Boots in the House!!

Like Boots on the Ground, Boots in the House is what it’s called when your soldier is home!!! Songs like “I’ll be Home for Christmas” were so much more than a pretty tune. After our son’s decision to leave the comforts of home, great job and lovely girlfriend to defend our nation and commit to 6 years active duty (click: BHUp), we were so happy to hear the only time in the year recruits come home during their 10 weeks of basic combat training is for the December holiday season. We were so thankful especially since there was no communication aside from two 27-second calls saying he was there and fine.

Friends & strangers writing to me as a new Army Mom offering support often said he’ll leave a boy & return a man. It’s only been 4 of the 10 weeks and they were right. His stance, carriage, conversation, so confident, so strong. Army Strong! Mind-bogglingly, the Army has already spent $77,000 per recruit the 1^st 4 weeks on weapons, 80 pounds of equipment, supplies, etc.

The 52,000-acre Army Basic Combat Training hub at Fort Jackson, South Carolina with over 100 ranges & 1,160 buildings produces over 60,000 trained, disciplined & physically fit warriors per year!  

Our son left Fort Jackson with 6,824 other soldiers snapping this photo before heading out. He said it was like a sea of green flooding the hallways of the airport.

All the soldiers were given a message in a Coca Cola bottle & a young boy ran into the airport store and bought our son an ornament to thank him for his service. He said the public outpouring of American support was overwhelming and heartwarming. 

He surprised his little sister (click: Superhero) by walking into a coffee shop while she waited for me. I wanted so much to catch the moment but I stayed away or his wish could have been ruined. A neighbor’s grandfather saw it all for us. As this granddad, our son & daughter describe, he walked in the bustling shop and she looked at him for a long moment trying to comprehend what was happening. He looked like her brother, but he was not due. It took a few seconds to realize this buff, clean-shaven fellow with dark-rimmed glasses (Army-issued ballistic lenses!), standing tall before her was her Superhero Big Brother. She burst upright shrieking with delight as she leapt into his arms & they hugged for ages.

He arrived on my husband’s birthday, what a celebration! In a nutshell, here are some things we learned about. He didn’t sleep the 1^st 50 hours & didn’t have time to think of the sleep deprivation as they had the recruits moving constantly through the initiation phase including a 2-sided line of every vaccine imaginable for soldier warfare
warfare readiness including anthrax, typhoid, yellow fever, small pox, etc. 

The soldiers are up every day at 4am for 17 hour days except Sundays. The have 5 minutes to be ready. They have 5 minutes for meals. They learn to shovel down food no matter how hot & run back to training immediately.

Disciplinary Action – if one person does something wrong, that person does not get punished. Everyone else is punished and the person has to stand and watch. Yup, that’s one quick way to get everyone on the same page!! And yes, drill sergeants do yell at the top of their lungs as the rim of their hat hits your forehead.

2 challenging tasks included rappelling down the 50-foot wall & taking off their masks in a gas chamber.

Everyone has been so supportive of our son’s decision. There’s only been one person who balked when she found out. The problem is that he was standing right next to me and was going to leave shortly. He had no idea what he was in store for and she’d known him 10 years. Her reaction gutted me. If she were that anti, she could have told me privately. It was so sad because he was right there. I asked him how he felt when we were in the car. “Don’t worry, Mom. I stand by my commitment to defend this country and its freedoms, and I’d die for her, too. That’s what freedom means.”

Interestingly, visiting a friend’s home with him during this holiday break who is so anti-gun she helps run the campaign on a local level, she greeted him with a hug saying she understands the great sacrifice he’s making for our nation’s defense and introduced him to her grandson saying, “This is a real soldier.” She melted my heart.  

The Army has felt the latest generation of new recruits has often been undisciplined, disrespectful and overweight. A tougher regime of physical training beyond human limits meant to prepare for any combat situation has been implemented to ensure our American soldiers remain the strongest in the world.

• By Joseph Cranney jcranney@postandcourier.com April 8, 2018
• To cap the 10 weeks of basic training… Army trainees must pass …a final test â€” a simulation of a nighttime invasions staged in the woods of the 52,000-acre base.
• Over 4 days, the course tests recruits on virtually every aspect of their training — including patrols, obstacle courses, hand-to-hand combat and more than 45 miles of marching.
• The course is part of the Army’s response to a call from leadership for tougher, more physically fit soldiers …
• It’s also intended to address the Army’s concern that an emerging generation of trainees grew up with less exercise and are less attuned to discipline.
• The Army calls its new training course The Forge, akin to the final stage of hardening a metal. Like the similarly challenging Crucible for Marines, completing The Forge is now a prerequisite to becoming a soldier.
• Trainees leave their barracks at midnight and return after 96 hours of missions with light rest. They sleep on the ground in the woods…
• Army leaders said it stands to become one of the military’s most grueling tests.

Our son heads back for the final 6 weeks of combat training & The Forge before graduating & taking the walk above as graduate, team member, soldier. Then he’ll head to Virginia for training as a specialized Black Hawk Engineer.

The Bright Spot – He loves his decision & has no regrets.

I miss our son so much! It’s hard for a parent. Even the tree at our CVS looked camouflaged!

God bless you, dear son, as you head into your new future.

And God bless our troops here & abroad.