Practical Pre-Enlistment Gifts

[einherjarvalk]

In a bored moment in a bar outside of Ft Knox, I wrote out a 'outside the gate' bingo game.

It included things like the following:

-"YOUR LES IS YOUR CREDIT" used car dealerships featuring 5 year old V6 Mustangs and Silverado 1500's financed at 29%
-Pawn shop full of CIF leftovers (that has CID on speed dial)
-Shitty tattoo parlor that'll finance
-That one rowdy bar that might as well be called 'Nightly 15-6'
-Furniture store that's been 'going out of business' for 20 years
-The one sort-of nice restaurant that's full of E4's dating each other every weekend, usually as the stop before the 'Nightly 15-6' bar.
-Mil-centric liquor stores with a name like 'Fast Freddy's' that offers BOGO half off bottles of Fireball on the 1st and 15th of every month, etc
-Shady motel that rents by the hour
-The powersports dealership full of crotch rockets 'only dropped once' and repo'd Harleys
-'Rent to own' store full of TV's, Xboxes and laptops
-The shitty car stereo place that also does rent-to-own wheels and shit for E1-E4
-THE GOD DAMN STRIP CLUBS
-That one gun store full of Caniks, Sigmas, M&P sports and fake ACOG's.
-The no-name gas station that can't compete with the AAFES gas pump prices so they sell hookahs and shit to stay afloat
-A crappy mechanic's shop with a proprietor that was busted out as an E1 30 years ago because he banged the Sergeant Major's daughter or some other similarly implausible story
-The crappy apartment complexes full of troops that got married, that are generally worse than the barracks, charge exactly a married E3's BAH for a 2 bed 2 bath, and has a parking lot full of cars from that 29% financed used car dealership, and gets a visit from MP's or local LE every Friday and Saturday night
-THE WAL MART
etc etc

It really is the same outside of every damn military installation, everywhere I've been.

Sounds like south San Antonio as a whole to me, so definitely not wrong.

[Drang]

My experience in Army BCT was that no outside gear was allowed period- from prescription glasses to shoes to boots to insoles or whatever. They reneged on the ban on insoles around week 6 (of 10 weeks there)
No candy, no food, no pictures that were anything more than 'PG' rated. The only thing we were allowed was cherry or mint cough drops and nothing else, which turned into a racket on its own.

I made those recommendations as a 'nice to have once you're out of basic, but in the service' sort of thing. Insoles would be my basic training recommendation, if anything.

I was thinking "Gear for basic training", not for after. Concur, a good pair of shades (uniform regs compliant) would be useful, depending on assignment. Work gloves, I don't know, the issue leather gloves were useful enough, rappelling gloves better. Note: If you buy a pair of the issue (tan) rappelling gloves, don't use leather dye on them and then use them for rappelling. Got chewed out by a Rappel Master, the solvents in the dye are nasty to the rope. (He was actually cool about correcting me on it, but very, very firm...)

[Mark D]

It's been a long time since I went to boot camp, but here's my input.

He doesn't need a gift before going to boot camp. If the Navy wants him to have something in boot, they'll issue it to him.

He can help himself beforehand going by getting in half decent shape. He doesn't need to be an amazing athlete, it's the Navy, after all. And overtraining beforehand can lead to injuries in boot camp. But he should be able to knock out a bunch of pushups and run a few miles.

I suggest you give him something nice as a graduation gift. And send him plenty of mail, like other's said.

[jetfire]

Sounds like south San Antonio as a whole to me, so definitely not wrong.

Yeah, I read this and was all “oh so he’s looking out the front gate of Lackland, cool”

[Drang]

Thinking back, when I left for basic my father gave me a shaving kit. That was pretty handy. Even if he doesn't need to shave daily, they'll probably make him do so anyway, so maybe a nice razor and decent blades.

He'll be sharing a shower with a bunch of other guys, so a good pair of shower shoes, AKA flip flops, might come in handy, too. Not the cheap dollar store ones, b ut a good sturdy pair.

[Stephanie B]

He can help himself beforehand going by getting in half decent shape. He doesn't need to be an amazing athlete, it's the Navy, after all. ... And send him plenty of mail, like other's said.

Probably can find the PT standards online. And +10 on mail.

[Cypher]

He's going to be limited in what he can take to bootcamp with him. I would suggest a GOOD pair of running shoes. Some good foot powder and two pairs of Air Orthotic athletic insoles for his boots.

The Air Orthotics cost more than the Dr. Scholl's but they are noticeably worth the difference

[Cypher]

In a bored moment in a bar outside of Ft Knox, I wrote out a 'outside the gate' bingo game.

It included things like the following:

-"YOUR LES IS YOUR CREDIT" used car dealerships featuring 5 year old V6 Mustangs and Silverado 1500's financed at 29%
-Pawn shop full of CIF leftovers (that has CID on speed dial)
-Shitty tattoo parlor that'll finance
-That one rowdy bar that might as well be called 'Nightly 15-6'
-Furniture store that's been 'going out of business' for 20 years
-The one sort-of nice restaurant that's full of E4's dating each other every weekend, usually as the stop before the 'Nightly 15-6' bar.
-Mil-centric liquor stores with a name like 'Fast Freddy's' that offers BOGO half off bottles of Fireball on the 1st and 15th of every month, etc
-Shady motel that rents by the hour
-The powersports dealership full of crotch rockets 'only dropped once' and repo'd Harleys
-'Rent to own' store full of TV's, Xboxes and laptops
-The shitty car stereo place that also does rent-to-own wheels and shit for E1-E4
-THE GOD DAMN STRIP CLUBS
-That one gun store full of Caniks, Sigmas, M&P sports and fake ACOG's.
-The no-name gas station that can't compete with the AAFES gas pump prices so they sell hookahs and shit to stay afloat
-A crappy mechanic's shop with a proprietor that was busted out as an E1 30 years ago because he banged the Sergeant Major's daughter or some other similarly implausible story
-The crappy apartment complexes full of troops that got married, that are generally worse than the barracks, charge exactly a married E3's BAH for a 2 bed 2 bath, and has a parking lot full of cars from that 29% financed used car dealership, and gets a visit from MP's or local LE every Friday and Saturday night
-THE WAL MART
etc etc

It really is the same outside of every damn military installation, everywhere I've been.

Sounds an awful lot like B street outside Fort Carson

[Kyle Reese]

In a bored moment in a bar outside of Ft Knox, I wrote out a 'outside the gate' bingo game.

It included things like the following:

-"YOUR LES IS YOUR CREDIT" used car dealerships featuring 5 year old V6 Mustangs and Silverado 1500's financed at 29%
-Pawn shop full of CIF leftovers (that has CID on speed dial)
-Shitty tattoo parlor that'll finance
-That one rowdy bar that might as well be called 'Nightly 15-6'
-Furniture store that's been 'going out of business' for 20 years
-The one sort-of nice restaurant that's full of E4's dating each other every weekend, usually as the stop before the 'Nightly 15-6' bar.
-Mil-centric liquor stores with a name like 'Fast Freddy's' that offers BOGO half off bottles of Fireball on the 1st and 15th of every month, etc
-Shady motel that rents by the hour
-The powersports dealership full of crotch rockets 'only dropped once' and repo'd Harleys
-'Rent to own' store full of TV's, Xboxes and laptops
-The shitty car stereo place that also does rent-to-own wheels and shit for E1-E4
-THE GOD DAMN STRIP CLUBS
-That one gun store full of Caniks, Sigmas, M&P sports and fake ACOG's.
-The no-name gas station that can't compete with the AAFES gas pump prices so they sell hookahs and shit to stay afloat
-A crappy mechanic's shop with a proprietor that was busted out as an E1 30 years ago because he banged the Sergeant Major's daughter or some other similarly implausible story
-The crappy apartment complexes full of troops that got married, that are generally worse than the barracks, charge exactly a married E3's BAH for a 2 bed 2 bath, and has a parking lot full of cars from that 29% financed used car dealership, and gets a visit from MP's or local LE every Friday and Saturday night
-THE WAL MART
etc etc

It really is the same outside of every damn military installation, everywhere I've been.

Sounds like Killeen, TX.

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[john c]

To that end, a reversible vasectomy isn't nearly as dumb of an idea for jr. enlisted as some might think.

This is exactly what I was going to say. Also the part about the "whatever you do, don't get married" and a G-shock watch.