Care packages
 

I went to Marine boot camp many moons ago. My son just enlisted in the Navy and leaves for boot camp in August. I remember getting a package from home was a moral booster.

Can he receive care packages and if so what are some good things to send?

Thanks

Short answer - nope, no care packages in boot camp, just letters. Small pictures are generally ok too.

Long answer - for a while, Operation Homefront was providing care packages for recruits. I'm not sure if this program is still going on.
While generally families cannot send anything other than letters and small photographs, *if* a recruit specifically asks for something (like shoe insoles) you can send it because (in theory) they have permission to receive it. But don't try to sneak anything else into the package.

Great. Ty!

While I was there we never heard of Operation Homefront. That might be a holiday thing now or it was phased out. I was also there like a year and a half ago though so who knows. We did however get a large box of candy sent to our division though because one of the recruit's father was an admiral and had some leeway I guess

generally anything you send for them, the RDC's will enjoy for themselves.

Very much true. One of our guys got a hunting magazine sent to him and he only had long enough to look at the cover page before one of our RDCs said hand it over lol

We had a guy receive a box of cookies that the RDCs gladly enjoyed :rofl:
The RDCs threw the box away after a few cookies. The guy ended up fishing through their garbage at night to eat a cookie!

We actually had people that received hygiene supplies, but in general, nothing is really permitted. I remember one kid in our division received a Navy Seals action figure and got picked on by the RDCs a lot. Lol.

In short, if you're unsure about something ask your recruit to ask the RDCs, but try to limit it down to letters. They might give him a hard time about asking something, but at least he asked, and he'll probably receive an answer one way or another.

It really depends on the RDC's, but generally hygiene supplies and photos are the only ones I saw people get away with. A bunch of females in my division got hygiene supplies and make-up sent. One girl got a box of candy and a teddy bear sent for valentines. Our petty officers let her keep the teddy (beanie-baby sized) in her A/B drawer, told her to shove some candy in her mouth before chief saw and then kept the rest in the fishbowl. They brought it out on valentines day and shared it with the division. I got a box of hygiene supplies that my mom packed with newspaper articles she thought I'd like so I got to read them after taps lol