Just received a call from my daughter yesterday, she was in week 5 and found out that she is being reverted 2 weeks back to week 3. Honestly, neither my wife or I were too surprised. We kept explaining to her that sleeping in until 10:00 or 11:00 prior to basic was probably not a good strategy. The reason for her reversion was that she fell asleep in the head. Our advice to her was "So what?", just keep at it and graduate. She is fortunate that she is a fairly athletic kid and is probably going ok with the required academic and physical requirements. I suspect the areas she is struggling with is are the reduced sleep and increased stress. Of course she informed us that she has never hated anyone as much as she hated her CC, I just laughed at this one. I am confident that she will learn and grow from this experience and realize that there is a very deliberate method to the training.

I'll write to her!

Oh that's not good at all. But I do like parents with a suck it up buttercup attitude. No molly coddling, tell her as it is. I'll write to her, encouragement of course. But I do love your approach.

Mbeltows. She must now be in my son's company. He is in his third week. I will write her some words of encouragement, if you like. You can PM me her info and I will write.

Week 5 is a tough week. FYI 23% of my sons Company either quit or were reverted.

WOW! We knew it was tough when she went in but I think it was a real wake-up call for her. I just hope she learned from the experience and makes adjustments. I think she has the basic skills to get through and the fatigue is something you can condition yourself for (ask anyone that has brought a newborn baby home). At 18 years old it is her first REAL challenge in life and it will take some adapting.

Falling asleep in the head is actually really common. We had people who would fall asleep standing up in the back of class. There's no way to prepare for the level of exhaustion you experience at boot camp. By the end, though, you learn to deal with it.

Keep encouraging your daughter and remind her that 95% of the battle is mental.

Just spoke with my son.  He has just been reverted for the second time.  This time he says mom I don't want to do this anymore.  The first thing I said to him is did you pass the test for the pushups, the last time he told me he missed by 2 pushups, this time he says he missed by 10.  Now he says he doesn't want to do this anymore, so I said give me a good reason why, and he couldn't come up with anything.  I said Cody you need to do whatever they want you to do to pass the test.  I know he can do it but I told him that he needs to put his head in the right place or else it will not happen.  I told him he hasn't come this far to just give up.  Again, I asked him to give me a good reason why he doesn't want to do it, and he didn't say anything.  I told him to just get it done and that we loved him and then he had to go.  I just want to cry because I know he can do it, but only if he keeps his head in the right place.  You know how when your kids are little and they something and then say they don't want to do this anymore and you try to teach them that sometimes you just need to stick with it, like when he and his sister started Tae Kwon Do at 4years old and then when several kids were stopping and my kids both said we are going to stop and I said no you are going to continue we don't just stop things.  Then later you wonder if you are doing it for yourself or for them and you are driving home and they are in the back seat and they are talking about did you see how high I kicked and did you see how I nailed it. And you say to yourself thank you lord because you know that you are in fact trying to help them to meet their potential.  

Well I am feeling like I wish I could be there to keep telling him to stick it out, but at this point all I can do is hope that he makes the right decision.  I know that he can do it all he needs is the right encouragement.  We live in the caribbean and so I haven't written any letters to him because I know it will probably not get there in time.  But I am saying prayers every day.I am just wondering how many times someone can get deferred?  If anyone knows.  Thanks,

If he quits now everytime something that is difficult in his life he will quit at that also. Hang in there MOM he will make it. He will look back at this experience as a great teacher in life.

It is very hard to not be there to help our kids, but it is time to let go. Have faith in the system and the USCG and I promise you they will come back stronger, smarter and more dedicated than when they left. Keep the prayers and letters coming and trust in the process. Good luck to ALL of them, they need our support.