Suggestion for Parents attending I Day

rkv

5-Year Member
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Dec 24, 2015
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For parents who are accompanying your appointee to I Day, I would strongly recommend bringing binoculars and a digital camera with a powerful telephoto lens. I really wished I had rented more powerful binoculars and digital camera with a high power telephoto lens. I tried renting one while we were in Colorado Springs but the places I spoke with needed a few days notice. If you're renting you should tell them that you want to be able to see a face at 300 to 500 yards. In actuality, you'll be looking for the lanyard and name tag hanging around their necks. They are color coded for each squadron so you can readily identify groups which may contain your child.

When your DS or DD departs on the bus, my suggestion would be to head to the Chapel wall. With binoculars and telephoto lenses you actually can watch the beginnings of their transformation. It's a bit like watching paint dry in that it will be several hours between your appointee coming up the ramp and being transformed into a basic marching across the terrazzo with duffel bag in tow. However, it was interesting for a non-military family to see the process at a distance. We did catch several glimpses of our DS and had a better idea of what he was doing that day.

If you leave the drop off point when your appointee gets on the bus, don't forget to take note of the color of the card hanging from the lanyard, you should be able to make it to the visitor center parking lot and chapel wall prior to your child coming up the ramp. In our case we were helped by our DS having to wait for several attempts before they let him go up the ramp. In terms of sighting them coming up the ramp, it will help if their clothes are distinctive but not necessarily loud enough to attract the attention of the cadre. In our case, a shirt which had four inch wide rugby like stripes was enough for us to be able to easily pick him out prior to his being in uniform. After that we had to rely on lanyard card colors to identify groups where we had to inspect individual faces. Note, it does take time. So you will need to be very patient. We had his siblings with us. So they would periodically go off to Arnold Hall for food and drinks while we stood watch at the wall.

In our case our drop off time was early, so we still had plenty of time to visit the Colorado Parent's Club picnic/barbeque and shop at the AOG and Visitors Center shops later in the day. So the practicality of this may depend on your childs report time. Also, note the binoculars and telephoto lens will also come in handy the following morning for the swearing in ceremony.
 
For parents who are accompanying your appointee to I Day, I would strongly recommend bringing binoculars and a digital camera with a powerful telephoto lens. I really wished I had rented more powerful binoculars and digital camera with a high power telephoto lens. I tried renting one while we were in Colorado Springs but the places I spoke with needed a few days notice. If you're renting you should tell them that you want to be able to see a face at 300 to 500 yards. In actuality, you'll be looking for the lanyard and name tag hanging around their necks. They are color coded for each squadron so you can readily identify groups which may contain your child.

When your DS or DD departs on the bus, my suggestion would be to head to the Chapel wall. With binoculars and telephoto lenses you actually can watch the beginnings of their transformation. It's a bit like watching paint dry in that it will be several hours between your appointee coming up the ramp and being transformed into a basic marching across the terrazzo with duffel bag in tow. However, it was interesting for a non-military family to see the process at a distance. We did catch several glimpses of our DS and had a better idea of what he was doing that day.

If you leave the drop off point when your appointee gets on the bus, don't forget to take note of the color of the card hanging from the lanyard, you should be able to make it to the visitor center parking lot and chapel wall prior to your child coming up the ramp. In our case we were helped by our DS having to wait for several attempts before they let him go up the ramp. In terms of sighting them coming up the ramp, it will help if their clothes are distinctive but not necessarily loud enough to attract the attention of the cadre. In our case, a shirt which had four inch wide rugby like stripes was enough for us to be able to easily pick him out prior to his being in uniform. After that we had to rely on lanyard card colors to identify groups where we had to inspect individual faces. Note, it does take time. So you will need to be very patient. We had his siblings with us. So they would periodically go off to Arnold Hall for food and drinks while we stood watch at the wall.

In our case our drop off time was early, so we still had plenty of time to visit the Colorado Parent's Club picnic/barbeque and shop at the AOG and Visitors Center shops later in the day. So the practicality of this may depend on your childs report time. Also, note the binoculars and telephoto lens will also come in handy the following morning for the swearing in ceremony.



Thank you! Great info. Didn't know you could rent high-powered binoculars. I will have to look into that. Where did you rent from?
 
... Didn't know you could rent high-powered binoculars. I will have to look into that. Where did you rent from?

The problem was that we brought our low powered binoculars we used for hiking. You definitely can rent binoculars. Some camera rental shops rent them. **REMOVED**

**REMOVED**
 
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