PIR date for DIV 042, very confused

[caramelatte]

Hi all, I have a friend who entered boot camp on November 3rd. His division is 042. His brother said that he will be graduating on Sunday Jan. 10th 2010, however, I called the Navy Public Affairs office and they told me it was on Friday, Jan 8th 2010. Can anyone confirm these dates because I would like to book my airplane ticket before they get more expensive. Thanks!

[Jason's Proud Mom]

Graduations are always on Fridays, unless it happens to fall on holdiday. Hope this helps!!

[caramelatte]

Thanks for the reply, it helped a lot! I have several additional questions that I hope you don't mind answering. Is it strange that his graduation is 9 weeks after he left for boot camp? I thought it was supposed to be 8 weeks.

Also, would I need some sort of identification that will allow me to attend his graduation? Is there supposed to be an invitation that I would have to bring with me? I do not think his family would be attending his graduation, and I am not apart of his family. Would this be a problem? Thanks :)

[Mrs.Recruit]

My husband is in Div 042 and his grad is on 1-8-2009. Your name will be on his list of invitees and all you need is say your driver's license and social security card, or passport, etc. You will not need any invitation...according to the paper work that came with my husbands letter about PIR. Hope this helps!

[caramelatte]

Thanks for clearing that up barbarak!! :)

[Dawn]

Hi! Did you friend leave Brooklyn on 11/3/09? My son left on that day and is in Ship 3 Division 042. As Barbara explained, when the paperwork with the ship/division number comes, he should have listed who will be at his graduation. Looking foward to seeing you in Chicago!

[caramelatte]

Hi Dawn! We're from New York City, and he did indeed leave on 11/3/09. He's in the same divsion as your son! Is it safe to assume that the majority of the recruits in division 042 are from New York or somewhere close? I will definitely be there during PIR, and see you in Chicago as well! :)

[Arwen]

Quite often recruits arrive in large groups from one or two geographical areas. There might be 10, 50 or even 100 coming from one MEPS center. Since they travel together they arrive together and end up in a division together. One day they might get arrivals from San Francisco, Houston and New York, so all the divisions are made up of recruits from those areas, and the next day they're all from Atlanta, Los Angeles and Denver.

When I went to boot camp I left California with seven others from my MEPS center. Our flight made a stop in Dallas and picked up more than 70 new recruits there. Guess where most of my division was from?

Sometimes a division gets filled up with mostly a group from one area, then a second group comes in and only the first few get in that earlier division and are separated from those they came in with. Other times there are many small groups from all over the country, so they get a really diverse division with no more than a few from any one area.

[Patrice - Ship 11-Division 25]

Interesting Arwen - I always wondered how they grouped the divisions - thanks for this piece of information.