<p>One of the many Plebe Summer related documents that arrived here explained that the plebes would be writing home on July 5. The one required fact that that letter had to contain was the mid's correct mailing address.</p>
<p>We got our letter a few days after the 5th. We sent all our mid's mail to the return address on his envelope, although it was different from what USNA sent us, thinking "semper gumby". This was the address that we gave out to friends and family when we encouraged them to write to him.</p>
<p>Today our letter postdated July 9 came back to us "undeliverable as addressed". I called the Navy post office, as everything looked fine to me. It was explained that all the plebe's mailboxes are blocked off until the academic year begins. All mail without the company and platoon number is returned. I was told that all subsequent letters should be arriving back to us over the next couple of weeks.</p>
<p>Of course this means that our plebe has not received any of the many letters that have come from me, his step father, brother, grandparents, uncles and friends. I am so devastated by this I can hardly breathe. It could actually have been MY mid that was being talked about in another thread, not receiving any mail.</p>
<p>My son's last two letters sounded homesick. He asked for letters, so we wrote even more. He asked for pictures because he "can hardly remember what anyone looks like". I couldn't understand why it sounded like we weren't doing enough for him.</p>
<p>I don't know how I'll talk to him tomorrow without crying. What's happened can't be undone, we can't take back the sadness he must have felt being ignored by his family during this difficult journey. Little does he know that we think and talk about him constantly, spend hours poring over pictures trying to catch a glimpse of him, lie awake at night dying to know if he's OK. Sit nearly every day trying to come up with original words of encouragement and humor to put on paper to keep him going and positive.</p>
<p>I guess I'm writing this because you are the only ones who will have any idea how horrible I feel. I am lucky that my son is strong, probably stronger than I am. But it was just he and I for the first 13 years of his life, and I felt good sending him off to USNA because I know he belongs there, and I knew that he would be well cared for and would have our constant support. I feel like I failed at the one crucial role I had for Plebe Summer.</p>
<p>But it WILL be OK! Really, it WILL! He's going to understand when you talk with him. He's going to get FLOODED now! and all will be well. When this stuff happens, we parents just have to keep reminding ourselves that this is part of the Semper Gumby stuff, really! If he was overseas, or down on a sub like one story I've read, similar might happen. </p>
<p>It is going to be alright. I do think he is going to need you to be very very strong tomorrow. Cry a lot today and tomorrow. practice telling him so that when he hears you on the phone, he doesn't feel even worse worrying about YOU! Here is where Mama has got to be tough and strong for him! You can be upset again after the call but I'm going to pray you keep your cool DURING that talk.</p>
<p>I'm sorry that happened. It is good that you found out now so you won't have to spend all of your five minutes on the phone trying to figure out why your son has not received any mail. I noticed that my son has been using only the po box as his return address too. Enjoy your phone call. Your son will know you love him and miss him. Next week he will have tons of mail.</p>
<p>Please know all the moms who are reading your post are aching with you. It is indeed very unfortunate that it happened; one day (far away from today) you two will probably laugh about it...but it is not at all funny now. I am so sorry for your pain--at least tomorrow is a call day...here's hoping for an extra long one for you.</p>
<p>Call the chaplain's office and explain the situation to them. They can talk to your plebe and let him know that you HAVE been writing him, sending him thing and thinking about him everyday. The chaplains are the best kept secret at USNA. They're also wonderful to talk with if you have any worries or concerns about your Plebe especially since it's really NOT a good idea to call or email the Company Officer about the little things.</p>
<p>Plebe Parent Weekend is so close and then you'll be able to give all the hugs he hasn't gotten through the mail this summer. </p>
<p>Our son just graduated in May and is now in Pensacola waiting to start flight school. Trust me, these 4 years are going to fly by, you'll be amazed.</p>
<p>Oh I cried when I read this! I am heartbroken for you too.</p>
<p>This shall pass, and if he's still writing, then you know he's hanging in there. The letters will end up in his hands, and he'll be fine! I think calling the chaplain's office is a GREAT idea. </p>
<p>I understand how address mixup could have happened. My son's first letter SAID "From now on, send all mail to me at this address:" And it was the address WITHOUT the company and platoon. So I sent my next package (his football cleats) to the address without the company and platoon, just the PO Box. But then I think I got a letter or email with the "correct" mailing address, and I was confused. I emailed our local parent's club president and asked about the discrepancy, and he said pretty much what the Navy PO said to you. So only the one package of our is probably lost...and it was his football cleats. He wrote 3 times, asking for them. </p>
<p>I bet I know where they are now. :-(</p>
<p>Hang in there, and cry today. Call the chaplains office, and know that other mishaps will happen, and we'll get through them together!</p>
<p>Thanks to you all for your kind and wise comments. I did call the chaplain's office, and he is going to talk to my son tonight and explain what happened. I needed him to do it, because I didn't want to spend our phone call tomorrow explaining it, and didn't want to worry about the tears coming back.</p>
<p>Somehow it did make me feel a bit better to post the story here. There are not a lot of people who fully understand what we are going through and how intense and consuming it is. I think I have done a good job letting go, but it was certainly not my intention to abandon him, and to imagine him thinking that we had abandoned him was very difficult to bear.</p>
<p>PlebeMom2012 - did you hear from your son? I hope everything went well and that the Chaplain was able to meet with your son. Our call was fine - way to short, but all seems to be well.</p>
<p>Sad, no doubt. But since reading this same post on the listserv, I've been troubled by the timeline.</p>
<p>If the Plebe made his first call home on 13 July along with every other Plebe, did he not question why he had not received mail? Did Mom not ask if he had received all the mail and care packages sent? It was our second question right after "Are you healthy?"</p>
<p>I don't mean to sound insensitive to the situation; I am. I endured a "Swab Summer" a few years back at USCGA, so I can empathize with the Plebe's loneliness. But it sounds as if the situation did not have to fester until 26 July.</p>
<p>All of the mail we sent him before July 9 was delivered on schedule, because we sent it to the original address. It was the letter that we received on July 8th that had the new address that we changed to. So when we talked to him on July 13, it was too soon for anyone to realize that the mistake had been made.</p>
<p>Hope that makes sense to you.</p>
<p>But everything is A-OK now. The chaplain went to him Saturday night and let him know what happened, but by then he had kind of figured out what was going on. We received a letter from him today dated 7/23 asking us to check the address we were using and make sure to include the company and platoon.</p>
<p>Sorry for the emotional post, I wrote it when I was very distressed.</p>