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Comment by AmyBeth1991 on June 21, 2019 at 7:17am

@Tammy_Girl, you're welcome. We are all in the same "boat", to turn a phrase, and anything I can find, I am happy to share.
@IDCmom#1, I will let him know. He had intended to go IDC, but got some bad info at school, and didn't request it until it was too late. He hopes to go to the school after his first tour. (At least, that was his plan before he went on this deployment, who knows what he'll think afterward.) Pendleton was one of our favorite duty stations, and our first two children, including the sailor, were born there.
Casey04lynn, keep your chin up. Japan is a long flight, but well worth the experience. Just get trip insurance.

Comment by casey04lynn on June 21, 2019 at 5:37am

B'sNukeMoM⚓️MMN Thanks for the info, I joined that group :)

Tammy_Girl I’m not sure if we’ll go visit. My husband wants to go for good sushi. I’m a little uneasy about flying that far. Also, will really depend on his leave & training. From what I understand it’s hard to plan around their training.

AmyBeth1991 Thank you so much for all that information! I will look in to it & surely reach back out if I need help. He’s the young one on the ship too, while he’s in dental, he still primarily does medical since he’s on a smaller ship with not many Corpsmen. He called last night, they got in to port on Tuesday & they head back out to sea for another few weeks till their next port. Not sure when I’ll hear from him again, but so relieving to finally talk to him.

Comment by IDCmom#1 on June 20, 2019 at 10:39pm

Amybeth1991, assuming your son is on the Comfort.  About 8 years ago, my son was deploying with the Comfort but ended up with an injury that required a PICC line and cancelled orders. Prior to Injury, I got to tour the ship.  I was amazed.  It truly is a floating hospital.  I was not so impressed by our sailors’ bunks.  I would be claustrophobic. I know, despite some really interesting deployments, he still wishes he had made the cruise.  Hope your sailor gets out of galley soon and gets to do OJT.   

If he takes advice from you (seems like lots of our kids don’t, my son included), please tell him an IDC mom highly recommends he try to shadow an IDC.  Most of them really enjoy mentoring “baby” docs.  

My son was assigned to Camp Pendleton after completing IDC school.  I spent time there taking care of my granddaughter  while he was at FMTB and ex wife was deployed.  Very impressed.  I’m an Air Force Brat and DAC wife/employee so have spent many years on bases/posts CONUS and OCONUS but Camp P was first Marine base experience.  

Comment by Tammy⚓️Girl on June 20, 2019 at 9:26pm

AmyBeth1991, though my son. is not on a ship, I found your post very informative.  Thank you.  Awhile back I got on Twitter just to follow The Navy - and I will admit it's been very informative and some things I learn I pass on to my sailor in San Diego. 

Comment by AmyBeth1991 on June 20, 2019 at 8:06pm

@Casey04lynn, I can only imagine your struggles. My son left from port for his first deployment on a hospital ship not long ago, and that's plenty of stress. Add that your son left from Japan, and I know you're stressed. The time difference doesn't help. 

My son, like a lot of the lower ranked corpsmen is "cranking in the kitchen" (working in the galley) during the first part of this deployment. But because he's (at least for now) in the same time zone, and a whole lot closer than Japan, we've heard from him when they were close enough to get cell signal. I know it feels like a long time, and three months is a bear.  One of the things my Marine told me, and I tell families, is "no news really is good news".  After some initial frustration, I was able to make contact with the Ombudsman for my son's ship, and joined a Facebook Group for that ship's families. (Had to jump through some hoops to join the private group, which took a lot longer than it should have, but it's done, now.)  Your son can authorize the Ombudsman to have contact with you, and send newsletters and information.  (The Ombudsman is a spouse of someone on the ship, and operates according to Navy regulations.)  After several days of searching my son's ship name every day, I found several pictures on the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS).  These are photos and videos that are produced by military public affairs and mass communication specialists, and shared with the public. You can create an account and then subscribe to anything with his ship's name in it.  I will get texts if new information goes up.  You can find this at https://www.dvidshub.net and create your account as a miltary family member.  It isn't the same as contact, but at least you can see something about the ship, which may provide some sense of comfort.  If, for example, your son went out with the USS Reagan, you could search the ship and subscribe to that specific ship, and anything that popped up would be something you can see. Also, if he's a Corpsman out with a Marine unit, there is someone in Family Readiness (probably a Deployment Readiness Coordinator) who can also include you in information with authorization from the sailor.  If that's your situation, and you can't track down the right person, let me know.  I should be able to help locate a point of contact for you. 

Hope this helps. 

Comment by B'sNukeMoM⚓️MMN(Vet) on June 20, 2019 at 7:07pm

casey04lynn - there is a good Japan moms group on here.  Here's the link for you to join:

Japan moms

Comment by Tammy⚓️Girl on June 20, 2019 at 6:59pm

casey04lynn, wow.  Stationed in Japan.  Would you go see him in Japan?

Comment by Tammy⚓️Girl on June 20, 2019 at 6:13pm

AmyBeth1991, wow, what great information.  I will print your words and hold them dear to my heart.  I wasn’t even sure what semper Gumby meant, so thank you.  

Comment by casey04lynn on June 20, 2019 at 10:16am

AmyBeth1991, my son graduated Corpsman school in April & is also on a ship deployed. I thought BC was hard, this is all new to me. My son is stationed in Japan, but out to sea for 3 months. I heard from him Tuesday they made it to their first port, but I wasn’t able to reply back. He’s only been gone a few weeks & but feels like an eternity with no contact.

Comment by AmyBeth1991 on June 20, 2019 at 6:49am

@Tammy_girl, 

I say this ALL.THE.TIME. Nothing in the military is ever final until the after action report is filed, in triplicate. In other words, everything is subject to change. In the Marine Corps, we joke that the motto for families is "semper gumby", semper meaning always, and Gumby, as in flexible like the Gumby toy. 

Balboa is a fantastic hospital and should be a great experience for him. If he is assigned to a Marine unit, and they deploy, I would expect him to go with them. However, at this moment, he has orders to Balboa, and there is no point in dwelling on the "what ifs". You can drive yourself crazy with that.  Remember that the news reporters make their living causing anxiety. "If it bleeds, it leads" is a journalism mantra. Think about it. If the water's tested in your community,  a news anchor teases it with something like, "City water testing results are back, and you won't believe what they found!" You watch for 28 minutes, trying to find out if your water is poisonous,  and finally, at the very end, you find out your water is just fine. News is all about ratings, these days. 

If he does get assigned to a Marine unit, please know that Marines LOVE Corpsmen, and are FIERCELY protective of them. 

Things you can do now: 

Every military family member should have a passport.  We hot new ones while our son was in bootcamp. It can ease your mind to know that task is done

Plan a trip to graduation and/or San Diego. We did two tours in San Diego, one at Pendleton,  and one at Miramar. It's a fabulous place to live or vacation.  

Buy good luggage. With an active duty family member, traveling to see and celebrate him is more likely.

Be blessed!

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