Daughter In Ship 6 Division 929, Anyone Else?

[tallmama]

Just got news that my daughter who left for boot camp on April 7th is on Ship 6 Division 929.  Any other moms, dads, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, etc., out there with someone in this group? 

[geckolea]

Hi! My son is in Ship 6 Div 929. Just got his letter talking about the Armed Services Ball. He is a Flag carrier. I agree Eric doesn't give us all the little details. I don't know any names of other people. We were getting a letter a week on Thursdays but then we got a letter telling us that he was going to lose his Nuke contract because they had determined he is color blind. Thanks to me. (I said that, he didn't) Then we didn't hear from him for 3 weeks. I thought I was going to go nuts. We got his letter today. They just offered him HC. He is ok with it though, he was so proud during the the Ball. He is going to be fine. I have just got to realized he is a man and can deal with the disappointments in life. Can't wait to see him we are counting down the days!!

[janis USS DUBUQUE]

Joe is color blind too, said he couldn't be a pilot. Everyday I hope for a letter. Haven't gotten one in a week now. Will you be at the meet in greet?

[geckolea]

Yes, Don & I will try to be at the meetngreet. We are driving in on Thursday so don't know how well we will do. We hope to make it to Lincoln, NE the first day. We live on the Western Slope of Colorado. I hate this color blind thing. It is so limiting for our boys.

We have only ever gotten one letter a week. The letter we got today was dated 16 May, that's 10 days ago. I just don't know how it works, but hang in there.

[janis USS DUBUQUE]

yes, you too! See you next week, hope we both get letters! Oh..did you see the battlestations clip on youtube?

[geckolea]

No how do I find it?

[kathyjeanba (ship 6/Div 929)]

geckolea,

My gosh, I think if we hadn't heard from our son in three weeks I would have been calling the Red Cross! What is HC?

Our son, David, is carrying a flag too. He also said that the military ball was a blast. The males didn't have an RDC on the bus on the way back to base so they got to cut loose a little.

To Janis also...did you both find out thru BC that your sons were color blind? Things have changed since the 60's. My brother wasn't even considered for service because of his color blindness. I'm glad that your sons will still be able to serve in spite of that.

I've seen the Battlestations video too and am recomending it to my co-workers. I'm not sure if they're interested but at least they're humoring me!

[geckolea]

HC is hospital corpsman. That would be a little different for him. Eric passed his CB test at MEPS, then failed at BC. They gave him a FALANT test also but supposedly it was suppose to be given in a darkened area and it was in full light so he is borderline. Waivers are possible, the medical officer was going to give him one but it had gone too far by then. He was offered a Nuke contract in MEPS so this really hurts to a certain degree.

About the letters...I'm not sure if he is just bad about getting his letters to the post in time or what but yes I was a basketcase just holding it in. My husband kept telling me it was OK but...

[kathyjeanba (ship 6/Div 929)]

I googled battlestations21 youtube. It was a CNN Wolfe Blitzer segment.

And, HC may take Eric in a whole different direction in life than he might have done otherwise. It'll be interesting to see where this Navy experience takes our children!

[geckolea]

I'm bad, Eric is going to be HM (Hospital Corpsman) not HC. Don't know why I might of messed that one up? I'll get it straight sometime lol. Anyway he is thinking he might go for FMF, Fleet Marine Force which attaches to the Marines. He says "get his boots dirty". This is quite the adventure. It's funny though, I can understand him pushing himself that way and I think I can deal with that better than not knowing how he was dealing with not getting Nuke. I watched the Battlestations21 on youtube. Yeah, I'm going to send it to my family and friends too!

[kathyjeanba (ship 6/Div 929)]

Good Saturday morning everybody!

We got a short letter from David yesterday. He didn't mention BS-21 at all. They did their last physical training and he didn't do as well as he had hoped. He thinks that having been sick after the wisdom teeth issue slowed him down. Also, the division as a whole wasn't coming together the way they should so they're getting some grief from the RDCs over that. They were "disowned". Military talk for "don't tell anybody you're my kid'. My husband says they may be messing with their minds. I still couldn't find anything about a Sox game today but the Cubs are playing the Cardinals today. So either somebody was confused or that was a head game.

The good news was that one of the divisions shipped out the day he wrote the letter and they went over and got 927's good pillows. I would have thought the pillows were the same but maybe at this point "the pillows seem fluffier on the other side".

I'm glad our divisions BS-21 isn't on the 2nd. I know they're going to be on an emotional roller coaster anyway but having done BS-21 so close to PIR seems like a lot to me. Also, if it was the 2nd we'd be on the road and might miss the "I'm a sailor!" call.

A friend of my that does bead work is making a red, white & blue bracelet for me to wear at PIR. She's so sweet. She's estranged from her 25 year old son so I think she's living vicariously thru me and David. Her face lights up when I tell her what he says in his letters. Not a hint of jealousy. She's also the one who tells me to keep my head where my feet are.
Great piece of advice!

Along with the bracelet I'll be wearing a "rusty" red top and black jeans.

On the 31st I'll be lighting my candle and toasting our division at 2000 (8pm) with Baileys Irish Cream. That's kind of a family thing for me.

I know that by PIR it will be all about our new sailors but I hope we can grab a few minutes Friday to congatulate each other too!

[tallmama]

Hi, Kathy. I also got a short letter from Yvette and a long one on Thursday. The one I got today said she finally passed her PFA test. She said she kicked XXX! I am so proud of her for sticking to her training and bettering her running time by more than 3 minutes! I know sh'es not the fastest cat in the race, but she passed and by a margin of almost two minutes, so I'm proud of her. She sounded very excited and happy. She said they were supposed to get phone calls this weekend, but she's not sure because she also insisted that they were supposed to perform at the White Sox game on Saturday. I'm looking for the television listings, and if I can find it, I'll DVR the thing so I can see if they even show them marching.

She didn't say anything about the RDCs coming down on them hard, but then she never does. She gave me a very good description on how she shot the ground a couple times when she was doing the 9mm training, but she said, again, she just kept at it and did qualify. I wish they would let her have her glasses! She said they told her her vision wasn't that bad and they didn't give her a pair of glasses to wear and they took hers away. She said it would have helped if she could have seen the target a little better! Oh, well, gotta do what you gotta do. Now we just have to get through Monday night into Tuesday, and hope that everyone in their Division does well in BS-21. I'm sure they'll come together and do well. I just have to keep the faith. I have no idea what I'm going to wear at PIR, but you gotta be able to pick me out in a crowd 'cause I'll be the one who sticks out like a sore thumb because I'm so tall, I've got really light blond hair that's naturally curly so it goes all frizzy in the heat, and I'll have a really big grin on my face but I'll be all blotchy from crying! lol. Good grief, I can't wait until next week. Baileys Irish Cream may just be on my shopping list for the grocery store for Monday night, but darned if I don't have to be bright eyed and bushy tailed for work on Tuesday -- plus, we will get our phone calls for sure that day. Yikes, my stomach just did a little topsy turvey. Okay. I've gotta go and get some housework done. Talk to you soon, Kathy! Alison

[kathyjeanba (ship 6/Div 929)]

Okay, so that's at least three of us who's recruits mentioned the Sox game. Good to know my son isn't hallucinating!

Alison, good thing you're tall with curly hair. That might be all that separates you from the rest of us with really big grins and blotchy, crying faces! Big :)