When do they get to write home?

[Joel A. Ortiz]

Ok. I am so happy for all the parents that have recieved a call or a"letter" from their SR/ son/daughter, but how long did it take ? My daughter has been out of touch since November 24 th. I began writing her the day she left and when I got the address from the recruiter. I had seven lettters to send. Still. 24 days later and no call or letter. I am not putting my disappointment into the out going letters, that's not what she needs to hear. But for my self, I am weary, so very anxious and longing for that first letter! AND. I know. We will be three crazy weeks out of sinc! I write knowing she will read the letters sent shout a week later so I don't seem to out of wack with the real week she is experiencing. I'm sort of lost at the moment. It's another Friday and I'm on my way home. HopingUPDATE! thanks for your replies to this thread! December 19th I got a letter that morning and a "CALL" later that afternoon. The lines of communication are open finally and I 'know' she is receiving all my mail; all the mail. She can only mail letters out on Sunday and she has very little time to herself to write much and generally starts a letter and adds to it little by little as the week days go by. Life there is tough; she has her up days and lots of down days. The Division isn't doing so well as I'm told (phone status). Privelages are being witheld because of that.

[KS Dad]

As other people have said, your SR is very busy. And they are COMPLETELY isolated. Example; On the day of our son's PIR he told us that there was a rumor that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California had died. We told him no, the flags were at half staff due to Senator Edward Kennedy passing away. That's how isolated and how busy they are getting through boot camp. Communications will get better after they get to A school.

[Dan (Zach's Dad)]

Joel, we all are in the same boat you are... those couple of lines we get to read seem to get analyzed and reread and soaked in, even though they wrote us a paragraph.. saying all is good! Like Steve mentioned, my son texted all the time, all honestly didn't know if he knew how to write a letter! :) But like Mitch, and David said.. they are all reading their books, studying, and getting their time used up by the RTC ~

I personally like to get my son a letter every day, however, there has been a few times that I didn't get it out in time... but from what I heard from another recruit who went through last year, he said they all loved it when they got "news" from home. The days all seem to blend together. So I generaly type out the daily blah blah blah of what is going on in our lives.. ask him about 20 questions (none of which have been answered) and then I will search the internet for some jokes (clean ones of course) and print them out so he can get a good laugh! :)

Just like we have no contact with them right now, they have no contact with the "outside" so, their Mail Call is like Christmas everyday! :)
~ hang in there~

[Joel A. Ortiz]

Mitch, steven, Dave. Thankyou for commenting. Sat I Receive my first letter and on the way to the post office I got a call from Allison. I pulled over and talked for 10-15 min. What a relief. Although she's been away for 25 days. They are only in week two! We have such a Lon way ro go now. First week doesn't count. The next week was a delayed week and she had her wisdom teeth pulled. She on a low right now and says don't stop writing I do my best not to go on an on about missing her. No. Rather it's news from home pictures of buster her dog an I talk to her. Something I souls gave learned years ago instead of burying myself in hobbie or DVDs. I have one daughter at home for awhile. I hope to talk more with her too. Thank again for posting!

[Steven S]

Joel
My son's been gone since Dec1. We got the form letter with a couple of lines he wrote and nothing since then. They are just busy, busy, busy. If yours is anything like mine, when he was here he had his head so far into the cell phone texting we hardly knew he was around anyway. LOL...
I just tell myself, no news is good news. If he/she escaped they would call us.

[Mitch Madruga]

We went 34 days before getting our first letter. It will come any day now so just hang in there.

[David R]

Dont get concerned...............it took almost 2 weeks before we received the 1st letter from our son when he was at BC. They normally only get time to write letters on Sundays, the rest of the time is pretty much taken up by the RTC's. Also. remember with the Xmas season mail tends to move more slowly because of the amount of mail being sent. Once out of BC, it's a lot more normal...............just hang in there.