Post-A-Day Items to Bring

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Civilian3

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I’m shopping for post A-day items. Before BCT started, a mattress pad was on the top of my DD’s list. Can anyone recommend a mattress pad that is easy for a C4C to manage in light of bed checks?

Are there any other items that I should be looking for?
 
Will you be attending Parents Weekend? We did all the shopping with our cadet over parents weekend. The nice thing about getting items then is that you can help carry things back to the cadet room.

My son did not want a mattress topper because he had no space to store it (he was in a 3 person room). He wanted a pillow, blanket, a computer monitor, new underwear, and snacks.
 
I will reiterate what Wolfpack said. For A-Day we only brought our son his iPad, AirPods, sunglasses, and some small Tupperware containers to store food. It all fit in a smaller reusable bag. Your cadet will have to carry everything to her room by herself at the end of A-Day, so small is key there. On parent’s weekend we went shipping with our DS and he wanted headphones, computer monitor, keyboard, and snacks. The mattress topper went off the list. And we could help our son take that stuff back to his room. Once your daughter gets to her room for Fall, she will have a better idea of her actual needs and if you can take her shopping over Parent’s Weekend, that is the much better option.
 
I also packed a small bag of allowed meds and toiletries. My son never took much medication at home so isn’t familiar with what to take when. He was sick quite a bit last Fall. “Jacks hack” hangs around a while. I directed him to the bag. And then this summer, he’s had really bad allergies. Claritin was in the bag. Haven’t tried mucinex yet, but may suggest that to him.

As for what to bring, I have also heard the toppers are hard to store. My son wanted a sleeping bag and later on requested a pillow.
 
Good: decorative storage fabric "bin" , from target/Walmart . A 4 or 6 pack . Anything loose like bottles or earphones have to be organized perfectly for inspection unless placed in catch-all bins on their desk top shelf.

Bad: No fabric that pills!! Cheap covers / blankets or fleeces. Watch out!
 
Usafa’27Mom said:
I also packed a small bag of allowed meds and toiletries. My son never took much medication at home so isn’t familiar with what to take when. He was sick quite a bit last Fall. “Jacks hack” hangs around a while. I directed him to the bag. And then this summer, he’s had really bad allergies. Claritin was in the bag. Haven’t tried mucinex yet, but may suggest that to him.

As for what to bring, I have also heard the toppers are hard to store. My son wanted a sleeping bag and later on requested a pillow.
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Mucinex helped clear the lingering Jack's Hack for our cadet.

Mine also just used a sleeping bag.
 
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Another thing to consider purchasing during Parent's weekend (if allowed) is a small tabletop humidifier. The air is so dry that nose bleeds are a common issue, especially during the winter.
 
Sebship said:
Maybe… your cadet will only get 2 personal items, so that would be up to your cadet. They will know better by parent’s weekend what they need and want.
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Fans don't count as personal items, so a box fan shouldn't be a problem, highly recommend as dorm AC is not the greatest. In terms of the recommendation of the first aid kit, on the meds side, your cadet should be able to get many OTC meds free at the pharmacy, so that's a good idea to check in with them on first.
 
Talk to your cadet first as they really only need one box fan per room.... My DD was in a 3 man so one of us got the box fan, one got something else and one got another item. They had an IC athlete in their room so they had a fridge. The one item my DD wanted most was an iPad, Apple pencil and Good Notes app for taking notes in class as well as air pod pros (she loved the noise canceling feature). that has been her absolute favorite item she has gotten.

They do need to watch their stuff. She has had some items. stolen. We are on the 3rd set of RayBans. So make sure they keep up with their stuff. They need to not leave stuff out as it will walk unfortunately. That was a hard lesson to learn - this is not the Academy of old.
 
USAFAmom3 said:
Talk to your cadet first as they really only need one box fan per room.... My DD was in a 3 man so one of us got the box fan, one got something else and one got another item. They had an IC athlete in their room so they had a fridge. The one item my DD wanted most was an iPad, Apple pencil and Good Notes app for taking notes in class as well as air pod pros (she loved the noise canceling feature). that has been her absolute favorite item she has gotten.

They do need to watch their stuff. She has had some items. stolen. We are on the 3rd set of RayBans. So make sure they keep up with their stuff. They need to not leave stuff out as it will walk unfortunately. That was a hard lesson to learn - this is not the Academy of old.
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There are 15,000 applicants and someone would have the gall to steal? Unreal. And the penalties for getting caught are dire!
 
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USAFAmom3 said:
Talk to your cadet first as they really only need one box fan per room.... My DD was in a 3 man so one of us got the box fan, one got something else and one got another item. They had an IC athlete in their room so they had a fridge. The one item my DD wanted most was an iPad, Apple pencil and Good Notes app for taking notes in class as well as air pod pros (she loved the noise canceling feature). that has been her absolute favorite item she has gotten.

They do need to watch their stuff. She has had some items. stolen. We are on the 3rd set of RayBans. So make sure they keep up with their stuff. They need to not leave stuff out as it will walk unfortunately. That was a hard lesson to learn - this is not the Academy of old.
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That last part was disappointing to read.

In the early 1990’s, our doors were open for the morning inspection period (AMI) from when we left for morning meal formation right before 7AM up until we returned back to the cadet squadron / our rooms to get prepared for / dressed for noon meal formation. When we left for noon meal formation, then all the doors were closed.

I / we never had a problem with stuff disappearing.

Sometime after I graduated (June of 1994) but before January 1995, all the cadet room doors had been outfitted with deadbolts.

But it does lead me to my next post….
 
Sherman64 said:
There are 15,000 applicants and someone would have the gall to steal? Unreal. And the penalties for getting caught are dire!
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Pardon me for yet another “back in my day” post, but in the early 1990’s there were civilian janitors, contractors, who would clean the halls in the dorms in the morning. Like I said above, our doors were open from 7AM until noon.

So if USAFA still has civilian janitors roaming the halls, that is one possibility for items getting stolen or going missing. It doesn’t necessarily have to be cadets.
 
ZoomieFrom1994 said:
Pardon me for yet another “back in my day” post, but in the early 1990’s there were civilian janitors, contractors, who would clean the halls in the dorms in the morning. Like I said above, our doors were open from 7AM until noon.

So if USAFA still has civilian janitors roaming the halls, that is one possibility for items getting stolen or going missing. It doesn’t necessarily have to be cadets.
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I think if it is a cadet it is the very rare one - I believe that 99.9% are honest and good people. Like everywhere its the .1% that ruin it.....I hope my post did not read like I thought badly of cadets. I just think the cadets have a false sense of security sometimes.....
 
I totally agree with the false sense of security part. Living and…well….let’s be brutally honest here, growing up on “The Hill” really does insulate cadets from such things.

And no, your did not read like that.
 
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