Comment

Comment by Richard M. on February 20, 2013 at 12:30pm

Sarge is a busy guy. He and his partners will do exactly what they promise to do. If they mess up they will make it right.  We were promised a call or text from the sign up list at the meet and greet. Never got the text or call. However there was a cab waiting at the hotel and a ton of folks waiting for the text in the lobby. I went and asked the driver and he said get in.  It was 3 dollars as promised and the driver called "Super Dave" the dispatcher to have him cross us off the list.  I may have stolen someones cab......I am sure that it worked out. The problem we experienced was that there are "Metro" Cab Green vans that are not in Sarge's group.  So you can't go by the metro label or the van color.  You have to ask before the ride begins.  We actually had that happen on the way back to Navy Lodge.  Some Lady driving a dark green Metro Cab minivan said that she was with Sarge, and then asked for the cab rate which was cheaper than 3. per person?  Well we had two parties and 3 dollars was easier for us then working it out between us.  So we paid 3 each and the driver was fine with that as she made a little more money.    I am very glad to report that one member of our party was picked up at O Hare and dropped at Navy Lodge for about 30 dollars, as she was willing to share the cab with other customers. This trip was late Thursday night after the meet and greet. Sarge could have demanded a premium but did not. Sarge is a great friend to Navy families and one heck of a businessman. The word of mouth reputation he has earned is accurate. You just have to be sure you are dealing with him and not someone else.

Comment by diannep on February 10, 2013 at 7:20pm

I agree with you imomxfour.  The ones who only waited about 6-7 days to receive mail are probably the last ones to fill up the PIR group (last ones to arrive).  We just suggest that people wait until the form letter address is received...however, since those can take awhile for some, they usually write to the address the recruiter has.  That is fine too.   So thanks for that input. 

Thanks for passing along this info!  It helps us alot!

Comment by imomxfour x 3 Sailors on February 10, 2013 at 4:34pm

The only piece of info I feel should be changed is WHEN to start sending your SR mail after arriving at Boot Camp. We read here that they will not receive anything for 2-3 weeks after arrival, and that isn't (always) true. From what I could tell from other divisions, and from what I KNOW about our sons division, is that they received mail starting 6-7 days after arrival, and our son was very disappointed to not get anything from us those first couple of days. Luckily we had started sending things at the 1 week mark, just to get it going - so he started getting mail a few days later. 

My advice, tell the families to start sending mail the moment they get their SR's address - do not wait!!!

Also, tell them to make sure their SR is paying attention to others in their division who are not getting mail, and could use the extra support & encouragement. And to share those names as soon as possible, so they don't end up going weeks having to watch others get letters & cards and feel left out & alone & feeling sad. 

It was really awesome to meet a couple of the kids our son told us about, who needed mail - and they were VERY thankful to have gotten things from us & all the other awesome people on the group and on the Calls for Recruits/Letters from Home program! To hear them talk about not getting anything and then all the sudden hearing their names called out for mail, and seeing the smiles on their faces as they talked about it, was wonderful!! It's awesome to be able to make a difference for a young person like that!!

Comment by diannep on February 9, 2013 at 9:35am

Thanks so much, mynavyson, for posting this.  For those of you who want to pass on your suggestions re: more space for separate divisions, lighting issues, and sound problems (and any other suggestion you may want to make), please go to Sarge's page and message him--link below.  I believe he has his personal email address on that page which is an easier way for him to retreive his messages.   I know he would appreciate any feedback on how to make things better.

http://www.navyformoms.com/profile/JohnSpadaro?xg_source=profiles_m...

Have a wonderful weekend!

Comment by mynavyson (Ship 03, Div. 082) on February 9, 2013 at 1:34am

Diannep...we attended Sarge's Meet and Greet as well and thought it went great. He had a lot of information with a slide show showing us exactly where to go and what to do.  I would like to say, I wish I had a piece of paper and pen with me to take notes. I didn't mind the darkness and the food was great. I was bummed that we couldn't sit with everyone in the division.  I ended up leaving our division area to be with the rest of my family. It would have been nice to have all of us together. My 10 year old daughter was with us and I didn't feel it was an inappropriate environment. Overall, it was a great place with plenty of room and parking was great.

We stayed at the Navy Lodge.  It was great except they are redoing the lobby area so no place to really sit and wait for people. Rooms were great. It was also close to the PIR. If you stay there and go to PIR in the morning with your car, you will see the line backed up. The best lane to be in is the one next to the far right lane. Most people think you have to be in the far right lane but the one to the left of it is faster. Hope this helps : )

Comment by diannep on February 9, 2013 at 12:16am

Awww, Rose.  Thanks so much....so sweet!  We love helping all of the newbies through bootcamp.  We all remember our helplessness when we went through!

my3boys:  Thanks so much for posting here too.  We just like to touch base and make sure that all is status quo with the services/people we recommend.  I did post the lighting issue on Sarge's page.  Not sure he can do anything about that.  You all may want to post your other concerns about more space for the divisions and the sound system on there too.  You can find him under Old Sarge on the MEMBERS tab above.

Thanks ladies, and if anyone else can post their experience, it would be much appreciated!

Listening to this song as I am working on the site right now.  So inspiring....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_NpxTWbovE

Comment by Rose HM A School on February 8, 2013 at 11:56pm

Diannep- I think you have my long winded recap on the boot camp for moms group, right? :) if not, I can cut and paste to here. One last thing, I agree with my3boys below, each division had a small section with one or two highboy tables and not nearly enough seating for the whole division to sit together. Therefore, everyone was pretty spread out all over the saloon. It would have been more conducive to getting aquatinted if we were all seated together. But when all is said and done, the fact that Sarge does all of that out of the kindness of his heart, it's hard to fault him for anything. His efforts are most appreciated.

And as far as you veteran moms, if I could somehow quantify how very valuable and spot on all of your information and advise is, I would have to pay you all MILLIONS of dollars!!!! You guys are amazing and accurate and supportive and kind and I could honestly go on and on and on.... Not enough positive words in the dictionary to put into words what you all give to us on here so I will simply say THANK YOU and hope you know how heartfelt those two little words are. :)

Comment by my3boys on February 8, 2013 at 4:00pm

the info you gave was spot on....I felt very prepared.  Sarge's meet and greet filled in the little things that we did not know such as coming right on the base to pick up our Sailor for liberty, where to go.  As for Sarge, great experience.  I agree with Rose that the lighting made it hard to find others.  The sound system was not the greatest either, in order to really hear, we had to go right up front.  I would recommend that there be something that connects the divisions a little more, such as pre set tables with divisions marked prior to the arrival.  We did find ours (079- hooyah) but due to space were not able to sit with them.

Hotel was very friendly (Days Inn at Waukegan) right down the road from base.  Rooms small, but doable.  They had a limo for a shuttle...amazing.

Finally...just sad it is all over-I would go in a heartbeat and live that day again if I could.  How blessed we all are to have you ladies and the friendships that are growing, even if cyber...the fact that we  are all moms of Sailors makes it real.

Blessings to you

Comment by diannep on February 8, 2013 at 3:51pm

*NOT using, not NO using.....sigh

Comment by diannep on February 8, 2013 at 3:50pm

Thanks, Rose! 

Ladies, it is time for you to "grade"( in essence) us N4Moms veterans on the info we provided you during bootcamp.  So I ask that you post answers to the following questions on here so that we can continue to give the most accurate info possible to the future PIR groups!

Was the info we posted on here accurate?

If it wasn't, please post correct info.

Were your hotels what you expected?  Did we recommend one that you would not recommend?  And if not, please post why.

Please post about your MeetandGreet experiences and which one you attended.  Tell us the good and the bad, as Rose did below.  It might help the ladies in the future groups to decide which one to attend.

Please post any other helpful hints that you discovered while there.  Your N4Moms veteran team all attended PIRs at different times....starting with my son's back in Feb 2010 through ellen's this past summer....so we constantly want to update our info.

Any help you can give us with this will be greatly appreciated!  Feel free to private message the info also if you like. 

HOOYAH! 

Please continue to post about your experiences with Sarge also.  We recommend him alot and always want to make sure there are satisfied customers, as well as wanting to be aware of any issues that may keep someone from no using his taxi services or attending his MeetandGreet.  I especially would like to hear about those with younger children attending his MeetandGreet in a saloon.  We have had ladies in the past who would not attend because they didn't want their children in an atmosphere like that.  Please tell us what you thought about that if your children went.

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