<p>Thought it would be fun to hear from everyone how those calls went. So this thread is to have a place for parents to report on those critical calls. How are they doing??? It’s nice to have a “balcony” that’s cheering on our sons and daughters!</p>
<p>bump...............</p>
<p>I just got off the phone with your son's sponsor family for DDO. She was confirming that the AOG Sponsor office call them to ask if the sponsor could recognize my guy's birthday in some way. The sponsor said her husband baked a special cake. Of course we are so greatful! We should hear from him in about two hours.:D</p>
<p>Hi everyone,
We got a call from our son at about 11:30 EST. He sounds so tired. I've never heard him sound so tired, even after two-a-days (football prac.) etc.</p>
<p>Here's the not-so-good stuff: He chipped a back molar during Field Day (the "ball") by getting an elbow to the face and waited until after Field Day ended to go to the hospital (didn't want to ruin his one "day off"). He ended up spending 7 hours in the emergency room but said that was fine with him. He is also battling bronchitis. And, he's lost 11 lbs. -- which is shocking to us as he is a very lean, fit, athletic kid.</p>
<p>On a lighter note, our son said his flight won the overall drill competition. Said he's called "chief" (he's element leader) and he told us some funny stories about stupid things he and others have done. He said they've passed two out of four SAMI's. He says getting yelled at by Cadre is one thing, but you don't want to get yelled at by TI's. He says he doesn't iron very well, but he is a "master" clothes-folder and so he and his roommate swap duties.</p>
<p>Although he was very tired, I'm sure the bronchitis and sore face/tooth doesn't help, he still showed a lot of his old sense of humor on the call. He's going to call back later after he gets some food and sleep at his sponsors house (who happen to be close friends of ours).</p>
<p>Overall, we are just so happy to hear from him. I'm looking forward to hearing about everyone elses phone calls. </p>
<p>jm</p>
<p>Just talked to our son for an hour and a quarter. He's doing fine, but also had some bronchitis. Said that he was throwing up after a couple of days, but just sitting in the infirmary waiting to see the doctor was all he needed. Doc gave him some Gatorade. Said they were giving supplements to his 200 pound room mate because he was losing a lot of weight. My son (at 130lbs) said he needed it a whole lot more, since he had so little to lose, so they gave him supplements, too. He thinks the new cadre for 2nd beast is a whole lot tougher. So far his squadron (interceptors) has lost no one, but some of the other squadrons may be outprocessing as many as 10. He thinks his squadron has been noticed for keeping everyone, but speculated that his cadre may have been easier than some of the others and that could have been a factor in the high retention rate. His cadre have not been lax, but he feels like they have been a little more humane than some of the others. One interesting thing is that he said the cadre had followed what some basics had been saying in MySpace before they reported. They actually recognized some of the basics for their remarks on the Net and brought it up to them. Guess we all should take a hint to be careful what we say even on the Internet.
It was great to hear from him and to see that he's holding up OK.</p>
<p>Hello all, I am at Doolie Day Out right now, I just polished off a whole pizza and brownies and ice cream, now I'm fixing to take a nap.</p>
<p>Overall for me BCT has gone decent. Waking up in the morning is the absolute worst part, then after that the days are managable. 1st BCT is a TON of standing and marching in squares and training in the halls. The food is decent and I have eaten everything I can get my hands on yet still dropped from 164 to 158 pounds, and I am 6' 2''. I have had no injuries so far and no illnesses. I have talked to Benjo6 and hornetguy, Benjo6 has pink eye and some sort of bronchitis or something, and hornetguy has something wrong with his knee, but other than that we are doing alright.</p>
<p>I think our new cadre are a little bit tougher but maybe it's because we are not used to them yet. I personally am looking foward to 2nd BCT because it will be more exciting and my roommate won't be getting up in the middle of the night and sleep-marching at attention around the room.</p>
<p>Overall I am just ready for BCT to end.</p>
<p>PS - The long distance run on field day SUCKS!</p>
<p>Also, my flight started out at 36 basidc cadets and in now down to 31.</p>
<p>Hey TF, hope you still get to see this. Benjo6 says he's doing much better -- pink eye nearly gone; sinusitus nearly clear. Nice to see you in those PICs! </p>
<p>Spoke with son for about 45 minutes -- he's doing very well but is looking forward to parents weekend. He loves the letters (as do we). Squadron J lost one Basic it seems. Seems to think second group of Cadre will also be tougher but it could be that he just doesn't know them yet. His roomate speaks little English, which is tough, but he says the entire flight is getting very close. They really seem to pull each other through. I think he feels confident but not cocky and certainly is tired from those 4:30 wakeups.</p>
<p>I'm alive too! Basic has been awesome so far! My 1st BCT cadre rocked! my FLT Com and FLT NCO both were awarded as the top in their positions. We didn't get trained much, my FLT is amazing. We are all on top of things and made our Cadre LITTERALLY jump with joy! O,my FLT is Barbarians A FLT. </p>
<p>Drill has been cool. We got 4th, i think, in the competition. We had a sick hall guy join us as the last second and he missed a flanking movement. But, that's ok. I have been getting plenty of mail, really look forward to it. In fact, UNcynical sent me a good letter, inspirational.</p>
<p>Field day: Well, I had had bad knee pain from running 4 days before and i have been taking Motrin. I didn't get to before field day, so after the first 100 meter relay i ran (which we won) i had to ice down. Sucked, but i still did the hill run (after which i died again!). It was funny sitting iced tho, completely didn't recognize texas_falcon without hair, whose this Demon talkin' to me? Barbarians got 2nd in field day, and even better, we were awarded outstanding Squadron for 1st BCT! Rocked sooo much! A FLT is the top FLT within Barbarians, so even sweeter!</p>
<p>The new cadre are definately harder, but they are fresh, our 1st cadre were like this too. But i have another awesome set for 2nd BCT, so i expect us to end even better than before!</p>
<p>I scarfed two sandwiches, chips, cookies, lemonade, and ice cream for lunch. Then burgers and hot dogs for dinner, ah im pumped. i don't want it to end yet!</p>
<p>On another note, my flight lost two people, now at 31. I am sick with something. stuffed up and coughing. but everything else is great. i hate shirt garders tho.</p>
<p>When I finished talking to my doolie today, he was congested and yucky. Btw, he loves his sponsor family. He told me they like to do the same thing our family does. He was quite pleased. That makes us feel good.</p>
<p>"I personally am looking foward to 2nd BCT because it will be more exciting and my roommate won't be getting up in the middle of the night and sleep-marching at attention around the room"</p>
<p>Getting up and marching around the room doesn't stop after 1st BCT...I did it a few times in my tent at Jack's. I don't know how that happens (maybe it's something in the food) but I remember getting up and standing at attention next to my cot, convinced that everyone else was standing around me. After about 5 minutes I realized I was sleepwalking and went back to bed. Weird...</p>
<p>Wow, every one's getting congested and they haven't even been to Jack's yet? That's unfortunate. The dust down there is terrible and causes, or exacerbates, a lot of congestion. That's okay though, everyone is sick in basic. </p>
<p>PS: Does anyone else find it humorous that spending seven hours in the ER getting a broken tooth fixed is considered a relief? Lol, basic is unique.</p>
<p>Everyone will come back from 2nd BCT with "Jack's Hack." Some years many basics get pink eye. Things spread easily in BCT, or throughout the Academy in general, for that matter.</p>
<p>surfnkid - Your basic was blessed with seven hours of rest. I'm sure there were moments of discomfort during the tooth repair, but it sounds like he took full advantage of the time away from cadre. When my son was sent to the clinic with the "jungle rot" on his feet, he told us on the phone that he got an hour of sleep waiting for the doctor. It seems the cadets would rather have hours of physical pain over hours of mental pian from their cadre. </p>
<p>We were on the phone with our boy for 1:20!!! He sounds real good. He loves it. He is where he is ment to be. He gave us the low down on the 341's. He was given an excellence card for being able to give the verbal responses flawlessly. On the other hand, he also has three bad 341's pulled. All three are for smiling when he was at attention. I can live with that! The mind over matter is working. He just has to remember to keep a straight face when the cadre are giving an ear full. </p>
<p>I got a bit teary eyed when he told us what he did while getting ready for DDO. He said he looked in the mirror after he was in his dress blues. As he looked, there was a LONG PAUSE. He saw himself as a man, a soldier, and a glimps of the person he truly wants to be. He was both happy and proud. </p>
<p>He called us back before he had to leave. He wanted us to check our e-mail. The sponsor host took a photo of each of the three cadets at his home. We now have a great picture of our "Happy Cadet". I hope all AFA parents had a happy cadet on the end of their phone calls.</p>
<p>We were able to speak to our son again before he headed back. After some french toast & bacon (where he apparently declared that it was the first time he'd felt full in three weeks) a little relaxation, hitting a bucket of balls and frizbee golf -- and I'm assuming a bit of caffeine, he was back to his normal self. He actually was sounding good!!</p>
<p>I found a couple of great pictures of him running the relays on Field Day -- I can't imagine him feeling well enough to compete (broken tooth, bruised face and bronchitis) but he's never been one to go down lightly. </p>
<p>*He said he gets yelled at most often for smiling, or trying not to. Perhaps they should have a day when they're supposed to smile all day -- now that would be funny (at least to me)....</p>
<p>jm</p>
<p>RTB Dad-- Would your son happen to be in Squadron C Flight D?? My son told me a VERY similar story, only he is the one who was doing the weight losing and sharing his supplement with his thinner room mate, who he said that he has never seen eat as much as his room mate does. Does your son play soccer? Maybe they are room mates!</p>
<p>RTBdad and H-Mom, My son is in Cobra "c" flight. Both of your posts sound very familiar to me as well. My son commented that if any of the cadets in their squadron even thinks about leaving, the rest of the Cobra's convince the "thinker" to stay put. The Cobras "c" flight take great pride in being the group that has not lost anyone. He was also warned that their new cadre are going to be tougher.</p>
<p>My Basic sounded good and evenly spirited. She was soaking her foot in the foot bath when she spoke with me. She had small blisters and had no feelings on her toes.
She was suffering from lack of sleep and getting by only with fruits and cereal to eat. In spite of all that, to my relief she sounded strong and motivated. </p>
<p>She gets along very well with her room mate. Told me they wake each other up before the cadre bangs on the door. They get decent to open the door right away to their banging, so they do not get yelled at a lot more than needed.</p>
<p>She got medical help for swollen ankles and painful heels. X-ray showed no major problem. Got treated for bruised nose she got when helping a fellow basic to do the pull ups.</p>
<p>She enjoys running watching the sun come up behind the mountain, which she misses on the days of the storm. Also she had to walk all the way around with her bad foot instead crossing over on the Terrazzo.</p>
<p>She was also looking forward to the challenge of Jacks Valley. </p>
<p>She said that she was glad for the support I am getting from CC and famnet.</p>
<p>My son is in flight C, but he's in Interceptors. I think I understood him correctly to say that Interceptors has not lost anyone yet, but he might have been referring just to his flight. Unfortunately, just got word that one of our home town boys was turned back due to foot problems - he was a recruited athlete, too. At least it's comforting to know that not even the football players are getting special treatment. My son also said someone has been training in a wheel chair. Anyone know anything about that?</p>