IT A school

[Debralindsey]

I have a daughter that should be graduating boot mid November.  I am slightly confused on how A school works and phases, ect. She will go in as an IT and want to know how other peoples experiences went!

[Anti M]

Any specific questions?

 

Basically, she graduates from boot camp, and then gets on a plane to go to her A school. Sometime during boot camp, she will be told is she is going immediately (Saturday) or a little later.  A Saturday departure is pretty common, but you will not know until a few weeks beforehand.  Makes PIR planning very difficult.

 

When she arrives at her school, she will have some time learning the base policies (indoc).  Then there may be a hold period waiting to class up and begin school. It is self-paced, but they are still sent through in classes, and expected to make progress at a certain pace.  However many weeks her orders say A school is, expect that to be longer.

 

The phases refer to liberty.  Liberty is normal time off such as weekends and holidays.  Leave is earned time off, taken as vacation days.  

Phase one, they must wear their uniform, no overnights off base, and must be accompanied by a liberty buddy or two.  This can last two to four weeks, more if she can't earn her privileges.

They earn phase two by passing inspections, and so on.  Then they can wear civilian clothes, and can stay off base overnight on weekends.  Still have to have liberty buddies.  There is a 300 mile liberty limit, so no flying home for a long weekend without special permission.

There's more to it than that, but those are the basics.

Student sailors rarely get to take leave, with the main exception being the Christmas holiday stand down.  This is a two week period when all students are encouraged to take leave and go home.  The schools "stand down" and are shut; the staff wants to take leave too!  So her chances of being home for the winter holidays are fairly good, at a guess.  Not so much for Thanksgiving also.  

She may go to a C school after A school, to learn a specialty.  Then she would go to the fleet for her first tour.  Usually a ship, and usually for three years (or more).  They are often offered the chance to take a week or two of leave between schools, or between school and the first command.  Unless she used up all her leave at Christmas... it isn't a freebie.  They earn leave at 2.5 days a month for 30 days a year.  Getting the whole 30 days at once is rare!

 

Policies vary from time to time.  What is true now, may not be in a few months.  Stay flexible.

[RWG (ship 09, div. 206)]

Thanks for replying to her and posting that info. My son is at BC and will be going for "IT" training in pensacola. We have family not far from the base. Hopefully he will be able to come visit us on the weekends that I can drive down there from Georgia.