Mail Call for Basics

Below is a link to an organization that can help you ensure your basic receives letters. For those who have difficulty finding time to hand-write letters on a consistent basis, you can email them letters. The program allows for family, friends, etc. to be included so you can ensure your DD/DS is not lacking in letters to read since they will not have their phones, computers, etc. for six weeks.

We learned about this through the parents' club and local AOG.

http://www.write2them.org

And the processing is very fast - within 24 hours and delivered the next day (so said the confirmation). Good thing about this service is you can write on the fly with your smart phone, tablets, etc. Random thoughts and spur of the moments notes. I believe it is 8 pages per day.

During I-Day, we talked to some upper class cadets and they all recommended to write often. They said it's very encouraging and helped with the BCT challenges. Other parents suggested not to write "I miss you" kinda tone. Don't want the Cadets to feel homesick anymore than they are already are. Makes sense. Lots of jokes and good humor theme.

I believe it is money well spent.

(Yes, my family also write the snail mail route.)

Recommend that you # your envelopes as several can arrive at the same time. Also be advised that invariably some Basics will not receive their mail in a timely manner (causing them to think you didn't write). From personal experience, our DD would send us letters pleading us to write when, in fact, we were writing every day, & she wasn't getting any at all. Even write2them wasn't getting through. There even was a WebGuy picture of her holding up an envelope saying please write...I was heartbroken... contacted Parent Liaison to no avail... eventually she did get our letters. I guess that's the way it goes...

DH has been writing via email every day. I sure hope most of them get through to DD in a reasonable amount of time.

We have been writing my son every day, using both write2them and regular mail. He should be getting at least one letter from both my wife and I each every day, but when he called on July 4 he only received 2 letters from us. And we have only received one letter from him. This is at West Point btw.

I would love to receive some confirmation that the write2them letters are getting received. I get an email saying it was sent, but nothing thereafter.

I believe the package that I purchased from write2them was a monthly plan that gave me six letters per week. It cost $30, but isn't unlimited letters. I'm just hoping it is working.

Do others have experience with this program at USMA Beast?

My DS is doing the BCT at USAFA. We send 2-4 letters everyday both snail mails and Write2Them. DS recieved only 1 letter 6 days into BCT. I live 50miles away.

Write2Them may or may not be local. All emails to them are converted, batched and "sent" off. I believe they post stamped the mails and processed through the postal service like the snail mails. I thought they would be hand delivered to the Academy

Mails to and from cadets seem to be slow. Many parents are saying that cadets have to "earn" the mail privilege. Many parents are not happy about mails. Many, like me, sent multiple mails and cadets are not getting them. Parents who received mails are saying that all their DS/DD are asking for mails....keep them coming. Just sucks that Cadres are using mails as "privileges". Prayers to all young men and women......

We never write. Occasionally, I send him a box of homemade goodies and include all the snail mail that has collected for him here. We know he's busy and not missing us anywhere near how we miss him. He calls when he can and has something important or interesting to tell us, like what he blew up today or how incredible it is to fire a machine gun, but we leave communication up to him. Last year, he warned us not to worry about communication during Beast as he did not want to give the cadre any more power over him than they already have (the Yak taught him about letter privileges beforehand) and, heaven forbid, do not send care packages as the cadre would just eat the contents in front of him.

My feeling is that the army is trying to make adults out of our kids and would probably prefer that we just leave them alone while they do it.

With my DD, the Cadre were not holding up the mail, it rarely got to them. The USPS office at USAFA is the chokepoint. Approx. 4K cadets plus permanent staff and civilian academic staff adds up to a lot of mail for an understaffed postal facility whose employees, understandably, are not invested. Ask your cadet how many postal workers they see when they pick up their mail. They should let the cadets run it. Just the Basic mail during the summer. The only direction it could go is up. Lots of leadership/responsibilities there.

DS4Duty said:

My DS is doing the BCT at USAFA. We send 2-4 letters everyday both snail mails and Write2Them. DS recieved only 1 letter 6 days into BCT. I live 50miles away.

Write2Them may or may not be local. All emails to them are converted, batched and "sent" off. I believe they post stamped the mails and processed through the postal service like the snail mails. I thought they would be hand delivered to the Academy

Mails to and from cadets seem to be slow. Many parents are saying that cadets have to "earn" the mail privilege. Many parents are not happy about mails. Many, like me, sent multiple mails and cadets are not getting them. Parents who received mails are saying that all their DS/DD are asking for mails....keep them coming. Just sucks that Cadres are using mails as "privileges". Prayers to all young men and women......

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I can't remember where I just saw it, an email maybe, but write2them confirmed they hand deliver letters to USAFA. I know mine get to my basic much faster than his get to me (he asked about two letters he's sent on DDO that we still haven't gotten yet....were on the east coast). But he did mention his frustration that depending on the flight and cadre the basics don't get to the mailroom every day. It may be a few days in between when they can actually pick it up. But he responds (in his letters) to things I've said in mine, so I know he's getting them.