Time off in-between training classes & what to expect

[EMTMac72 (Ship 07, DIV 257)]

Hello everyone,

My son's PIR is 8/17/2012, therefore he should be arriving in Groton, CT around 8/18 or 8/19.  I am curious what the whole process is from reception to graduation.  Will there be some sort of syllabus or calender of his classes that he will be taking & when?  When he left for Boot Camp in June we were kind of in the dark as far as his training schedule.

• About how long does it take to fill a class up for BESS
• How many are usually in each class?
• Will he be assigned a barracks as soon as he gets there or is there an in-processing barracks that he will be staying in until his class forms?
• Will he be allowed any time off once he arrives at Groton? (I realize he will not be able to leave post & will have to remain in uniform at all times in the beginning, however as far as walking around post & going to NEX, will he be required to have a special pass for that?
• When can we expect him to actually start BESS? Does his training start on a Monday or any day of the week?
• Are the graduations on Friday like in Boot Camp?
• How long is each phase of training (as far as liberty or leave) & during which phase will he be allowed to go off post?
• How soon will we be able to go and visit him? 
• Can he have a vehicle during any phase of his "sub school"
• With the holidays coming up, will he have training during Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Years Holidays?
• If not will he be allowed to take leave? If so, how far can he go is there a certain mileage radius he needs to stay within?
• What are the other schools that we were not told about, he will be required to take before he actually starts his "A" school.  What is ATT & TECHNO?
• How long in-between each class will he have? can he be on liberty during these times while he is waiting for the class to form?

Sorry for all of the questions, I just so misinformed & in the dark, I know that issues come up during training, its just the information that is out there is so vague, its hard to understand what comes next.  If there are any other questions that I haven't listed & want to add or have a response to something that I have not listed, please comment below, I would really appreciate the responses.  Thank you all for your help.

[Nancy]

Oh my...I don't know all these answers, but I will answer the ones I know according to my son's experience, I would ask him, but he's under water :-)
1. Sometimes they have to wait to "class up" but there is no set time.
2. No idea
3. My son was assigned a room when he arrived at Groton...very like a college dorm
4. The NEX is on base and it's a huge base. I think they can leave base fairly soon, in uniform, but don't know the length of time...someone else might know
5. Kinda the same as number 1 they have to wait for guys to arrive before they start.
6. Can't remember day of graduation. I went to my son's, not nearly as large as PIR, but a very nice ceremony
7. I think the length of the phases varies
8. I don't know about visiting as I am in CA and was lucky to go to graduation, but I think it's pretty quickly as I saw parents off base with their kids in uniform
9. Yes, no idea when
10. They stay there for Thanksgiving, there is a radius they can go to have Thanksgiving dinner. Not sure about the others
11. ATT is (trying to remember) Advanced Technical Training, I think, and TECNO I can't remember...I can check with other moms and get back to you.
12. Once they get past the BESS (basic ? Submarine School) they can self pace through the last two ATT & TECNO and while they have to wait for a group, they can get through quite quickly.

Hope this helps... They also have actually pass everything or they have to redo parts of classes...
Nancy
7.

[MamaMiri (FT)]

The answer to most of your questions is "there isn't really an answer" or "it depends". They don't really tell Sailors what is coming next, only what they need to be doing right now. It's frustrating at first, but you'll get used to it. Your son will give you the information when he can, if he says he doesn't know it's probably because we hasn't been told yet. A big reason for things being vague is that they often haven't been decided, need to be kept under wraps for security reasons, or could change at a moments' notice. I'm also convinced the sub school is run by a bunch of monkeys in a back room somewhere.

He will get a room in the barracks as soon as he gets there. He will be moving after he finishes BESS.

On white card, he can freely go anywhere on base but cannot leave the base. On yellow card, he can leave the base but has a curfew. On blue card, he can leave overnight and weekends and can have a vehicle, just needs to be back when scheduled to report in for class or duty. I believe there is a 50 mile radius restriction at all times, even on blue card. How long each one is largely depends on him and how quickly he completes the requirements and whether he does anything stupid to get kicked back, or whether his classmates do anything stupid enough to get the whole class "bleached"- everyone sent back to white card.

If he requests and is granted leave, he can go as far as he wants. Leave=vacation. He won't have class over the holidays, but when he can take leave depends on his duty schedule. They will trade off so everyone who wants leave gets some part of a holiday.

There is just ATT and TCNO between BESS and A School. I know they are talking about doing away with those classes, I don't know if that's happened yet. They are both self-paced computer classes that take 4-5 weeks. Usually the hold between classes is pretty short but can be up to a month long. Whether he can take leave depends on a number of things. He will be in "hold" which means he goes in every day and has random boring tasks, usually cleaning. And duty every few days.

[missin'mybrowneyedboy]

Hi EMTMac72, Just a few "fill ins": I really don't believe there is a syllabus of any kind because almost everything is classified information and can only be accessed under the watchful eye of the instructors, they cannot even take phones into class to prevent any information from being stored, actually one of the first things they do is stamp every page "classified" or "top secret" : }; Re "walking around base": He will need to complete certain quaifications, "quals," that will allow him access to restricted buildings w/o an escort as well as stand watch in those buildings. All the other guys who have been there longer will want him to get going on that pronto because that will reduce the frequency of their watches: );He may be assigned to ACU (Awaiting Class Up but my son thinks it really meant "All Clean UP" because that is what they had to do!) before and more likely after BESS;Sometimes, they help w clean up/snow removal on base and in the community if needed; BESS is "Basic Enlisted Submarine School", a set 8 weeks, ATT is "Apprenticeship Technical Training" and TCNO is "Tactical Computer Network Operations" both of which are self paced but I have heard each must be completed w/i 6 weeks max(TCNO is the more challenging one); Also, I have been told that BESS graduations are on Fridays and A schools are on Thursdays but my son's BESS graduations was changed to a Thursday because of a change in command that was scheduled for Friday, so there ya go on that one; the base goes into a "stand down" over Christmas(started 12/15 ended 1/2) and most guys who were in A school and wanted leave were granted it, I don't know if that is the same if they are in one of the other classes, there are no restrictions on traveling in the continental US(probably ok to go to AK and HA, too:) but I think foreign travel is restricted; and as MamaMiri said, liberty depends on phase card so probably not before BESS(hopefully! That would mean he had had to wait a very long time!) but most likely will for others(that's liberty, I don't think they're granted leave btwn classes); your son will be probably have two addresses, one USPS and one for FedEx/UPS deliveries, I sent all packages via FedEx and arrived fine(sort of expensive) but it can take quite a while before they are available for p/u on base. (If you're going to PIR, take everything you can to deliver to him at the airport, like his phone, laptop, ipod, kindle, etc. Most guys were VERY motivated to get all that stuffed into their black bags:) The reason it takes so long to get to them is because they need to go through some sort of security before they arrive in the "flower shop" in the Nex(his Valentine box arrived on the 10th but it wasn't turned over until the 16th. oh,well); After BESS, they move "up the hill" to where the rest of the classes are held; the entire schooling process takes about 10 months from arrival to graduation so it will be very close to a full year since he left for RTC; about half way through A school he will get to submit a "dream list" of his top 3 choices for homeport/sub. They actually get approved based on standing in class so the higher his graduation status is the more likely he get what he wants. Not everyone who started BESS w my son graduated from A school. Some were "sent to the surface' and a few were discharged (for a variety of reasons) Unfortunate. And totally agree w everything Nancy USS Boise and MamaMiri said about not knowing certain stuff. You will probably get a lot of "I don't know" or "I can't tell you", too. Whew. Hope my "few fill ins' were not tmi. Best to your son and to you, too. My son really liked sub school, not so crazy about Groton until one of his friends' got a car and then even that wasn't too bad!

[MamaMiri (FT)]

Technically yes they can leave base my husband says, but they must be in uniform and it's only to very specific places (like the theater and mall, etc) and they are ferried in the van and "supervised". Kind of like a field trip. But white card only takes a couple of weeks to get past generally so it's not a long time.

It's my understanding that leave will not be granted while a student is in class except for emergency leave. He can request it all he wants but I doubt leave would be granted before he even starts BESS. I know students who have taken leave after BESS or between ATT/TCNO and A School, though.