Ammon\u2019s re-telling (and typing!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started driving to the base which was only 10 minutes away. We got there in the overcrowded parking (which we parked on the grass), walked over to the covered stands and sat down. The companies were Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, & Echo. (200 in each company.) Sam was Soldier of the Cycle for Bravo, and we saw him dressed up as a revolutionary war soldier. They showed all of the types of uniforms over the years. Then the drill instructors threw smoke grenades and all 1,000 soldiers walked out of the trees. (Video here)<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n We got Sam and went bowling. After that we went to the military museum, and saw all of the historic vehicles. Then we went to a Church luncheon. Dad got a good nap sleeping under the pews re-living his childhood. Drove around the base, got a case of water and went to the PX, which was the grocery store. Then we went to the park and played Presidents. We took him back to his barracks and listened to his Battle Buddies stories: (videos)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Berky’s Squared Away<\/a> Berky in lunch line<\/a> Y Squat punishment<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam stayed at base, and we went to a fancy restaurant, called The Hollow. Very good. We got some dessert and celebrated moms 50th birthday. The brothers also surprised her with a box of Godiva chocolate. Went back to the hotel and slept.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LaReita:<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was exciting to see Sam come out in Revolutionary War costume leading out the other soldiers of the past. Major emotions welled up when the smoke bombs were thrown, the field was fully covered in smoke, the music came on, and the companies marched in time through the smoke. It was like watching a movie, but in real time and real life. Powerful. I am truly grateful for our men and women who volunteer to protect us from all enemies, foreign and domestic. This was only 1,000 soldiers and it was a lot of emotion for me. When I think about Helaman\u2019s 2,000 Stripling Warriors, I am truly astounded and overcome with many emotions. Hearing them repeat the soldier’s creed was powerful.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Family Day program was 30 minutes. The families were then invited to go out on the field and \u201ctap out\u201d your soldier. All the soldiers stood at attention, looking straight ahead while family members weaved in and out of their soldier\u2019s company of 200. I found Hidalgo (Sam\u2019s best friend battle buddy) before I found Sam, but I couldn\u2019t tap him out. As I was weaving through Bravo Company, there were a few at-attention-soldiers with tears in their eyes, waiting patiently for their family to arrive. My heart went out to those soldiers who probably didn\u2019t have family coming today, or even for graduation day, because they don\u2019t have a family, or a supportive family. It is so hard for me to imagine that loneliness and lack of support in doing something as hard as 8 weeks of Basic Combat Training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was the last one to get to Sam, and gave him such a big long hug! Tender-hearted Sam was happy-crying. He loved showing us around base. It was great to see how many battle-buddies came up to him to chat. At the church luncheon, an older soldier (50\u2019s) sat with us who is in the Chaplain Corps. He made a plug for joining because they are always in need of Chaplains. I did say at the table that Sam would be a really good Chaplain \u2013 he\u2019s kindhearted, a good listener, and friendly. Sam\u2019s friend, Hidalgo (a return missionary), said that the therapist tips I mailed to Sam really helped Sam to interact with one particular difficult trainee in their company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n (Though Sam is currently signed up to be horizontal construction – all the heavy operating equipment, CATs, bulldozers, etc)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding being chosen as Soldier of the Cycle for B-company:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam says, \u201cit\u2019s not that hard to be a good soldier. Just follow the instructions.\u201d I think being in a High School marching band also helped him learn discipline (and how to march in time – some of his battle buddies struggled with marching in time). One of the Drill Sargeant\u2019s said, \u201cBerky\u2019s my secret weapon.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam mentioned that fat camp (official term: ARMS 2.0) was harder than Basic Combat Training (BCT). At fat camp they had full-on workouts 3x\/day. At BCT it was only once a day, but sometimes there were also ruck marches (marching with full military packs). Sam said he thought BCT would be harder. He later learned that other companies were doing really hard stuff because they could handle it. The trainees in his company were disorganized and undisciplined, so company B drill sargeants couldn\u2019t do the more \u2018fun\/hard\u2019 soldier stuff. With that perspective of who was in B company, it was easy for a Utah marching band kid to be Soldier of the Cycle for B Company!<\/p>\n\n\n\n It really was a great 50th birthday to experience this parenting pay-off. I also was happy that my boys surprised me with a box of Godiva chocolate. The best!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photos on Google<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Ammon\u2019s re-telling (and typing!) We started driving to the base which was only 10 minutes away. We got there in the overcrowded parking (which we parked on the grass), walked over to the covered stands and sat down. The companies were Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, & Echo. (200 in each company.) Sam was Soldier of … Continue reading “September 3, 2025 \u2013\u00a0Ft Jackson (Columbia, SC) –\u00a0Family Day \u2013 LaReita\u2019s 50th\u00a0Birthday”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,8,4,10,6,5,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ammon","category-benjamin","category-david_berky","category-jacob","category-james","category-lareita_berky","category-samuel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10663"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10664,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10663\/revisions\/10664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berky.org\/family\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}