Family Day

During Basic training you are pretty much cut off from the world...  The only information you receive is the tidbits here and there in letters from home and what the Drill Sergeants tell you, which often times isn't much.  Your world revolves around learning how to be an effective soldier.  But after the nine weeks of training and all the random stuff that you probably never would have done if you were a civilian, you get a break to get back to the rest of the world for a day - Family Day!

The day before graduation, your family can come and spend time with you.  Of course, it's not like you can go all over post and really do what you want, but there is a meal in a nicer place than you have seen for the last nine weeks where you can sit down and talk.  For me, this was the day when my parents and sister came out to visit me. Since I had worn my class A's home for exodus, this was the first time they had seen me in my BDU's.  The day starts with a presentation for the families of some of the stuff we have been doing the last nine weeks and then we are released to them.  In addition to the BDU's, my family got a nice view of what we unaffectionately called BCGs or birth control glasses.  They are the horrible rendition of glasses that no one looks good in.  My parents got to see where I had been living and just some other basics of the basic training 'experience'.  The next morning, they would once again see me in my class A's on the parade field as an official graduate of basic training.  The difference is this time, I would have my grenade badge and my rifle markmenship badge.  We would get a few more minutes with our families after graduation and then we were put on a bus or plane to take us to AIT.