Basic Q's from a parent
 

This is my first post here although I have been reading these forums for a while now. My son just graduated OSUT at Ft. Benning last Friday. Two days before he graduated he was informed that he was being switched from his 11B contract to an 18X contract. He had volunteered several weeks before but was assuming that it wasn't going to happen. He was, of course, thrilled to be told this news. He just started BAC yesterday. Since this was sprung on us rather suddenly at his Turning Blue ceremony, I have a few questions that he was not able to answer yet.

He is an E-2. I saw that recruits that come in with 18X contracts are promoted to E-3 after they graduate OSUT or BAC. Does this mean that he will likely be promoted soon?

Is he likely to get any leave between BAC and reporting to Ft. Bragg?

I am asking more for me than for him since he will be told all that he needs to know.

More than likely it will depend upon what the contract says. But I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will come along with the correct answer.

Congrats to your son.

By your screen name I would guess you're a graphic artist?

Questions
 

Rest easy and know that when he completes training he will be serving with the best soldiers in the army.

He will get leave when he can, or wants it. I found the life to be so much fun I didn't take my first leave for 2 years.

He will tell you what he can or what he thinks you want to hear. Being new to the life he may try and spare you from worrying by not telling you everything.

Support is the best thing you can give him. If he fails out somewhere along the line he'll need it.

Pete

1. Welcome to the board.
2. Please fill in your profile.
3. Are you his mom or his dad?
4. You've done all you can do to raise him. I know it's hard but all you can do now is support him. Time to give him to First Sergeant Bobby S. for polishing. Just remember, the edge of that ramp is the last step to becoming a man!

LOL - Did I buy into that recruiting/reenlistment propaganda or what?

At the end of the day, if he makes it, he may be a lot of things. But one thing nobody will ever be able to say about him again is he's "just an average guy." ;)

yo' mind's bad...LOL

[/QUOTE]At the end of the day, if he makes it, he may be a lot of things. [/QUOTE]

and, the truth be known, he'll still be one of our sons...just like we were....

Yeah, and I want to see his face when he finds out his "mom" was doing some intel gathering for him on a Special Forces Website!...... :)

I hope he makes it through the course!!!!! :D

Team Sergeant
(Raised by a pack of wild Nuns)

assets are assets...and you wouldn't drop a dime on him, would you...?
hell, yes you would... :rolleyes:

a pack of wild nuns...hmmm...so you are the product of a virgin birth?

or were they like the nuns at the Black Angus in San Juan PR....?

Nuns in the Black Angus????
 

The last time I was in the Black Angus was when the PR first dudes were raising hell on the island. The navy had placed it OFF LIMITS to all military folks. Of course that meant it was the first place we went to when we got to town.

That was also the trip that the HALO team just about burned down the local home of the soiled doves up in the mountains. The HALO guys were having a right good time until the local boys showed up after a day in the fields. They didn't take to kindly to the SF guys hoggin' the girls and a good altercation was just getting started when we drove up in a 2 1/2 ton. The home team's knives were about 2 feet longer than our boy's and they had to beat a hasty retreat out the front door. To slow pursuit a start cluster was fired through the door and into the bar area. The guys jumped into the back of the truck shouting "GO, GO, GO" and we ripped off down the street. The locals quickly turned to put the fires out.

Not a good day for cross cultural communications.

Pete

my most lasting memory of the Black Angus is not appropriate for this thread... :D

1. Thanks.
2. I already did.
3. Dad
4. I know. We have made it clear both in words and actions that we support his decision to enlist no matter where it may take him. It's his life, not ours. That doesn't mean that I am not extremely curious about the whole process. He is my son and I am interested in his chosen profession by extension.

Thanks.

No. I used to write MultiMedia software for a company named 3dfx. For a while I used to try and use different screen names on different forums but I have found it to be easier to remember my screen name if I stick to one. It usually means that my screen name makes little sense on any particular forum but at least I can remember how to login to each one. :)

I did actually ask him if he would mind if I asked questions and he said he didn't care. He knows that I am an information junkie and that he could never keep me well informed enough.

I hope so too!

That Nun thing is conjuring images that may just haunt my sleep.

Funny, I'm not seeing a profile filled in. Is it me? Do you guys see it?

Somebody will answer your questions eventually.

see what? profile? as in PULHEES? oh, that profile...nada...

Basic Q's from a parent
 

During the last 2 years, I've had two sons in the 18x program. As far as them learning what they need to know I'm not sure if that is entirely accurate. I know one thing, it is an rigorous and prolonged journey. Through the whole process, classes change, are delayed and your son may have down time between each phase allowing for the opportunity to go on leave. Whether he can initially probably depends when his SOPC I class is scheduled to start.

Probably one of the most interesting things about the program its varied aspects contained. From the gig pit and phase II to the academic endeavors in phase three and lanquage training, its a trek to the end.

As an interested by-stander, you have to be as patient as your son. The most precious assets in SF are the people. When your outside looking in you want everything to happen real fast, but it doesn't. As was previously mentioned, you have to provide support and it will have to be over a sustained period of time.

But my wife and I have enjoyed the vicarious journey. Having one hit a glitch in 18c training was tough, but overall its been an interesting ride. I know they are both better men for the experience. The only drawback is having to explain the same acronyms to my wife a hundred times. That can be a tester.

Sorry for any confusion. I went to edit my profile and all the info I had put in there before was gone. I have since replaced it. I will update it further once I figure out just what really should be in there.

I'm no admin but your profile looks good to me now.

FWIW, when people say it is a long course they are not joking. I have a buddy who started the pipeline in Mar 03 he is now about half way through language school now. So provided he finishes everything else on time he should be in his group by the end of the summer. However I defer the accuracy of my projected time line to someone more qualified.

Parents....thank you.

S:

Well said!

For parents to support their sons in their endeavor to be the best people they can be, ie SF, is truly outstanding!

Terry

You guys are not going to make me feel bad, I'm still dropping a dime on the guy if he makes it through SF training!!!!!!! :D

I notice you stated if, (ie after) he makes it through, so you are cutting him some slack!

Sweet!

Terry

okay...i'm confused...if a phone call costs something north of $.35, what good does dropping a dime do?

lksteve

Good luck to your son. He'll be with the best.

I don't remember any nuns at the BA. But that was 92.

;)

well, they were sisters of a charitable bent, who could work miracles for small donations.... ;)

Is that where the dimes come into play? :D

more or less...

Just heard from my son. It turns out that all of the guys he came in with were put on a one week hold so he didn't start BAC until today. He passed his PT test and sounds really pumped to get things rolling. He said that they lost 100 of the 400 people who started today. 15 of them quit and 85 of them didn't pass the PT test. He was also able to answer one of my questions. He was told that he will not get leave after BAC graduation. He is slated to report directly to Ft. Bragg.

By the way, Team Sergeant, he did get quiet when my wife told him I had posted on here but when she told him that the replies were (mostly) words of encouragement he was ok with it. :)

My "mom" thought Special Forces handed out basketballs, held ping pong tournaments and worked for the USO. (Not that I cultivated that thinking in any way…… :D )

The less "mom's" know the less gray hairs.

I'd wish him good luck, but luck has little to do with what we do.

Team Sergeant

My "mom" thought the same thing and since I was a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, she thought that I was going to be doing "Life Guard" duty with "Special Services" !!! I called home from Benning after my first jump and asked if they remembered the old Flying Boxcars that flew out of Ellington Field. They both said yes and I said, "Well, I jumped out of one today !!" I heard the handset of the kitchen phone hit the counter when my mom FAINTED !!!

Then after SFTG came 5th Group and SOG. It wasn't until Plaster's Books came out that they really knew/understood what I had been involved in.

Take care.
Martin

The less "mom's" know the less gray hairs.


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Hi. This is my first post. Great info here!

I am already a mom with a head full of gray hair.
(I'm also a former Fort Bragg airborne soldier, and I'm very proud my son is an 18X.)

Just glad to be here reading as much as I can to get up to speed.

After some lurking and learning I'm amazed - and somewhat embarassed - how little I really understood SF though I was a reporter/editor stationed at Fort Bragg for 7 years. I'm becoming enlightened, for sure.

a few months after i enlisted, mom and dad went to the commissary at Fort Carson, during B/75IN short stay there...i guess there was a helicopter drop zone nearby and mom looked up as some Rangers were descending under canopy...she looked at dad and said something to the effect of 'thank God he isn't doing that....'

i called sometime that week and dad asked where i was...i told him i was a Benning....doing what, he said...jump school i said..."you're telling your mother" he said...

lksteve

Well, my son has graduated from BAC and is in hurry-up-and-wait mode at Ft. Bragg. He is supposed to start on the 28th, but I have learned to wait to see what really happens.

My congratulations to him and you. No matter what happens from now on, at least he'll never be a nasty leg again. :)

He said almost exactly that same thing when we saw him before his bus left for Bragg. :)

normal?
 

Hi.

First post here, but my husband is graduating BCT next week at Benning. Mid-week he called me asked my opinion about him signing an SF contract. I said yes, of course.

In all my research on military I didnt know tht they took people straight out of BCT, I always thought you had to be at least a SGT to even get into SFAC.

So... my question... IS it normal/usual for recruiting during BCT?
Has there been a more recent insurgence of them recruiting during BCT or has it always been that way?

So... anyhoo, congrats to your son, 3dfxMM. I dont know anything about when my husbands SFAC starts... but I'm assuming March or April.

So I'll be off to his graduation this week, then maybe browsing here more often. Lots of interesting info. Doing some research about SF wives... but not too much info on the net that I can fine. Any help/links would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance....

Welcome aboard. Thanks for filling in your profile. Whether they recruit in basic training or not depends on the program of the day. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. They currently are, nothing nefarious and nobody is watching him specifically. Good answer to his question, and since I have now quoted you, we will have evidence in perpetuity. ;)

We don't allow our wives to post on the net. Or have any outside contact at all for that matter. It's an OPSEC thing you see.

Thanks for the quick reply. Sooo I guess I can't complain later on that I said yes. Dern blackmail! Sigh....

No outside contact?! Good thing I'm a shut-in, albino, living in a shack. : )
I truly understand about OPSEC. Thats why I've steered away from army wives forums that I've seen so far. Not only are the forums full of whining, and Opsec comes into into play.. but so is... uhm... rape and getting killed. I've seen phone numbers, pictures, locations, etc, etc, etc. Ah well I guess most women don't value themselves enough...or something like that.

Well, I'm supposing they have FRG and that kinda thing. Where's my wifely training manual?

Well, again thanks for the quick reply and since I'm just a wife, I'll try not to post TOO much.... : )

Welcome to the site.

Can I get that grandfathered into my marrige license or is it something you have to do upfront?

Activities
 

Just some advice;
1.) Get to know the spouse of the soldiers your husband is going through the course with. Once he gets out of training get to know the other team members wives the best you can. SF is not really that big and you will be bumping into them again.

2.) Attend and unit/family support meetings that you are invited to. Get a working knowledge of the unit and the key individuals. This will make you an Army wife, a little green under the collar.

3.) Learn the proper way you contact your spouse in a "REAL" emergency. Doing it the wrong way wastes time and doing it for piddly crap ties up time that can be better used fixing the problem yourself.

4.) Have a life of your own. When he takes off to do his thing do not go into depression and run off to the bars.

5.) Now for the hard part. It's not the going or the being gone that's hard it's the coming home part that's the hardest. He comes home and expects it to be like the day he took off. You've been running things for up to a year. It's a big adjustment time for both of you. If the two of you can slip into a routine you'll be in for the long haul. If not something will have to give or go.

My first wife was a pure civilian at heart and was just not up to the life, amoung other things.

Now go find the other wives and let us get back to guy stuff :D .

Pete

Pete,
You stay away from my wife. :)