Mail in boot camp

[Telfermagne]

Originally Posted by Samanthakeighly

So I leave in 2 weeks...Time flew by! I have people wanting to write to me. Is it true they should only send letters in white envelopes? No cards (my birthday is in boot camp)? Also I have heard of people getting packages, what is allowed in a package?

Thanks

We weren't allowed to get packages from what I witnessed (the few that did arrive resulted in the division getting compartment ITE), but it may be different for others (even though there's a standard "syllabus" for training a lot is left up to RDCs as to how boot camp is carried out - not every recruit gets the same experience).

I'd advise telling folks to send plain letters, and tell them to slash any and all zeroes put on the envelope (a divisional rule was individual ITE for each un-slashed zero seen). I managed to get a few cards, so those shouldn't be a problem. Also don't worry about your mail being read, I never received a previously opened letter.

Be prepared to not get all of your mail on occasion, sometimes we'd gather in the center of the compartment and we'd get quizzed for mail. For each question correct an article of mail would get passed out (to a random recruit), and each time a question was answered incorrect all mail would be gathered back and withheld until someone got one right. The premise being study hard and encourage your shipmates to do the same. If it so happened that all mail wound up being returned due to quiz-failure the mail PO would still manage to get some passed out after taps (RDCs go home after taps unless they're the ship rover or OOD).

A birthday in boot may be fun for ya, if you've got cool RDCs you'll get a "birthday beating".