My son will be graduating from boot camp January 11th and shipping out for Goose Creek at 1 am Saturday morning. He indicated in his latest letter that during weeks 1-4 of 'A' school, he will have 75 mile liberty on the weekends. Does anyone have experience with their sailor and the first weekend upon arrival in Charleston? We live a lot closer to Charleston than Great Lakes and would rather just go down there to see him since our time in Great Lakes would be so limited. I'm wondering if he will get off base liberty that first weekend in Charleston. Does anyone know or know how I can find out? I went through Nuke school a long time ago in Orlando and can't remember what we did. I'm sure it's all different now anyway. Thanks in advance for any help.
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Hey from what my son told me they have 75 mile on weekends in uniform when they get there. After 4 weeks or when they class up it changes to 400 mile. Good luck. My son is almost done. He will be done in April.
They can go off base in uniform 1st week. My son went to the beach 1st week. We brought his computer and cell phone to the airport but we live 45 min. from O'hare. Know that the 1 am departure is for the airport from Great Lakes, his plane may not leave until 6PM. The is a USO at the aiport and it is jammed, sailors all over the place.
Steve, my sailor is now about 2 months through prototype so this may be fuzzy memory. Mine arrived at GC on Labor Day weekend and was allowed off base that first weekend. He went to Folly Beach with another sailor from our hometown.
Thanks for all the replies...I'm really interested in whether or not he will get off base liberty on his first weekend there. We want to go visit him as soon as he gets there and I am wondering whether we should wait until after he has been there for a week or so. I remember not being able to wear civilian clothes for some time period when I was in 'A' school but can't remember how liberty worked...back then, most of us didn't have cars anyway. We had to walk or ride the bus anywhere we went :)
My daughter is there now. During Phase one they can only have off base leave on weekends but have to be back my 12:15am every night and can leave again I believe at 5:25am. Also during Phase 1 you have to be in uniform when going off base. As they are there longer they can wear civies and also go off base during the week. I can ask her the time table for it if you would like.
Those are the phases that I remember also. I might add that during phase I when off base and even on base they must be in uniform, it is not until phase II that they can wear civies. We brought out son's car down to him after phase II and he had no real problem with that. Yes, they do need a sticker to get on and off base and basically to drive at all. If caught driving unauthorized, that is not good at all. It is not too early to mention that most nukes that are dropped are not dropped for academic reasons but for questionable behavior and decision making reasons. As my son said the nukes he knew in GC were some of the smartest people he knew but most had little or no common sense as this was their first time being really on their own where their decisions can make or break their future. Don't mean to put a downer on here but that needs to be stressed. My son has been in for just under four years.
Ok--so Andy did have a car, but parked it at a friend's place on base until he had phased up. We did ship his computer right away (he was able to take his cell phone after PIR somehow.)
Has to have a sticker for his car.
Don't remember that he had to move off base, but by that time he was married (now much smarter and single again.) Watch where they live in Goose Creek, as some places are much more safe than others.
He's in Ship 11 Div 057...I just got a letter today that he wrote on the 14th. He says the rough outline of the phases at 'A' school will be as follows: (I assume he got MM since he only talks about 13 weeks)
Week 1-4 -75 mile radius liberty on weekends
-Cell phone/xbox/laptop/internet
-on base liberty from 1500-0015 (after class on weekdays)
-can have a car but can't drive it (???)
Week 4-8 -350 mile radius liberty on weekends
- same liberty on weekdays
- can now drive a car
Week 8-12 - pretty much unrestricted
He also says he'll get 2 weeks of leave following 'A' school and move off base with a housing allowance.
Wow--5 years puts a dimmer on my memories. We didn't get down to see him until November, and he went to GC in June of 08. By that time, our sailor had phased up to civie clothes, and we rented at Foster Creek Villas and spent a long weekend with him. I know he had to use the duty bus for quite a while. Does he have to wait until a certain phase to be off base? Just can't remember. I'm not much help. Sorry.