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Your son will do just fine. Do not worry about him (too much) and try not to contact him a lot-he will have time to so, in good time.

I live near Fort Wood (retired Army Combat Engineer officer) and work on the installation (local university). I would be glad to follow up with him for you-but only after a few weeks, he will be well cared for by his Drill Sergeants.

Army BCT (basic combat training) is nine weeks long, but he will spend a week or so in a transient unit called “replacement”, that is where he will get a medical exam, shots, tests and then be issued uniforms etc. He must pass a minimum physical aptitude test before he can go to BCT.

After BCT is completed, he will seamlessly transition to 21B combat engineer advanced indivuual training (AIT), this one-station event is called OSUT (one-station unit training). He will have the same Drill Sergeants throughout, but in AIT he will spend most of his time with technical instructors (NCOs and civilians) rather than his Drills. Life gets better in the AIT phase. This phase lasts another 8-10 weeks if things have not changed recently....

Thanks for your support of him. Momma will come around when she sees her boy turn into a man....

In this contingency of GWOT, all warriors can expect to deploy sooner than later-combat engineers are not one of the soft jobs, we deploy as much as anyone else, more than others, less than some. He will thrive if he likes to learn, be challenged (and rise to the occasion).

Again, let me know via PM if you want more info or personal follow up.

Regards;

Andrew Cempa
Major, USA (ret)
Corps of Engineers