I - Day

I-Day Help

I have a couple of questions about the whole summer process. I will be staying with my Uncle in Utah and then flying down the night before. Is there a special hotel I need to stay at and how will I get to the academy from there? Also doesnt anyone know how long it will take to get acclimated to the high altitude?

Any help and guidance is appreciated!
 
Our DS has opted to fly out himself and has already received his flight information from USAFA. He is also planning on using the B&B program...excited about the chance to meet someone locally and connect the night before the big day.
 
Did you just find out about your appointment?I got the call but dont have the BFE yet. Is all that info in there?
 
My experience with the BFE this year was as follows: Initial BFE required the acceptance/declination of the appointment and if you wanted the Academy to arrange your flight or if you were coming in on your own and banking info.
A second package arrived for us about 2 weeks ago. This package contained information on the Sponsorship program, AOG packet to include information on the B&B program, Requirements that were needed before arrival-Security clearance, Servicemen's Group Life Insurance-SGLI, Emergency Data information, and I believe Clothing measurements. There are a few other things in there. You will also get your P.O. Box number and address for the Academy.
You may be able to access some items on your application portal under instructions to appointee.
Hope this gives you some idea of what's to come.
 
Tell him to bring some melatonin pills, lock the door, and hit the sack... basic training is going to be a long time, and we're all going to see each other once we hit the mud. Once I say goodbye to my folks back home, it's business time. Can't wait to everyone!
 
Re: travel to I-Day with DD or DS

My son also wants to travel to Colorado by himself for I-Day. We (my husband and I) are both fine with the idea because we think it will be a great experience for him to fly (from the San Francisco Bay Area) with other newly appointed future cadets. We have a good friend who had two sons that both attended the USNA and both sons traveled from the Bay Area to Annapolis with other plebes from our area. They said it was a great way to bond with the other new appointees. It made sense to us, and our son is certainly capable of traveling by himself, and is excited about traveling with his peers. We are so thrilled for him and we know that we will see him for the Parents' Weekend. Our older son (soon to be 21) is a junior at U.C. Santa Cruz and will be soon leaving U.C. to study for a semester in Denmark. We are strong encouragers of travel so we think it is great. For what it is worth, I think just listening to what they want is probably a good idea. If my son wanted us to accompany him, we would probably do that also, but he wants to travel with the other appointees. I know that all of your remarkable and outstanding young men and women appointees will be great traveling partners. He cannot wait to go...:thumb:
 
My 2 cents

First, every family is different. However, I Day is a huge deal for cadets (obviously) and it's a big deal for parents. To future cadets, please consider your parents when making your decision whether or not to attend I-Day alone. More than likely, your parents attended every little league game, swim meet, track meet, music recital, etc. and they are likely a big reason you're where you are today. Let your parents become part of the process in going to the Academy. My wife and I traveled with our son to I-Day (with us it was never really an issue... he assumed from day one that we'd accompany him.) We all spent the night before I-Day at the Embassy Suites, had dinner at the Summit at the Broadmoor, and got up at the crack of dawn to go to I-Day. It was one of the most emotional days EVER...and Cris and I are SO glad we were there. We met dozens of wonderful parents, we attended the lunch/picnic put on by the Colorado Parents Club and we watched the swearing in ceremony the next day. It all had a profound effect on us. It was also fitting that we were there to "send him off to college" just as we were there when our daughter started college years earlier at San Diego State. I am so glad we were there.
Now, again, every family is different. But, future cadets, your life will change forever on I-Day. Saying goodbye at the airport is fine, but in the grand scheme of things, it won't make much difference if you say good-by there or inside Doolittle Hall. It will make a big difference to your parents. Don't push them out of your life just to show them how tough you are. You'll have plenty of time to prove your toughness. You'll have plenty of time to recover from saying goodbye. Anyway, that's my two cents on the issue. Congrats to all.
 
Thank you MikeandCris.

Below is a must read from a mom about her I Day experience.
Maybe it will help parents decide if going to I Day is right for their family or not. As for DH and myself, we don't want to miss it.

Posted by VaMom2013

Sending my boy to USAFA... A Mothers Story

As the Mom of a current C3C, I wanted to share my personal experience as I sent my son off to become a USAFA cadet! From the day we received the infamous BFE, I was filled with questions and emotions. I followed the forums closely and was always excited to come across a post where someone had shared their personal experience. My hope is to provide the same and maybe help a few upcoming 2015 parents prepare for their journey.

If any of you are questioning whether to attend I Day, I believe it’s an experience no parent should miss if they can possibly be there! I flew to Colorado with my son. His dad wasn’t able to attend, but I have a brother in the Colorado Springs area so we had plenty of family to see him off. For me, seeing my son off on I Day was a life changing experience. Mike is my oldest of 2 children, and the first to leave home. He and I have always been very close and in many ways, I was literally dreading this day. It was, without a doubt, the toughest day of my life, and one I will never forget! We went thru the morning process with great anticipation, tho I was fighting back tears the entire time. After all the preparation and planning for this day, I believe my son was just ready to “get it started”. I, on the other hand, was just not ready to let him go! When it came time for our final goodbyes, my heart was breaking and I definitely had a hard time letting him walk away, but I stayed strong and through teary eyes I watched my son take his first steps up the stairs to a new life. Believe me, I wouldn’t trade that moment for anything! I’ve never felt so lost, yet so proud in my life… it was such a strange mix of emotions! I held myself together and we watched the rest of the process from across the lawn catching a nervous smile from him here and there until he stepped onto the bus and I watched him drive away. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, I totally lost it! The rest of the day was filled with tears, actually to the point of little panic attacks, literally wanting to go pick him up and undo the fear and loss I was feeling. I honestly wasn’t emotionally prepared for the intensity of that day, but here’s the good news… I survived!! I had made many great academy friends for support, and everyone told me it would get easier, and I’m happy to report that you can find strength in believing that is true! It DOES get easier… I promise!! Ok… back to my story. After a sleepless and tear filled night, I woke early and traveled out to the Chapel wall eager to see my boys face during the swearing in ceremony. We were smart enough to bring binoculars! And there he was, forth row Demons, and I could watch his every move. Again, mixed emotions on my end… here was my strong, independent son, captain of the football team, state wrestler… suddenly looking lost and confused, which only led to more tears on my part as I watched him march off the field and away from me. But again, in hindsight, it was an amazingly proud moment I would not have wanted to miss. Also, I knew he knew I was up on that wall, and I knew it somehow helped him thru that first difficult day. I guess my point is this… if there is any way to attend I Day, I think every parent who wants to be there should go! Regardless of how difficult that day was for me, and probably my son too, it was one of life’s moments I’m happy I was a part of.

After a long and lonely flight home, I put all my energy into supporting my son through this tough transition. That helped. I wrote him each and every day, keeping my letters supportive and up beat. I never let on to him the loss I felt from that day, but I did let him know he was loved and missed and filling his family with pride. My days were filled with work, a few hours scanning Webguys photos for pictures of Mike, and always ended with a long letter from home. I remember him telling me during one of his many phone calls home on Doolie Day “In” just how much my letters were helping him, and to keep them coming, the longer the better. That made it all worth it!! Originally we weren’t planning to attend A Day knowing the limited time we would get to spend with him, but that decision changed a couple weeks into BCT. Watching him thru pictures, and reading the letters he sent home, I knew it was important to him that his family be there when it was all said and done. I was very excited to tell him on Doolie Day In that his father, sister and I would be there for A Day! It was a great boost for him, and I know it helped him thru the rest of BCT! And being there to watch him march out in his cadet uniform, running out onto the field to give him that first hug, and standing by his side as he received his shoulder boards was PRICELESS! Again, one of life’s moments not to be missed if you can make it happen!

So there you have it, a somewhat quick summary of my experience and how I, as an emotional Mom, sent my boy off to become a cadet. My motto with my son has always been “I’m not letting you go, I’m just letting you grow.” And I’m happy to report that I have adjusted well, and my son is a successful and happy 3 degree who is looking forward to his “Cadre” assignment for BCT1 this summer. He is truly happy at the Academy. He has made amazing friendships that will last a lifetime and he knows in his heart he is exactly where he belongs. I hope some of the more sensitive parents will find strength in my story. Even though my experience with I Day and BCT began with heartache and what felt like incredible loss… I’m able to look back on it today with a new understanding. I don't think anything can prepare you for the day your child walks away from your side and into a new life, but rest assured, in time, your pride will override your pain! Today, we talk on the phone quite often, I’ve traveled out there for Parent Weekends and amazing ski trips, and our relationship has grown thru sharing this experience. I know that I am extremely proud of my son and all he has accomplished in his short life!

So, to all the upcoming parents of the Class of 2015… Congratulations… and as many will say, you are in for the ride of your life… good and bad. Best wishes to all of you!
__________________
Lori Girolami
Proud Mom of C2C Mike Girolami
"Dirty Thirty"
__________________

Thank you again Lori, for sharing these personal moments and helping to give us a glimpse of what is ahead for the 2016 appointees and their families.
 
Congratulations to the 2016 Appointees and their families. My DS is now a C2C. Below is a copy I put on regarding our experiences attending I-Day and Acceptance day. I agree with VAMOM2013 - attending these events for our son was truely priceless and I am so glad we could share in it. The pride is just unbelievable and does not diminish. Again, congratulations and here is our experience with I-Day.

VA Mom, our son is also a C3C and doing well. I enjoyed your story. I posted ours sometime after our first Parents Weekend in 2009. Since then, it has been a fantastic experience. Although we live in MI, we get out to see our son what seems about every 3-4 months. Anyway, here is our story which went through part of the first year. Congratulations to the Class of 2015 appointees and parents. Get ready for one heck of a ride. Oh...one other thing...the wisdom from ChristCorp is priceless and always right on. I planned to meet him at last year's Navy game but we ended up in the cadet's tailgate area. Here is our story...

************
Hi everyone, we attended I-day with our son last June. Wow - I can't believe all this time has gone by so fast. I enjoyed reading these stories so here is ours.

The day before I-day, my son flew out on an AFA ticket, and we were on a different flight. The plan was to meet in Denver. Well, our flights were on schedule. Unfortunately, our son's flight got out of Detroit really late, and he missed a connection flight in Chicago. So we ended up in Denver and he was stuck in Chicago. After several hours of trying to find a way to get him on another flight, he called us and said that USAFA got him and a bunch of other basics to be on another flight into COS. We were hoping to spend a good part of the day together as a family relaxing, but he did not get into COS until about 6:30PM or so. The ironic thing is that we met a host family at the airport waiting for my son's flight to get in to pick up their new basics. Long story short, they are a fantastic family and offered to sponsor our son as well. So I guess the flight dely actually paid off in the long run. My son said almost the entire flight was new basic cadets.

Our son is IC (not football), and we barely got to the end of the team dinner that night at the Academy. Following dinner, we got to our hotel for the last night together.

Next morning at the Embassy Suites, I was up early and had breakfast. The place was full of cadets going to I-day. My son was one of the last ones to have breakfast and get ready to leave. Next thing you know, there is a power failure at the Embassy and the elevators didn't work to get up to our floor. No emergency lights in the stairwell either. The nervous dad in me was worried we were going to be late.

We finally got to AOG. What an experience…all these kids dropping off their bags with instructions from 'nice' cadre. We stood in line and then got into Doolittle Hall. Word of advise, I knew there was a back room area with a library, and a quiet area. Don't go in there as tempting as it is. Away from the crowds, emotions caught up with us. Well 5 minutes later we said our goodbyes as he went up the stairs. We saw him outside walking the Heritage Trail, going over the bridge, and getting on the red (red is bad) bus. Later he told us the bus was not a fun place to be...even though everyone knew that's where it all starts.

After he left, the Colorado parents club had a picnic for anyone who wanted to come. It was on the Academy grounds at a campsite. I am sure they will do that again. It was nice; we were able to talk with other parents.

Someone above said something about the tears and of some of it being pride. I really think it is the pride. It is almost a year later and tears of immense pride can start at any time of the day. I don't think it is sadness; it is the unbelievable pride in my son, what he has accomplished, and what he is doing.

In the afternoon on I-day, we went to the Chapel wall which was filled with parents watching for a glimpse of their basics. We finally saw our son from a distance late in the day. Yeah!

We went to the Swearing In ceremony the next morning. Get there about an hour early because the Chapel wall gets full. More tears (of pride) through that. Recently my son began talking a little about I-processing. He said they were actually sworn in, in a room. He said at that moment he knew he was joining something bigger than he was.

We spent a few days in the Springs after that. We went white water rafting that was really cool. Also note, the Chapel wall will become your place to go to daily when you are in the Springs.

We joined the Webguy and were glued to the computer daily looking for pictures of the Cobras A - and our basic. We found pictures almost every day. I remember thinking we knew more about what he was doing daily than if he went to State U.

My wife and I went to Acceptance Day in early August. If you can make this work, I recommend it. We only had a few hours with our son after the ceremony, but it was fantastic watching the marching, band, and seeing your cadet get their much coveted shoulder boards placed on them. There is a forum on the AOG Webguy site and the parents get to know one another. The parents of the squadrons set up picnic lunches for their squadrons after the ceremony. This was really great. Not all parents could make the trip, so whoever went made sure to buy enough lunches for multiple new C4C cadets. We picked up about a dozen sandwiches from Quiznos to share. The several hours together were short, but very much worth it.

Get to Parents Weekend at all costs. This is over the Labor Day weekend and you should get your hotel reservations now. They will sell out and probably have done so already.

We have been pretty lucky. Even though we live in MI, we got out there for a sport camp the summer before inprocessing, Orientation, I-day, Acceptance Day, and Parents Weekend. My wife went to CA to a sporting event in November. He was home for Thanksgiving and then for Christmas. I just got back from a few days out there last week at a parents week for his team. I got to go have pizza with him at Arnolds Hall on Thursday evening, attended two classes on Friday, dinner on Friday and Saturday, and he stayed over with me at his sponsor's house on Saturday evening. It was a great time.

Well that’s about it. What a fantastic experience this has been so far. Good luck to all of you.

Bill
 
Obviously whether to go to I day or not is a personal decision. We live within an hour of the Academy, so there no question that we would be driving our son down to USAFA...In our case I think it worked out well.... We took all our clues as to how things went that morning from him... He was an IC and so his team had a welcome breakfast that morning, and he was able to mingle with future teamates. We asked if he wanted to go to the AOG with the group of them that did not have parents there, or wanted us to come along. He said "since were there", we might as well come along... At the AOG there was a long line and I think our son appreciated our company while he waited, he had someone he was comoftable with to talk to, and hang out with. When we got to the ront of the line, we listened to the welcome speech, and then headed inside. Once there he wanted nothing to do with visting the booths etc - he was ready to go... It was a quick goodbye (mom managed to maintain her composure) and off he went. We waited until he came down the otherside, watched him cross the bridge and borad the bus.... In looking back, that was my first true glimpse of the life he would be facing, and I would not have wanted to miss it.
 
I so want to have this memory in person as well. We are in NC, so it is a very different story financially and we really want to also attend Parent's Weekend. Would also love to be there for A-Day. We are praying for an answer. I've rarely missed an important event in his life and I-Day will be the BIGGEST event thus far. I want to be there to see my son take those steps as a young man toward his future, his dream. I hope we can figure out the financial part of it and make it happen.
 
We are driving our son ( 4 days vacation) to I day- attending parents weekend ( another 3 days of vacation and our other 3 children will miss 3 days of school). I sooooo want to attend A day but just don't know how to make it work. I know these are moments in his ( and my) life that we will never experience again but sometimes you have to make the decision that is best for the family and just not attend. Monetarily and keeping in mind we have 3 other children at home- I am sure many others out there will find similar situations.

Is A Day on August 8th ( wednesday) this year? If so- does anyone know about what time it is ( checking to see if I can get a quick flight in and back out all on the same day)
 
My sons flew off on that plane together, and I can still see, in my mother's mind's eye, their (what seemed to me TINY) hands waving from the plane's window. THEY HAD A BLAST! They flew from the heart of the Steeler Nation to Dallas, and on that plane from DFW to COS, every passenger except three were incoming doolies! It was just a great time for them.

For my sons, their sponsor Mom and Dad picked them up, and took them to their home, where they hot-tubbed, ate HUGE steaks on the grill, had a terrific time. Sponsor Dad took them to AFA for I-Day and sent me pictures.
 
Is A Day on August 8th ( wednesday) this year? If so- does anyone know about what time it is ( checking to see if I can get a quick flight in and back out all on the same day)

If they follow the same schedule of events that they did last year, A Day will be Wednesday August 8. The days just before A Day are transition days--the cadets get settled into their new squadron rooms, get their computers, etc. after finishing BCT. Once A Day is over, they go straight into the academic year with first classes on Aug. 9.

The parade will begin at either 9 or 9:30, but you'll want to allow plenty of time to get there due to traffic, parking, finding a seat in the stands, etc. I think I arrived at 8 a.m. last year and got a decent parking space and a decent seat near where my son's squadron would be lined up. But there were definitely people already there. If you can get a very early morning flight into Colorado Springs, I guess it could be doable to fly in (by 7ish?) and out the same day. You will definitely have time after the festivities of A Day to fly out, as the squadrons will have briefings and other commitments that afternoon--I left by 1 pm-ish so my son could walk me out and be back for a 1:30 briefing.

usafa2012mom, I hope your prayers will come true and it somehow works out for you to attend I Day, A Day, Parents Weekend, whatever is right for your family! Even if only one of you gets to attend A Day, it is a great thing to experience. After this first year, it will just be Parents Weekend, although I did sit by a few upperclass parents at the A Day parade, but they were from Colorado.
 
If they follow the same schedule of events that they did last year, A Day will be Wednesday August 8. The days just before A Day are transition days--the cadets get settled into their new squadron rooms, get their computers, etc. after finishing BCT. Once A Day is over, they go straight into the academic year with first classes on Aug. 9.

The parade will begin at either 9 or 9:30, but you'll want to allow plenty of time to get there due to traffic, parking, finding a seat in the stands, etc. I think I arrived at 8 a.m. last year and got a decent parking space and a decent seat near where my son's squadron would be lined up. But there were definitely people already there. If you can get a very early morning flight into Colorado Springs, I guess it could be doable to fly in (by 7ish?) and out the same day. You will definitely have time after the festivities of A Day to fly out, as the squadrons will have briefings and other commitments that afternoon--I left by 1 pm-ish so my son could walk me out and be back for a 1:30 briefing.

Thank you so much... I just found a flight forr $ 258 gets me in and out same day! I will only have to miss 1 day of work and wont have to miss this important day
 
WebGuy (it's an AOG thing you definitely want to join) just posted on Facebook important summer dates -- and he says Acceptance Parade is Tues, Aug 7. The past 3 years it was the Wed prior to classes starting.

So -- not sure what the real date is, but right now I'd put my money on what WebGuy says.

That said -- not sure I'd be putting out any money on A-day or PW just yet. Get them to BCT and through the first week at least. I know it's cheaper now, but unless you have refundable everything, you could be out some $$.
 
A quick update--webguy has just posted on his blog that Acceptance Day is August 7 this year, with classes starting Aug. 9. So the schedule is a little different than in the past.

Sorry, just realized that greentrees posted this already!
 
Ill admit I haven't read every post on here, but I just wanted to throw out that the decision needs to be in the hands of the incoming cadet. I know my mom wanted to come out with me, but I said no. I knew that saying goodbye at the airport would allow me to focus better and not be feeling homesick/sad when I needed to be worrying about the million and one things you have to learn on I day.
 
Lone traveler, too...

Hello...Our son just got the call last week and, at this point, he will be traveling alone. It would be great if there was something planned upon the cadets' arrival to do the night before but that's just "mom talking and worried"...ha! This is an adventure for all of us and as a "newbie" I LOVE this forum.....:thumb:
 
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