Signing in on I-Day

My son is our "baby"; yea all 6 foot whatever football player baby. But he is the youngest and last of the kids at home. When my daughter left for school, I knew she could come home any time she wanted; or we could visit. At the academy, it's pretty much good bye.

As for the Navy having better closure with the parents; the air force is similar. If you want to bring your son/daughter, you can. As I mentioned, I went with him all the way up to pretty much where he started his processing and getting on the bus. You have up until something like 11:00am to get there. We did breakfast in the morning. If you went to orientation and stayed with a cadet, they sometimes met you there prior to in-processing to help out. If you're an athlete, a lot of the teams who have been in contact with you for a while will have a pre-inprocessing get together for the cadets and parents. It works out fine.

As for the medical shots; just make sure everything in your package is up to date before you get there. Make sure you have your shot records. Make 2 copies of EVERYTHING. 3 copies if it's something you mailed the academy. Bring a copy of EVERYTHING and leave a copy of everything with your parents. My son received 1 shot during BCT in-processing. Everything else was up to date per the instructions. Remember; especially us guys; this is one of those times where you REALLY WANT TO READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!!!! We can put the swing set, stereo cabinet, lawn mower, etc... together without reading the instructions. WE ARE MEN!!!! But trust me here; if you follow ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS given to you, BCT and inprocessing in a breeze.
 
yep: they didnt have the copy of my immunizations that i sent to them (and they confirmed that they received, but it got lost somewhere) and they wanted to give me all of my shots again. luckily i had a copy and didnt get a single shot that day.... most people werent so lucky
 
Why do you think he's screen hame is H-Needle. LOL!!! Sorry, had to go there.

Hneedle; you done did good. You learned first hand. When you get into the real air force after graduating, don't forget that valuable lesson. Not just with immunizations. Once you have your first apartment, house, etc... buy a 2 drawer file cabinet. ($30). When the military gives you ANY PAPERWORK that requires a signature, and most everything else, they usually give you a copy. Keep the copy. Put it in the file cabinet. Maybe sorted by year, or by base stationed at, or by type; e.g. immunizations, pay, travel, orders, etc... You should start doing that even at the academy, even though there's not that much paper yet.

My biggest headache was when I was bouncing around working in Ecuador, Panama, Hondurus, and other places near by. I did this for almost 4 years. They mis-payed me in many areas concerning "ADVANCED PAY". (Suggestion: Never take money from the military in ADVANCE if you don't need to. Paying it back is a PITA). But I was living in areas that had no way of getting my money to live on, so I took it in advance from the pay. Well, long story short, between paying that back, per diem, travel pay, etc... after 4 years it was a mess. When I finally move to my next base in Spain; my first paycheck was exactly $0.43 Yup FORTY-THREE CENTS. After checking with finance, they said I wouldn't be getting a paycheck for 3 months (6 paydays). Or if I NEEDED money I could take advances (AGAIN) or change the payback to half, and get half pay for 6 months (12 paydays). Well, it took an all day (5 hour) get together with finance, sq commander, and anyone else I could find. But I finally found all the paperwork to straighten it all out. Of course, once that was cleared up, I had fun getting the air force to reimburse the remaining part of my $0.43 paycheck. That took another 4 weeks.

OK; back on topic. Keep every bit of paperwork you have. Follow the instructions on sending it in. Make a copy of EVERYTHING they sent you in the packets and bring it WITH YOU. Sit back and watch being get stabbed while you worry about other things. later... mike.....
 
Oath parade - day after Inprocessing

mdanderson said:
Up until now I assumed that induction was handled similarly at all the SA's. S has dual appointments to USNA and USAFA and is in the process of making a decision. I-day definitely different at Navy--parents end witnessing actually induction following processing. My nephew is a mid--his parents said it gave them a sense of closure--no such ceremony at Air Force?
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Yes, there is a ceremony, but it is the next day. The morning after Inprocessing, there is a parade and a public oath ceremony with the new basics arranged by squadron (So find out which squadron your cadet is in when he/she reports on I-Day, and then find out where on the field that squadron will be lined up). Parents, etc. can watch from the chapel wall. Many bring signs, balloons, wear bright shirts, etc. in the hopes their cadet will spot them up there. (Note: Some cadets would be embarrassed by this, worried about any "extra attention" it might give them, and are so focused on doing what they are supposed to be doing that they may not even look up there). You have to get there very early if you want to actually be able to see, since the crowd ends up several deep at the chapel wall.
 
My sons had all their innoculations in the few weeks before I-Day since we don't vaccinate for anything here at home. Their arms were pretty sore in May, but I think they had to get only a hepatitis shot on I-Day, and they said they were so busy, they hardly noticed it.

My friend in the army had to get the anthrax bolus (sp?), which is the size of a gumball, put in his behind, where it dissolved over the course of a couple weeks. He said that one really hurt. I know the incoming cadets don't get that at I-Day - thanks be!

They also took all their paperwork in duplicate. Didn't want any mix-ups, especially any twin mix-ups, which are pretty common.
 
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