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Comment by zStratMom on February 19, 2012 at 12:09pm

A - LOVE Mickey (I have NINE Disney watches, mostly Mickie, but one Minnie and two Tinker Bells)

Comment by zStratMom on February 19, 2012 at 12:08pm

A SCHOOL @ Great Lakes - ONE MORE NOTE: When you're visiting with your sailor between PIR and their CHECK IN to their new "station" on base, MAKE A PLAN for how you will meet. IF YOU HAVE a rental car, you can not take it on base without a military or dependent ID. So the best place to meet is the Visitor Center parking lot (there's a visitor center and small museum at this site), just outside the MAIN gate. NOW you can give them a phone! Once you give them their phone, it will be easier to connect.

They will have set liberty hours. In our case, I had flown my DIL and my son's two children (3 yr, and 4 mo at that time) out with us. BECAUSE he had dependent family he would not see for another several months, he was granted liberty for the WEEKEND and came with us to the hotel. A GREAT option if you have this scenario is to select a hotel, such as the Residence Inn, that has two bedrooms, a living room and kitchen. The livingrooms have sleeper sofas, and the kitchen makes it easy to handle the needs of the kids.

Comment by zStratMom on February 19, 2012 at 11:56am

IF YOUR SAILOR will be DEPARTING for A SCHOOL at a DIFFERENT LOCATION:

Start asking your sailor at about two weeks BEFORE PIR to pay attention if they are given their orders and travel vouchers. Sometimes, they have them before Battlestations and can give you info on the I'm a Sailor call--a HUGE help for planning. SPECIFICALLY what you want them to look for: The DAY/DATE of their flight (Fri? Sat? Sun?), the CARRIER (American, Delta, AirTran, etc) and the TIME or FLIGHT #. If your sailor doesn't know this, you'll just need to bring their belongings and be prepared to bring them back home with you. My son did not get his orders until after battlestations, so we were unsure if we would be able to transfer his belongings.

Typically, the Navy will transport whole groups to the airport (and they spend HOURS there, waiting for their flights!!). In our case, my son's flight was Saturday, from MIDWAY (note - you can look up the airport, if you have the info from the orders that I suggested in paragraph 1; they might be O'HARE). A large group of sailors transported via bus to Midway, arriving about 7 am. YOU WANT TO PLAN TO CONNECT at the point where they are waiting for check in (OPTIMAL); you CAN connect later, but it's easiest if you can meet them first at this point.

The USO had a gentleman that coordinated their check-in in groups. While waiting for check in, we transferred all his belongings. NOTE: They have with them: a seabag, a garment bag and their black back pack. I had packed for my son: a "roll-aboard" sized suitcase that unzips to expand the size to fill in more stuff (then it becomes "checked" baggage) and a computer bag. WHILE he was waiting for check in, we transferred his orders and check in vouchers to his computer bag, emptied his water bottle, repacked his back pack into the suitcase. NOTE 2: In the suitcase, I actually had a second seabag, in case he had to transfer all his belongings into it and only check Navy issued stuff. THAT WAS NOT NECESSARY, the airline wasn't even concerned). Ultimately, he checked: Seabag, Suitcase, Garment bag (with back pack inside); and only carried on his computer bag. AFTER ALL THE SAILORS have checked in, the USO coordinator put all the family in the line and we got our gate passes so we could go into the terminals and spend time with our Sailors. YEAH! The USO at Midway was much smaller than O'Hare, so we took our Sailor for "brunch" and bought him a new book for the flight, visited, etc. Then we left to catch our flights from O'hare. GREAT TIMES, folks, take advantage of these.

Comment by zStratMom on February 19, 2012 at 11:33am

IF YOUR SAILOR has A SCHOOL AT GREAT LAKES:

After liberty is called at PIR on FRIDAY, you have a short interval of time to visit. They have to report back to their ship, and "transfer" or report in to their new location off the recruit command and on the actual Great Lakes base. Your sailor will go through an orientation and be assigned to their new barracks. THEN, they will be granted liberty--unless they have watch. Most often, they will know if they will have to stand watch in advance, AND most often if they have family coming, they are able to trade with another sailor. By this time, it's going to be around 4:00 or 4:30 in the afternoon. You will be able to meet them ON BASE at their barracks location to sign them out for liberty. During THIS liberty (or any liberty over the weekend), you may give your sailor his / her personal items (civies, electronics).

Comment by Lala Ribbon Queen PIR Ribbons on February 19, 2012 at 11:28am

Sorry A' for the confusion. they can't take anything including clothes back to the bootcamp base but if they have A-school in Great Lakes then they can take a few things back with them to that base after you have picked them up and then return them. They often do a little shopping over the weekend and MANY buy new underwear lol and take it back with them. They won't be able to wear other civi's yet but can put them away for later. You can also mail these things to them.

Comment by zStratMom on February 19, 2012 at 11:24am

I have had BOTH an A-school at GL and a flight to elsewhere experience. I am going to post two separate notations to make it easy for moms of both.

Comment by A` on February 19, 2012 at 11:19am

Lala, sorry but a little confused....Am I understanding that yes I can take clothes for the hotel but they cannot take them back to base?

Comment by A` on February 19, 2012 at 11:10am

FTLW, it turns out you were right, the pick was to big. When I went to a smailler pic it was so blurry you couldnt see it. And yes, you are right it does make a difference which program you use so I found this jpg and Mickey it is! My SR would love it though because he truly is my favorite mouse!

Comment by diannep on February 19, 2012 at 9:07am

Good morning all!

Comment by Lala Ribbon Queen PIR Ribbons on February 19, 2012 at 7:52am

A' if they are staying in great Lakes for A-school then you should be able to give him some (a few) civi's and his cell phone after he has checked in and you pick him up at the A-school base. If he goes somewhere else for A-school then you can have a a few things in a bag for him and give it, a laptop (if he has one) and his cell phone to him at the airport. He will have a black backpack to put his stuff in. They can't take these things back to the boot camp base. The only exception that I know of is if they are on a chartered flight then you can't meet him at the airport but that rarely happens.

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