James called again this morning! :-) He called about 5 minutes after my parents left, and we were able to talk for about 30 minutes, which was wonderful. From this point on, he should have access to the phones on Sundays, although he hardly has any free time to actually be able to use them, and he still has no access to his cell phone, which he had to leave in his car, along with stamps, so he cannot write anyone either. He sounds stressed and tired, and he may be getting rolled back, but he won’t know until this week. This week was his engineering course, and he failed the exam, along with 36 of the 45 people in his class. The class grew, as when you fail a course, you are rolled into the next class, so a lot of people had already failed the engineering course once failed again. He said that basically if you weren’t an engineer in college, you didn’t pass, which was really frustrating and disheartening for him, because James never fails anything academically! But, he is able to retake the test on Tuesday or Wednesday, so he is spending all day today studying, in an effort to pass, so he doesn’t have to stay there longer. Being rolled back will probably extend his time there by three weeks, which would be hard on us, but he said it could be a blessing in disguise, as he would have two or three weeks to rest and work out before he had to take the course again. (Because he would just wait until the next class gets to the engineering class.)
So…pray that he passes his exam this week!! He loves getting mail, so keep writing, but please do not send any packages!! Every time he gets a package, he has to open it in front of his drill instructor, and he hates doing that, even if the package has stuff he is allowed to have. So…wait on any packages!! I’ll let you know when he is ready to get them. Also, please pray for David, as he failed his second eye exam. He gets one more shot, but if he fails it a third time, he cannot be a pilot, and more than likely, he will choose to leave.
Bill called us this morning too! He, like James, sounds very tired and is hungry and a somewhat discouraged. He also failed the engineering exam, so is spending today studying. He said that the PT is grueling, but that he's now in the best shape of his life. Getting rolled back is something none of them wants to have happen, but we told him that the important thing is that he make it through OCS, "on time" or not. We will all be there when they graduate, whether it is November 29, December 21st, or after the first of the year!!
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