Well, tomorrow the boy will be 2 weeks into his military adventure. He arrived at Leonard Wood on 20 July and went from reception to BCT on 25 July. The wife got a call from him on the afternoon of the 25th. She came downstairs and said that he called, but we was a bit of an "asshole". I explained to her that there was a drill sergeant standing there telling him that if he said anything other than his address or if he went over a certain amount of time, he'd pay. I also told her that move in day is likely the most stressful day of basic. She responded "Yeah, I heard someone yelling in the background".
Moving forward to this past Sunday, he facetimed us at noon. They got their phones for 30 minutes. His head is in a good place. He said that some of it sucks, but it's not horrible. Said they get smoked from time to time, but even that's not that bad. He's in tremendous shape from wrestling at a fairly high level, plus the mental strength of that breed is a bit different, so I don't expect this to be something that he can't do. He will change, but it won't be anything that he can't handle.
While on the facetime call with him, I could already see some changes in him. After we had spoke for about 15 minutes, I asked him if he needed to call his girlfriend. I said that I didn't want to hog his entire phone time. He responded "But I like talking to you guys". So that made me feel good. Girlfriend would probably be upset, but he's just never put any girl ahead of anything of importance in his life. When his time was running out, I heard someone yelling in the background and he stood up really quickly, yelled "Yes Drill Sergeant!", then said "I have to go". Click.
Some things that I learned on the call... The Army has added a phase of about 10 days the beginning of BCT called Yellow phase. I think it's a semi-quarantine period. Sounds like all they do is learn about customs and courtesies, drill, and PT. They should be moving to Red Phase in the next few days. At that point, he will take his first Combat Fitness Test.
I'm ready for next Sunday's call, if he gets one.