please help me catch up

[Matt'mom ship 12 DIV 157]

I am feeling very behind. My son is on ship 12 DIV 157. I am so excited for his PIR date. I just got married last week in the Floriday Keys and I have to admit I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed trying to plan the trip to Great Lakes. (we are from Minnesota)

I plan to drive and I plan to book the hotel. When do I actually want to arrive? Wednesday or Thursday? I see the meet and greet is Thursday night. Will my SR attend? I know the ceremony is Friday morning. He then needs to check in to his A school and then I get to take him on Liberty???? Is that correct? Do I get him until Sunday night?

I've been reading every piece of documentation and website but I figured you ladies are all a much better resource.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[jenn724 Ship7 Division 161]

Welcome!!!  Congratulations, The Keys are my favorite place.  I am driving from Massachusetts, and I am planning on arriving Thursday. The Sailors ( by then) do not attend the meet n greets.  I believe they are on Liberty immediately following grad, but that might be different if their A school is at Great lakes.  Where is he going? 

[TraceJ]

Hello, my son just PIR 4/20 and is now in Pensacola FL.  This is what I suggest.  Arrive Thursday.  Get your bearings.  We stayed at the Ramada and it was very close to base, and easy to get around town...we did have a GPS.  GO to Sarges meet and Greet - he has a ton of info.  The slide show starts at 7 and until then it is just food and visiting.  We were told by the wife of a sailor who got the info from her sailor when he made the call after battlestations that people going to pensacola were leaving Sat at 8:30 am and their bus left at 1am - we were told EVERYONE going to pensacola would be on this bus.  We were also told our division had gotten in trouble and lost liberty time.

As it turned out there was a mix up in purchasing tickets and 23 guys from our division left SUNDAY!!  They did loose liberty time Friday night so they had to be back at 7pm.

 

If he stays at great lakes, after PIR he will have to move to his A school and they told us it is at least 3pm before they are ready to be picked up for liberty.  But then you have them Sat and Sun as well but he will have to be back on base each evening.

There were a lot of sailors who did fly out Sat, we were lucky, but it all depends and you won't know until your sailor tells you.  We were planning on him leaving Sat but ohh so greatful he left Sunday!

Hope this helps a little!

 

Thurs sarges meet and greet is a must.  Friday morning, we drove since it was a small training group and beat the shuttle from ramada - park at the train station parking (sarge will explain)  Our sailor was honor guard and had to go back to ship from PIR hall to change shoes so we waiting in front of NEX for a while for him....about half hour.  Then left base with him.  Had to be back at 7pm. Planned to pick him up at NEX at 8am Sat morning but he called about 7:30am and said come now.  He had to be back again at 7pm.  He then had watch that night from 10-12, Bus was to leave at 12:30 but really it was more like 1am.  Arrived at Midway about 2ish and then Bob debriefs them for about an hour before you can really talk to them.  Airport doesn't open until 4am so we sat on floor and visited.  AT 4 they can line up and start checking bags, go thru security and then get breakfast. I wouldn't wait to get a security pass to go thru security with them unless it is a late flight.  Our son flew out at6:30am and they let sailors go thru line first, then ticketed passengers, then parents of sailors ....we never would have made it thru so we said good bye so they could go eat.