What your SR is doing this week.
The First Night. Within the first 24 hours of the recruits' arrival to Recruit Training Command (RTC), Great Lakes, your SR has already begun transforming from civilians into Sailors. They will endure a long night, homesickness, frustration, and confusion while striving to follow basic orders from the moment they board the bus en route to the base.
Each year, approximately 39,000 recruits arrive for eight weeks of training at the Navy's only boot camp. Many do not realize the amount of in-processing they will complete during their first night.
In-processing Day (P-days) - "P-days" - start immediately after the 14-day quarantine and can last at least five working days long. It can be longer if there are not enough recruits to form a division. Recruit's can be delayed up to 5-10 days - so if you don't receive a letter don't worry - it will come soon.
"P-hold" - If you're on P-hold it is because you will be waiting for more people to arrive, so you have a full division. "P-day" and "P-Hold" do not count as being in boot camp." These days do not count towards your eight weeks of training. These are just "dead days". Once you have a full division, you will start your P-days.
First Call. When the SR arrives to boot camp, they are allowed to call home to let somebody know they are safe. This is an extremely short phone call (about 30 seconds). If your SR hasn't left yet, make sure they have and a couple of phone numbers in case the first choice is not at home. If you don't receive a phone call, you will within a few days.
Family members may see social media posts from SR's receiving phone calls. Don't get discouraged; your call is coming soon.
The Recruit Training Command (RTC) public affair's office posts random photos of the recruits over the nine weeks of training. Our amazing Facebook admin will repost in our group's Album. Unfortunately, RTC doesn't label the photos by DIV/SHIP - so you will need to hunt for your loved one's image.
The Ditty Bag. Deciding what to wear each day is no longer a problem. Soon after the night of arrival, recruits exchange a rainbow of colorful civilian attire for the standardized bright yellow physical training (PT) shirt, blue shorts, socks, and gym shoes.
Recruits make their way through their ditty bag issues, a large room filled with oversized bins that contain PT gear, sweats, hygiene items & towels.
Writing to your SR. Upon completing P-Days the SRs are assigned to their DIV and SHIP, which in turn establishes their mailing address. RTC will send out a form letter to the primary contact of the SR with the mailing address, as well as other information regarding training and graduation. See Writing your First letter.
Send a Monday motivation with our new postcard MondayDelivery.com program - make sure your recruit starts their week out right.