Parent planning questions

Last year on I Day, we got there early, around 7:30 a.m. (no appts. last year, just showed up between the given times, I believe 7 to noon or so?). Biggest things at Doolittle Hall for me were talking to an academic advisor (didn't end up being my son's) who explained all the resources available if a cadet struggles academically (luckily he hasn't needed these so far!), finding out his squadron and lanyard color (although it sounds like this year you already know), being able to deposit a little money to my son's new checking account (bank will have a table there) "just in case" (one last gift, haven't had to give him any money since), meeting the ladies from Cadet Treats (who will send yummy goodies to your cadet when they need a treat) and talking to a few alumni for their perspective.

After my son went up the stairs, we watched until he came out and went across the bridge and got on the bus. We were feeling pretty blue by then, and went to the visitor center/gift shop to try and spend our way out of our depression! :shake: Then we went to the picnic sponsored by the Colorado parents club that scraper mentioned. There we met many parents of other cadets in our son's squadron, which was nice, but we honestly weren't in too much of a socializing mood so we didn't stay too long. There really isn't anything else organized for parents to do, not that there should be as the Academy is busy with In-processing.

We did not stay for the swearing in, mainly because we needed to get back home for jobs etc. I sometimes wish we could have stayed, but we looked through all the webguy photos (and spotted our son amazingly!) and that helped us get a sense of what went on that day.
 
AFAYahoo said:
After my son went up the stairs, we watched until he came out and went across the bridge and got on the bus.
Click to expand...

How many minutes was it from the time your DS went up the stairs until he was on the bus?
 
That took about half an hour. You can't talk to them, they can see you and you can see them, but at that point, they belong to the AF.
 
We did the same things AFAYahoo did on I-Day (except it was 2 years ago.) I was an emotional basketcase at Doolittle while Cris was fine. ( bring dark glasses and kleenex!!!) We shopped and enjoyed the picnic hosted by the Colorado Parents Club. We then spent about 2-3 hours on the chapel wall watching and hearing activity near Mitchell and Sijan Halls. (Bring binoculars!!!) Every few minutes groups of 2 to 6 basics would be escorted across the T-zo by cadre. The basics all sported brand new haircuts, fatigues, boots, and were carrying a heavy duffle bag...some were struggling. Cris wasn't going to leave until she saw our son walk by....an act which I was sure was futile until, lo and behold, there he was, walking in a line of five basics, looking hot and mostly miserable. With that we left the campus, had a nice dinner and kept asking ourselves, "I wonder what's going on up there". The next day we got to the chapel wall around 7:30am and picked a spot near where we anticipated his squadron would line up. (If I recall...A is near Sijan and J is near Vandenberg when they line up for swearing in.) Again, bring binoculars and a sign or balloon or something that your son or daughter might be able to spot is a tip. (Obviously let them know ahead that you'll have a red balloon or something like that.) On that day I was fine, Cris however,...waterworks.
 
USAF463 said:
How many minutes was it from the time your DS went up the stairs until he was on the bus?
Click to expand...

Devildog is probably right--30 min. sounds about right. Once our son went up the stairs, we waited by the other inside staircase where the basics come down (pretty quickly) before going outside. We couldn't hug him or talk to him when he came down, but gave him a last wave and smile before he went outside (this is to an area where only basics and AOG staff will be). Outside, the basics will listen to an AOG member give them a talk about the meaning of walking over the bridge etc., then they take the walk across the bridge (stand by the wall outside where you came in to watch), gather their bookbags from where they first left them, and while cadre are watching and correcting, get in line to get on a bus. Our son happened to be by a window on the bus, so we could see him as the bus circled around before it headed to the cadet area. He wasn't looking (I'm sure they had been "instructed" to not look anywhere but forward) but we could see him looking a bit nervous. That didn't help! But we got through it, and so will all of you! It will get better!
 
Thanks!

Thanks AFAYahoo, MikeandCris, CC, DDog, and everyone for your info! It's so helpful to be able to picture what will happen.

It's getting so close to I Day now. I want to wish all the new Basic Cadets in the Class of 2016 the best of luck, including profsparrow's DS, howacupcake, and the couple of DSs going to USMA I know through their parents.

There are GREAT things going on every day at the SAs that don't make it to the newspapers. Focus on the good! Work hard and be proud to stand in your humble place in the long blue (or gray) line . . .

See you all at Falcon Stadium!!
 
Put my 2nd LT on the plane yesterday morning, off on a 3 week trip with other grads and almost-grads, and was reminded that it was almost four years ago exactly that I put him on that morning flight, with his twin, to Dallas, then on to COS.

What a change in those four years! So adult, so mature, so determined and self-assured. He thought he was all those things in 2008.
 
Timing of "going up the steps" and getting onto the bus will probably work differently this year -- since Squadrons and specific report times for each group of Basics have been distributed. This should (may) mean that groups are moved upstairs and processed in more predictable groups than in the past. Assuming that the idea is to move each group through in a group and get them to the various "after bus" things that need to be done as a group, the transition from "going up the stairs" to entering the bus may be quicker than the 30 minutes parents experienced in the past.
 
Best of luck to the Class of 2016 Appointees and families. My DS is now a Firstie, in the Class of 2013. It feels like yesterday when we watched our son walk up the stairs at in-processing. Here is an old post that I dug up about our experiences just a few short years ago.

************

The day before I-day, my son flew out on an UAFA 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 delay 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 (now three years 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.

************

Its so hard to believe he is now a Firstie. What a great three years it has been. The experiences will last us a lifetime. In that time he talked me into going skydiving, for a sail plane ride over the Rockies, and a whole lot of other really neat things when we get to Colorado with him. Again, best of luck 2016. Take it one day at a time, meal to meal if you have to.

Bill
 
Excellent post bill. Our adventure with the aog, bus, A-day, parents weekend, etc was similar. Only big difference was I-day. We live about 2 hours away. We drove our son to the academy. It was probably the fastest 2 hours with family and yet the quietest we ever had. Barely a word was spoken the entire drive. He just graduated 4 weeks ago and it seems like yesterday that we dropped him off. We are getting old. Best of luck. Mike.
 
After graduation, he went back to New Jersey to see the rest of the clan who couldn't make it out to graduation. Then he, and 6 others in his class met up in Anchorage to a classmate's house. Did the salmon and halibut fishing thing. Most of them have left for further vacationing. Jeremy and 2 others still in Anchorage are catching a HOP out of elmendorf and heading to Hawaii. Then possibly other pacific places. He gets back to Cheyenne around the 11th of July. He'll stay until the 23rd. Then he's driving to Los Angeles via albuquerque and phoenix to visit family and friends. Should be arriving in Santa Monica around the 27th-28th. Then it's getting settled in to wherever he's going to live, and I believe school doesn't start until September. But he needs to be there by the 27th. Busy time for sure. later... mike....
 
Mike (Christcorp), thanks. I have been following your posts for the last few years. Excellent wisdom and you helped us all through this process. Still need to meet make it a point to stop by Thudgate this year and finally meet you. Definitely planning on the PW game, Navy, and maybe another one.

Thanks again for all your advice to us,
Bill
 
Thank u for the.very kind words. Definitely looking forward to seeing all of u who can come to parents weekend and thudgate. And remember, this forum is so valuable not just because of the posts of some, but by all. Each year, the academies and the process changes slightly. New applicants, c4c, parents, etc all bring valuable information for the next class. So while I appreciate your kind words, i'd like to thank you and every poster on this forum. Collectively is why this forum is such a success. see u soon.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top