Basic Q's from a parent

[3dfxMM]

This is my first post here although I have been reading these forums for a while now. My son just graduated OSUT at Ft. Benning last Friday. Two days before he graduated he was informed that he was being switched from his 11B contract to an 18X contract. He had volunteered several weeks before but was assuming that it wasn't going to happen. He was, of course, thrilled to be told this news. He just started BAC yesterday. Since this was sprung on us rather suddenly at his Turning Blue ceremony, I have a few questions that he was not able to answer yet.

He is an E-2. I saw that recruits that come in with 18X contracts are promoted to E-3 after they graduate OSUT or BAC. Does this mean that he will likely be promoted soon?

Is he likely to get any leave between BAC and reporting to Ft. Bragg?

I am asking more for me than for him since he will be told all that he needs to know.

[Kyobanim]

More than likely it will depend upon what the contract says. But I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along with the correct answer.

Congrats to your son.

By your screen name I would guess you're a graphic artist?

[3dfxMM]

Originally Posted by Kyobanim

More than likely it will depend upon what the contract says. But I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along with the correct answer.

Congrats to your son.

By your screen name I would guess you're a graphic artist?

Thanks.

No. I used to write MultiMedia software for a company named 3dfx. For a while I used to try and use different screen names on different forums but I have found it to be easier to remember my screen name if I stick to one. It usually means that my screen name makes little sense on any particular forum but at least I can remember how to login to each one.

[Pete]

Rest easy and know that when he completes training he will be serving with the best soldiers in the army.

He will get leave when he can, or wants it. I found the life to be so much fun I didn't take my first leave for 2 years.

He will tell you what he can or what he thinks you want to hear. Being new to the life he may try and spare you from worrying by not telling you everything.

Support is the best thing you can give him. If he fails out somewhere along the line he'll need it.

Pete

[NousDefionsDoc]

1. Welcome to the board.
2. Please fill in your profile.
3. Are you his mom or his dad?
4. You've done all you can do to raise him. I know it's hard but all you can do now is support him. Time to give him to First Sergeant Bobby S. for polishing. Just remember, the edge of that ramp is the last step to becoming a man!

LOL - Did I buy into that recruiting/reenlistment propaganda or what?

At the end of the day, if he makes it, he may be a lot of things. But one thing nobody will ever be able to say about him again is he's "just an average guy."

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

Just remember, the edge of that ramp is the last step to becoming a man!...LOL - Did I buy into that recruiting/reenlistment propaganda or what?

yo' mind's bad...LOL

[/QUOTE]At the end of the day, if he makes it, he may be a lot of things. [/QUOTE]

and, the truth be known, he'll still be one of our sons...just like we were....

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by lksteve

yo' mind's bad...LOL


and, the truth be known, he'll still be one of our sons...just like we were....

Yeah, and I want to see his face when he finds out his "mom" was doing some intel gathering for him on a Special Forces Website!......

I hope he makes it through the course!!!!!

Team Sergeant
(Raised by a pack of wild Nuns)

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Yeah, and I want to see his face when he finds out his "mom" was doing some intel gathering for him on a Special Forces Website!......
(Raised by a pack of wild Nuns)

assets are assets...and you wouldn't drop a dime on him, would you...?
hell, yes you would...

a pack of wild nuns...hmmm...so you are the product of a virgin birth?

or were they like the nuns at the Black Angus in San Juan PR....?

[3dfxMM]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

Yeah, and I want to see his face when he finds out his "mom" was doing some intel gathering for him on a Special Forces Website!......

I hope he makes it through the course!!!!!

Team Sergeant
(Raised by a pack of wild Nuns)

I did actually ask him if he would mind if I asked questions and he said he didn't care. He knows that I am an information junkie and that he could never keep me well informed enough.

I hope so too!

That Nun thing is conjuring images that may just haunt my sleep.

[3dfxMM]

Originally Posted by NousDefionsDoc

1. Welcome to the board.
2. Please fill in your profile.
3. Are you his mom or his dad?
4. You've done all you can do to raise him. I know it's hard but all you can do now is support him. Time to give him to First Sergeant Bobby S. for polishing. Just remember, the edge of that ramp is the last step to becoming a man!

LOL - Did I buy into that recruiting/reenlistment propaganda or what?

At the end of the day, if he makes it, he may be a lot of things. But one thing nobody will ever be able to say about him again is he's "just an average guy."

1. Thanks.
2. I already did.
3. Dad
4. I know. We have made it clear both in words and actions that we support his decision to enlist no matter where it may take him. It's his life, not ours. That doesn't mean that I am not extremely curious about the whole process. He is my son and I am interested in his chosen profession by extension.

[3dfxMM]

Just heard from my son. It turns out that all of the guys he came in with were put on a one week hold so he didn't start BAC until today. He passed his PT test and sounds really pumped to get things rolling. He said that they lost 100 of the 400 people who started today. 15 of them quit and 85 of them didn't pass the PT test. He was also able to answer one of my questions. He was told that he will not get leave after BAC graduation. He is slated to report directly to Ft. Bragg.

By the way, Team Sergeant, he did get quiet when my wife told him I had posted on here but when she told him that the replies were (mostly) words of encouragement he was ok with it.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by 3dfxMM

By the way, Team Sergeant, he did get quiet when my wife told him I had posted on here but when she told him that the replies were (mostly) words of encouragement he was ok with it.

My "mom" thought Special Forces handed out basketballs, held ping pong tournaments and worked for the USO. (Not that I cultivated that thinking in any way…… )

The less "mom's" know the less gray hairs.

I'd wish him good luck, but luck has little to do with what we do.

Team Sergeant

[Ambush Master]

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

My "mom" thought Special Forces handed out basketballs, held ping pong tournaments and worked for the USO. (Not that I cultivated that thinking in any way…… )

The less "mom's" know the less gray hairs.

I'd wish him good luck, but luck has little to do with what we do.

Team Sergeant

My "mom" thought the same thing and since I was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, she thought that I was going to be doing "Life Guard" duty with "Special Services" !!! I called home from Benning after my first jump and asked if they remembered the old Flying Boxcars that flew out of Ellington Field. They both said yes and I said, "Well, I jumped out of one today !!" I heard the handset of the kitchen phone hit the counter when my mom FAINTED !!!

Then after SFTG came 5th Group and SOG. It wasn't until Plaster's Books came out that they really knew/understood what I had been involved in.

Take care.
Martin

[lksteve]

Originally Posted by Ambush Master

I called home from Benning after my first jump and asked if they remembered the old Flying Boxcars that flew out of Ellington Field. They both said yes and I said, "Well, I jumped out of one today !!"

a few months after i enlisted, mom and dad went to the commissary at Fort Carson, during B/75IN short stay there...i guess there was a helicopter drop zone nearby and mom looked up as some Rangers were descending under canopy...she looked at dad and said something to the effect of 'thank God he isn't doing that....'

i called sometime that week and dad asked where i was...i told him i was a Benning....doing what, he said...jump school i said..."you're telling your mother" he said...

lksteve

[3dfxMM]

Well, my son has graduated from BAC and is in hurry-up-and-wait mode at Ft. Bragg. He is supposed to start on the 28th, but I have learned to wait to see what really happens.