Cousin is leaving to boot on July 17. I don't know what to put on his letters im sending him any adivce ? Our best friend is in the Marine and he tells me to write him every day its just going to make him feel more supportive etc. I mean can I ask how boot is or is he just going to tell me oh its fine?

My son is a freshman in high school. He intends to join the ROTC program when he gets to college. I was told I can find a marine mentor for him. I'm not having any luck finding him find a mentor. In desperation, I called the local Marine Recruiting office but never got a return call. Can someone direct me in the right direction, please? thank you :)

My Son wants to sign up for the delayed entry. I have a list of questions that I am going to be asking but just wanted to ask if anyone has any suggestions; things they wish they had known; questions they wish they would have asked?

my process to join the marines is almost done. i will probably go to boot camp early next year. I am 18 and not married. do i have to get married before i leave to bootcamp in order to take her to where i will be stationed or can i do it after bootcamp?

Hello to all the teary eyed proud Mama's out there! I'm Kim...my 18 year old son left March 13th for Parris Island and graduates June 10th! I am consumed with PRIDE and miss him much more than I had imagined! June 9th, family day can’t get here soon enough! He's in PLT 3014 Co K...if anyone has a son in the same platoon...or another PLT that graduates June 10th...please lets chat! As our Marines are establishing unbreakable bonds of brotherhood...We parents can do the same for each other...We are FAMILY! God Bless and I look forward to meeting you all!

Our son shipped to Boot Camp on 3/7/11 - as parents we are proud and very supportive of his decision and hope that he gets everything he wants in his quest to earn the title of United States Marine. The second and last letter we received was dated 3/26/11 and have not received any recent updates. We're not sure if this is normal or we should have reason to be concerned. We don't have much experience to go on and we're trying to keep all of our letters to him upbeat and positive to help keep him motivated for the challenges of Boot Camp.

Proud Parents of a Recruit

Our Community Salutes is a non-profit organization that recognizes and honors high school seniors (and their parents) who enlist into the military after high school graduation. To learn more about a OCS Ceremony near you, please go to: http://ourcommunitysalutes.com/events/2010/index.html

Dr. Kenneth E. Hartman
Founder
Our Community Salutes

MarineParents.com was my go-to place every day that my son was deployed. There is a message board forum for each battalion. What a great way to 'meet' other families with Marines in the same unit. We shared when we had a phone call or email (what a relief when someone heard from and posted that their Marine said everyone was ok), shared ideas of what to send in a care package and, generally, held each other up through each deployment. Besides the joy of seeing my son at each homecoming, meeting people who had posted on the message board was fantastic. I still keep in contact with some of them. I also was impressed that it is highly OpSec compliant - helping to keep our Marines safe when deployed.

There's so much practical information on deployment to be found on the website, too - from what boxes to use to ship a care package to information on filing taxes when deployed to so many other topics. If someone has a question you can either find the answer on the website or a volunteer moderator will help.

I must admit I still visit the website even though my son's not deployed. There are some general forums that cover a wide range of topics - some are pretty serious; some silly. I still need my MarineParents.com fix! It is an addiction - a very good one!

I'm so glad to see recruitparents.com on here! This site saved my sanity when my son shipped to boot and is the absolute BEST resource for parents and loved ones of recruits. Now that my son is a Marine, it just gets better with marineparents.com - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Thank you AGAIN ...to the USMC Command and providing opportunities like this site to not only support "US" as parents, family and friends but to have the opportunity to link up with WONDERFUL mentor sites like www.parrisisland.yuku.com

The parrisisland.yuku.com site was a wealth of information and support while our son spent 21 weeks in Boot Camp on the island due to an injury early on in his training. Our son, now a MARINE, remembers the Drill Instructor in his rehab platoon as being one of the most motivating, positive men in his life, when everything else seemed to not be going his way.

For my wife and I the parrisisland.yuku.com site provided positive support throughout the entire time with individual postings/blog type entries from parents with recruits in our son's actual Company and Platoon as well as live chat with those parents and other Corps family members.

It was great to know that we were "connected" with others during this adventure.

And although surfing the web for answers to our USMC questions ...it is WONDERFUL that the Corps is putting more effort to make sites like this one and information available for all of us.

SEMPER FI ...to all of our USMC Family