<p>Ooooo falconflygrl, I love the idea, can you pm me one of those surveys? I will send one to my son... great great idea!!</p>
<p>fencersmother - Don't worry! You didn't waste anything! Even in the event they were confiscated (which they may well might NOT have been), I'm sure they were able and/or allowed to see and read them first which means you made somebody's day a little better! :) My mom sent me cards all of BCT and I always felt better with an "I love you" card in my box or a couple photocopied pictures (although I hid those! :) ). In a few days I can help you out by letting you know the real story from the cadre. </p>
<p>AFDAD2010- I'm looking forward to watching benjo and the rest of tiger ten's new cadre meet our basics, rude awakening. I expect I might be needed at some point! </p>
<p>falconflygirl - glad you brought that up, reminds me of what my mom and I did that helped with the little time I had. Parents (if you haven't already figured it out!) a good way to get something back: have a set of questions with blanks after that they can answer in (of even just circling an answer!). Then, leave some room at the bottom or back of the page for a short letter. Include a pre-stamped and addressed envelope along with the paper in the letter you send. That way it takes all of 5 minutes to write the letter and it can be out that night/morning.</p>
<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>We received a letter from our son today. He is in Jaguars, Flight D. These are his exact words regarding cards, pictures, etc. Now maybe it is different for each squadron and or flight but this is how it is for those in his.</p>
<p>This is his own words about the cards, pictures, etc.</p>
<p>“Oh, but please start sending the pictures completely separate from your cards or writing. Including cards with pictures on them put the writing separate please, because those are confiscated after I read them.” </p>
<p>I hope this helps. Know they aren't a waste and are greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I have been sending "surveys" to my boys and they do come back. The first one was pretty basic:</p>
<p>How was your flight out?______________
Who is your roommate? ________________
How are you acclimating to the high altitude? ___________________</p>
<p>After that, I wised up. Now, I send them every 4 or 5 days and they are fun. The guys send them back right away and write all kinds of comments on them. For instance:</p>
<p>1) The food here:
a. is great! I want recipes!
b. ok, but I am in no danger of gaining weight
c. this is food? </p>
<p>2) My cadre members:
a. are pretty great
b. are ok, but they must have had a bad homelife.
c. need lessons in manners for gentile living
d. are Satan's spawn</p>
<p>3) My first SAMI:
a. went great. It was easy since that's how we live at home (Lots of hilarious comments about this)
b. was ok, except I have never made a bed in my life before now.
c. was ok, except I am sure my roommate was born in a barn
d. brought on stomach cramps and fainting spells</p>
<p>This approach seemed to give them a psychological break and enable them to blow off some steam without having them put "my cadre sucks" in their own pen on the paper. And, both had positive things to say too, which made my day. Don't forget the SASE, though, or you may not see the results of your handiwork.</p>
<p>haha, yeah, I remember my mom sending me surveys like that. I would highly recommend them, as they take hardly any time to respond to. Once they start 2nd Beast and go out to Jack's, they will likely have a few seconds every night and occasionally some time on Sundays that they could spend writing and that's it (unless they want to keep the other people in the tent up), so surveys may be your best way to stay in communication with your Basic when they're in Jacks.</p>
<p>tee hee hee... I have all sorts of ideas... thanks fencersmother!! :D</p>
<p>Moltadolcee - I sent you several surveys, some on the same e-mail. They are funny and I personalize them....</p>
<p>Would you send them to me as well? That just sounds like an outstanding idea!</p>
<p>I'd like to see someone else's too if you can send them to me! I'll put up some of mine too, if I can get the scanner to work! ha</p>
<p>That sounds good. I had to compress the surveys so you will want to go through and "fix" them. Please send me any you may have. Also, I try to personalize them by putting the names of people in them, so they won't seem generic.</p>
<p>HNeedle's Mom</p>
<p>Just sent two postcards to missmuff and Slarty. Little notes from Japan! :)</p>
<p>I would like to comment on the ongoing discussion about leadership...Basic is seriously not a true leadership lab at all, it is a completely isolated and unique training environment. The way most cadre treat basics is not how they would treat a 4 degree, and especially not how they would treat an enlisted person-and rightly so, because a basic/4degree is NOT an enlisted person. There is a specific goal in their training that is far different than what an enlisted person needs. Formulating an image of a person's leadership abilities based solely on Basic training is terribly limiting. If it seems like cadre are "unfairly" out to get basics, it is with good reason. We are not here to be their friends, we are not here to help them to any unneccessary degree, and we are not here to be nice to them. We are here solely to train them in the ways of the military and the Air Force Academy. Expecting perfection and punishing mediocrity is something that SHOULD definitely go on. I know that me and my peers here do not want anything less than stellar kids coming into the wing, and the reason that we are tough, sometimes VERY tough, is because we are trying to break the weakness and mediocrity out of them. BCT is not a time for kindness, fun, or anything of that sort.</p>
<p>That being said, once they complete Basic training, my leadership style will change significantly, and when they get recognized, it will change again. leadership is a very fluid and amorphous thing, very adaptable and reactive. </p>
<p>So don't hate cadre for being tough on the basics, and just because you can't see the reasoning behind something doesn't mean that there isnt a concrete one that has been refined for decades and through countless individuals. If the cadre are doing things that are utterly unreasonble, you can bet they are getting caught and being severly punished. Professionalism can still be maintained in a turbulent training environment.</p>
<p>Well said.</p>
<p>Thanx falconflygrl... that's awesome!!! I truly appreciate it!!</p>
<p>What a fun idea! And who doesn't love multiple choice? Your survey questions made me smile, and I know they would my son too. If anyone feels like sharing more of their creative questions, I'd love to have them to send in my next letter.</p>
<p>PatriotCPM, I could not agree with you more. As a father of a basic cadet and prior military I have tried to ponder several of the posts on here and especially the web guy forum. All parents need to realize one thing and one thing only. That is that their children are now in the military. Civilian rule, law, logic, and some common sense do NOT apply. Training methods, regardless of what or how are not to be questioned by the basic's parents and especially the basic. There are reasons and madness is not one of them. I just hope that you or someone like you are my son's cadre.
Thank You</p>
<p>from a basic's perspective</p>
<p>my 1st beast cadre let us keep letters w/ pictures in them; example: print a picture off of a computer and write a letter around it on the same page. cant keep comics or anything, but we get to read them and pass them around.</p>
<p>2nd beast cadre havent let anyone keep any picture of any kind. they make you open your mail in front of them. but, if you have alot (as i often do because i gave my address to everyone) there are a few envelopes that you dont have time to open which <em>may</em> contain the aforementioned pictures. it's all up to the cadre.</p>
<p>My first cadre didn't let us keep personal pictures and stuff. They generally let us keep post cards, I got to keep all my birthday cards, although they never saw them! I haven't gotten anything taken up yet, but I haven't been to the mail room with my new cadre yet... they've been too busy beating the crap out of us. I think the rules will be similar though, since they're all from the same squadron...</p>
<p>hey you people!!!!!!!!
just wanted to say thanks again to all you upperclassmen, especially redhead who kept me sane on the first day when I lost my head (btw, redhead, that was a one time deal, and I've done really really well since then :) you really helped me push through that though, and I really appreciated it)</p>
<p>probably wrong thread, but I'm going to say it anyway...af16 as I hear you know, is in my flight, which is cool...I saw buckaroo yesterday at field day (agressors, right?) but she didn't hear me calling and by the time I got there, she was gone.
ummmmmm who else...i see the fencers and xcbug every friday and sunday at chapel, which is really nice</p>
<p>i'm sorry for those people whose cadre are strict about mail. my 1st beast cadre were really cool about pix and stuff. i only got in "trouble" when my aunt sent me 15 pages of pictures of ME (wth????) in one envelope, attracting attention. the pictures also had captions, so my cadre decided to make me stand in front of my flight and show them each one, while they read the captions. quite embarrassing but hilarious. I had a difficult time not laughing. :D</p>
<p>so far, we've had good days and we've had bad days. i can honestly say that i really respect almost all of my cadre, and it's been good. hard, but good.</p>
<p>scared to death about 2nd beast, but y'all have helped me realize I can make it.</p>
<p>I'll look for hornet to give me sunscreen (a constant worry!) :D</p>
<p>lots of great stories...ya know, the good stories stick out far more than the bad ones! when I look back, I might even say this was fun :)</p>
<p>thanks again, guys, y'all are great.</p>
<p>Wish i would of found this website sooner, i like some of the idea's about the mail.</p>
<p>as a father of four, my oldest being in the class of 2012. I have wrote letters almost every day and at time even two aday. but at the end of bct it's more like one every 2 to 3 days now.</p>
<p>one thing we did, have a going away party and have her friends write her a letter and didn't let her see them. once or twice a week we would put one in a envelope and mail it to her. we also gave her friends a personalized card that had her picture with her address on it for them to write.</p>
<p>I remember the first letter i got from her, how tough it is, how she's the one being yelled out the most. and thank god her roommate was a preppie.
she had trouble eating, sleeping, vomiting.</p>
<p>the second letter was even worse, she had pretty much lost all of her self confidence, anytime anyone with authority walked in she was a mess.</p>
<p>finally the third letter, things had gotten much better. still the yelling, but they where changing.</p>
<p>got the call on doolie day out, she sounded good. was hard to hangup.</p>
<p>got a few letters from jack's valley, she was surprized she made it through some of the stuff there, the change of command, alot less yelling and in the last letter things are going great.</p>
<p>I live for the letters i get, but more importantly the letters i have sent have helped me a lot, probably more than they have helped her.</p>
<p>Proud Papa!</p>