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Was wondering if anyone was aware of a dinner the night before graduation? If so I know I read it but do not see it anyware. It was at a grill and pub around 5 if I remember correctly any ideas

It was very exciting to get my son's box from RTC via FedEx last Tuesday.  It was eerie however, opening it up to find everything he had on him in this little cube.  It was symbolic of, "here's your boy ... We've (the Navy) got him now.  We'll return him later as a man and as a sailor".  There's a finality to it that kind of hit me when we opened it.

The next day we received "the letter".  I was excited to see that his PIR is March 4 - about a week sooner than I expected.  So now I had to make our travel arrangements to be there for it.  

The advice the Navy gives is to buy refundable plane Tix (we're coming from LA), in case his graduation gets delayed for some reason.  Unfortunately, those tickets can be about 4 times more expensive.  It would be cheaper to buy non-refundable tickets and then throw them out if I had to make changes.  Talking to a travel agent, they said if I could fly Southwest, they don't charge cancellation fees and I can use the tickets toward any new tickets I would need to buy. I did just that.

I thought that was good advice and thought I'd share it.  

We thought it would be a good idea to travel a day early and meet up with other families that are going to March 4's PIR at the dinner/get together that gets held the night before. Is there anyone on this site that is planning on doing the same thing?  I'd hope to meet you and say hi.

Anyway, I think March 4th is the perfect date to graduate because, for my son, he is going to march forth into a fantastic future with the navy! 

I just joined the Navy Dads family. I am not a military veteran myself, but I am an ARMY brat of 25 years. I just want to say how proud I am of my son Mickey. He began his Naval career just this past Dec. 3, 2015.  He is scheduled to graduate boot camp the end of this month. We can't wait to see him.  It's been a very long nine weeks.

I've been struggling with sending packages to my son who is on a DDG. 

It's relatively easy when you address the package yourself but using one of the online stores, it's more cross your fingers and hope.

My son's address looks something like this:

Sailor's Name
Their Division / Department
USS Bulkeley (DDG 84)
Unit 100319 Box 1* (they each have their own box number)
FPO AE 09565-1301

When I went to Amazon.com I entered the address like this:

 (Full Name) Rate Rank Last Name, First

 (Address line 1) Department

 (Address line 2) USS Bulkeley (DDG 84)

 (City)   FPO

 (State) AE

 (Zip Code) 09565-1301

 (Country)  United States

Amazon was good they seemed to have it together.they had custom form filled out so it was accepted by USPS and went through OK.  Other items I bought on Amazon but through one of their "Online Sellers", got the address correct but not the customs form so it was [REJECTED].  You should contact the seller to make sure they include the customs form when dealing with them.

Wisconsin Meats, was also very good and had online help to get you through the forms.  (They also include extras for the sailors) ***** stars for this site

Puritans Pride, totally useless.  I knew it was going to be a problem so I called to help them through the address.  1st time they used my address[REJECTED], 2nd time the correct address, with my name [REJECTED], 3rd time, 1 month later and four calls, it's somewhere on Long Island out for delivery!

ZERO stars for them

Nice thing about buying online, you can often get free shipping and when it works it seems to get to the FPO faster for some reason.

Let me know what your experiences are.  I'm still learning!

My daughter, a college grad, just spent six months in a combined A and C school for advanced IT. She went to RTC as an E3 and will be getting a rate of E4 when she starts her first duty next week.  She was in DEP for nearly a year, and was pretty well prepared for what she would be doing in the Navy.  She humbly states that she was "just lucky" to get this opportunity.  I don't think is was "just luck."

An acquaintance of my daughter has been in the Navy for three years as a fire control technician, and has a rate of E3.  I believe she began as an E1 and has no college or DEP.  She contends that it is very difficult to get a better rate in this job.  Are some job specialties better than others as far as advancement/rate goes? 

When my son gets back from his deployment his ship will be going into dry dock.  I am curious as to what happens to the sailors when this happens.  Are they moved to barracks, given shore duty, assigned to other ships or do they continue on the ship and continue as usual?

My daughter is going to the Stennis as "undesignated".  I would appreciate it if anyone has any tips, advice, etc. for her and us to best deal with her deployment.  Thanks

 Have any of the parents from the ship and div listed had any phone calls or letters from your SR yet ? Today is Sunday Dec 13,2015 @ 12:26 pm central .

I went to Amazon and sent two DVDs to my son who is deployed in the Med.  The package was refused in Il. I'm about to send him a Christmas package but now I'm afraid to send it because it contains a DVD. Any idea if it's because it came from Amazon or if it was the DVD that caused the package to be rejected?

I am scheduled for a TC out of Pearl. Does anyone have a packing list from a past cruise ?

This will be my first.

David

My son's PIR is 11/6/15 (Ship 04, Div. 820). We will be renting a car and wonder if it is better to drive or take the hotel shuttle to the PIR? He is staying in Great Lakes for A school so we heard after graduation it may take several hours for him to move to another location. Figured we would drive back later in the day to pick him up. Anyone have any thoughts. God bless out SR's!!! 

My son Benjamin is in Ship 004 DIV 008, Put 3 letters in the mail to him today, PIR November 13

A very Proud DAD

Rick

Can someone give me an estimate as to when I might be getting my sons permanent address?  Will it come before or after his box? He left for Boot Camp last Wednesday 9/16. His mother and I are dying to write to send him letters, we already have a few written.