My husband is at Boot Camp

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08-10-10, 10:13 AM
jessi337

My husband is at Boot Camp

My husband got to Parris Island last night. I must admit, that call made me cry and made me realize he really will be gone for 3 months.

We have a son (21 months) and a daughter who was born last week. I know the hardest part of Boot Camp for him is to be away from us. I can't wait to get his address to send him letters and pictures of the kids.

I have a couple of questions:

1) While my husband REALLY wants to go Active, the fact that we have 2 kids is keeping him from that. How hard is it to transfer to active after a little while in the reserve? (If it matters, he will me an MP and will be 26 by the time he finishes all training and schooling)

2) If you are a stay at home mom, what do you do help pass the time while your Marine is away?
08-10-10, 11:27 AM
IVIanOnTheIVIov

@1 - As far as going active, I think it would depend largly on what his MOS would be and what the needs of the Marine Corps are. In short, I think it depends and the only true way to get an accurate answer is for your husband to talk to his new parrent command and the monitor.

@2 - I would think being around other stay at home moms would help pass the time and allow you to not only keep your mind off of your husband's absense, but share common problems and even get help doing arbitrary things while your husband is away. So that, in a nut shell, could be a silver lining that you could grab onto if you and your husband decide that it is best to go active. A lot of spouse friends that I have tend to use meetup.com as a way of finding friends when they move to a different area. Almost every area near a Marine Corps base is bound to have a collaberative number of groups that are strictly military spouse related. I know that must sound froggy, but I wouldn't be giving this advice unless I've seen it happen numerous times in the first person.

If you have any more questions or concerns, please feel free to post or PM me. Good luck to you and yours.
08-11-10, 06:51 AM
ringoffire

I really can't answer question 1...but I can say that when my husband enlisted we had one child & his MOS was in Supply, which later he changed to Communications. So I would think going active would depend on the MOS.

Question 2...I agree with IVIan. Believe it or not, you will be busy with everyday things most of the time, especially since your children are so young. But there are groups that get together, for instance the base near me has a "Stroller" walking group. For moms who want some excersize but can't get to the gym because they have babies and no babysitter. As far as making friends, in my expierence wives with young childeren tend to gravitate to one another. As your children become older and get involved in other activities you will meet more people. The Church on base is a great way to meet others. I've met most of my lasting friendships through my childrens activities; Sports, scouts & school.
Hope this helps & I wish you all the best
08-11-10, 01:29 PM
Ramadi01

its hard to go from reserves to active being a E1 - E3 with 3 dependents
08-11-10, 04:36 PM
Admindude

The only time i seen a Marine go active then reserve is when he is about to reenlist. When your Husband finishes boot camp and school training he will get orders to his new duty station. seeing as you guys are married he can receive a free house on base and the Marine Corps will actually pay for you to move with him so why not do that? you would be able to see him everyday and not have to worry about paying bills such as water electric and all that other trash
08-11-10, 05:59 PM
jessi337

Quote:

Originally Posted by Admindude

The only time i seen a Marine go active then reserve is when he is about to reenlist. When your Husband finishes boot camp and school training he will get orders to his new duty station. seeing as you guys are married he can receive a free house on base and the Marine Corps will actually pay for you to move with him so why not do that? you would be able to see him everyday and not have to worry about paying bills such as water electric and all that other trash

He's not going Active then Reserve. He's going directly to reserve. We want him to be Active, but with 3 dependents, it's not allowed.
08-11-10, 06:01 PM
jessi337

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ramadi01

its hard to go from reserves to active being a E1 - E3 with 3 dependents

How long does it normally take for a reservist MP to rank up ;)
08-12-10, 07:52 PM
MeierT

Quote:

Originally Posted by jessi337

My husband got to Parris Island last night. I must admit, that call made me cry and made me realize he really will be gone for 3 months.

We have a son (21 months) and a daughter who was born last week. I know the hardest part of Boot Camp for him is to be away from us. I can't wait to get his address to send him letters and pictures of the kids.

I have a couple of questions:

1) While my husband REALLY wants to go Active, the fact that we have 2 kids is keeping him from that. How hard is it to transfer to active after a little while in the reserve? (If it matters, he will me an MP and will be 26 by the time he finishes all training and schooling)

2) If you are a stay at home mom, what do you do help pass the time while your Marine is away?

He might get a chance to come back on RA after Boot and MCT because MP School tends to be backed up.
08-13-10, 08:33 AM
jessi337

It would be absolutely lovely if he would be put on RA.

:)
08-13-10, 10:44 AM
MeierT

In my opinion it really depends on how backed up the school is. Every Marines goal should be to get to the Fleet as fast as possible. Going on RA can possibly slow down your training.
08-20-10, 09:44 AM
cassandra5

My fiance left for boot camp aug 16. how long does it usually take for them to be able to write letters?
01-25-11, 07:56 PM
TheinBetween

SO Leaving for Bootcamp on Feb. 7th

Okay, not really sure if this is the right forum for this or not but I'm new here so I'll give it a shot.

My boyfriend was supposed to have left for bootcamp yesterday, but for some reason he was put on standby. While I'm ecstatic to have the time with him, that short twelve hours away from him also made me wonder if I'm really motivated enough for this. I love him dearly, he's a great Dad, an awesome boyfriend and everything in between.

But...from reading these forums, I feel as though us not being even engaged makes our relationship somewhat meaningless. I feel unjustified in how distraught I am over him leaving. It's been his dream since the seventh grade (which is actually when we got together) but he also recently told me that he wants to go to Okinawa. I know that he doesn't have THAT much say in the matter, but the fact that he wants to be even further from us is disheartening.

Anyone with a spouse in the Marines...or a Marine with a spouse/girlfriend/fiance, how do you handle the pressures? I really want to be supportive of him, I'm just (selfishly) having a hard time mustering the excitement.