NAM AWARD!!!

[annieNC/NAS]

awwww my son called today.....he received the NAM award!!!! ...some may not know..thats the Navy Achievement Medal. He is coming home on leave and bringing it w/ him..I looked on computer..its pretty nice looking. We had this huge vinyl banner made when he made Petty Officer, and put it over the top of the garage door...gotta get that back out & up!!
It's just amazing..one day...they leave to the great unknown (bc), and you're crying your eyes out and you dont know if you're ever going to be ok ever again, and you just want to reach out and grab your baby back w/ one hand , and smack the blank out of the recruiter that signed him w/ the other...
It's just so good when you can sense that they feel they have made the right decision regarding their futures, even tho not all days are glorious.
well, I just wanted to brag!!!!!! Godbless all military & their loved ones.

[Anti M]

Congratulations!

[Melissa (Tucson)]

What an honor! Hug that Sailor for the rest of us! Woohoo!!

[Angie F.- WA: HM mom]

Bravo Zulu to him! What did they award it to him for? He is obviously a fine Sailor with a bright future. :) Enjoy your time at home with him!

[annieNC/NAS]

I dunno yet!!!! I get to grab him at the airport but not til wednesday nite!!!! thanx for the bravo zulu!!!!! I cant wait to show him all these... but now I'm laughing...I hafta learn a new language...Navy talk!!!!

[annieNC/NAS]

ok, FINALLY!!!! we are so proud of him! time home w/ him was great! n then we traveled cross absolutely completely from one end to the other (ie I-40 wilmington, nc straight across on same highway lol to barstow ca.), lemoore naval air station.
what a trip!!!!! and what a bonding ~~~~~~~~~~~ ;->
oh wait..back to the NAM !!!!!!!!!!
we are so proud!...he received this for performing in an exemplary and highly professional manner from 2007-2009... and 6 m deployment in support of op enduring freedom-phillipines..--(got his boat to receive full certs).....--not sure of any other way to put it...!!!
we have 2 navy guys on our cul-de-sac
ones a recruiter.
the recruiters going to the same station that my son just got sent to..lol...this should be good.

[Lady Hamilton]

A big BZ to your Sailor! Hope the visit home is going well.
And please, Annie, brag all you want cuz its a way of balancing out all the tears that we shed. And personally, I love to hear the success stories: They don't get the bandwidth they deserve. The successes far outweigh the disappointments.

OK, here's a NAM story: In my daughter's 5+ years in the Navy she has had a long list of job titles, one of which was secretary to the CO of a destroyer. Among her many tasks was handling all the paperwork associated with awards, which included composing the text of the official citations. Being very fluent in Navy commendation talk is one of the requirements for being a good YN and she's really really good at it. (She's equally fluent in military justice talk from handling the paperwork from Captain's Masts, the flip side of the coin and a story for another time.)

Anyway, as her four years with that destroyer were coming to an end, the skipper says he wants to award her a NAM (her second) for all her great work and tells her to write it up. What specifically is the award for, she asks, because these things have to have some focus. Think of something worthy, he replies. So she goes back through the records of all the medals, awards, letters of commendation, etc that she has handled for everyone else on the ship, looking for examples that might apply to her. And it hits her that her official Navy-speak comendations comes close to true poetry. Her words have made ordinary Sailors look outstanding and outstanding Sailors look like the sons of Neptune. So she fires up MS Word and writes out an award for herself for doing such an excellent job of writing out awards. What goes around, comes around and around and around and around.......

Emma

[Jeanine #762]

Congratulations, I completely understand how you feel when I received that call in June of this year. He was only an EN3 not even a Petty Officer yet. It was for his exemplinary work during the 100+million dollar refitting of his amphib at Little Creek.

[Navy Aunt (AF Wife)]

WOW!!! Congrats to all of you and to you award winners! That's fantastic!!