RJ's Letter

Jenny, May 18, 2009

Good to hear from you. A lot of talk about God though and barely anything about yourself. What's up? What's new? Looking for a new job hu? What's gonna happen if you don't find one? Do you have a vehicle to get around? Probably just walking everywhere still. Dad thought Boot Camp sounded like Scout Camp. You guys have no idea. Up at 5am to yellong and screaming, "Get up!! You have ten seconds." You gotta jump from bed into shoes and stand at attention. "Lock and load." Push-up position. Then everyone (all 88 of us) have to share 4 sinks and we get a total of 5 min to shave and brush our teeth. Five min, 88 guys, 4 sinks. Yelling, swearing, spitting. Marching everywhere. If Petty Officer gets real mad he throws chairs and flips tables over. He even held a gun to the mouth of a recruit for not holding it correctly. It's brutal. They'll make you do pushups till your eyes bleed for having something in the wrong pocket. I've seen it. Fortunately I'm real good at following directions and "Paying attention to detail." As they say, that's just the morning. I've been here three weeks but it feels like two months. The first week was all paper work so it didn't count so technically were in the middle of week two of eight. I'm sure Band Camp was fun. When we do good we get rewarded with music. I'm strong enough to pass all the physical tests they have.

So what are your plans for the rest of the year besides school and work? How do you like your roommates? Last time you said you never see them. Is that still the case? Have you seen any of the new movies that just came out? Just curious. Well hope to hear from you soon.

Love ya sis

Seaman Recruit Service

RJ-



As some of you know, my brother is in the Navy. Right now he is in boot camp in Illinois and this is the first letter he has written to me. If you have the time or would like to right him I know he doesn't get much mail and any encouragement he can get I know would help him so much.
His address is :

SR Service, RJ Alan
Division 229 Ship 07 USS Chicago
Recruit Training Command
3510 Illinois ST
Great Lakes, IL 60088