Comment

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 19, 2009 at 12:25pm

Thanks to info from another mom--Post a valentine to your sailor at http://messages.stripes.osd.mil/ for free. I just did the on-line one as the other choices are European, Pacific, and Middle East editions of the newspaper.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 18, 2009 at 1:20am

I won't get this done for a few days, but I found the names of the board of directors for United. There are two boards, UAL Corporation and United Airlines Board. http://ir.united.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=83680&p=irol-govBoard

Shareholders and other interested parties may contact the UAL Board of Directors as a whole, or any individual member, by one of the following means: (1) writing to the UAL Board of Directors, UAL Corporation, c/o the Corporate Secretary’s Office, P.O. Box 66919 - WHQLD, Chicago, IL 60666; or (2) by emailing the UAL Board at UALBoard@united.com.

I got curious tonight when I received a thank you email for my loyalty for Mileage Plus and it was signed by one of the vice presidents. That prompted me to wonder who's in charge. I think I'll be writing to Mr. Tilton, Mr. McDonald, and Mr. Tague.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 15, 2009 at 4:11pm

When my son flew home from Afghanistan, he didn't have any civilian clothes, so no choice. Sometimes he flies in uniform, sometimes not. It depends on what he's told to do. He says wearing his uniform can give him some perks, but it can also hold him up because people stop him to shake his hand. I do welcome homes at the airport here--almost every military person we welcome is wearing a military uniform or the CDU's or BDU's or whatever they're called now--the camo outfit.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 15, 2009 at 10:57am

My son wore his uniform on his flights. Didn't help this time. I wish I had called United when it was going on. We were sitting at a restaurant right outside the home airport, I should have gone to the United desk there. I did send a donation to the USO and got a nice thank you yesterday (tax deductible). I think that I will send them a donation once in a while. It's -20 and the news is talking about some people having a power outage. How awful!

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 13, 2009 at 11:55am

If they lost my bag, it would be an inconvenience. I'd go buy new undies and a toothbrush. When they loose a sailor's bag, it's a matter of national security. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating just a bit, but how can a military member concentrate on his job when he's missing uniforms, etc. I know they've been trained to do their jobs, but it's got to be on his mind. I am irritated! And I hate the form letters. Maybe we need to go up the chain of command! Do keep us posted.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 13, 2009 at 10:52am

Strange you should bring the airlines up--I received another email yesterday. After the first email with a $25 voucher from United and telling me that it was my son's fault he missed his flight, I wrote them again. They said the plane wasn't late, but it was by the time they had to change gates, and wait for ground crew, etc. Basically, I felt they blew me off. So I wrote again with more details. This new email, while they did answer after several weeks, is another pacification. blah, blah, blah. I wish they hadn't written again in some ways--it just made me mad again.

I regret the inconvenience your son experienced with United on December 11.

Our employees should provide professional service. But, you report that our Customer Service Staff let your son down, which resulted in your disappointment with our service.

Customer satisfaction is an integral part of our commitment to you, therefore, we expect our employees to treat our valued customers with courtesy and respect while providing attentive, professional, service at all times. The unprofessional conduct you report is unacceptable and never tolerated. Rest assured, I have shared your comments with the management team responsible for Chicago airport, so they understand how these experiences felt from your point of view, and follow up with their teams to ensure improved handling of your travel needs in the future. Please know reports of this nature are taken very seriously and are given our complete attention. Making your travel easy and dependable, and your dealings with our employee's positive, are our goals.

Your feedback - whether positive or negative, makes a difference. It lets us know what we need to consider in order to earn your future friendship and support.

Sincerely,

Tushar Nautiyal
Customer Relations

ITY/ca
Ref #: 8213770C

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 11, 2009 at 3:30pm

Remember it's been a while since my son was a newbee, and he didn't talk to us a lot about this stuff. He didn't even go to A school for GM; I think he was first a storekeeper, might have been undesignated for awhile, too. That's not the worse thing in the world--I know one of his friends was undesignated for a long time. The military will tear them down and then build them back up the way they want them--that's the way the SEALS and the Marines are, but much more intense.

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 9, 2009 at 9:06pm

I just talked to Andy and asked him a bunch of questions. Instead of a PM, Joyce, I'm posting his answer here so others can read it. He said he's talked to or emailed several new sailors in addition to Bryan. He told me what he's told them, but now you'll know, too. He said he told them that they aren't going to get anything but ship duty to begin with. BC and A school are not the real Navy, so the Navy wants sailors to see how the Navy really runs (for good or bad, that's my comment!). He said when they report for duty on the ship, they need to get the gun boss and departmental master chief to start recognizing them. (I was so surprised when he told me today that the command master chief recognized him today. That's a BIG deal. Now I know why--it's politics and networking.) He said the sailors have to let the gun boss know they're interested in GSA (global support assignment). That's what they're calling IA now. The gun boss and DMC are the ones who will approve a GSA if a slot opens. The GSA could be in Somalia, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. When he applied, he wanted Iraq and the gun boss said there's one in Afghanistan. Then he said, "Where's that?" He obviously missed that geography lesson! So my son's career so far has been (and I think it's pretty typical): BC, A school, assigned to the Roosevelt with various sea trials of lengths of a week, two weeks, and a month, then deployment on ship 6 months, shore duty with the Roosevelt for almost 18 months, picked for IA so 3-4 months at Ft. Riley, 11 months in Afghanistan. now a month and 1/2 in Norfolk (polishing an admiral's bell and emptying wastebaskets and going to school), then 3 years at Great Lakes. He said he will decide there whether it will be a career. If so, he has to go back to another ship duty before land duty again. Going IA pretty much assured that he'd get his first choice of duty stations, so that's how he got Great Lakes. Honestly, we really didn't think it would happen because it's a much smaller command that Norfolk or San Diego. The others like Tucson and Corpus, there have to be openings, of course.

He also said that the IKE is not a bad ship to be on. It's one of the oldest of the Nimitz class, but it must be a pretty good command from what he knows.

Keep asking questions. He's pretty knowledgable and willing to tell me stuff now. I remember one of his friends on the Roosevelt had guests come to visit in Norfolk when I happened to be there. The friend took them to the ship to show them around and they ran into Andy who was on duty. Andy started telling them about how many planes, how long the deck was, how many decks. The friend sailor said to him, how do you know all this stuff? Andy said, um, we were all supposed to learn it. Pretty good for an ADD kid who hated school! Maybe that's why he didn't know where Afghanistan was....

I posted more pictures of my granddaughters today of our Christmas with them. They got to empty daddy's stocking and call and tell him what Santa brought him, too.

Comment by kim ann on January 8, 2009 at 9:12pm

It's always nice when they can be close to family. There certainly are perks to that! His girls really must be excited to see more of daddy! After all, as they say about "Daddy's little girls", he must be elated too! What a cute set!

Comment by Ruth, Gun's Mom on January 7, 2009 at 8:54pm

Tucson might have actually been his second choice as g'ma, aunt, cousins live there. That would not have been bad, but his kids will get to see him much more this way.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 63
• 64
• 65
• 66
• 67
• …
• 73
• Next ›
• Page