10 Day Leave

Here is my first question. I've found out that because of COVID, my son will NOT get a 10 days leave after basic. So when will I get my next opportunity to see him after graduation? Where I do have a little separation anxiety, I am not going to have any problems letting him spread his wings and will stay out of his affairs unless he asks for my help. But it was a little disheartening to find out this news and I'd just like to know when I might get that next opportunity to hang out with my boy.

No clue when he'll get a leave. All the powers that be have gone totally stupid over Kung flu, CRT, and a bunch of other crap. Also, even if he asks for help, there is nothing you could do, nor should you try. First, nothing will change. Second, he'll have a black mark on his record for jumping the chain-of-command. It's best to just ride with it. Text, talk on the phone, FaceTime, will do for now. Snail mail or expensive collect phone calls were all I had in my day.

You can take small solace in that he will probably get a leave opportunity in the not too distant future. In WWII, it wasn't unusual for Marines to not get their first leave until after they came back from the Pacific. My dad didn't. He did boot camp, infantry school, and a trip to Hawaii, then Saipan, then Tinian. He came home, via ship, for medical treatment in Idaho for a couple of months, then got a 10-day leave from the hospital to go home to Detroit. Through no fault of his own (train schedules were totally messed up for passenger traffic) he was three days over leave. He spent seven days in the brig for unauthorized absence. Luckily, he got letters from all the stationmasters verifying he was always on-time to catch his scheduled train, but the trains were late. He said he would have had to spend 30-days in the brig without those letters. In fact, they had to take him out of the brig to award him a Bronze Star, then put him right back in to finish his time.

My first reaction was quite different than that of Chris, but he provided good info as always.