This site is for mothers of kids in the U.S. Navy and for Moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.
FIRST TIME HERE?
FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO GET STARTED:
Choose your Username. For the privacy and safety of you and/or your sailor, NO LAST NAMES ARE ALLOWED, even if your last name differs from that of your sailor (please make sure your URL address does not include your last name either). Also, please do not include your email address in your user name. Go to "Settings" above to set your Username. While there, complete your Profile so you can post and share photos and videos of your Sailor and share stories with other moms!
Make sure to read our Community Guidelines and this Navy Operations Security (OPSEC) checklist - loose lips sink ships!
Join groups! Browse for groups for your PIR date, your sailor's occupational specialty, "A" school, assigned ship, homeport city, your own city or state, and a myriad of other interests. Jump in and introduce yourself! Start making friends that can last a lifetime.
Link to Navy Speak - Navy Terms & Acronyms: Navy Speak
All Hands Magazine's full length documentary "Making a Sailor": This video follows four recruits through Boot Camp in the spring of 2018 who were assigned to DIV 229, an integrated division, which had PIR on 05/25/2018.
Boot Camp: Making a Sailor (Full Length Documentary - 2018)
Boot Camp: Behind the Scenes at RTC
...and visit Navy.com - America's Navy and Navy.mil also Navy Live - The Official Blog of the Navy to learn more.
OPSEC - Navy Operations Security
Always keep Navy Operations Security in mind. In the Navy, it's essential to remember that "loose lips sink ships." OPSEC is everyone's responsibility.
DON'T post critical information including future destinations or ports of call; future operations, exercises or missions; deployment or homecoming dates.
DO be smart, use your head, always think OPSEC when using texts, email, phone, and social media, and watch this video: "Importance of Navy OPSEC."
Follow this link for OPSEC Guidelines:
Events
**UPDATE as of 11/10/2022 PIR vaccination is no longer required.
FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR UP TO DATE INFO:
RESUMING LIVE PIR - 8/13/2021
Please note! Changes to this guide happened in October 2017. Tickets are now issued for all guests, and all guests must have a ticket to enter base. A separate parking pass is no longer needed to drive on to base for parking.
Please see changes to attending PIR in the PAGES column. The PAGES are located under the member icons on the right side.
Format Downloads:
- Graduation Info
- PDF – 2.7 MB
- PNG – 2.3 MB
- JPG – 3.4 MB
- Printable PDF – 2.0 MB
Navy Speak
Click here to learn common Navy terms and acronyms! (Hint: When you can speak an entire sentence using only acronyms and one verb, you're truly a Navy mom.)
N4M Merchandise
Shirts, caps, mugs and more can be found at CafePress.
Please note: Profits generated in the production of this merchandise are not being awarded to the Navy or any of its suppliers. Any profit made is retained by CafePress.
Navy.com Para Familias
Visite esta página para explorar en su idioma las oportunidades de educación y carreras para sus hijos en el Navy. Navy.com
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ALUMNI OF PIR 05/24/2013 TG 28 - 11 Divisions (195-204 and 928)
Information
This Group is for those that have sailors who graduated Boot Camp on 04/19 /2013. A place to keep up with each other as their journey continues.
Your current Group "veteran members" are:
diannep
LaLa Ribbon Queen PIR Ribbons
ellen0502
♥FireTeamLeaderWife♥ aka FTLW
Betsy, son on Stennis carrier
Craig
Location: Great Lakes, IL
Members: 85
Latest Activity: Apr 25, 2014
WELCOME to PIR 05/24//2013! PLEASE See the PAGES section for Informational Posts about BC and PIR. PAGES is underneath the Members Photos. PLEASE scroll down this page here to find the Comment Box to post a reply to the PIR GROUP.
~OPSEC OPerational SECurity, is always of the utmost importance.
~N4M’s also has Community Guidelines just like any other social media.
~Please take the time to read the OPSEC and N4M’s Community Guidelines.
~A quick note here, from the N4M’s CG’s:
• Don’t Jeopardize the Safety of Our Sailors: Remember OPSEC (Operational Security) (Don’t Sink Ships With Loose Lips) This site and all content posted on it are viewable to everyone on the Internet. This doesn’t mean you can’t share things about your Sailor – but too many details can put Sailors in harm’s way. The following are examples of red flags and should not be shared within this community either by posting or sending via a Group message:
• Sailors’ last names. This includes your username if you share the same last name as your son or daughter.
Some Suggestions:
~If your last name is different from your Recruits it is still not recommended for you to use in your username for your own personal security. This is your option. It is also not a good idea to use an email address as your username for personal security reasons.
~First Names and pictures of your Recruit are allowed but remember, everyone can see it and someone can easily match them up with their "mom". So you might want to consider changing your profile picture to not include your Recruit at least for the duration of BC. Again, your option
~It is also a good idea to make your settings for your Profile Page "viewable only to your friends".
Comment Wall
Comment
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Comment by Ryansgirl80 on May 6, 2013 at 4:11pm
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Thanks FTLW. I'll input both addresses. :)
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Comment by FireTeamLeaderWife aka FTLW on May 6, 2013 at 3:48pm
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This is the one that RTC puts out :
3355 Illinois Street Great Lakes, IL 60088 on their website
However, This will take you to Illinois Gate (Gate 6 I believe) which is before Ohio (traveling West to East on Buckley). (It is possible that Illinois is used for returning your Sailor though. We only used Ohio but that was two years ago :-)
Gate 8 at Ohio & Buckley is where you enter for PIR. Try entering "Ohio Street Great Lakes Illinois 60088" into your GPS or Phone Navigation. I tried it here from home and it took me to Buckley and then Ohio.
If you have a "smart" phone, the navigation app will also work.
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Does anybody know the address for RTC? I would like to put in my GPS so I don't get lost.
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Comment by CatMom509 on May 6, 2013 at 3:15pm
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Craig,
Such awesome insight and additional info on the Challenge Coins! There is also a video of the history of the Challenge Coin if you click on the coins at www.pirgifts.com . My daughter was so happy to receive hers--the USS Hopper--from me when I gave her all her goodies in our hotel room after PIR. I had found a nice white gift box for her to keep it in. She said it was cool! Thank you for designing all the Challenge Coins connected with RTC Boot Camp ships. They are truly beautiful. Also, the free shipping for those coins and your quick service is a bonus!! Friends, all the RTC Challenge Coin ships can be found at the above site . There is also a selection of 70 other Challenge Coins he carries that are not designed by him. I also got the Core Values one which is spectacular with cut-outs and beveled edges.
For those of you who will have sailors in the CT (cryptologic) rating, Craig is the administrator for that group and he has all kinds of neat Navy facts in the Discussion Forum of that group!
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Good Morning Friends!
"The Lord is my light and my salvation--
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life--
of whom shall I be afraid?"
Psalm 27:1
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Comment by Craig on May 6, 2013 at 8:47am
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NavyMom2013 - I forgot this. Only the sole honor recruit ever gets "coined". Unlike the Air Force which actually give all the newbies a coin, in the Navy it is the family members.
Here is something that might interest you about being "coined":
Some of you have messaged me wondering if it's proper for a parent to give their sailor a challenge coin...and how to do the "Secret Handshake" (which is in a video at the end).
Here are my thoughts as a sailor....
To me, boot camp is a major accomplishment. In 8 short weeks, the Navy will return to you a mature and capable young man or woman that will have the foundation to be a leader. They will have the ability and knowledge to be a successful person in life. To me, this is an honor for me, as a parent, to see my sailor's life change. You too, will soon realize that for 18 years or so you have been the "referee" in your sailor's life. You were the rule setter and the penalty enforcer. But as your sailor's life changes, so will yours. You will now become the "cheerleader" for them. You will watch and cheer as they work their way through the advancement system, the qualification standards, and simple things like just folding their towels correctly. You will stand and scream at the PIR as their division enters, and you will cheer as their ship enters San Diego or Norfolk after a deployment. I have decided it is far more important for me to be a cheerleader than a referee. I don't waste my time on the sadness, I focus my feelings on the positive things that will help my sailor. When I show my sailor that I am proud of him, it goes a lot further than an award that the command "might" officially recognize him with. I am his "cheerleader".
Many people will say "but they didn't officially earn the challenge coin". Let me tell you, no coin is officially documented on a sailor's page 4 entry in their service record. It's only the sailor that will remembers when, where, and the reason for what the coin was given. If you did receive a coin from a command, which only the sole honor recruit gets, and you happen to lose it, the only way besides begging the command to give you another (which they rarely do) is to buy it. So does that cancel out the spirit of the reason you receive the coin? No. You received it for something you accomplished. Whenever my sailor pulls that coin out, he immediately remember how proud I am of him. It's ever lasting.
Now let me ask, after PIR you go into the Navy Exchange and buy the mementos of boot camp that your sailor wants. You might buy a Navy Boot Camp water bottle, maybe a glass, patch, or hat that has "Great Lakes Navy Boot Camp" on it, or maybe even a t-shirt. But what item do you think will stand the test of time? It will be the challenge coin that your sailor's grandson or granddaughter will hold up and say "What is this? What does it mean? How did you get it?" That is when the grandfather or grandmother (your sailor) will get a warm smile on their face and will proudly tell them about what it was like to be a sailor.
Just my thoughts....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/28663038#28663038
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Good Morning diannep....
Woo-hoo! another day down....
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Comment by diannep on May 6, 2013 at 8:36am
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Good Morning All !
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NavyMom2013 - All the coins are available at PIRGifts.com, even many of the ones you listed below....
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Comment by NavyMom2013 on May 6, 2013 at 3:55am
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I was planning on buying a few challenge coins for my son to give to him at PIR with the "handshake." I found quite a few really cool ones on this site:
https://store.nwtmint.com/index.php?mod=search&search=navy&...
I could not find one for USS Hopper. Is one available? But I did find:
76030 Navy Seal
60100 Values
60106 Surface Warfare
60862 Armor of God
60112 Navy Brat for Girls
15011 Sailors Creed
60100 Core Values
60185 Recruit Training Command
61046 I Love My Sailor
76065 Pensacola
There is even one at the bottom for Popeye the Sailorman!
Who else is ordering these? Do they receive any from RTC?
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