US Army Infantry-Mom needs advice

Hi PantherMom! God Bless you and your son!
Just got a call from our son in Afghanistan this morning. It’s 90 to 120 degrees in the day and 40 - 50 degrees at night. That’s pretty cold for a Florida boy. Smart wool socks are a great idea.

He always says that the Army is “hurry up and wait”. Your
son has been trained well. Keep those prayers coming.

The Army has many hundreds of courses for individual training. If your son has access to a computer, he can take online courses. If not, he can request paper copies from his training NCO. These courses will not only increase his knowledge but also acrue to his training record. The best place to start is the Army Knowledge Online website: https://www.us.army.mil/

Let me know if you need other training resources. (I used to be a training NCO, and I know lots of resources.)

Yes, yes it is normal

In Alaska, in summer, fish'n IS the mission. Not much gets done until the snow flys.

However - the Army is not completely clueless http://www.wainwright.army.mil/sites/deploy/default.asp

The 1/25 has some very sharp medics

They have experienced (Combat experienced) NCOs and that makes a difference

As the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, the Arctic Wolves lost 36 of their own in Iraq. Those lessons are not forgotten. The 1/25 served 16 months in Mosul Iraq - and that experience should serve them (and your son) well as they deploy.

We went thru the same thing (our son is a Marine) on both of jrs tours in Iraq.

Best advice I can give you - pray. Ask your firends to pray and if you belong to a church, get them in on the action. Don't try to go it alone - you will drive yourself nuts.

At some point, you will get an address for mail. FWIW - Don't send anything that won't fit into a shoebox, otherwise it will take forever to get to him - they have access to the PX, so he would be without.

Good luck, FR is a good place to ask questions - several FReepers (in country at the time) were able to keep us clued in, even if the Marines did not.

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