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Comment by Allison on March 25, 2019 at 8:17am

After OCS, the Navy packed and moved my DS goods from our house in MA to Pensacola. They lost two boxes on the way. He didn't discover the loss until he had thrown away the boxes and paperwork. The missing boxes were never found. Tough life lesson!

Comment by Anna on March 24, 2019 at 10:28pm

Romeogirl,

When my daughter left for OCS she had the contents of her apartment stored in a storage unit in PA. After OCS she was sent to Pensacola.  The Navy moved all her goods from the storage unit to her new apartment in Pensacola.  After all her flight training she was transferred to Oklahoma. Again the Navy did her PCS move and just recently she was transfered again to Pensacola and another PCS move.  She took a few things in her private vehicle to get her through until all her personal goods arrived.

Comment by Andy'sMom on March 24, 2019 at 5:03pm

Congrats to you and your son, Romeogirl!  My son commissioned at OSC last May and had to pay his own way home as he was doing OHARP for 12 weeks before going to his first base in FL.  When he finished in FL and headed to TX, he had the choice of having the Navy pay for his move or pay him to rent a U-Haul and move himself.  He chose the latter as he did not like the Navy's time table!

Comment by CindyN on March 23, 2019 at 6:43pm

Romeogirl - Congratulations to both you and your son!  Is your son coming home before moving? My son came home (on his dime, actually my husband's frequent flier miles) and then he drove his car and stuff (it fit in his car) back out east. The Navy pays miles, hotel and the weight of the stuff in his car. He had to have it weighted empty and then full.  He didn't have much. He could have rented a U-haul if he had more and they would have paid for that. The Navy will hire movers as well. There should be someone he can talk to. You can find info here: https://www.cnic.navy.mil/ffr/family_readiness/fleet_and_family_sup...

Best of luck to your son on this next stop in his Navy journey!

Comment by topdog1p on March 23, 2019 at 6:17pm

Romeogirl 

First off congratulations! I am not sure I will be much help but here it goes. The first move my LO did he moved his belongings by himself Washington to South Carolina. He was reimburse for some of the expenses. The second time South Carolina to New York he again did a DITY ( do it yourself) move. His last move NewYork back to Washington was a partial dity move and part Navy moving his big household item. 

Comment by LindaB on March 13, 2019 at 10:22am

My son will have been commissioned for nine years this summer. He's also a SWO. His first ship was an LPD, and he had hardly arrive when it was surged to help with the action off Lybia. The ship was deployed for nearly 11 months.

In July, he found out they were going to be at an Italian Navy base in southern Italy for a full week for maintenance. He called and asked if we could come meet him. It took some doing, but we made it, and I'm so glad we did. We got him a room in the hotel where he was staying, and he was able to catch up on some much needed sleep, something new ensigns struggle with. We also did some wonderful sight-seeing and ate a lot of good food. 

Later in the deployment he was sent home to go to SWO school in Newport, RI, for a few weeks. Then he had to rejoin the ship, which was still deployed. 

We participated in the Tiger Cruise from Morehead City, NC to Norfolk when they finally returned. That was also a good experience, and I recommend it.

His second ship was a destroyer. He requested that because he wanted to get some experience on a different kind of ship, even though he was pretty sure he wanted to be on amphibs in the long run. He also wanted to be navigator, and he was able to do that. 

The second ship also deployed, for about nine months. He spent a lot of time going back and forth through the Suez Canal and also up in the Black Sea. He got to go to a lot of interesting places and had more port visits than on the first ship.

As someone else said, after two ships SWOs typically get a three-year shore duty. Our son, a Naval Academy grad, chose teaching navigation and seamanship at the academy, and that's what he got. We were thrilled to be able to spend three more years visiting Annapolis.

Now, after nearly a year of more schools, he's starting as the ops officer on an amphib that's in the shipyards in Norfolk, so he's not likely to be deployed on this ship. They request certain kinds of ships, certain jobs and certain ports, ranking which things are most important, and then they get some combination of those choices, usually. Whether they are deployed depends on what the status of the ship is at that time.

He's always been able to keep in pretty good touch with us when he's deployed. I always told him that if he got a chance to call, he should call without worrying about what time it was where we were. 

He knows he's looking at more deployments in the future, but that's OK. That's the life he chose. 

Comment by LEANNEJB on March 12, 2019 at 4:17pm

I'm the Mom of a Surface Warfare Officer (SWO) for over 9 years now, and just thought I would share a few random thoughts. The first tour is really busy with the junior officers (JOs) trying to get qualified and get their SWO pin in addition to doing their regular job, standing watches twice a day, and finding time to sleep and exercise. It's a crash course in time management, and they can use all the encouragement you can give without putting demands on their time. While my son and I are close and we talk often when he's in-port or on shore duty, I only heard from him a few times that first deployment. My son is now into his third deployment and my guiding rule has been to encourage him to stay connected with his wife and children and know that I am thinking of him and praying for him (calls every 2-3 months and emails every 2 weeks or so are about the norm). My husband and I were able to visit him in Greece when they pulled into port on his second deployment and that was great. If you can manage that, you will not regret it. Or if you can babysit (if your son or daughter has children) for his or her spouse to join them for a port visit, all the better!

Comment by Chris on March 12, 2019 at 9:45am

https://www.public.navy.mil/netc/centers/swos/sandiego/documents/pg...

BDOC...enjoy!

Comment by Andy'sMom on March 4, 2019 at 6:12pm

Romeogirl,

Congrats on the upcoming commissioning!  I personally did not do this, however, someone had posted info on our class friends and family page on fb.  It listed an email address as well as a phone number.  Have you tried both avenues of contact?

Comment by M's mom on September 23, 2018 at 9:48pm

Congrats redheadlass, and also to your new Ensign! 

Now the adventure begins.  Anchors aweigh!

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