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Does anybody have any advice on getting from midway airport to graduation. Im hoping i don't need to rent a car or take a taxi.

Thanks for all the info!  It's been a long process with my son and a seed that was planted a few years ago sprouted without me knowing.  We were watching TV a few weeks ago and he just looked over and said "I think I am going to join the Navy."  He was surprised when I agreed and asked how I could help.  He is a sophomore in college and is starting to see that a college degree doesn't necessarily prepare you for life or guarantee a future income

He's a very smart kid (94 on the ASVAB) but is kind of like a vehicle with a powerful engine and the wrong transmission, he just can't get going.  My hope is that the Navy will rebuild him and set him on a course that will tap his true potential.

With his score, they have offered him pretty much whatever he wanted to do and were pushing the nuke program on him.  Unfortunately, it doesn't mesh with his natural bent.  He has decided that intel is where he wants to be and offers him the long-term opportunities he is looking for in life.  We will see what he actually signs up for very soon. He is going to MEPS on Monday for processing and then in to the DEP till probably January.  His recruiter has been very helpful at each step.

I am looking forward to the guidance of those that have come before me on Navy Dads as well as contributing to those who have yet to come.  This site has been invaluable so far as we research the process he is getting ready to go through and try and avoid any pitfalls along the way.  (not to mention preparing our spirit for our boy's journey.)

Thanks again and I look forward to getting to know y'all more through the process.

Son Cody drove to San Diego and is at Coronado.  He is in SERE training and will be dropped in the mountains Friday for his 7 day survival. 

Well folks let me touch on one thing real quick, I am sitting here at Navy Lodge that's right I said Navy Lodge and that feels so easy to say.

This odyssey began right at 3months ago, I never would have dreamed this could be but yet here we are. He is so different from that teenage boy that left my house in mid April and its not the way he talks, or the manner in which he carries himself, its not even the self confidence he just oozes now, but something deeper much much deeper. Something in his eyes, something that he hasn't even seemed to find yet. I find it a bit uneasy that something hiding behind those blue eyes.

He has been pushed to his absolute limit only to discover new ones, and set those a little farther out a bit more out of reach just to ensure that he keeps on moving. I wondered as I watch him walk down the mall today, at first he was head high shoulders back strollin proud as they say,. but it has been a long three months for this young man, an extended period colored by the most difficult things he has ever endured. Due to the extended period added onto the original 8 he now has to wait. Wait until a slot opens up at A school, wait until the wheels turn finding him the training position he should have been graduating from in just a couple of weeks.

The more time we are together the clearer things become, he has become dependent on that direction; needing that person or persons telling him go here do that or come here do this. I watch both he and his fellow sailors while all bright eyed at noon by 5 or so almost looking lost almost looking as if at any moment someone will show up and coral them all up and send them back to what ever it was that they should be doing. These bright and energetic young men and women have endured a life changing experience, most for the better, some not quite so sure, but all changed.

I see Mothers with questioning faces, friends and siblings while ecstatic at noon looking puzzled by seven. This is played out in many different locations and the faces show so many emotions from happy elated to confused and dismayed now, do not misunderstand by any length of the imagination just merely an observation an accounting if you will. I will never and would never detract from what the Navy has given to my son or for that matter any ones child and having lived myself through Army basic I understand all to well.

The second day of our visit; the day after the big PIR date and it shows a little more, the thing they all strive for is to "get out of this place" never even considering the ones that don't get right on that plane or bus or whichever mode of transportation whisks them away to that whatever awaits. I see these "holdovers"(as they are called) walking away from cars and vans and SUV's or whatever their loved ones have made the trek in and they don't step quite as lively, heads while still high are just not quite as high as noon yesterday, steps not quite as lively. They appear on the walk back one after the other all dressed alike, all look as if they are dreading that night; that night they are still here. The morning to follow no longer a recruit but not the escape they had hoped for. Most of these Sailors are still here because of something that happened something that changed their dates, changed their plans, changed their lives. These men and women have a greater understanding of self sacrifice a greater understanding of those unimaginable limits and a feeling of something while it is visible in the eyes of each one but if you never take the time to look you will never see. Now all of these will go on to serve that greater good being part of incredible adventures, days on end on the sea and they will someday look back with great fondness for these days but for today just a day maybe two it can seem so dark.

That is where we come in those ones that made that trek just to lay eyes or hands on the young sailor waiting for them standing there giving praise not the empty kind but the ones that really matter the little ones that most forget but we will not, we will be right there, waiting, praising even the most minute thing. Holding on to that motivation for them just as long as they need it, just as long as it takes.

The way I understand it, my son has 4 more days to pass his "run" or he'll be separated from service. General discharge. The last day should be a week from tomorrow. Between now and then, he said he'll receive motivational chats from the bottom of the chain to the Commander of the RTC. Through letters and calls, this whole experience has drawn us close together....more so than ever. He doesn't know it, but over the next week he'll receive more mail than he'll have time to read. But maybe SOMETHING will stick and move him the last 30 seconds. I told him "30 seconds to NUKE". Praying and hoping he makes it. He has so much to look forward to.

Tim

On the day this young man was born July 4th 1994 I stood at the foot of his mothers bed holding him and as I did I looked at my lovely wife and said "this is going to be a hell of a ride" and I must say it has been at least that

This is the entry that I have been waiting to write for quite sometime now and it has finally come around. My wife's phone rang Friday and when she saw the number she "damn near wrecked" as she pulled off the road to answer her phone, as she said hello she heard his voice say "you are no longer speaking to a SR I am now officially a Navy Sailor". At that point he began to regale her with his night long experience of Battle Stations, and how hard it had been but he had made it through. All the things he had accomplished and how when it was all over they had been capped, they were recruits no more. She said she had heard a confidence in his voice as never before, and I wish I had been the one to get that call but I guess it is like when they pan the sideline on any college field on Saturday and the players say "Hi Mom" 

I had made the statement before that my sadness wasn't for the accomplishments and growth he has experienced but for the loss of that little boy with the skinned knee or the runny nose, all the way back to him standing there arms outstretched hands opening and closing wanting "me" to hold him.

On the Tuesday after the 4th I had received a letter from him and within this envelope was a piece of paper that has become more precious than any gold could ever be you see written upon this paper was a letter from this same young man this boy who was now without a doubt a man he told me stories in this letter from so many years ago things he remembered from his youth stuff I was should no one but me remembered now here is this young man recounting them to me. I had been what he had thought of on his birthday see his birthday is the 4th of July and mine is the 5th so we have always had that connection and at the same time it has never for either one of us been the ideal time for a birthday, we live in WV so the 4th has always been around here "miners vacation" all the kids gone with their families to the beach or some other place so he never had the big blow out parties because his friends were gone. Now his first birthday away from home finds him in Boot at Great Lakes and with that he thought of me. He called me a hero, and a role model and said some of the things he had made it through were because of the example I had set for him and that had been motivation for him, that one will make you get a little teary eyed to say the least.

As you have read along with this young man's start to an adventure that will unfold over the next chapter of his life and what an adventure it will be in new lands and cultures seeing first hand the things he had read about in the books he so loves, I will from time to time write about the life he has made for himself the direction he takes it and it takes him. This is one of those things you want and wish for for your children and god knows Jarad has never done it the easy way that's for sure but this one is his, his to hold his head high and his shoulders squared and walk proud like a Navy man. Oh I have forgotten one thing in all this rant He is going to get his PIR this Friday he gets to be a part of this with a different Division so now we get to make last second arrangements to be there, just when I thought it was different here we go again, wish me luck its gonna be a hell of a ride.   

Hello everyone. My son has xhecked in with the POs at the airporr and called. He spoke to his morher and she was a bit shaken with his tone. As a marine I tried to explain it is the initial shock of military life. Looking forward to watching my son drill at The PIR. Thanks for welcoming me into the group

Turn by Natalie June Reilly

You think you know what it means to love your country, until your firstborn son comes to you with the news that he’s joined the U.S. Navy. The sheer pride on his face is enough to comfort you — his mother — because you know he’s no longer a little boy. He is a young man struggling to find his feet in this world.

Admiration doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what you feel for him and for his decision. However, in the back of your mind, haunting images of wartime cut in and suddenly you’re staring the most real kind of sacrifice in the face, wondering if you ever really loved your country that much.

My son, Billy, left for boot camp a few weeks ago. I, alongside his dad, grandmother and younger brother, witnessed him raise his right hand and swear an oath to protect his country — at all costs. It was one of the most profound moments of my life. I didn’t know it at the time, but nearly 21 years ago I gave birth to a U.S. sailor, one of the good guys. What’s not to be proud about that?

As a mother, I suddenly became acutely aware of other men and women in uniform. I am compelled to hug them, hold them close so that they might never forget how much they are loved and appreciated, if for no other reason than to think that someone might do the same for my son while he is out of arm’s reach. I imagine it wouldn’t hurt to do the same for their mothers, as I’m sure they deserve it as much, if not more. For theirs is a sacrifice hard to put into mere words.

Within just a few days of my son enlisting, I learned of one such mother’s sacrifice. Her son’s name was Chief Petty Officer Christian Michael Pike. He was a sailor from Peoria, a handsome young man who died from wounds he suffered in Afghanistan, while upholding the same oath that I watched my son and a group of other young men and women take just days before. This devastating news hit too close to home.

You think you know what it means to love your son, or even your daughter for that matter, until you watch him or her walk out of the safe comfort of your home and into the waiting arms of our U.S. military and all that entails.

And you think you know what faith is, but until you see your child walk through your front door and back into your waiting arms, you really don’t. God bless our troops and God bless their mothers, every last one.

-----Original Message-----From: Vinson, Toby R. ITCM CCSG11, SEL Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2013 4:44 PMTo: CCSG11 All HandsSubject: Right Hand person brunch in the CPO MESSWT-11,When you see LN1 Hills walking about the decks or doing his job at NIMITZ Legal - please congratulate him as being selected as the CSG 11 CPO's "Right Hand" person!LN1 Hills will be invited to the CHIEF's Mess on Sunday to enjoy brunch with the CPO Mess.

 Hey I am back again with a bit of information and a bunch of opinion.....

    This continues to be one of the hardest things I have ever had to sit on my hands and let happen. He called his mother yesterday and started his conversation by telling her how sorry he was he had let us and everyone pulling for him down, see after his initial fail on his run he was segregated from his shipmates and this is really sticking in my crawl the Navy spent the first seven weeks this young man was there making him understand that it was all about the "team" that above all else the team must succeed then at the one precise time that he needs his shipmates they move him out into another barracks with people he has no connection to, how is this designed to improve his feeling of belonging to something greater than himself? think about this if you will just for a second am I the only one that this seems wrong to? I know that they have their standard hell I used to hold fast to it training military troops myself and like I said it seems like it does because it is one of mine. All I can see is this young man that goes from qualifying Expert with the 9mm on top of the world to being told get your stuff we gotta move you.

       He managed to get his time down to 12 seconds in a week and for this reward you get to sit and listen to everyone else having their moment of glory just sit there and know today there is no team, today you sit here away from all of that, sit here and wallow in the short comings you have displayed. I know the whole argument you can't change the standards for one because you would have to do it for all; and on the grand scale all is a lot. All I can see is the the teenage boy that felt he didn't belong anywhere had no friends  to speak of and stayed shut away in his room to getting letters from him stating he was exactly where he belongs that "I have 88 brothers and we all answer to the same name and move at the same speed" I know that in the long run it will hopefully all work out and he may still indeed have a long and illustrious career in the navy and I know this is not even close to the worst he will see but it has to be one of his darker moments and in a organization that relies on teamwork he once again feels like he is an outsider.

     I know this young man and I fear that in his mind he is just as alone now as he was before he got there no buddies to look out for him or to look out for no shipmates to have your back when things hit the fan no none at all.  I have many many years in which I was in or working for the DOD and I know all to well the way things work but this young man that wasn't allowed to call for over a week,  had not received one piece of his mail not one letter. We all have been in a frantic dash trying to do our part to keep his morale and spirits high and he has not gotten one bit of it. No words of encouragement no "you got this" nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch,  all he had to keep him company was continued failure in a place that was designed because people fail but I know from experience that if you keep them in a place that the bonds have been formed performance increases, morale increases, and overall unity increases and in the grand scheme of things by week seven these men and women have formed bonds that they will defend bonds that will make them look to and at each other for the strength they need to accomplish the task at hand.

    You want him to succeed line the running track with the same shipmates he has relied on and have relied on him, put them on that track beside him pushing him driving him on, showing him he is part of a big picture not make him wait here and watch as the people he has been through one of the hardest things he has ever done form up and march away, march away as you stand there in your own mind saying wait what about me? we are a team we look out for each other, we support each other or at least that is what they told him. That is the bill of goods he was sold that is where I have the problem. They are told and rewarded for thinking of their shipmates first before themselves praised and given commendations but yet when one falls behind you are now saying go on every man for themselves?

      I have been told by many to "do nothing" or the ever popular "there's nothing you can do" well I just do not believe that can not believe that. There are to many things built into the process he is involved in for there to be nothing I can do I know the way the military works and I know that some where is just the right person for me to call or talk to that can help me in the matter at hand. I apologize for the lack of eloquence in this entry in to my mind but as you can probably tell is just a little mentally overloaded.  ...

Which is better, safer, more use full after the Navy, Undes or BM? If your academically dropped from C school, already E4 can you still keep E4 as Undes?

Well the day has came & passed Alyssa left for basic on Wednesday June 12th, all has been ok so far until yesterday (fathers day) it was pretty rough!!!

Has any one have knowledge or experience with being dropped from an FC "C" School and what happens after. Any advice? If you're re-classing, do you have to take what ever is available right away or can you wait and for something more fitting your "A" School or asvab score? Thanks.

 Well gentlemen once again please endure my mental purging....

 As I sat here tonight the phone rang and I as have many of us recognized the area code and immediately answered. The voice on the other end of the line sounded so familiar that it was almost confusing, see I knew who it was before I even picked up the phone but when I heard him speak and actually say " you know who this is right?" I was almost embarrassed sitting here alone because while it was the same voice I have been hearing for almost 19 years it was different somehow. Dad I failed my PFE to long on the run is what he said and as of now I have no graduation date. My heart just sank I knew why he was different now.

        As I ask the particulars he tried to fill me in and then this young man said something that chilled me he said " I am sorry I let you down again" see I don't ever recall saying that sentence to him just the opposite every time we talked even before this monumental undertaking I have always told my children that I was proud of them for being them, not what they do or don't do for that matter. He then continued to inform me stating that his  run was to slow by 38 sec the blink of an eye to most but a lifetime to others. He also said if he can get it done before his division goes to battle stations he will be with them if not who knows.

      Here is a young man that during all of this got strep throat and an ear infection confining him to his rack for two days and the way they discovered he was sick was by his inability to stand up straight during inspection, which he subsequently failed by the way. He said during that call that he might be recycled but he had managed to get back on pace and was looking good just over a week from PIR, how disheartening this has to be, I posted in one of my earlier vents about a phrase that has become our mantra "You Got This" and as I listened to him disappointed in himself feeling as if he had just let down the world I refreshed him I said "J you remember how all along I have said You Got This and I told you that if there was a situation that you didn't think you can do you will hear my voice saying You Got This well son this is that test, that thing that when you feel like it’s over that 38 sec is just too long, just behind your ear you will hear me say J You got this boy, you got this.

       I wish I could complete this tale of woe and despair but unfortunately I cannot, see I did what I was supposed to do I listened and reassured him that this is entirely overcome able that he has it within himself to do this, and no matter what I am still Proud to say that I am the father of Jarad ______ when I pressed this he sounded somewhat lightened like he almost believed me even if only for that one second. He then had to go the 2 minutes allotted was about to expire so we said our I Love You's and just before we hung up I said to him ........ J son I am here no matter what and remember You got this boy you got this. Well thanks for letting me vent and keep your fingers crossed he finds 40 seconds as soon as possible cause he really needs it for himself more than anything

I have read from the N4M site, that there's a scam going on, that someone or a grp are pretending to be your sailor with a cold, that are in need of money only by wire method,, so please be alert on any phoney calls that may come your way, and check and confirm always!