...Fort Benning, GA to watch son graduate from basic training. Should be back mid-week

Have fun. I remember my family came to see me graduate and the graduation was on a Friday and we had Saturday and Sunday off before being released Monday from boot (Navy). I had duty on Saturday! What a rip off! I recall we went to fire fighting training that morning, came back covered with soot and some little girl recognized her dad marching in our company and ran out so we halted for him to carry her back to mom. How she knew who he was still amazes me, she'd be in her 30s now! We got showered and ready to go, took five steps and we were halted. Some guy had ran off for the day six weeks earlier and they decided that was the right time to pull him out and let him know he got to go back to day one of boot! Yup, had to repeat the entire thing....last thing I saw of him he was standing there crying. Tough, shouldn't have ran off. See? Your son will be building memories of this week and you get to be part of it! That is great.

Just got back. Had a great time. Great demonstration before the ceremony (got there early enough to see the rehearsal so I saw it twice).
You are right about the memories. We heard a few stories about "friendly fire candidates" (the jerks who managed to alienate almost everybody in the platoon). The what-were-they-thinking stories about some of the wash-outs and the like.
Remember these guys. Like the narrator at the ceremony said, these guys enlisted in time of war (a fact underscored by their graduating in combat uniform) and have essentially "written a a blank check to their country for an amount up to and including their lives"