, one guy ran into the wall. By the way the DS said we are all going to be deployed within three months we have to get married right away so we can get seperation pay." - How romantic LOL!!

We got the last letter Chris sent from Reception today. I think the boredom was definitely taking it's toll....

"We have fun by doing all kind of stuff like four man push ups. We lay down in a square and do push ups at the same time."

"We went to bed then we woke up and then we ate. Then we came back, but we fell asleep and we are not supposed to do that. The DS came in and got pissed and yelled, 'GET THE F#*& UP!' We all woke up so fast that we fell out and ran into our wall lockers."

_________________
~Barb
Proud Mom of PV2 Chris
Cav Scout
National Guard

There's just something about a Soldier with an M-4 and a Sippy Cup...

heres a couple of lines from my hubby kev that cracked me up and i wanted to share

"i learned 'battle buddie' movements today and how to throw a hand grenade. all of that was a blast, during the battle buddy moves it was like what you see in the movies, crawling in the mud, explosions going off all over, gun fire blazing (blank rounds, dont worry baby) and to top it all off it was raining, perfect for setting the mood!"

"we did battle buddy movements again today, it was lots of fun being able to play in the mud for 2 days in a row. to top all of that off we did a 8k road march, dont forget our rucksacks weigh about 60 lbs and they're hills that are MASSIVE. the biggest hill was AGONY, the name of the hill discribes it perfectly pure AGONY."

"we got to learn mounted moving live fire today, or as one of the guys said 'legal drive by shooting from army issued humvees'"

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-steph
i <3 my cav scout!

Still in reception with his cell phone not yet taken away:

Son: I hate the cold! I wish I had gone to basic in the summer!
(He has lived in Florida for the last 12 years, and Arizona before that.)
Me: No you don't. I went in the summer and people used to pass out from the heat.
Son: You don't understand! It's fricken cold here especially when we have to stand in formation and some guy forgets to wear his hat so NONE of us can wear our hats and our HEADS ARE BALD!

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Terri, veteran
Proud wife of Ron, 1SG, retired
Proud mom of PVT Grant, 92G, Ft. Lee/AIT Jun 2010
Proud mom of PFC Chelsea, 68K, Ft. Jackson/BCT Jun 2010

Got my first letter Friday from my son!! He wrote on Day 3 of Basic:

"So far it is what I expected. Haven't been crushed by the DS yet...There are just 4 basic rules to talking to them...
1. Don't EVER look them in the eyes
2. Stand at parade rest
3. Stay calm and don't stutter
4. Say "Drill Sargeant" at the end of every sentence.
Somehow everyone screws this up, except myself..haha!!"

Hope he can keep it up Looking forward to more letters!!

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Tracy

Mom of Craig, 18
Ft. Knox OSUT (19K)
A CO 2-81 Armor
2nd Platoon Spartans

Morgan (16)
Garrett (14)

Daniel told us in a phone call last Sunday, "I miss ya'll a lot, but not enough to go AWOL."

My husband and I kind of laughed about it because we thought AWOL was something that occurred very rarely, especially in basic training. Where would they really go? But then in a conversation today, Daniel told me that two soldiers in his platoon have already gone AWOL. I was shocked!

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COMBAT ENGINEERS LEAD THE WAY!

Lynda
proud firefighter's wife
proud Mom to PV2 Daniel (21b)
*graduated Fort Leonard Wood OSUT 4/23/10
*next stop Fort Carson
and his little sister Abbie (age 11)

http://www.missiondan.blogspot.com

My nephew is in OSUT at Ft Benning, and he told me in his first letter that two guys went AWOL from Reception, and there had been at least three fights he had seen. One of them bad enough that an MP had to pepper spray a guy. He went to the brig and they were told he'd be dishonorably discharged (true or not, I can't say).

When I told my son, who leaves for OSUT at Benning in April, what my nephew had told me he said, "I hope those AWOL idiots like Canada or Mexico, cuz that's where they're gonna be living". (paraphrased for language)

If someone goes AWOL from Reception, I can't even imagine what they thought the Army was going to be like.

Shelley

p.s. Hope Daniel gets out of the hospital today and heals up quickly.

So glad they went AWOL before the Army spent more money training them to be soldiers. I imagine that reception is a good weeding area. Good for the Army to know how recruits can handle stress, before they have a job that requires them to think under stress. My Navy son said at his bootcamp someone stole a Bread truck to leave the base. Accidently ?? drove it into the Great Lakes. He did see the inside of a jail.

Reassure him that when you have so many recruits, with so many different backgrounds, you will see some undesirable people who are just taking up space. In the end, you want a soldier that you trust to watch your back.

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Lynn
Mom of Drew Army Fort Knox Nov 2009
Mom of Wade Navy Great Lakes 2008
Mom of Luke Army Fort Jackson 2006

My daughter in law got the following letter from my son today. He's in the "AIT" phase of 19D OSUT:

Dear Shelly,

I get to play with C4 in the morning!!!!
I get to play with C4 in the morning!!!!!
It's going to be fun, but I will write afterward to let you know I'm still alive.

[personal parts of letter]

I never thought I would make it this far for the longest time, but I did, and I get to play with C4 in the morning!

[more personal parts of letter]

Love, Christopher

P.S. C4!

_________________
~Barb
Proud Mom of PV2 Chris
Cav Scout
National Guard

There's just something about a Soldier with an M-4 and a Sippy Cup...