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Comment by Arwen on December 5, 2010 at 12:25am

Thanks for the info. I passed it on to Chris. From what he tells me, he's already spending time with the ITs, observing, and has at least one who has "adopted" him. He has also volunteered for any computer work that needs to be done within his division.

It helps that he all but finished IT school. He literally had less than 8 hours of course material remaining when he hit his time limit, so he has a pretty good head-start on this.

Comment by Arwen on November 28, 2010 at 5:07pm

Angie, I know WHY some make rate faster than others. It's just so hard to watch. Chris was 2 college credits short of earning E-2 for school, and three pushups short of getting E-2 for the DEP test. He was so close!

My husband was one of those who made rate fast. He was a nuke MM, and "way back when" they actually awarded nukes E-4 straight out of boot camp, they didn't even have to wait to finish school. They took a lot of verbal abuse for that, from jealous non-nukes. It also didn't help that only men could be nukes at the time, and E-4s were excused from mess cranking. Things have changed a lot since then.

Chris is taking the same path as I did, TIR for each promotion from E-1. When you're a new E-1 or E-2, that E-4 exam seems so far away, even when you're are a designated striker. For an undes seeking a school, it would be even harder.

And to make his life more difficult, Chris is determined to do the impossible, to somehow earn his way back to the A-school he washed out of.

Comment by LynB on November 28, 2010 at 5:13am

Julie - love the snack food item ideas. Maybe I'll send my guy a nice party type gift basket - popcorn, chocolates. Got some good places I order from that should be nice.

Arwen - I'm sorry you're feeling useless to help your boys :-( I think that's why this forum is so helpful...safe place to vent. Everyone tries hard to keep spirits up but sometimes it gets pretty hard.

msvines - I can't believe it about your friend's grandson! I had no idea that was even a possibility. So even getting a rate doesn't mean the bumpy ride is over?

Comment by Arwen on November 28, 2010 at 3:35am

LOL, I was devastated when I realized that all of my SF team gear was long gone, either worn out or lost. I haven't lived in a place where it's easy to find SF stuff in a long time. So I was wearing (what remains of) my SF 49ers stuff instead, what remains of it. The logo is kinda-sorta the same.

I'm getting a little frustrated that there is NOTHING I can do that this point, for either of my boys. My older one is still trying to find a back door back into IT school, and my younger is still waiting on a waiver for an old knee injury to see if he can join. All my years of experience and lots of family contacts in the Navy (at least 2 chiefs among them) are useless. I hate feeling useless.

The other part that kind-of hurts right now is that everyone is getting results back from the most recent round of promotions, and it will be March 2012 before my son can even try. One of his recruit classmates just made E-4.

*sigh*

Comment by CrackerjackMom on November 27, 2010 at 3:48am

LynB, that is amazing. My daughter had a few snafus with paper work and incompetent people along the way, it really is hard to understand how these things can happen. But your son's situation is ridiculous.....you can't make that stuff up.....is he on candid camera????

I hope it gets worked out for him very soon.

Julie...1,2,3.....breath!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Tara and her girlfriend Gerri drove up on Wed. Their 8 hour drive took 11 hours due to holiday traffic through LA. UGH!
But it is great to have them here.

Comment by LynB on November 27, 2010 at 2:35am

I really appreciate the sympathy y'all. My mind is boggled. We figure he could wander off base, never go back, and still get paid til retirement! He may spend the rest of his enlistment just trying to track down his records.

Monty Python levels of silly. Thank goodness he can still laugh (albeit despairingly) about it.

On a lighter note, when we talked he gave me an entire list of all the creatures he found on field exercises. Snakes, tarantulas, mice, hawks, and alligator lizard...as I remarked "who knew a love of natural history would come in handy in the Navy!"

Comment by LynB on November 24, 2010 at 1:33am

Congratulations to your son Shelly! That's great news.

I had an interesting Skype session with my son this morning. He's been in Coronado for about a month and his XO told him yesterday that he should complete all the ppw to re-apply for officer school - they are encouraging him to do so. They put their heads together and figured out what forms etc but they need some information that they couldn't locate at hand. So they told him to hop in his car and drive up to the record keeping place north of the base. He did. Arrived and talked to 6 different people about his records and the last one finally just said only half way tongue in cheek "Are you SURE you're in the Navy?".

Honestly. According to the records he joined in 2007, went to boot camp in 2010, is an E3, and graduated from high school, and that's it. No ASVAB score, no college degree, no top secret clearance (they interviewed his college professors, family, roommate etc to get that).

They said that yes, sometimes details don't make it in to someone record but this was to the point where he the guy actually asked if my kid was spelling his OWN NAME correctly. And "Are you SURE you took the ASVAB?"

*sigh*

Comment by Arwen on November 24, 2010 at 1:11am

AN = Airman (aircraft-related jobs)
SN = Seaman (seamanship/weapons/administrative/technical jobs)
FN = Fireman (engineering/mechanical jobs)

Angie, I had no idea that there is now a BM school. Not going back to their previous duty station is new to me too. Thanks for the info.

Comment by lori_proud mom on November 23, 2010 at 11:07pm

Angie, what does the SN, FN, and AN stand for?

Comment by Arwen on November 23, 2010 at 3:35am

min1, there is no A school for undesignated sailors. Once they've been to A school, they're a designated striker. Maybe some refer to it as their A school, in that it is the training they receive before going out to the fleet, but it's not the same thing.

Occasionally sailors who actually want to be Boatswain's Mates go undesignated, they tend to think of seamanship school as their A school, since there isn't a BM A school. If an undesignated seaman fails to find another rating to strike for, BM is the natural progression to E-4.

They do have a PACT program for undesignated sailors, I'm not sure what careers it is supposed to lead to. Maybe civilian deckhand? There is a career in working in maritime shipping, cruise ships, etc.

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