thanks so much marvin! ive got some good ones for him. we hunt together and he asked me to keep him up to date and ive got some nice trail cam pics to show him. he will love that!!!

Our Sailor's Mom and I sent Word letters, maybe just a paragraph or two a day dated separately in the same "letter" and we could also print front and back.  We included pictures printed within the letters, like of the cats or the snow, etc., and never had a problem because there were like three or four days of writing on only a sheet or two of paper.

thanks chris! thanks marvin! he is going to be happy happy happy!!!

thanks marvin.. ive got a lot of nice Indiana whitetail deer pics to send him and a lot more pics of stuff he loves..

Hey Brandon - my wife wrote our daughter each day starting with the day she left, and wrote and sent the last one on Saturday morning as she graduates this Friday. I wrote her about every other day, and her brother wrote her about once a week. And then she was also getting letters from grandparents and other friends as well. If having others write your son, be sure to give them the guidelines such as no care packages, no colored or "good smelling" envelopes or paper. There is GREAT info on navyformoms.com about letter writing tips. The admins on there would be able to direct you to the correct page. Also, just a thought, I wrote a generic letter about once a week, just one of encouragement and praise and thanks, and would include it in my letter to my daughter with instructions to give it to a recruit who was not receiving any mail. If you use lower quality paper that is thinner, you can usually mail it out with more pages. My daughter is a music hound so i would print 3 or 4 songs on a page (small font and in columns), then print a bunch of small pics on the backside of that same page, then mail it off with my letter. Get creative. With the lower quality paper, I was able to get 4 sheets of paper into an envelope and never had one come back. Keep in mind, all of my letters were handwritten on college ruled lined paper, so the only "thick" paper i sent was the computer paper I printed lyrics and photos on. If I sent thicker paper, I tried to keep the letter to a total of 3 sheets. 

Thinking back to the first call we got from her, about 3 weeks into it, she told us she got 17 letters the first night they got mail! She said she got some IT for it, but didn't care in the least because 17 letters was worth it! 

I also wrote down baseball standings and when football started back up, gave her some NFL scores too. Some RDC's don't like them getting that info, so be careful, try to disguise it within the letter by "writing out" scores, like, "twenty-seven to thirteen" instead of "27-13". She loved photos of anything we were currently doing, even if it was her brother mowing the yard or the cat sleeping on the chair.

Hope that helps some...

thanks Jason. im on letter #54.. set abut 12 picks printed on back of some on song #7 on back of some. but then it hit me.... what if I cant do that lol.. thanks again for all the help :)

sent about 12 pictures. I need to read before I send. sorry

Good to hear Cody! Sounds like her spirit is doing well if she's talking about things like babies!

Got The Call! She's a Sailor!

Jason:  Congratulations!

congrats Jason

who is ready for some more random pictures!? I know I am!!

Hey guys! I just want to thank everyone for all the help they have given. There have been way too many posts in this group lately for me to keep up with. I will be moving on to the Pensacola IT group. My son is doing great and just waiting to class up. I am not leaving the group, but just won't be "following" it, so I don't get all the email. I will check back now and again in here to see if I can help anyone out with some answers. Thanks again and good luck to all your sailors!!

congrats Bob! my son will be headed to Pensacola after his PIR..  god bless your son and his family

Thanks a lot Brandon! Same to you and yours. What rate is your son going for?

Bob, im sorry I don't know what "rate" is. My son is going to be a air traffic controller (AC)

whats "rate"? ive never heard that before

Sorry Brandon, I meant "Rating". Here is something I found on FB:

Rank & Rate - The Navy enlisted sailor DOES NOT have rank for enlisted sailors. The proper word is rate. In the Navy, the term "Rank" is ONLY used by Navy officers. Try to use the Navy tradition, when possible, the word is rate (never rank) even though they mean the same to most people.
Some rates are: Seaman Recruit, Seaman, Petty Officer 3rd Class, Petty Officer 1st Class, Chief Petty Officer, Master Chief Petty Officer.

Rating - "Rating" is the job you do. You could be a Hospital Corpsman (HM), an Electrician's Mate (EM), a Boatswain's Mate (BM), an Aviation Ordnanceman (AO), or even a Cryptologic Technician Maintenance (CTM).

My son is "IT". My Father in-law was "AC" back in the day.

Also:

Paygrade - Is the grade you are paid at. These are: E-1 thru E-9 (Note the "E" means enlisted).
W-2 thru W-5 (Note the "W" means Warrant Officer. Also note the Navy doesn't have W-1's).
O-1 thru O-10 (Note the "O" means officer).

Most of the time we sailors just combine rating and rate into one term. For example, a Boatswain's Mate has the rating abbreviation BM, and if the person is a Petty Officer Second Class which is a "2" abbreviation, then the person's rate could also be BM2 (BM is the rating and the 2 is Petty Officer Second Class paygrade E5). So you will hear "BM2 come over here quickly" Oh who am I kidding? It's more like "BM2 quit skating, and get your butt over here and do some real work"... Oh, who am I kidding? We would never use the word "butt" either.... The sailor vocabulary has more direct words...~ha

I believe some other branches use "MOS" or Military Occupational Specialty.

thanks Bob! my son started as a E2 with referrals he had signed before leaving for RTC.. thanks again Bob the info was great.

No problem! So his rate is AC and his grade is E2! :)

My son is IT and moved up to E2 while at RTC. He is in his second week down at Pensacola. Not sure when he will start his classes.

Yes, Brandon, IT is Information Technology. Could be anything from computers, to networking, to wireless or radar, etc... I am in the IT/ Traffic Engineering field, so it's going to be nice to talk shop, although details will have to be left to the imagination! :)

My son Aaron has left Boston and is on his way to NAVSTA Great Lakes to begin the next chapter of his life.

Fair winds and following seas Aaron, we couldn't be prouder of you!

Brandon: I let my daughter know how proud I was of her each and every letter I wrote. Most letters were usually just about trivial stuff to me, but I know she enjoyed about hearing about my day, what video game her brother was playing while I was writing, etc, etc. But each letter ended with how proud of her I was, and then some words of encouragement. There is a link: http://www.navydads.com/forum/topics/navy-bootcamp-weekly-training that gives you a week by week account of what they are doing. I used this to encourage her in the things she was either doing  or would be soon doing per that schedule. **DISCLAIMER** Now, even though that's the "schedule", they could be WAY off of it, especially if he is in a Push Division (a division that was held in P-days for more than the typical 5-7 days, usually waiting for enough recruits to fill the division, and then are "pushed" through training at a little more rapid pace, it usually puts them 1-2 weeks behind the rest of the division, BUT, they still graduate on time with the rest of the Div). My daughter was in a push div and I would be thinking she was on one spot, but she was a week away form that spot. Or other times, they would be way ahead of where I thought they'd be. Either way, that was how I always ended my letters. 

I did however, as God led my spirit, send the occasional, "GET OFF YOUR BUTT SAILOR" letter in which I would really pour on the motivational quotes and Hoo Yah talk. But my daughter needs that kind of stuff every once in a while. I think I sent two, maybe thress of those letters out of probably, 35 that I wrote. Your son may not respond to that kind of thing well. You know best what he responds to. 

I think you're fine. Your'e letting him know you have his back. I wouldn't harp on it every letter, but little short pieces letting him know you are proud will never hurt. 

You got this Dad! Before you know it, you'll be 3 and a wake up...

Marvin,

Yes, he's headed to bootcamp.