I rewrote this post to better reflect my concerns...
We got a letter from our SR after he failed his PFA. He sounded as though he was considering dropping out and needed our advice. We wrote back encouraging him not to give up and not to let the struggles today to distract him from his future goals. We haven't heard anything back from him so I touched base with a couple of his friends that I knew he had been writing. When we discovered that no one has heard from him in a quite a while, his best friend (going into the Army soon) contacted the local recruiter and was told that my SR had completed boot camp.
So now I'm left wondering what the heck is going on. Has anyone run into something like this before? For now, I can just assume that he's on an extended training simulation or something and cannot contact anyone and he'll get in touch with someone when he can.
As much as I sound like one of those "helicopter parents", I can assure you that I am about as far from that as can be. We raised our children to be independent thinkers, to act on the decisions they make, and to take responsibility for the outcome. We've always had their backs when they needed us, but gave them the space to act on their own. We're sort of used to being the last to know what he's up to, and he's never disappointed us when we do find out. My concern is that he talked about quitting which isn't really something he's done before. I worry that he'd quit and not say anything to us because he doesn't want to let us down.
Replies
BZ
Absolutely the best Christmas gift this season!
Most excellent news David ! Bet you'll treasure that call as your best Christmas present today!
Congratulations! That in no way sounded like a helicopter parent! My son will be heading to boot camp in three weeks. That would freak me out a little too.
Mike
We got a Christmas call this morning! He sounds like he's doing well and looking forward to PIR and heading off to school. He thanked us for the pep talk letter and let us know that he failed his PFA because he was running on a sore knee. Medical got him straightened out and, if I understood him correctly, he's already passed his PFA.
I can't wait to see him in a couple of weeks even if it is for just a few hours.
No problem. It actually makes sense and really helped. Knowing that he would have had to call home if he separated takes a load off my mind. Many thanks.
Did not intend to have it sound like he was already in ship 5---sorry for the mis-interpretation.....they are very attuned to recruits that they feel might not really want to be there and expressing second thoughts....be positive and realize that the ultimate outcome is out of your hands...trust in your recruit and pray that the system works !
Thanks all. I’ll go through the links and trust all is good.
I'm sure you will hear something soon. A failed PFA does not mean the end of his potential Naval career. They will give him a few chances to pass his tests. Just be patient and you will have to wait until either he or someone from RTC contacts you.
we have a lot of info in our Ship 5 group- spend some time reading and following the pertinent links-
https://navydads.com/group/ship5formerlyship17