APRIL 1, 2024 – Starting March 29, Recruit Training Command (RTC) is updating its basic military training phone call policy for Recruits attending training.
This follows a successful test phase implemented by RTC to test the viability of using this method in a future campus-wide employment. Over the past few months RTC has refined its Recruit cell phone Standard Operating Plan to allow Recruits to use their personal cell phones to connect with family and friends during their scheduled phone call periods.
Recruits are typically allowed five standard phone calls during their training. These calls will still take place, but now Recruits will utilize their personal devices to contact their family or friends.
“In this post-COVID pandemic culture, digital identities have proven increasingly critical in helping to deal with day-to-day stress,” said Capt. Ken Froberg, commanding officer, Recruit Training Command. “When we surveyed psychological research in this area, in consultation with our Council on Recruit Basic Training partners (CORBT), we decided it is time for Recruits to connect with their loved ones in a more modern way. Simply, I used a payphone and phone card calling home from overseas in 1994. We can do better in 2024.”
RTC typically experiences the bulk of Recruit attrition during the first two to three weeks of basic military training. “We are hopeful that allowing Recruits continued but limited access to their cell phones and digital identities may help reduce this attrition,” said Lt. Eren Roubal, Recruit Training Command’s Clinical Psychologist.
“As digital natives, new Recruits can potentially experience psychological stress from being abruptly disconnected from their digital identities,” added Roubal.
The plan for RTC is to create a phased transition from digital resilience to a physical one though RTCs proven Warrior Toughness principles.
“It is still important that we train Sailors to be resilient,” added Froberg. “We have to do better in this space to prepare our Sailors for a digitally austere operating environment at sea.”
This change is one of several RTC is implementing to invest in our Sailors’ quality of service from the very beginning of their Navy career.
Boot camp is approximately 10 weeks and all enlistees into the U.S. Navy begin their careers here. Training includes five warfighting competencies of firefighting, damage control, seamanship, watchstanding, and small arms handling and marksmanship as well as physical fitness and lessons in Navy heritage and core values, Warrior Toughness, Life Skills, teamwork and discipline. More than 40,000 Recruits train annually at the Navy’s only boot camp.
For more news from Recruit Training Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/rtc
Story by Lt. Nicholas Lingo
U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command