Any Nukes?

[Sam'sMom]

Hi, I'm new to N4M and have been reading some of the great and informative posts. My son is a GW nuke and I'm wondering whether there are any other mothers of nukes. Also, trying to arrange a visit, although I don't know when they will return again, and I've heard you have to be sponsored by your sailor or someone else. Any advice or info will be greatly appreciated. All the best.

[Ronnette]

Hi Sam's Mom. I have not been on this board in a really long time, but I saw your message and thought I would say hello.  My son is a GW nuke as well, an ET who has only been them since March.  He arrived two weeks before the earthquake. 

 

I don't want to say when I heard they will return, but its not long. Search around on this board, there are people who have great stories about visiting Yokosuka and what they had to do.

 

How long has your son been there?  Is he enjoying it?  They sure put in some long hours, but they enjoy the port calls.

[kathy]

Hi Sam's Mom and Ronnette!  Yay - more Nuke Moms on the GW.  Yes, my son is a MMN2.  He reported to the GW in January, 2010.  He lives off base and loves Japan.  It has been hard to have him on the other side of the world!!  We have not been able to see him since then.  He is hopefully coming home for a visit in February, 2012.  I am not sure about the sponsorship.  Certainly to gain access to the base and stay at the Navy Lodge, you would need this.  There are ladies on this site who have recently visited for the family and friends cruise.  They are a wealth of knowledge! 

Communication with my sailor is much less than I desire!!!  We have skyped twice - and then he encountered tech difficulties!!  He has never been a very verbose child, soooo.... LOL  I have kept every email!  But also, sailor states that it is easier for him to focus on his work and life onboard without being in touch.  It just makes the homesickness easier to bear sometimes. So, we both know that the other loves and misses us.  But I have been known to post on FB to "CALL YOUR MOM"!!!  Of course that is when they are in port!

I am hoping that they have at least a couple of port calls during this cruise.  This last cruise was a long and tedious one.  YES - they definitely work LONG and hard hours.  I remember at proto-type graduation (well calling it grad might be a stretch!) one of the commanding officers stated that they had all worked hard, BUT now entering the Fleet, the hard work was just beginning!  Hmmm,  I think that sums it up!

However, I am so very proud of him and of each of your sons.  They are smart - yes.  But they have to have the determination and discipline that drives them on.  We did good Moms!!!

[kate]

Hi

Hi Samsmom and Ronette. So happy you started this discussion. My son is also on the GW. He is a nuke ET. He got to Japan 2 days before the earthquake. He was not able to finish indoc before they had to pull out. I don 't hear from him much! We have only talked to him twice since May. Something is wrong with his email so we don't even have that. Am writing letters just like BC. We talked to him 2 weeks ago. He said he is frustrated trying to get his quals . He seems to like Japan. Wondering if he will able to come home within the next year. Not much talk on the GW site like ther is on the nuke site. I follow the GW FB page and I am able to see pic of the carrier. I would like to know more about what it's like being a nuke on the carrier so could use some experienced moms help.

[kathy]

Hi Kate!  I am an "experienced Mom", but I am not sure that I have a whole lot of new info!  My sailor is NOT a big communicator!!  He is a MM and has been on the GW since Jan, 2010.  I did get an email right before they pulled in to Yoko in which he was frustrated about his quals also.  I remember how active the Nukes Mom group was!  I loved it!!!  Sometimes this group will get lively, but , check out the Japan Moms grp.  I have made some awesome "friends" there that do in fact visit both or more!!  And another grp is the Yokosuka Moms. 

Have you seen the Carrier series?  Netflix has them, and you can access it online also.  Both ships are Nimitz class so very similar to the GW I presume.

[Sam'sMom]

Hi Kathy, Kate and Ronnette, It's so wonderful to know there are others with sons like mine! Has anyone come across any nuke daughters? I did see the Japan Moms, but didn't know there were Nuke Moms. I'll have to look for that. Thank you for mentioning it. For a while I was able to see and communicate with my son on facebook, and I also kept up with the GW facebook page, which was very helpful, especially during the earthquake. Now my computer is acting very strange and I can't get on facebook any more. the tech person I contacted assured me it wasn't a virus or a memory overload problem and suggested resetting the browser, but this hasn't helped. Discovering GW N4M was a great relief! They say when one door closes, God opens a window.

[Sam'sMom]

Hi Kathy, Kate and Ronnette, It's so wonderful to know there are others with sons like mine! Has anyone come across any nuke daughters? I did see the Japan Moms, but didn't know there were Nuke Moms. I'll have to look for that. Thank you for mentioning it. For a while I was able to see and communicate with my son on facebook, and I also kept up with the GW facebook page, which was very helpful, especially during the earthquake. Now my computer is acting very strange and I can't get on facebook any more. The tech person I contacted assured me it wasn't a virus or a memory overload problem and suggested resetting the browser, but this hasn't helped. Discovering GW N4M was a great relief! They say when one door closes, God opens a window.

[Rosemary S.]

Hi fellow nuke moms! My sailor has been there since the end of January 2011. He got base housing just before going out on this latest cruise. I think he has a love/hate relationship with Japan. As for me, I'm not loving this other side of the world thing but heck, my not loving it won't change anything. Lol! He's hoping to come home something after they return to port and I hope to make the trip next spring. I hear from my son pretty regularly (except this week it seems), he is very communicative, so I'm very happy for that.

[Sam'sMom]

Hi Rosemary, Glad to know your son stays in contact. This seems to be a little bit rare :-)) I wonder, has he given you any information about nukes on GW that you might be able to share? Because of OPSEC no one can say very much.

[Rosemary S.]

I'll try! I'm at a loss at the moment as to share at the moment, so if you have any questions please feel free to ask. I know that being a new nuke on the ship is very difficult, they are pretty much considered useless and that always brings them down emotionally. BUT, as they work thru their quals, it seems to get better for them. There is also one plant that has a lot less drama than the other. What exactly the drama is, I couldn't tell you.

[Sam'sMom]

Hmmm....very interesting Rosemary! So there are 2 plants on the ship. I wonder how many nukes there are altogether. There were quite a few at the nuke graduation ceremony, but they go to various different ships, not just the GW. I'm surprised to learn that they're made to feel useless. That is terrible. They're pretty essential to keeping things running smoothly, aren't they? Is it because they aren't doing the physically demanding jobs? My son never mentioned this - but then, he doesn't mention much - he always just says he's fine and not to worry. (This worries me more than almost anything.)

[Rosemary S.]

There are alot onboard, thats about all I can say here. Now did you go to the prototype graduation or the power school graduation (or both)? My sr didn't have prototype graduation - he finished up two weeks before Xmas and since he was heading to Japan, he was allowed to leave 3 days before Christmas. As nukes, they get teased by other departments and called nerds. My son actually gets along well with the SRs in other departments. He is just a real outgoing personality. The new nukes (Nubs - new useless bodies), get this from some of the more senior nukes. It makes it really hard on the new guys, and some just crumble under the stress of it all. But it seems to pass. Maybe it'd like that in all departments on the ship, I don't know. my son has said that when he gets to senior rank, he will remember what it was like as the nub and treat them better than he was treated. What he said is that deployment is hard enough the way it is without that kind of crap.

[Ginny (Robert's Mom)]

Hi ladies, my son is an MM nuke on the GW who arrived in April 2011.  I haven't been on N4Moms in a long time.  Hi Rosemary, how is your son doing?  I rarely hear from my son but when I do he says he is fine and he loves Japan and that the work is pretty much what he expected.  He did email after their last port visit that he tried to get cash out of an ATM machine there, didn't get any out but had $1,000 stolen from his account!  I also talked with him on the phone at the previous port visit.  It is so hard for me not to hear from him very much but I know he is busy and trying to work on his qualifications.  I don't know when he'll be able to get time off to come home for a visit.  My husband and I hope to go to Japan next year sometime.  I'm meeting a friend for lunch today whose son was in Nuke school at the same time as mine.  Her son is stationed in Norfolk and she visits him and he can come home a lot since his ship is in drydock.  He will be in the Navy for 4 1/2 years before getting to go to sea and I don't think he can qualify until then.  I think our sons are lucky to be able to do and see so many things but it is hard when they are so far away.