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Comment by LindaGirl on October 29, 2015 at 9:54am

Scubagirl, Thank you for sharing your story.  It was so nice of you to make mini stockings for all the sailors on your son's sub, while they are deployed over the holidays, as mine is as well.  It's hard to believe that out of a crew of maybe approx. 130 sailors, 89 of them, have no one sending them 1/2 boxes.  So sad to hear that.  I know that on my son's sub, the FRG were making 1/2 boxes for sailors that weren't getting any from home & put up a donation site on Amazon for their sub, for people to pick out suggested items to go into a 1/2 box for the sailors who weren't getting any.  So my husband & I were happy to be apart of that & feel that we helped in some small way, & had fun picking out items that we thought the sailors would enjoy in their boxes.

Comment by scubagirl on October 28, 2015 at 11:13pm

We are going to get his things because they are not allowed to maintain a room in the barracks while they are gone for the 6 months.  Space is too valuable.  Some guys store their stuff in their car and put in one of the long term parking facilities or at a friends place off base.  Our son has our spare car and we brought home the car he bought in Groton to sale.  He did not get a good deal and is not able to make the payments since he has not learned to save his money.  Eating out everyday takes lots of money.  He could eat some on the boat but does like to eat off base.  This is a way to bring his debt under control and hopefully learn save money.  It was hard for him to give up car but he knew it was for the best.  It would have sat in storage or our garage until at least next summer.  This way he can save and buy an older truck when he returns.  I think he has learned having a car payment and full coverage on a car is not fun.  His plans are to buy a truck with the money he saves while on deployment and buy rings for his girlfriend.  We will see.  He can do it if he makes up his mind to follow his plans. 

Comment by Mark on October 28, 2015 at 10:09pm

Fast attacks will do a lot of short underways between the long deployments - rarely longer than a couple weeks though.

Comment by Cath Bubblehead mom on October 28, 2015 at 9:52pm

Boomers usually go out for 3 months and do not port. Fast attacks go out for longer - but port

Comment by scubagirl on October 28, 2015 at 9:42pm

BTW our boat is doing calendar pages and it was $5 for one or 5 for $20.  I did four.  It was first come first serve and I got Christmas Day, his birthday, Valentines Day and his dad's birthday.  The one for Christmas was decorated and has Merry Christmas and their boat number on it.  The other ones are pictures of my son with us at different times in his life.  For Valentines Day I put pictures of my son and his girlfriend on it.  Smilebox has a program I used to make the pages and download the pictures.  I made sure I did not use pictures that would embarrass him.  We are going to VA when they deploy to see him off and bring back the car and all of his stuff.  He will have to move out of barracks until he returns.  Not looking forward to that trip.  Especially so near the holidays.   

Comment by scubagirl on October 28, 2015 at 9:32pm

Part two.  He is now in Norfolk and does not like the area at all.  Only one guy from his boot camp and A school was sent there and he has since deployed.  His first choice was Kings Bay but being the kind son he can be he asked the Chief if he could give his position up on a Boomer in Kings Bay to another of his classmates.  The other guy was getting married after schooling and  my son felt sorry for him having to leave his new wife for 6 months soon after marriage. My son regretted his decision soon after he made the change but decided he had to stick by his decision.  Now he is in love and wants to marry next fall after his deployment.  He hates the thought of leaving his girl friend six months after they are wed but nothing to do but suck it up.

He did put us and his girlfriend on the list with ombudsman.  She has not been really informative but they have only been on several under ways and I guess once they deploy she will be more informative.  Their Family Readiness Group has been very active with fundraisers and I contacted the leader of the group to let her know I wanted to help but live out of state and could not attend the meetings and help with fundraisers.  I offered to send a check to help buy things the group needed and do anything I could do from a distance.  Once we knew they would be gone for Christmas I offered to buy and stuff stockings for the guys on the boat.  The COB said we could but everything had to fit in a certain size box.  They are mini stockings and I put a punch balloon in them as a fun gift along with other things like slim jims.  Once they got to VA the FRG was going to put everyone's name on them.  We are doing half way boxes and I did one for my sailor and two other sailors.  There were 89 sailors who were not getting boxes from anyone.  So the group does a box for them.  I had family members make personal video messages to my son and I put them on a dvd with lots of family pictures for him to have on half way night.  Just something to give him a push to make it to the end.  I know he knows we love him and are behind him 100% but he does make it hard sometimes.  Now if he would just learn to save money and pay his bills on time.  Navy Mom Hugs to us all. 

Comment by scubagirl on October 28, 2015 at 9:13pm

Hi All, I know how many of you feel with the lack of communications.  Our son was the perfect son.  Loved being around the family and was a real homebody.  Went out of state to college, his choice, and was miserable.  Became depressed and did not go to class.  He did not return the next year and decided to go to a local college.  He did not like that. Very smart and scores really well on test but hates reading and projects.  Anyway he got involved with a girl and things became tense when he was home.  Decided to move in with her at her parents house in the basement.  Got engaged and then found out she was not what he thought she was. He had major jaw surgery and was wired shut for 3 weeks.  He went back to her house to recoup.  I was not happy but nothing I could do about it.  I did put my foot down and told him I was the one spending the nights in the hospital with him and he did agree to that. He decided to join the Navy and once he was healed and all waivers were approved and his braces were off he had a ship date.  He was very excited about it and all was well.  He moved back home just before he left for BC.  He had met a girl and they were just friends. Things have progressed to being in love and we really like this girl and have spent time with her and her parents.  We have also spent time with just parents and just his girl friend.  She may be too good for my opinionated son.  LOL 

To be continued out of word space.

Comment by tysmom on October 28, 2015 at 9:08pm

There was the competition, where you placed in the class....and they could get first pick of where to be stationed according to class placement....incentive....they had times you had to study if you were not doing as well as expected, if my memory is serving me well.

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Comment by SlezaksMom on October 28, 2015 at 9:00pm

Navymom9828 -- I asked my son (who never cracks a book and enjoyed his high C/low B average) what was the turning point for him with the studying? He said that he never studied before because he wasn't afraid of letting himself or even me down. But in the Navy, he found an obligation to do his best always because of his shipmates.

Your guy will figure it out. The toughest part is that the Navy knows how to make them uncomfortable until they do it and that can get tough to watch.

((Hugs))

Comment by tysmom on October 28, 2015 at 8:41pm

This is such a great discussion!!! We all need to hear it.

My son went to college and did well one year and not great the next....worked in a couple restaurants...decided to check out the Navy and here we are.This is the short version. Car issues, girl issues...they had big bucks we did not....and on it went. Yup it is harder when they are older....I do not think I read the fine print!!!!!

He does not want me to help him find a house after deployment because I would be looking for one that has a "mom" room hahahaha

The computer stuff is the language of the computer, it was not linux but something similar. Wait till they get to the math!!!! Calc, trig...

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