Will I be able to text my friends and family at some point during boot camp?

The only way to know for sure if you can text family while in Basic Training will be if your Drill Sergeants let you have access to your phone. And the only way to know that is to find out when you get there. Everyone here on RP won't know what the policy is for your Basic Training Company. This is going to be a sit and wait kind of situation for you. In the mean time....pack those pens, paper, envelops and stamps.

You will not have your phone. You will jot he able to text or call anyone. When you arrive at boot camp, you will make one phone call to whomever you want. It is a quick 15-20 second scripted call to let them know you have arrived safely. You may have the opportunity to make one or two phone calls during the three months, this is no a guarantee. You do not need to bring and paper, pen or envelopes. You will get that after a day or two in boot camp. You go to boot camp with basically your identification card, and that's it, nothing else is allowed except your wallet and a basic very small address book to write people. The Marine Corps has Drill Instructors and not Drill Sergeants. Talk to your local recruiter. Get all your questions answered start learning about the Marone Corps. Take it from a retired Marine and Recruiter. Best of luck to you.

Jesus Wept! Thomas are going to boot to learn how to surviv if placed in combat operations, uphold the Marine Creed or be a damn journalist? Hell even USMC journalist goes thru Boot. Hate to crush your bubble, but doubt you will have time for long phone texts, with paper you can write in snatches for days. Seriously they will let you have your phone unless you earn it for 30 minutes as a reward! Get use to it- there are places in the world where there is NO cell phone service without a sat dish.

I doubt you'll have time to use your phone, IF you get to use it at all. Basic is a time to learn, to grow, and to transform from civilian to soldier. If you have time to text, you have time to study, clean, study, polish something, study, etc. Besides, nothing beats getting a letter during mail call; and I know I just dated myself there but it's still true.

Time to grow up.

From a former Marine DI: You will not be allowed to have a cell phone or do any texting. If you take your cell phone to boot camp, it will be taken from you at receiving barracks and stored until you graduate (along with any other "contraband"). You will not be allowed to make any phone calls (except in family emergency situations verified by the Red Cross). You will be issued letter writing gear, shaving gear, and other basic stuff (the cost of which will be deducted from your pay). You will get to make a phone call home during your final week (usually on visitors day), and that's it. You will be instructed in receiving barracks to tell your family not to send you any "care packages" loaded with contraband (cookies, fudge, etc. - you will be told what they should not send). In the old days, recruits who received such packages received a very hard time from their DIs - don't know if they still mess with recruits like that now. So...check with your recruiter about this. And don't take ANYTHING to boot camp except the clothes you are wearing, your ID and maybe your Social Security card.

You will not have a phone to text call or scroll through facebook. You will not even have a land line to call home. You will make one phone call home shortly after you arrive and there will be a card you will be required to read, word for word and that is it. Period. You will not even be allowed to converse.

This is the Marine Corps Thomas, not the boy scouts. If you don't know this by now, I am a little concerned. It isn't that it is a stupid question, it is a grossly uninformed question. The recruiters should have told you to take nothing (including a phone) with you. You need the clothes on your back, some go fasters on your feet and that is about it.

For this generation, always in touch by a device, I am sure boot camp in the Marine Corps will be unnerving. You will have plenty to keep your attention, very little of it will be nice, friendly, enjoyable etc.

Well I certainly hope so. But just in case take that pen and paper with you.

Agree re: everything everybody has already said. However, my two cents:

You’re likely not going to have access to your phone. And, frankly, you really don’t want it. Use the time away from tech and family to transform yourself—that is what basic training is all about. Dive into basic. It’s hundreds of years worth of leadership and psychology and military history wrapped up in one. Focus on that—it’s actually something you can’t learn from your phone.

Oops. I didn't see that you had tagged Marines in your post. Yea.....You aren't getting that cell phone during Marine Boot Camp. On the plus side, you'll be able to improve your penmanship.