Posted on 10/19/2010 5:52:43 AM PDT by panthermom
I have some questions regarding pre-deployment.
Can you ping me if you are/were recently infantry?
My son is in the 25th ID
Thanks
My son has served two deployments in Iraq. I’ll try to answer questions but I think perhaps Kathy has better advice than I. Or, maybe she can direct you better.
Kathy? Can you help?
Ha! My son is in AK!
Have him attend an appleseed. He will learn long range marksmanship that the army doesn’t teach anymore and will be valuable in Afghanistan.
Are you looking for packing advice?
My friends son is deploying, I just polled several Soldiers and Marines who’ve been there for advice on things to send along with the son.
Will be happy to share if you like/need.
My son isn’t infantry but he’s in Afghanistan. I have a few pointers that we’ve picked up in the month since he deployed.
1. Leave daughter-in-law his DL along with the POA if she intends to use it to make purchases.
2 leave a list of pwds and user IDs to bank and bill sites. Dont forget the correctly spelled hints that he used when he set them up.
3. If she’ll be leaving their home base and going to where her family is, be sure to let the bank know where she’s going to, otherwise the bank may freeze her account when using it out of state.
This has been a long process because my DIL is not particularly competent for general life issues and my son is not what you’d call proactive in his home life. grrrrr
How do you find an Appleseed? He is in Fairbanks, AK. They don’t have cars either, they deploy so nobody wanted to get one until they are back.
Since I am new to this I don’t know if I am freaking out over nothing.
First I will say overall my son really likes the Army. But....now that he has been at this duty station he seems to be going out of his mind. They don’t seem to do anything. He says he feels like he joined the sanitation department instead of the infantry. They have had 1 FTX and 1 land nav. exercise. They really don’t even work a full week. He has been there since Aug. and he has not even qualified on the range yet.
He is with a Stryker team, they were supposed to do a week on the stryker but it did not even last 2 whole days.
I keep telling him as they get closer to deployment things will get more intense.
I really don’t know what to tell him.
Is this normal?
He is going to Calif. after Christmas.
I hate to be a whiner, I am trying to keep him up. He is not good with “idle time”, LOL!
And it is not only him, they are all like that.
He is in AK, not much to do, already freezing cold and all the weekend entertainment places where most hang out are 21+ and he is 19, so he and some of the others just hang out in the barracks, bored out of their minds.
List your questions and I am sure we can help.
Oh, and hit the gym as much as possible. The more fit he is, the better he’s going to do. My son lives in the gym, just scored 330 on his PT test. 300 is considered max.
Go to http://www.appleseedinfo.org and if there isn’t one on the schedule, email them. They can set one up for his whole unit. They’ve trained the military before. God bless him.
Thanks :) I am going to send him a care package today along with his guitar.
He is funny...He said if I don’t know how many more times I can read the Ranger Handbook, LOL!
It depends on how long until they deploy. I've been in three different Stryker BDEs and it all depends on your Brigade Commander and Battalion Commander. The majority of commanders these days are all about some large, very concentrated training exercises, then allowing Soldiers to be home with their families the majority of the time. While your son may be new to the Army, he's in a unit with guys who've deployed two, three, or even four times. Some of us need the break...
Our USMC Infantry son made three trips to the sand box.
The greatest resource was the parents internet groups, both official and others.
Most units have an official channel down to the company level.
Your best intelligence will come from the lowest levels. I told our son we sometimes knew what was in his reports BEFORE he submitted them.
Look around for the smaller groups or set one up at the platoon or squad level.
Note that some sons may not appreciate the attention.
My advice to all mothers is don’t do this:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/604819/posts
“Worried Soldier’s Mum Emails Colonel In Afghanistan”
(Unless you just have to!)
He is going crazy and I feel helpless. Extreme boredom. He is feeling kind of antsy knowing they are deploying and feeling like they aren’t training at all. I keep telling him things will intensify as they get closer. They are heading to CA after Christmas.
Son #2 is going to Benning in early June, son #1 is breaking me in, LOL!
I love it! Thanks :)
I told him yesterday If he did not stop whining and find something to do, I was going to call the Commander and tell him to find something for y’all to do! LOL!!!
He said DO NOT ever, for any reason call here!!! LOL!
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