Recycled Again

[MsMarla]

The second time through Darby went great! First time through the Mountains, not so much. My son discovered that he really hates heights. He had an equipment malfunction at the beginning and it all went downhill from there. (no pun intended :D ).

Unfortunately, he's not a big guy to begin with, and now weighs only a little more than his pack, so my husband and I are thinking that might make this a little more difficult. Then again he'll need fewer calories than the bigger guys, and he's got a jumbo sized stubborn streak, so you never know.

He is wanting to finish up in time for deployment. I was wondering...do they not require a recovery period after graduation? I won't go into specifics here, but this would be very fast.

We are trying to decide whether or not to try to follow him back to the batt.after graduation in order to have a couple of meals with him if that is going to be the case. He spent his post deployment block leave with his girlfriend, so we've not had any time with him this year. He thought he would have more time to see us, but didn't anticipate recycling twice.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

[Worldweaver]

Recycled twice, if I remember correctly, is a day 1 restart. Should be coming up on a Best Ranger break as well, but maybe he'll get recycled into a class before that begins. As far as a recovery period...that's a negative (depends on his Chain of Command) but hopefully you'll get some time with him before he's rushed out.

Best of luck to him.

[Jim]

anything worth doing is worth doing twice. I pinched a nerve in my right arm and went through the mountains a second time. I had to learn to rappell left-handed. Not a fun time. He'll survive.

[MsMarla]

Fortunately, he isn't going back to day one, just doing mountains over. If he should recycle a third time (I don't even want to type that), then there is an eight week lapse because of the Best Ranger break, which would give him time to gain some weight (and strength). He would more than likely never make any of the deployment if that happened. He's very anxious to make deployment. Someone would have to force him to stay back. Sounds like that is out of the question, but a mother can hope....

He asked if we could follow him back after graduation, so that he could have time with us, and we are obviously eager for that too, but wanting to be practical. We have six other children (ages 3-17) and this entails dragging them all over the state of Georgia and time off work from my husband's fairly new DOD job, when we aren't even sure our son will have any time off to spend with us. We know he has to be back at work the Monday after graduation. We are thinking about staying at Benning for the weekend and then putting him on a plane home Sunday afternoon. (We only live 4 hours from Benning, but it's almost nine to his perm duty station.)

It's a tough choice. And we have no idea what to expect if we did go.

[KW Driver]

I can't speak to life in BN now, but I graduated, kissed the wife and kid, spent about 5 minutes with them, then got in a truck to hit the zero range. That night was the final rehearsal (my first) where I met my new team leader. The next day we were in the staging area and drawing ammo and chutes. Two days after graduation I was in a plane, donning a chute. We got a 24 hr weather hold. 10 days after graduation I got back home after not invading Haiti.

[MsMarla]

Thanks for the response, Ranger KW Driver. I'm sure things haven't slowed down any since then. I think we'll just be grateful to have the weekend, and put him on the plane Sunday so that we're not a distraction. Maybe this will give him a little extra incentive to save some of that block leave for mom and dad next time.