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Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on June 25, 2013 at 8:26pm

Gin, he's in Everett.  We love Southwest.  We're waiting on dates for upcoming Tiger Cruise so we can get his dad to the ship  Southwest has always be awesome with our son when he travels.  When we took him to airport to go back to his duty station after a visit, the ticket agent gave everyone in our party a family pass to go wait with him at the gate, there was 6 people in our group.  One time a Navy mom was checking him in and she just came across that counter and gave him a BIG hug and thank you.  After his first deployment, he didn't get off the ship in time to make his scheduled flight, they didn't charge him anything and got him on the next available flight home.  I can't say anything bad about Southwest Air.  Our experience with them has always been top shelf!

So my husband will fly down to catch the ship, I'll drive up to Everett and pick him up and participate in the homecoming.  My daughter in law is really excited about it all.  She said "We will both be waiting for our men to come home from sea."  She's a bit romantic about this kind of stuff, but it will be fun!

Comment by KayKay on June 11, 2013 at 10:48pm

We drive in a snow, sleet, ice, you name it. Nothing intimidates Michigan drivers. I flew 5 people to Florida in April for a little more than what my son pays for one ticket home. It's ridiculous. I just can't justify it. I would love to see the base there but it isn't in the cards. He's pretty understanding. Back to this idea that the Navy kept 1/13 sailors in your sons group. That really smacks of wasteful spending to me. Spend all that money training them only to dump them?

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on June 11, 2013 at 9:04pm

I'm a Nor Cal girl through and through! It's hot in the summer and cold and foggy in the winter.  I don't know what seasons are.....haha.  No, we have pretty nice weather so long as it's sunshine. :-)  Yes I think 5-700 dollars for airfare is crazy, it really makes it hard when you live on a budget and within your means.  Right now I'm just planning to go to WA when my sons ship comes home from deployment and I am clueless as to when that will be, hopefully before snow comes, like I said I don't experience "seasons" let alone snow so I wouldn't know how to drive in it through 2 states.

Comment by KayKay on June 9, 2013 at 1:09pm

He's in San Diego on the Chancellorsville. He loves the Navy and loves his job. He knows he has to make the best of the port which is why he took up surfing and he loves that. But he tells me he misses the thunderstorms and snow storms and pretty fall colors. Michigan people love the changing seasons and easily get bored and annoyed with weather that is ALWAYS nice. But such is life. He realizes its only temporary. For him to fly home is 5-700 bucks. It is really a burden. The best rates are on militaryfares.com from what I have found. There is NOT one specific airline that gives a better rate to active duty. And for me to go visit? Wow. Airfare and lodging and meals, etc. I have 3 young ones at home and can't leave them that long and can't afford
To bring. Hence why I got annoyed when someone thought they were informing me of my option to go to SD to visit. Of course it's an option. Just not an affordable one. Cheaper to fly him home a couple times a year and he loves to see his home and cats and friends and of course the Great Lakes. :)

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on June 9, 2013 at 11:45am

Oh, what part of Michigan are you in?  I'm sorry that he doesn't like San Diego.  I was really surprised when Christian just fell in love with it.  We live in Nor Cal, Sacramento area, so we don't have the population like SD and for sure not the big city mentality like SoCal.   But he does like big cities, SF and SD happen to be his two favorite.  Plus he love his sports and when he was based there he'd get to catch a Padres game and I think he's even seen a couple of Charger games, although not against his fav SF teams. :-)  I don't mind visiting, but wouldn't choose to live there, too expensive but the weather is awesome down there. It also helped that 2 of his 3 buddies from boot camp also were stationed in San Diego, so they got to hang out quite a bit between exercises with their ships (that's a BIG factor I think)  I haven't been to WA state in almost 30 years but I'm sure I'll like it when we visit at homecoming.  

But I think a sailor makes their port what they want it to be.  If they get involved, find things to do locally, then they'll probably enjoy the station.  If they just do nothing fun from time to time, well it wouldn't be a good station anywhere.  Wow, surfing, that's cool.  So is your son on the San Diego side or his he on Coronado Island?  Christian was on Coronado Island which I never knew they had such beautiful mansions along the beach.  And the charm of the downtown area was a lot of fun to visit.  Has your son ever checked out the costs of flights on Southwest?  Christian always seemed to find the great deals on them, of course they're super cheap when flying from San Diego to Sacramento, only an hour and half flight, so if he got an extended weekend, he'd hop a flight, yes we were very spoiled when he was based in SD.  Another reason why he liked it so much, close to home.  Now he's deployed, they just visited Thailand, and he and his shipmates rented a villa for a week, went deep sea fishing, their guides prepared the fish as they caught it for lunch, as well as visited the sites and helped with some community service projects the ship arranged.  He said it was a great time.

Comment by KayKay on June 8, 2013 at 9:54pm

My son misses the overcast Michigan weather. He's happy to be in the Navy but the Great Lakes are in his blood. He isn't terribly thrilled with San Diego. And the cost for him to fly home? It is outrageous. He's making the best Of it by taking up surfing but yeah he misses the east coast. He isn't impresssed with the SoCal element and neither was I when I lived there 20 years ago.

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on June 8, 2013 at 9:11pm

The sailors LOVE San Diego.  Great weather all the time!  And the beach is right there, close to desert for quad riding, hiking, etc.  The Gas Light District (down town) has a great night life, PetCo stadium is right there.  My son loves San Diego. Plus it was only an 8 hour drive home for visits.  Everett gets a lot of rain, overcast, my son doesn't really like that kind of weather day in and out.  He does like the outdoors up there but he really liked the young peoples lifestyle in SD.

Comment by KayKay on June 8, 2013 at 5:37pm

Why do you say San Diego is a good first duty station?

Comment by Christine-OS2 proud mom on June 8, 2013 at 5:21pm

Mikesmom, my son is based in Everett WA, aboard the carrier USS Nimitz.  When he first reported to the ship, she was based in San Diego, so for him to pull San Diego as first duty station was pretty awesome!  He graduated OS A school "Best of the Best" Needless to say, when Nimitz moved from San Diego to Everett WA the entire crew wasn't thrilled, but they move the carriers around and it's good experience for the sailors to see other parts of the country as well.  Right now they are deployed on a WesPac Tour.

Kay, it is hard to say if the Navy will keep your son when time for re-enlistment comes.  It's all about how they perform in the period they've served, how they've moved up, what else do they do for the division, there are many other jobs that my son does with his "down time" I don't know recall any of the names of the jobs he assists with.  From what we went through these past few months was when the list came out for re-enlistment, my son's division had over 13 sailors wanting to re-enlist, my son was the only one accepted.  It's not to say that the others sailors lacked anything, because I have no idea of what they've done, but those sailors who don't have a lot of write ups, who stand out to command, it's all about the reviews so a lot of sailors don't take that into consideration, they just think "yeah I'll get re enlisted" and when the final list comes and their name is on the separation list that is when they scramble and that's when it's too late. One of the jobs my son helped in was preparing separation papers on his shipmates and he hated it, but it was a task given to him and he performed no questions asked.  Now, again, this is just my personal experience through my son.  Each ship is different, each command is different.

Comment by debsproud on June 7, 2013 at 2:26pm

Hi group.  I am the Navy mom Lori was talking about whose son was confused about his new rate.  He went into boot camp nuke, and will be coming out an OS.  So, some changes.  He will be at GL (not Pensacola) :)

PIR is 6/14.  Looking forward to keeping up with you all.

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