Arrival!

Hey Everybody,

As most of you probably know Chelsea left last week for bootcamp. Before she left she put me in charge of “communications”, meaning getting information out to all of you and posting letters and other things from her to keep everyone updated. So, here it goes…

After a long tiring Tuesday at the MEPS center at Fort Meade, MD she finally boarded the bus on her way down to South Carolina. At about 2:30 am my mom got a short prompted phone call from her saying that she had arrived safely and we would be getting her address in about a week. Well, as you can imagine that first week is hardest for the families. Wondering and hoping that everything is okay and that she likes it and isn’t begging to come home yet. So we finally received a typed form letter including her address. As promised to my sister I will include the letter in this post (keep in mind it is form letter so everyone was sent the same letter, only the name of who is receiving it and coming from is filled in)

“Dear Renee Rohrbach

I have arrived safely at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island and
have been assigned to Platoon 4038, O Company, 4^th Recruit Training Battalion, which is comprised of 60 recruits from various parts of the United States. We will live and train together for the next three months until our tentative graduation date of Dec 3^rd.

If there is an emergency while I am gone, the quickest way to contact me is through the American Red Cross, www.redcross.org or (202) 303-4498. I will only be allowed to take emergency leave for certain emergencies; for example, an immediate family member has died or is expected to die soon. You should still contact the American Red Cross if you want to inform me of a situation; however, keep in mind this does not mean that I will be able to leave recruit training. Do not try to call me directly as this will slow down the process of me being placed to leave. Please, save this letter, the American Red Cross may need some of the information listed within this letter.

I receive mail everyday except Sundays and holidays. Please, send mail First Class (regular) or Priority Mail. Do not send any Express, Insured, or Certified Mail; due to scheduled training, I won’t be allowed to go to the Post Office to sign for much mail. If you must send it Express Mail, please waive the requirement for my signature upon receipt. In addition, I am NOT allowed to receive the following items:

1. Candy or other edible items

2. Tobacco products

3. Alcohol/illegal or prescription/over the counter drugs

4. Pornographic material

5. Personal weapons or ammunition

6. Gambling devices (playing cards, dice, etc.)

7. Radios or cameras

8. Flammable materials (lighters, matches, fireworks, etc.)

9. Field/ outdoor training materials

Only Letters and Small Packages are authorized due to the limited space in our living area. To ensure that I receive mail quickly, be sure to write my address exactly as it is below.

RCT Rohrbach, Chelsea

OSCAR Co. 4^th RTBN Plt 4038

PO Box 16445

Parris Island, SC 29905-4038

Sincerely,

Chelsea Rohrbach”

As stated in the letter, please only send her things she is allowed to receive and to that exact address. All mail is screened, which means a Sergeant reads every word of every letter coming in. So nothing is private, keep it positive, they don’t like to see any negative things coming in and distracting their recruits. If you have any questions about what is okay to send, and what is not, please e-mail me and I will find out for you: pitch4life16@msn.com. Please put “Chelsea Goes To Bootcamp” in the subject line so I do not delete your message out of my Junk Mail.

I received a letter from Chelsea today, so again, as promised I will let you guys read it. I was surprised I got one so quickly; I wasn’t expecting one for a couple weeks J

“Hi Logan,

It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be but we haven’t really started much yet. Lots of people have been crying to go home… but it’s not that bad. We spent 3 days in receiving where we got issued all our gear, clothes, and rifle. The receiving drill instructors were much nicer than our training ones but they don’t yell all the time. The worst part so far has been going through medical. We had to get 5 shots… 3 in the upper arm, one in the lower arm & one in the right butt – that was the worst :O. All our butts were sore. Other than that my only complaints are 30 seconds to use the bathroom, a minute to shower (without washing our hair – gross!! – we haven’t washed our hair since we’ve been here) and we only get 5 minutes to eat. Our official training days start tomorrow but we’ve started to learn some of our knowledge and started marching. We haven’t been issued our service uniforms yet or get to wear for a few more weeks.

Living with 60 other girls isn’t a walk in the park. I know a lot of people said a lot of them were going to be bitchy but OMG!! It’s constant there are a few people who keep arguing. Only 10 minutes of free time so… write back & give my address to everyone!

Chelsea”

If anyone receives a letter and would like me to post it feel free to type it up and e-mail it to me! I have also included the link to two documents. One is her training matrix, which includes what she will be doing every day of bootcamp; the other is a Family Guide to the process (good for everyone though and very informative). Take a look (I printed the matrix and have been crossing out each day before I got to bed, but do with it what you will). Also, here is the website for the recruiting depot.

Main site: http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/

Matrix: http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/matrix/matrix.pdf

Guide: http://www.mcrdpi.usmc.mil/ParentsGuide.pdf

It has a lot of information on it that might interest some of you. Again, any questions or concerns, please contact me.

Thanks,

Logan