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Comment by megsmom14(ship07/div063) on December 26, 2011 at 4:04pm

Thanks Arwen for the explanation. It all makes very good sense. Much appreciated.

Comment by memphis.mom SHIP07 DIV 064 on December 26, 2011 at 3:57pm

Arwen that was excellent information

Comment by Arwen on December 26, 2011 at 3:31pm

To all those disappointed in not hearing from your recruits for Christmas: this isn't personal. They don't do this to be cruel, it's mental conditioning to prepare future sailors and their loved ones for the reality of going to sea. At sea there are no days off for holidays, birthdays or anniversaries, and precious few phone calls home. Boot camp replicates these conditions.

*They get to call home at predetermined times. The  three "guaranteed" calls are like scheduled port visits. And like a ship, if someone's on watch when they're in port they may miss out on the fun.

*They are promised calls home, then the calls don't happen. This replicates a ship planning a port call, but the ship gets rescheduled elsewhere or a storm prevents the ship from pulling into port. On my ship we were once told we would be 3 days at sea. I had a $2,000 flight planned the 5th day to visit my then-fiancé overseas. But we were at sea for 6 days because of weather conditions that interrupted our mission, which had to be completed before we could return to port. No one cared about my flight. There was no offer to reimburse me for the $400 it cost to change flights.

*They get individual random calls home for no apparent reason. Ships' crew phones are turned on and off according to operational need, and are often broken. Some ships have crew phones, some do not.

*They can only post mail once a week. This replicates typical ships' mail systems, they send mail out only when they meet up with a ship or helo that can transport the mail to the right place. Sometimes there is no helo.

*One recruit's screw up can cancel a planned extra call or trip to Ricky Heaven (an arcade/food court/phone bank/mini-mall at boot camp). This replicates what really happens on ships in the Navy. A captain has the leeway to plan for occasional liberty port visits. It happens that if one person or a group screws up, the captain can and will cancel the port visit, messing things up for the whole crew.

Comment by Oceans3 on December 26, 2011 at 3:01pm

thanks Megsmom that makes sense. My daughter also left on 12/7.  Still find that interesting that she left on Pearl Harbor day. :)

Comment by Arwen on December 26, 2011 at 3:01pm

Usually two divisions start training each day, unless there are more than 10 divisions in a group. Since you have 11 divisions, one day will have three divisions on one training day. Boot camp is set up so they can have as many as four divisions on a single training day, but with that many it's very crowded, so they try to keep it to two each day.

Divisions on the same training day are known as "brother divisions" and they spend a lot of time together. Depending on the personalities of the division, they can become very close, almost like a single division, or very competitive divisions may become rivals.

The first two divisions start training Week 1 Day 1 on Monday. The next two divisions start day 1-1 on Tuesday, while the first two divisions are on day 2.

They do this because there is only so much room at each activity. They can't fit 800 recruits (10 divisions) into a classroom, or into the firefighting trainer, or the pool, all in one day. So they stagger their over the five days.

When PIR arrives, the first two divisions have completed their training and have their orders already, and are transferred to their schools immediately. The other divisions may still have a few training days left after PIR, and may stay as late as the next Thursday after PIR.

Comment by megsmom14(ship07/div063) on December 26, 2011 at 2:37pm

Oceans3 my understanding is that they start filling divisions over a week or so until they have enough for a graduation date. My daughter lefy 12/7 & some others for our PIR date I've seen have left 12/6 or 12/8 & think I saw some as late as 12/9. I believe rhey start their p days right away, so could be on diff training days. That is why some do battle stations a day or 2 earlier too. Please correct me if I'm wrong, anyone with more knowledge.

Comment by Oceans3 on December 26, 2011 at 1:47pm

I have a question, since all our SRs have the same PIR date, aren't they all on the same schedule and have been there the same amount of time?  How does this work?

Comment by avalanche on December 26, 2011 at 1:03pm

I am trying to find out but the recruiting office here is closed today. I am hopeful that since it is still the basic place with the same division he should get the letters.

Comment by lovestocrochet on December 26, 2011 at 12:38pm

avalanche, same here.  I hope he receives mail from both addresses, because I sent a bunch to the first one on Ohio St.  I'm assuming the second one will be the one to use from now on. 

Comment by avalanche on December 26, 2011 at 11:13am

My son is in Ship 04 Div 805 and we received different mailing addresses. The return address envelope on his first letter had ship 404 Div 805 on it with an Illinois street address instead of an Ohio street address. Anyone know which one is correct?

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