Seeing DB at family day

[buttrflycv]

Hello everyone! Well I have 29 days to go and am getting VERY anxious until the big graduation/family day. I was just wondering from those of you who have already experienced it, what it was like? My DB is in the Army at Fort Jackson. I am flying down with his mom and more of his family is coming on a later flight? What were your stories from family day/graduation? Thanks!

[Veronica Lin]

I dont know anything about Ft. Jackson cause DH was at Ft. Benning.

[AML7609]

im not affilitated with the army, but i can tell you from my experience, seeing DB for the first time was the biggest rush of emotion ever. its an awesome feeling and being with him again was the best. i can tell you it was worth waiting for 3 months!

[PrOuDaRmYWiFe08]

DH went to Ft. Jackson and graduated in July 08'. I will explain how it went then. I left like an hour early and still ran into HEAVY traffic, then you drive down to Hilton Field, then you wait until they allow you to begin seating in the stands. Then quiet a few people come up and talk, they talk about what your soldier has been going through and the Drill Sergeants come up and talk. THEN they bring the soldiers out onto the field and they "demonstrate" some of the things they have learned. After that they allow you to go and find your soldier on the field and you get to have them the rest of the day and you bring them back between like 8-10 PM depending on what their Drill sergeants say. But you have to stay on base on Family Day, they also have this dinner buffet thing that evening you can go to. DH spent most the time with his family but they gave us like 3 hrs to ourselves and we just went and parked at this pretty park and talked! It was just so good to talk to him. Then I dropped him off at like 8 PM I think. He did get to call me that night on his cell and we talked for like 4 hours. Then on Graduation make sure to leave extra early because there is like twice as much traffic! Then you get there and have a chance to buy stuff like pictures and videos and then you get to go get seated in the stands again and more people come out and talk, then they bring the soldiers out on the field one company at a time and they do crazy formations. It takes quiet a while to get everyone on the field. Then they do a speech, I think, and finally you get to go find your soldier again, then they bring out like a couple Humvees and they bring out some guns that you get to go and look at and take pictures with, They have this huge area that has alot of cool things to look at and see, if you buy pictures they will give you a time to go to the Soloman center to take the pictures (which takes like 10 Mins. then they print them and give them to you) Then you either get to spend the day with them (and you can go off base) and bring them back to go to AIT OR you get to sign them out and take them to AIT (what DH and I did). It was an amazing expierance, so enjoy! If you have any other questions about anything PM me! Sorry I wrote so much I just rememberd alot!

[mkayf]

Originally Posted by PrOuDaRmYWiFe08 DH went to Ft. Jackson and graduated in July 08'. I will explain how it went then. I left like an hour early and still ran into HEAVY traffic, then you drive down to Hilton Field, then you wait until they allow you to begin seating in the stands. Then quiet a few people come up and talk, they talk about what your soldier has been going through and the Drill Sergeants come up and talk. THEN they bring the soldiers out onto the field and they "demonstrate" some of the things they have learned. After that they allow you to go and find your soldier on the field and you get to have them the rest of the day and you bring them back between like 8-10 PM depending on what their Drill sergeants say. But you have to stay on base on Family Day, they also have this dinner buffet thing that evening you can go to. DH spent most the time with his family but they gave us like 3 hrs to ourselves and we just went and parked at this pretty park and talked! It was just so good to talk to him. Then I dropped him off at like 8 PM I think. He did get to call me that night on his cell and we talked for like 4 hours. Then on Graduation make sure to leave extra early because there is like twice as much traffic! Then you get there and have a chance to buy stuff like pictures and videos and then you get to go get seated in the stands again and more people come out and talk, then they bring the soldiers out on the field one company at a time and they do crazy formations. It takes quiet a while to get everyone on the field. Then they do a speech, I think, and finally you get to go find your soldier again, then they bring out like a couple Humvees and they bring out some guns that you get to go and look at and take pictures with, They have this huge area that has alot of cool things to look at and see, if you buy pictures they will give you a time to go to the Soloman center to take the pictures (which takes like 10 Mins. then they print them and give them to you) Then you either get to spend the day with them (and you can go off base) and bring them back to go to AIT OR you get to sign them out and take them to AIT (what DH and I did). It was an amazing expierance, so enjoy! If you have any other questions about anything PM me! Sorry I wrote so much I just rememberd alot!

They changed that in August of '08. DH's batallion was too big and thats when they started letting people leave. I believe they let people leave still. I don't know...

As for the rest... I TOTALLY agree! It was an amazing experience and you will have alot of fun!