<p>When I look back on plebe summer to my pimply faced, shaved headed, goofey eyed, knock kneed, radar eared squad mates, most of us would have gladly spent the entire remainder of the summer in the pushup position for having the privilege of getting abuse by receiving a perfumed lipstick smeared pink envelope with a "SWAK Lover Boy" on the back.</p>
<p>Ha ha!! I would be most of the boys out there at USXA would agree!</p>
<p>I remember stressing over the mail thing last summer. It turned out to be a non-issue. On A-day I asked my son about it and he said his cadre was too busy with other things to worry about how their mail was addressed and which stamp was on the envelope. Unless they received a large envelope or a box the cadre didn't even look at their mail. </p>
<p>My son did plenty of push-ups for other things. :D</p>
<p>One of my oldest son's best friends went to USNA the year before he became a new cadet. About halfway through Beast my son received a very large (11 x 14) envelope decorated on the outside with USNA crests, stickers, and a large "BEAT ARMY" bumper sticker. Inside was a single sheet of paper that simply said "Hope you are having fun!" signed by his buddy. Lots of "outraged" attention by the cadre, followed by years of laughs at the end of the summer...</p>
<p>Remember, the new cadets do push-ups only on the days that end in "y". :-)</p>
<p>"my New Cadet is very happy to be receiving mail."</p>
<p>I suspect they all are - regardless of how it is addressed or packaged :)</p>
<p>I just counted how many letters i've written my cousin. I have 9 saved on my computer, and he's only been there 15 days. Hopefully combined with letters from all of our other friends and his family and my family he'll have 2+ letters each day.</p>
<p>...if only they could go to the box every day! I'm hearing they only go every few days, so they end up w/ quite a stack!</p>
<p>I've been sending my friend postcards from my backpacking trip in Europe and have been including his first name. His last name is Brown, a pretty common last name. They'll still get to him if I leave his last name off?</p>
<p>I am most positive that your postcards are one of the highlights of his day. Keep sending them. Whatever you do, don't leave off the last name. And I would bet that if you include his first name that when he hits the rack at night he will not have done any more pushups than anyone else in his squad. Don't worry about it. Use the address his parents gave you.</p>
<p>*sorry I meant first name :)</p>
<p>hec2008: It is a longstanding tradition to address mail to new cadets using the last name only since upper classmen do not recognize a new cadet’s first name.
The choice to include a first name is yours. Either way your friend will receive his mail and be very grateful for it :). Each new cadet cadet is given a PO Box number which they keep for their entire 4 years. This means that new cadets with common names will still get their mail.</p>