Moms of IS (Intelligence Specialist) sailors.

My son is also at Damneck.  It shouldn't be a problem to take it that way.  I hope he really gets to enjoy his time there. It is beautiful at the beach there on base. I know they have some really hard classes and they cannot bring material from school to study so they spend a lot of time in school.  My son graduates A school in Oct. Then comes C school.  If he needs help with anything let me know my sailor can probably help him out if he needs anything. 

Hi....My son is heading there on Sat. after graduation 9/6.  I will keep in touch. 

As others have said, there are usually 3 to a room and they have a locker.  I gave my son his laptop and phone at the airport, he was able to fit both in his backpack.  Now that he's staying in the hotel at DN for his second C school he stays in the hotel that is right next to the barracks.  He has his own room, but its set up like a suite.  There are 2 bedrooms and a common living area with a fridge, microwave couch and TV.  The person in the other bedroom is a Marine.  He loves living in the hotel.

Thanks everyone.  I'm sure I will have more questions.  Still concentrating on bc right now.

pmass, lol...bc is harder on the families than school. They will admit that school is really tough but at least there is opportunity for communications. If he lacks anything at school, it can be mailed so there is comfort in knowing he won't have to do without for too long. After a few weeks he will be able to leave the base in the evenings or on weekends to go shopping so he can go to the NEX mall at Oceana or Walmart, or what is the name of the other mall so many like to go to...Lynnhaven maybe? There is also a small (very small) NEX on their base. Anything we can help with let us know...we will try! 

My son graduated from bc today, and flies out for Dam Neck first thing in the AM tomorrow.  He said his orders state that his duty (not sure if that's the right word for it) doesn't begin until 9/16.  Does that mean that's how long he has to wait to class up?

Debra, It will be posted (although I don't know where) who is expected to class up, when. There are usually a few days of indoc for any base he goes to. They must get paperwork to medicals, to administration, to instructors, personnel, etc. They will learn where things are on base, rules for phasing up, rules for the schoolhouse, and more about security and clearance issues. They will also begin watches, get to know their roommates, and get settled and organized for inspections. Up to now, your sailor has been with 3 trained personnel, and 87 others who are as landlocked as he has been. Now, he will be with folks who have from 1 week to several weeks more of experience and can help make the adjustments easier. They also tend to watch out for each other because a messy desk by one, means all the roomies fail inspection. They will begin to help each other in class as well. They Navy really drills in the concept of teamwork and it becomes very important as they go through school. As one roommate graduates and moves on to C school or to the fleet, a newer person will take their place and it will be time for your son to help them along. They are kids, but quickly becoming adults.

I always looked at it from the safety of my sailor...if he was at bc or at school, he was safe on US soil with a lot of trained people around him...If the Navy wanted to pay him for a year before he classed up that was fine with me! (It only took just over a week for him to class up)  :-(

Congratulations on getting yourself a US Navy sailor and soon to be IS!

Mary--thank you so very much for the info.  I cannot tell you how helpful your comment was to me.  I did not send any electronics to A-School with my son because he wasn't sure what the phase 1 restrictions would be, so we erred on the side of caution with an agreement that he would tell me when to send what.  It is hard though to still be in a situation where we don't have a convenient means of communication.  I am trying very hard to cut the apron strings and let my baby grow up knowing that Mother Navy will help keep him on the right track.

A big "HELLO" to everyone in this group, please bear with me while I find my way though this new experience.

lol Debra! We have all been there and had to have others "bear with us". Others have said that even if you are a Navy brat or a Navy spouse, or a veteran of the Navy, it's not quite the same as having a child in the Navy. It's always having to make sacrifices and adjustments. It takes time, but you will be amazed that even if your son has to move farther away, that apron string will actually get stronger as you slowly clip it.

By the way....always better to err on the side of caution, especially in this field of work. (Believe me, I must accept OPSEC every time my son answers a question. I don't know where he learned to be so tight-lipped about everything) lol That's my boy!   

Hello to our new IS family!  We received a pic of our son after a run on the beach yesterday evening after arriving sometime on 9/7.  We are ALL happy BC is over and looking forward to this new adventure.  Are any of you a reserves sailor's mom?  I had a few questions about IS and the reserves.  Thanks!  And thanks for the wonderful info on this site!

Philipmom, yay!!! for runs on the beach! And more importantly...pictures! How awesome! My son only showed me two pictures from DN. Both of them were of a deer eating out by the barracks that stopped to poop. He thought that was sooo funny he had to grab his phone and get pics! Silly kid. Now he takes pictures of Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, Kuwait, France.....oh I guess I'd better not forget about the elephants and monkeys in Cambodia. lol

'Sounds like your sailor is adjusting quickly. Congrats to him!

Wow Mary!  Sounds like your son is having some awesome adventures.

: )  Pam (Philip'smom)

Pam, this is Chris' second assignment (his first was shore duty), and during this assignment he has been attached to 2 different ships. The first ship was part of the Atlantic Fleet and the current ship is part of the Pacific Fleet so he has had port calls in a lot of areas.

He also had some extra days built up during his first shore assignment, and took a trip organized by his MWR (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) for relatively cheap to SE Asia. He was not impressed with what he saw in Viet Nam but would like to go back to Cambodia someday.

His big Navy dream is to get an assignment to Italy or Greece so he and his wife can visit many of the ancient sites (she was a teacher before moving to Japan with him, and he is toying with the idea of becoming a middle school history or English teacher). One of his favorite things to do in his spare time is seeing ancient palaces, temples, battlegrounds, etc. With a baby coming soon, I doubt he will have much money for roaming around ports after his current deployment is finished, so I'm thankful for the opportunities he has had up until now. 

BirdsOfAFeather, that would be awesome if Pam's son and your son were roommies! My son has given me authorization to announce that he was named SOQ last quarter from his squadron. Yay! Now he is working towards SOY! Way to go Christopher!

Hi.....My son just graduated BC ,arrived in DN on 9/7 with a group of about 12. Hi Pam!  Just sent his list of clothes he wants sent, I just came home from the post office getting boxes. 

SouthernCalimom, my daugheters PIR was 9/6/13 Ship 14 DIV 336, she changed jobs at the last minute and took IS, she flys out tomorrow to DN for A school.

Ok, Yes he said one female came with them. Great!!! There is also Pam here in on this page( Philipsmom). How is she doing ? I will message you. 

Blondie, So good to see you over here! Your sailor is enjoying DC? Nice having her back on this side of the world? Maybe someday my son can get back to this side of the ocean, too. lol

Oh and I don't know about the emails. If Ellen could remember how to navigate here I would love for her to make you a co-admin for the IS page. She has had a horrific injury and is fuzzy on many issues for the past year or so. I don't think she would be able to remember how she made me an admin for the page. I think Anna might be able to figure it out since she started a page too. It's nice for some of the more experienced moms to help out. I hope you will consider helping here every now and then.

SouthernCaliMom, You can go to the USPS website and order a whole pack of military boxes complete with the tape, packing slips, and sleeves. They will deliver it to your door. Saves you one trip to the PO. 

Hi Birdsof a feather and others!  Last name starts with A.  He said he has two roommates who are about to graduate from C school.  He REALLY likes it there so far.  But I suppose anything is better than BC!  He went to the mall this weekend with 4 or 5 others and bought a fishing pole....  That's about all the info I have heard from him!  

~Pam  : )

Pam, lol...I think that's the first I've heard of one getting a fishing rod! I still bet one of the strangest at DN, is Carl and Irene's son Cam with his bagpipes out on the beach! Though he later played at a sailor's memorial service at sea. My son was busy working that day and was not able to attend (and it was not his squadron) but he heard from others that Cam did a great job. Their ship posted some pics of the service which I copied, and sent to Carl and Irene since Cam had just left the ship to come back stateside. A fishing rod?!...hmmm I wonder if they can fish from the ship during steel beach picnics? lol

The sailors do find interesting ways to pass the time waiting to class up.  My sailor had a gap between "A" and "C" school.  He played the trumpet for 8 years so what did he do?  He bought a guitar of course. 

His first assignment was to an already deployed aircraft carrier so he never had a stateside room to store extra items.  The hubby and I drove up for his "C" school graduation and ended up packing our car with stuff to take back home with us.  We had to send the guitar home via UPS.  We ran out of room in the car!

For the new moms - Tell your sailors that they are entering a field where the staff doesn't mess around.  You mess up, you are either reassigned or out of the Navy.  Sailors were tossed for under age drinking, and others for being drunk.  Even when they finally get liberty and go to the popular hang out areas off base, they are watched.  If the sailors follow the rules, they will be fine.

Blondie, Chris is still in Japan (Atsugi). Since he took his wife with him (but they were not married in time for her to be on his original orders) he has to be there longer. His contract was initially up Nov '14 but it has been extended now until at least March '15. He will decide in the spring if he wants to try to re-up. At this time he thinks he will, but much of that depends on the things his command allows him to accomplish during this next year.

I try to control the OPSEC but I also know that families want answers and are trying to cope with the clearances, lack of communication, secrecy surrounding their jobs, etc. I try to give enough information to calm their anxieties without putting bullseyes on our military. I really have a tough time some days getting over here to see what's being posted. When Ellen made me and Val co-admins here, she was going back to work full time and was just planning ahead. Valerie's son eventually rerated and Ellen's son is now out and her family has had several major setbacks during the past few years. I felt like I was kind left holding the bag. Anna is great help, and every once in a great while Dyon (whose son is an officer) signs on. We are the only ones left from the "original" group here. If folks don't like the OPSEC in place, then they need to get back to facebook and myspace and see if they can get the same kind of support they find here. I think it will be fine as long as we remember that this page is first and mostly about supporting the moms (and dads, Carl) of sailors who are just beginning or are away from home (the big majority of them).

Thanks to you, Anna, Dyon, Laura and the other moms who try to give reasonable answers and offer support and encouragement. I hope life slows down a bit for ya.

Hugs to all!

You do a fabulous job Mary! 

This group has to be more careful than any other group out there because of the nature of our sailor's jobs.  OPSEC always.

"Loose lips sink ships" still applies today as it did in the past.  When I chat on the phone, or communicate with family and friends on line, they know never to ask where my sailor is or what he is doing. 

Whenever someone asks what my sailor does in the Navy and where he is located, my answer has always been, "Floating around, rowing a boat".   It catches them off guard and gives me a chance to smile and walk away!

Thank you for all of the good info!  Someone mentioned A & C school graduations.  Are those events usually attended by the family of the sailors?

Pam, I used to hear of a few parents going for A school graduation but I never hear of that any more. It also used to be a common practice for families to attend C school graduation but I think they have cut out a lot of the ceremonial part and just basically hand out the certificates now. I could be wrong.

I would say if you are within a few hours drive or your sailor has so much stuff he/she can't bring it by themselves, or if they are going straight to their next permanent duty station, check and see. If it means two or three expensive plane tickets and they are coming home for leave anyway, or they are reserves coming back home to live, it certainly isn't the same as PIR. There may be as few as 9 or 10 graduating with that C school that day or there may be 50 in three different C schools graduating that day. Either way, the "ceremony" is maybe 10 mins and then the instructors or base commander hands out the certificates. Done and over in about 20 mins. When Chris graduated, it was held downstairs in the school building. I have heard of them even giving out the certs in the classroom...no families. You will have to ask your sailor to check when they class up for C school and have a graduation date.

Other moms with students farther along please reply???? Recent grads???

Thank you Elenasmom. They used to do it at the school and it was fine for families, since the graduation was downstairs in like a conference/seminar/briefing type room and not in the classrooms themselves. But things change, and I know not long after Chris graduated, the school's commander left DN for a new assignment and the new command changed a few things. Since that time there might have even been another change in command and more changes to the school and how it runs. It's a shame in a way for those few families that could not attend PIR to miss another opportunity to see their sailor at an important time in their careers. Oh well, they belong to Uncle Sam and his rules. :-) 

As far as A & C School graduations go, my son told me no one came to their A school Graduation.  He said for C school the parents that were driving their kids home came.  But it was a 10 minute thing that they do in the class.  You can go to them if you want, but no one really does and it seems most of them discourage their parents from coming.

Wow!  I continue to learn so much from the Moms on this site.  Thank you again for all of this good information.  

Thanks moms for all the great info! I guess it depends a lot on your sailors, how far away you are from the VA Beach area, and the instructors.

Blondie, Liz likes it pretty good, unfortunately, her pregnancy has been pretty tough so the past several months she has not felt like doing much. She was so involved in stuff on base until she started being sick 24/7. Once the little sailor recruit is born in a few weeks, I think they will both feel better. The connection at their base is not very fast so we don't Skype as much now (though I plan to do much more of it after the baby is born!!) We do a lot of phone calls when he is on the beach and email when he is at sea.

Kim, that was my experience over 4 years ago except we were not invited upstairs to the classrooms, we could not even go inside the barracks to help them move out. We were allowed to take pics, and I have pics of my Chris and Anna's Chris, and my Chris' roommate. I also have a couple of the class photos and photos of a frocking ceremony. We were only allowed in the hallway between the door and the auditorium/seminar room and the front lobby area. They had refreshments for the sailors and families, but we opted out of that since we were going for lunch up the beach before a very long drive home.

Kim, my daughter graduates C school Oct. 11th and my husband and I are going. She has a car and I will ride back home with her ( 10-11 hr drive ) My questions is, did you have to get special clearance ( non- military access form ) before you attended the C school graduation. I was told before our past visit in Aug. that we needed this form filled out and submitted by our daughter before we could stay on base..We did not do this and she got us on base and to our hotel just fine. She thought maybe they told us that because I said we were attending her A school graduation ( which we did not because they had it a day early.) They supposedly request all sorts of information on it, SS#, DOB,place of birth, full name and address etc. I wondered if we really need to get this clearance to attend, as my daughter is dragging her feet about filling out the form to submit. I asked before our previous visit, if I could have the form faxed and return it to them and they told me no the sponsor/sailor had to submit it. I think I was just given the run around, as we had absolutely no problem getting on base and staying at the Navy Gateway Inn & Suites. I just need information from someone who recently attended graduation...Sorry this is so long! 

Thanks Kim. I think whomever I spoke to the first time gave me the wrong information and then whenever I called someone else  regarding the form, it just grew out of control from there. Like I said we didn't need it to stay on base in Aug. and if you didn't need to do anything but sign in at the school, we should be good. Thanks again! 

Hi mom w! Hang on the ride is just beginning! It will be nice getting to know you. A big thanks to your sailor and Navy hugs to you.

Does anyone one know the travel distance they can go from  Dam Neck? 

I'm not sure SouthernCaliMom. Several years ago, it was around 300 straight miles. My son came home every couple of weekends. He had to get special permission since we were about 10 miles outside that radius. I had heard they had dropped that distance to like 50 or 100 miles later but I'm not sure. And they may have raised it back up to 300 since then.

Now there are times that the MWR organizes trips to DC, Bush Gardens, etc. That's different. They are in a Navy bus with Navy officers leading them and they have a specific itinerary so they can go where the Navy says they can.

Mary,

Jenn told me recently it was 300 miles.

If you want him to meet up with you, let him know now so he can pull some extra watches and duties soon if he can find folks to pull his shifts that weekend. Being a long weekend, if he can get all four days they might allow him to travel the other 60 as well, given the circumstances. He will just need to ask that in advance too.

Anna, Thanks so much for the info and thank your officer too! I emailed Ellen about the admin stuff for the page but as usual she has not replied. :-( Oh well.

Mary,

That's ok - - - I'm not going anywhere!!!!!

Nope Anna, I think you are a lifer now. lol

mom w, Boot camp is generally the hardest unless they are going into a conflict area. You and he will enjoy being able to talk more often.