We have received a postcard from Elly with her address. It reminds us NOT to send any boxes, just letters. (Jen...this means YOU!) Before she left she told me I am only to send letters in plain white envelopes with no "cutesy" items written on the outside. It is so hard not to be "cutesy" but I will do it. I hope the rest of you can avoid the temptation. :-)

 PS Her birthday is next Tuesday, March 6th. 

AB Addison, Elizabeth M.
323 TRS/FLT B-292 (Dorm B-3)
1320 Truemper St. Unit
Lackland, AFB, TX 78236-5570

1:42 a.m. We received a call: Hello. This is Elly. I have arrived safely at Lackland Air Force Base. I will send you my address. Please don't send me any packages, books, etc. I love you. Good-bye. Click. We believe she read the script very well.

The day finally came! Elly started early. We met her at the MEPS, Military Enlistment Processing Station. Elly's grandparents and Gary and I went to the swearing in process.

Elly was sworn in along with a young man, Zach, who was also heading to Texas today. The other three men were going into the Army. The man who swore them in talked to the new recruits about the value of education and other benefits of the military. He also commented on the positive value of family and how nice it was to see so many family members present - of course this made all the mothers in the room smile.

Here is one final picture from the official room today before she left.

We got a call at 9:35 p.m. tonight. She was on a bus from the airport to Lackland Air Force Base. She sounds very positive and excited about her new experience. She texted me today that she is "ready to be yelled at". Here is how she spent some of the time waiting in the airport.

Yep, I leave on February 21st and will get sworn in again on that day. I was sworn in also back in September when I joined up with the Air Force and entered the delayed enlistment program aka DEP. I will be sworn into active duty on the 21st. Here are 2 pictures of when I was previously sworn in.

I want to thank my family for their support and my mom was kind enough to host a going away shindig in January. I appreciate my family that came up from Lincoln as well as my family who road-tripped it all the way from Joliet, IL!

On the 21st, I will be going to Lackland AFB just outside of San Antonio, TX for basic military training (BMT) which will last 8 1/2 weeks. Right after that I will be going to technical training for my 4N031 job in medical services which will also be around San Antonio. While at BMT, I will not be able to have too much contact with the outside world so my mama, Doty, will be posting on my behalf. The most important bit of information will be my address for BMT. It would be really great to get mail from y'all and even though I may not have the time to get back to you guys I hear that us trainees will really look forward to hearing from the outside world.

Some hints for sending mail is to send letters only (no care packages) in plain white envelopes with no writing on the outside other than normal stuff of course. The key is to be bland, nothing special, but I promise you it will mean something special to me :)

Well, more to come later!

Elly will be sworn in on Tuesday, February 21, 2012.