On our drive home from Aiken, we detoured through Columbia. Our son had just returned from a 3-day ROTC training camp and was starving. We swung by Moe's Southwest Grill to drop off some food. I was so excited to finally see him in his Army fatigues while I also happened to be wearing my Army Mom shirt!
The other cadets were all hungry too, and really tired, so I felt bad that he got to eat. I'm sure they gave Luke a hard time after we left. You could see his fellow cadets in the background sleeping on the ground while waiting for the cadre to arrive and dismiss them.
Luke and his buddies took pictures while on guard duty (night shift). The cadets had to sleep with their weapon loaded and secured. Doesn't look very comfortable, though. I guess after two nights like this, I can see why they were so tired.
During the day, the unit went on rucks (8-12 mile walks). Good thing he upgraded his boots a few weeks before!
They had weapons training, weapons cleaning, and weapons safety instruction.
They were taught basic land navigation, then tested on those skills.
As a final task, each cadet had to take a rifle qualification test. It took several attempts, but Luke finally qualified. 😊
As we left and hugged him bye, I reminded him to wash everything really good when he got back to his apartment. After a hestitant pause, he said, "Um, sure mom. That's the FIRST thing I plan to do." Something tells me it will be several months before those fatigues see a washing machine.
