2 letters from Beast

AirsoftRanger

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2 letters from DS arrived 3 and 4 days after mailing (but we live in the boondocks and guaranteed overnight delivery always takes 2 days).
The hardest part of Beast so far for DS was getting yelled at by a woman. He had to try very hard not to laugh. He was in trouble 5 times.
First, for crossing ' a red tape' right after exiting the '3 hour air conditioned cushy amphitheater talk' (which we did not attend) with the 2021 class and rounding the corner where parents could not see what happens,
Second for staying up too late,
Third, for getting up too early... !!!
Fourth, he packed too much stuff (28 # ), and so he had to carry a box for 20 minutes.
5th, he was looking at uniforms and buildings.... ("...but they are cool!")

Apparently he really needs a credit card.
We set up his USAA account, but he did not have the password.
Math placement tests were completed but he was advised that since he did not take ap calculus, he might not pass out of it. (He took an online do it yourself state university class as his school had no calculus.)
Issued M4 during the first week, which they must carry all the time.
He asked for pictures, which is confusing to me as instructions were that he could only have one 8x11 pic.
He announced that USMA pays for travel home for holidays (we did not know that).
He was cheated out of 2 pullups ("some girl was holding my ankles...")
Pull up instructor advised him to try out for boxing (Mama was not excited about that).
Church service is nondenominational ("not what I am used to")
PTs are very easy and he "mostly just kind of looks around at people....dips...chinups....a little running...pushups....all easy...".
"My two roommates are great. one went to USMAPS and showed me how to make the bed. He knows everything. We are the best in our squad because we help each other, and we all work really hard."
The atmosphere is precisely identical to his high school - Christian boarding school - "monitored at all times. food just OK, but we had steak once. Many international students. iconic buildings. no happiness allowed...." but "I plan on staying.... at least one year...."
 
"He announced that USMA pays for travel home for holidays (we did not know that)."

Don't count on that. That would be a BIG change from current classes, and can you imagine the cost on top of everything else? USMA does pay for AIAD travel, CTLT, Airborne, etc.
 
Sounds like he misunderstood. If USMA planned to pay for holiday leave, they'd have told everyone, not just New Cadets.
 
2 letters from DS arrived 3 and 4 days after mailing (but we live in the boondocks and guaranteed overnight delivery always takes 2 days).
The hardest part of Beast so far for DS was getting yelled at by a woman. He had to try very hard not to laugh. He was in trouble 5 times.
First, for crossing ' a red tape' right after exiting the '3 hour air conditioned cushy amphitheater talk' (which we did not attend) with the 2021 class and rounding the corner where parents could not see what happens,
Second for staying up too late,
Third, for getting up too early... !!!
Fourth, he packed too much stuff (28 # ), and so he had to carry a box for 20 minutes.
5th, he was looking at uniforms and buildings.... ("...but they are cool!")

Apparently he really needs a credit card.
We set up his USAA account, but he did not have the password.
Math placement tests were completed but he was advised that since he did not take ap calculus, he might not pass out of it. (He took an online do it yourself state university class as his school had no calculus.)
Issued M4 during the first week, which they must carry all the time.
He asked for pictures, which is confusing to me as instructions were that he could only have one 8x11 pic.
He announced that USMA pays for travel home for holidays (we did not know that).
He was cheated out of 2 pullups ("some girl was holding my ankles...")
Pull up instructor advised him to try out for boxing (Mama was not excited about that).
Church service is nondenominational ("not what I am used to")
PTs are very easy and he "mostly just kind of looks around at people....dips...chinups....a little running...pushups....all easy...".
"My two roommates are great. one went to USMAPS and showed me how to make the bed. He knows everything. We are the best in our squad because we help each other, and we all work really hard."
The atmosphere is precisely identical to his high school - Christian boarding school - "monitored at all times. food just OK, but we had steak once. Many international students. iconic buildings. no happiness allowed...." but "I plan on staying.... at least one year...."

Did your son explain what is so funny about being yelled at by a woman - his superior?
 
2 letters from DS arrived 3 and 4 days after mailing (but we live in the boondocks and guaranteed overnight delivery always takes 2 days).
Math placement tests were completed but he was advised that since he did not take ap calculus, he might not pass out of it. (He took an online do it yourself state university class as his school had no calculus.)
FYI - Jedi Math is not for mortals. Even some who did well in AP Calculus B/C find it brain wracking. :blowup:
 
"He announced that USMA pays for travel home for holidays (we did not know that)."

Don't count on that. That would be a BIG change from current classes, and can you imagine the cost on top of everything else? USMA does pay for AIAD travel, CTLT, Airborne, etc.
DS also said that USMA pays for trips home on the weekends. Now I understand .... he was just joking about all that........
 
Did your son explain what is so funny about being yelled at by a woman - his superior?
I am sure DS was amused by the woman yelling at him because he has lived with "Gunnery Sergeant Hartman......Your Senior Drill Instructor.....From now on you will speak only when spoken to.....and the first and last words out of your filthy sewers will be Sir....do you maggots understand that!" for the past 18 years.....
 
FYI - Jedi Math is not for mortals. Even some who did well in AP Calculus B/C find it brain wracking. :blowup:
I am a firm believer that Calculus success is Instructor Dependent. There is a consistent percentage of calculus professors who graduated from the Marquis de Sade school of calculus.
 
Seriously? Why must you look to pick a fight? Twenty five percent ( rounded from 24 point something) are women. A superior is a superior. A new cadet who cannot follow orders from a female superior or treat the woman in his class as equals is losing the support of 1 of 4 classmates. That is unlikely to improve his experience. Sledge, you really shouldn't stereotype either. It is unbecoming
 
Seriously? Why must you look to pick a fight? Twenty five percent ( rounded from 24 point something) are women. A superior is a superior. A new cadet who cannot follow orders from a female superior or treat the woman in his class as equals is losing the support of 1 of 4 classmates. That is unlikely to improve his experience. Sledge, you really shouldn't stereotype either. It is unbecoming
....my daughter says to me ..."I told you...."
Neither I nor DS are picking a fight.
In the iconic movie "Full Metal Jacket", Gunnery Sgt. Hartman has a hard time with one of his recruits, who cannot stop smiling. That scene illustrates a not uncommon response among recruits to any boot camp scenario. (For those interested, I recommend the censored version of this scene.) and other posters to this forum have commented on this same response at the USMA.
**REMOVED**
but how did "hard time not laughing" transmogrify into "cannot follow orders"??? The synaptic mapping of this might be found on Pubmed!
DS seems quite happy to be at WP. He is, however, shall we say, not a huge fan of certain mandated recruiting goals. His descriptions given so far give me pause to my sleeping soundly at night ("We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm").
If i wanted to pick a fight, I might choose to discuss Madison, or the proper pronunciation of Tarawa, or 21 years in Leavenworth, or the censoring of medical helping hands on this forum.....
 
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This is such a great forum. It's too bad people feel the need to belittle others that have committed themselves to such an honorable purpose.
 
It is a great forum and we should all remember that we don't need to take it so seriously. AirsoftRanger was simply relaying what his son told him in his letter. AirsoftRanger doesn't need to defend his son's words because they are not his own. So everyone lighten up and carry on without the barbs against other posters.

Stealth_81
 
We don't always have to post what we here. If you do, then it should be fair game for respectful criticism.
 
I was at mock Rday this year and I got yelled at by a number of cadets during the day. After all, that was part of the reason for mock Rday - to practice yelling and being stern. It definitely does not come naturally to all and I found that only some of the cadets were very convincing when they yelled. Others - not so much. In fact, some were really awful at it - they did not convey an aura of authority and so you wanted to smile because it was funny - like watching bad acting. Perhaps this cadet was yelled at by one of these 'less convincing' cadets and this upperclassman just happened to be a female.

We will never know.

Anyway, just relaying my experience which caused me to view this post in a different way.
 
I can completely understand and respect that perspective and would have taken it the same way except for the comment about "mandated recruiting goals" which rubbed me wrong way. I am sure there are female cadre that were pretty effective as well just as there were probably some guys who weren't effective yellers. Anyway, water under the bridge. Moving on.
 
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