How to get your sailor's address before you get their first letter!!!!!

Hi Y'all! I am (careful now- don't booh or throw stones!) a recruiter and a Navy Dad, so with certainty I can tell you the following because I do this for all my recruits' families: Your child's recruiter will have the mailing information available to them within 2-4 days after your sailor ships to boot camp. He (or she) should contact you (if they have your phone number given to them by your sailor or yourselves) and give you the information and how to address the envelope. This information is only available to your sailor's recruiter at that particular office, since it is coupled with their SS number. I hope this helps many of you and feel free to pass it on to others as necessary. Hooyah! Philip

Replies

MarkM December 19, 2009 at 7:54pm

One caveat to this is if there was a change in recruiters since they swore into DEP. This happened with our son and the recruiter that worked with him during the last 6 months of DEP couldn't access his info in the system. We contacted Chief Grubb (belongs on this site) at the Philly Recruiting District (Maryland is assigned to them) and she looked up his address for us.
Justamom December 19, 2009 at 6:43pm

Thanks Philip, but what are you supposed to do if your recruiter does not give you the address? We received the box today but no address. The recriuters office has not returned any calls. We went to the station today (a 40 mile trip) to ask in person since their phone mailboxes are full, but they had just left according to the Marine staff next door.

Normally I can see where there would not be an urgency, but since our son will be in bootcamp over Christmas, unless we get him address by Monday, he will not get a single card or letter to open for Christmas. My fear is he will be the only one not to get mail which will make Christmas much harder than it needs to be.

It's not supposed to be this difficult, right?

Any suggestions on how I can speed up the address retrieval time? Can I Fedex a letter to him? That would buy us another day at least.

Thanks in advance for any responses.

A New Navy Mom
NavyDads Admin (Paul) September 18, 2009 at 9:15pm

Thanks for reaffirming that you recruiters have the ship and division numbers (and addresses) within a couple of days of shipping to Great Lakes. We've posted that numerous times in responses to various questions and still think there is some skepticism because some parents have been told otherwise by their recruiters.....
Chief West September 18, 2009 at 9:03pm

I guess, better late than never! (Better never late!)

Hooyah!

Paul Lundin said:
Very useful info thank you for providing it. My son is now in Groton having graduated last month from BC. In the early days that would have been great to know. Keep it coming.
Paul Lundin September 17, 2009 at 12:27am

Very useful info thank you for providing it. My son is now in Groton having graduated last month from BC. In the early days that would have been great to know. Keep it coming.