This site is for mothers of kids in the U.S. Navy and for Moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.
FIRST TIME HERE?
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO GET STARTED:
Choose your Username. For the privacy and safety of you and/or your sailor, NO LAST NAMES ARE ALLOWED, even if your last name differs from that of your sailor (please make sure your URL address does not include your last name either). Also, please do not include your email address in your user name. Go to "Settings" above to set your Username. While there, complete your Profile so you can post and share photos and videos of your Sailor and share stories with other moms!
Make sure to read our Community Guidelines and this Navy Operations Security (OPSEC) checklist - loose lips sink ships!
Join groups! Browse for groups for your PIR date, your sailor's occupational specialty, "A" school, assigned ship, homeport city, your own city or state, and a myriad of other interests. Jump in and introduce yourself! Start making friends that can last a lifetime.
Link to Navy Speak - Navy Terms & Acronyms: Navy Speak
All Hands Magazine's full length documentary "Making a Sailor": This video follows four recruits through Boot Camp in the spring of 2018 who were assigned to DIV 229, an integrated division, which had PIR on 05/25/2018.
Boot Camp: Making a Sailor (Full Length Documentary - 2018)
Boot Camp: Behind the Scenes at RTC
...and visit Navy.com - America's Navy and Navy.mil also Navy Live - The Official Blog of the Navy to learn more.
OPSEC - Navy Operations Security
Always keep Navy Operations Security in mind. In the Navy, it's essential to remember that "loose lips sink ships." OPSEC is everyone's responsibility.
DON'T post critical information including future destinations or ports of call; future operations, exercises or missions; deployment or homecoming dates.
DO be smart, use your head, always think OPSEC when using texts, email, phone, and social media, and watch this video: "Importance of Navy OPSEC."
Follow this link for OPSEC Guidelines:
Events
**UPDATE as of 11/10/2022 PIR vaccination is no longer required.
FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR UP TO DATE INFO:
RESUMING LIVE PIR - 8/13/2021
Please note! Changes to this guide happened in October 2017. Tickets are now issued for all guests, and all guests must have a ticket to enter base. A separate parking pass is no longer needed to drive on to base for parking.
Please see changes to attending PIR in the PAGES column. The PAGES are located under the member icons on the right side.
Format Downloads:
- Graduation Info
- PDF – 2.7 MB
- PNG – 2.3 MB
- JPG – 3.4 MB
- Printable PDF – 2.0 MB
Latest Activity
Navy Speak
Click here to learn common Navy terms and acronyms! (Hint: When you can speak an entire sentence using only acronyms and one verb, you're truly a Navy mom.)
N4M Merchandise
Shirts, caps, mugs and more can be found at CafePress.
Please note: Profits generated in the production of this merchandise are not being awarded to the Navy or any of its suppliers. Any profit made is retained by CafePress.
Navy.com Para Familias
Visite esta página para explorar en su idioma las oportunidades de educación y carreras para sus hijos en el Navy. Navy.com
Badge
DEP-Leavin' for Boot Camp in January
Information
This group is for N4M members that have a loved one leaving for Boot Camp in January. I will leave the year open so that any future DEPpers leaving in the month of January of any year can join.Lets share stories, information, concerns, and questions!
Website: http://www.navyformoms.com/group/deppersinbutnotyet
Members: 630
Latest Activity: Jul 21, 2022
Hello everyone and welcome to the Navy!!! This Group was started for the loved one of DEPPERS leaving in the month of January (although everyone is welcome).......What year you say? Well ......any year!
If you have January ship out issues/questions etc., need specific information, (or have some to share) or just want to talk to someone that is where you are, with a Recruit leaving for and arriving in BC in January, ...then this is the place to be. :-)
Remember, don't "miss 'em while you're with them!" :) Make the most of every precious moment together before they leave. This will be a big transition for both of you! We'll be here for you every step of the way...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Things to do in the last month before your future sailor leaves (Click on the link.)
Once your recruit has arrived at RTC, the next stop here is to join the group Boot Camp for Moms (and loved ones) Hangout and ask questions in this group until your form letter arrives.
***New news just out today (9/25/19) from the US Navy Recruit Training Command FaceBook page:
Attention families and friends of RTC: Previously, upon arrival to boot camp, recruits would box up their civilian belongings and ship it to their choice of destination. Our new procedure now has those boxes being stored locally and will be returned to the recruits the day before graduation. The new procedure went into effect this week beginning with Div. 409 in Training Group 52.
Approx two to three weeks after your recruit arrives you will receive the "Form Letter". The form letter will include their Ship# , DIV #, their mailing address, PIR date, and the Security Access Form. The Security Access form needs to be completed and sent back to your recruit ASAP. Keep this letter in a safe place, it has the information you will need.
The date that is on the form letter is the official date for your Recruit's Training Groups PIR (graduation), Things can always change for an individual Recruit (due to illness, injury, failure to pass a final test etc.)! So, we always recommend that you plan, if possible, to purchase Refundable or Exchangeable plane tickets.
After you have received the form letter, join the group for your recruits PIR. There you can ask questions about PIR, training, hotels etc.Those groups will be posted in the Boot Camp for Mom's group.
Thanks for joining us. We hope you will realize you are not alone, and will soon make new friends, plus feel supported and encouraged! :)
**It is very important that your future Sailor be physically fit prior to shipping to the RTC (these are new standards beginning 1/1/2018) and that he be able to pass an initial run test. See Navy Fitness Standards"The initial run standard is evaluated on the 1.5 mile run of the first Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) at boot camp. The initial run standard for male recruits will be 16 minutes 10 seconds and 18 minutes 37 seconds for female recruits."
Discussion Forum
View discussions in the DEP-Leavin' for Boot Camp in January forum!
Comment Wall
Comment
-
Comment by CatMom509 on January 20, 2013 at 7:27pm
-
lulu,
After my daughter signed up for the Navy, her recruiter came over to our home, sat down with us, and answered any and all questions we had--believe me, I had a list full of questions!! He was very personable, knowledgeable, and reassuring. This made a difference in calming me down. I soon realized that the Navy path had so many more advantages than the main disadvantage of not seeing your son/daughter for long periods of time. Also, out of all the armed forces, the Navy is one of the least dangerous. We were so blessed that she had an awesome recruiter!! Don't know if I should mention his name, but he is great!!
-
Comment by kelly on January 20, 2013 at 6:08pm
-
Mavis that would be wonderful!
TACOsMom My son is leaving from Portland Maine. We will be taking him down on the 28th, spend the night, be there for his swearing in on the 29th and then meet him at the airport and sit with him until he gets on his flight. My son is also the youngest, he as an older sister in college.
-
Comment by TreysMom on January 20, 2013 at 6:03pm
-
Mavis- I'll look for you at MEPS. I will be there with my husband and two daughters. My son is the baby, so this is going to be tough for me.
Kelly- Where is your son leaving from?
It's nice to have others to get advice and support from.
-
-
My son leaves for boot camp on Jan. 29th. We have palnned an anchors aweigh party for him on the 27th. Time is really going by fast now. I know I am really going to miss him terribly but am very proud of him.
-
-
I wish there was some way that new recruits would get the info about this site other than the Future Sailors researching on their own--that's how I got here. My SR Daina sent me and my husband the links to here and NavyDep because she was looking things up herself. I never would have known about writing up little notes to her to keep her going until she could receive mail. I gave her a wallet-sized card with a military-like logo on the front with an eagle and it had "Leader" and "I Can Do All Things Through Jesus" on it. I wrote my note on the back of this card, thinking it might last a little longer in her wallet too since it is on cardstock. Also, although the START guide does say to send them with a $20 calling card for emergencies (they need to take that out to just say to make calls home to loving family!), I found www.callsforrecruits.org which provided 8 free calling card codes emailed to you and they tell you to have your SR share the extra codes with other SRs who don't have calling cards. I know there's so many moms out there who don't know about all this precious stuff to get us through the Boot Camp process!!
-
Comment by DaltonsMom (Ship 13 Div 127) on January 20, 2013 at 12:07pm
-
We also had our son's Anchors Aweigh party yesterday. We had a fabulous turn out. Great to see so many people see him off. Now I am just going to spend as much of the next week with him that I can! We will leave next Sunday to go to the same hotel as he will be and seen him sworn in the next day! I borrowed an idea from another mom on here and we did note cards that I can just fill in the addresses to after I receive it! Even his friends were having a good time... some of them were doing multiple cards and numbered them for me so I know in which order to send them!
-
Comment by MartiB_TX on January 20, 2013 at 11:54am
-
I asked them to say a prayer when they lit the candle.
-
-
Had my daughters Anchors Aweigh party yesterday - it was awesome! Many of her friends and family came to wish her well. I had a card that I had the party attendees sign and write a little note to her if they wanted. She was not allowed to read it and it will be the first piece of mail she will receive. Gave blue votive candles our and asked them to light it when they thought of her while she was in boot camp. Put the navy emblem and a picture of her on the candle. I will post pictures on my page later.
-
-
Thanks IBMOM, we are definitely planning to do the same.
-
Comment by ibmom on January 20, 2013 at 9:42am
-
Hi all who have loved ones leaving soon I would like to make one sugguestion. My son left on June 21st 2012, now is training in Pensacola in AWO school but right before he left, his dad and I took a word of advice and each wrote notes of encouragement to him and tucked them in his billfold without his knownledge. The pages were tiny, from one of those tiny memo pads, probably just 2 x 3 but each of us filled one page up with support, love and pride! The first letter from our son mentioned those notes and how important they were for him to get through those first horrible weeks. He said he took them out every night and read them. If your recruit hasnt' left yet, do that if you can, then spread this on to upcoming groups. I meant to after I learned how important it was but my focused moved past the bootcamp groups on to where my sailor is now. Hang in there, the first weeks are horrible for everyone but as the letters start to come, it gets better....Write Every Day!!!! I'll share this with the FEB group but someone else help to spread to the other groups if you don't mind.
© 2025 Created by Navy for Moms Admin.
Powered by
You need to be a member of DEP-Leavin' for Boot Camp in January to add comments!