STG (Sonar)

Congrats Mom O Many, My son just started ops this week, loves it! Did you all know they have a 4 day weekend this weekend? I wish I had a 4 day weekend!!!

M of M: Here's one mom with a Sailor on the Princeton:
http://www.navyformoms.com/profile/Traci20
When you use the search window, just put in "USS Princeton" (without quotes). Then you need to read the posts and see what the discussion was about. :)

Donna, send my congrats to Mat!!! Job well done!! My Matt had 3 weeks between A and ops (home for 10 days) and I think a week between ops and C. (after C, home for another 10 days)
After A, he thought the rest went by quickly. When does your next one leave for bc?

Congrats Donna!! I know it's been a long time in coming. My sailor had one month betweek A school and ops. He "graduates" from ops on the 20th and on to his ship. He is really looking forward to it. Some current sailors from his ship have been coming over to his base and hanging out with him. I'm thrilled he is getting to know some of the other sonar people!! Exciting times for all of us!! Oh and our sailors too LOL

Wow Donna, I don't know how you do it, once was hard enough for me!

Donna, what is CROW?

OHHHHHH Thanks, Marla. I get it now. I'm still a newbie here, my son has hit his 6 month anniversary.

Welcome Diane!! We are here to help! Even though I still ask many questions myself!

Diane, you should ask Donna about being on hold! I think with time it does get easier to let them go. My sailor used to call us every night, but now its about 5 times a week. I guess it's good that he's weaning us slowly, cuz when he's deployed we wont hear from him much. What helped me a lot is when I had a conversation with him and asked him if he was happy, and he really is happy. So if he is happy, I am happy. I miss my baby everyday! But it does get easier.

That's ok Donna, my hubby thought I was dumb for not knowing that anyway. LOL

"Sonar fundamentals, basic operator and analyst skills/Group instruction. After "A" school, Basic Acoustic Analyst course (6 weeks) and a sonar operator course (6-8 weeks), STGs are assigned to surface ships as sonar equipment operators. During a 20-year period in the Navy, STGs spend about 60 percent of their time assigned to fleet units and 40 percent to shore stations in the United States".

Usually the LONGEST they go out for is 6-8 months. My son will be returning soon from a 6 month deployment and will stay ashore for 3-4 months. He'll then have a 2 - 3 deployment and back in for 3 - 4 months and then another longer deployment. We have 2 wars going on, the ships are very busy.

STG stands for Sonar Technician - Surface. STS stands for Sonar Technician - Submarine.

SN stands for Seaman. (Remember in boot camp he was a SR (Seaman Recruit). After school he'll be a SA (Seaman Apprentice). My son is an STG3 (Sonar Tech, 3rd Class Petty Officer).

I've been on this site for a year now and believe me, when my son left for boot camp, I knew next to nothing. I'm surprised to hear that your son's recruiter did not mention this site to you. The Navy is working on getting the recruiters to share this info with parents as this site is sponsored/paid for by the Navy. :)

Joline, as Melissa wrote, they are only out for 6 to 8 months at a time, they spend a lot of time in port. Tell your son, not to worry, my son loves being a sonar tech, it will be OK.

Marcia, it would be good for other recruits if you talk to your sons recruiters office to make sure they know about the site. I made fliers for my son's recruiters office to hand out to the parents.

All the recruiters here in Tucson pring their own fliers (that I made)to pass out to ALL parents. And they also have ordered business cards for me to use. :)

Peggy: Welcome! I think you and I are going to be in a few groups together with both of our sons being STG's and assigned to destroyer's!!
You must be so proud of your son for fantastic class placement. All that hard work paid off and he'll be as close to you as he can get! And that's a good thing...lol

Peggy, I wish my son was only 8 hours away!! That is reall awesome.

Any Moms in here with Sailors stationed in Norfolk and are in port right now? Some of us Navy Moms are meeting in Norfolk on March 29th and we'd like to take some Sailors to dinner.....

Donna it may be his venture but we are all along for the ride!! LOL Unfornately for me, I live smack dab in the middle of the country, so no matter where he ended up he wouldnt be close to me. He loves San Diego and all our family is in California, so like you, when we go to see him, we will see my parents and other family and friends!

ASW Point Loma, taken from San Diego Harbor.

This is the front of Anti Submarine Warfare Training Center

Julie, long time no talk!! Have a great time!!

I don't believe they have a sonar tech on the amphibious ship.

Ava - He will get his orders for his final duty station (base/ship) before the end of A school. I don't have a comparison for ATT & Techno, I know my son is busy everyday.

Norma:
There is a newly formed group for the USS Lake Champlain...
Click Here
The down side is so far there is only one member. I'll do a search and give you another link with more info.

Norma:
I did a search (upper right hand corner) of USS Lake Champlain and here are the results:
Click Here

These are discussions that members on here have had about the Lake Chammplain. If you click on the blue links, it will take you to the member's page and you can ask further questions. Hope this helps, if it doesn't give me a holler. I'm always here :)

Hi Ladies,

A school for my son was 9 weeks. Then he went to OPs which was 6 weeks. He did not do C school, he went directly from OPs to his ship. From what I understand C school can be up to 6 months.

Holds are a normal life in the Navy. Some are for security clearances, some are because they don't have enough sailors to start a new class. While on hold they will keep him busy doing lots of other things. Tell him to hang in there, because once he gets to San Diego he will LOVE it!!

My son took 10 days leave between A and ops and came home.

His A school ended right before Christmas, and YES we were lucky he got to come home for a week, before starting ops.

Karen: My son completed his sonar training in San Diego. I'd be happy to answer any and all questions.... :) If you're comfortable talking via phone, let me know.

A lot of PCS orders are on hold until October. That will effect a lot of Sailors waiting to get out of GL and into "A" schools. It was a pretty drastic budget cut for the Navy to take. Have your Sailors find out if they can take any online classes while they're on hold. They could get a few credits under their belts between now and October.

great advice Melissa!!

April:
You can depend on the Navy to never be dependable. Don't count on anything until AFTER it happens. There are so many budget cuts out there right now, I'm not sure anyone knows for SURE who is going where and when....lol, lol
Your son may have secured a spot in "A" school prior to the PCS order that came out. The good thing is, May 5th is just around the corner, you'll know the answer next week! Please post and let the rest of know, I'm really curious as to what the Navy is going to do with all the Sailors coming out of Boot Camp with no orders. Are they going to start stacking them up somewhere? Or shut down Boot Camp until October? It will be interesting to watch all this play out. Meanwhile, we'll all keep our fingers crossed your son does get to San Diego on the 5th! :)

PCS = Permanent Change of Station

Joline: Okay, you made me do it!! I just got off the RTC website to see how many divisions are graduating each week. The numbers are down:

Divisions Graduating by Training Group


TG 24 (9) Divisions (174-181 & 924) Graduate Friday, 01 May 09

TG 25 (9) Divisions (182-187 & 824-825 & 925) Graduate Friday, 08 May 09

TG 26 (9) Divisions (188-195 & 926) Graduate Friday, 15 May 09

TG 27 (7) Divisions (196-201 & 927) Graduate Thursday, 21 May 09

TG 28 (9) Divisions (202-209 & 928) Graduate Friday, 29 May 09

TG 29 (7) Divisions (210-215 & 929) Graduate Friday, 05 Jun 09

TG 30 (9) Divisions (216-223 & 930) Graduate Friday, 12 Jun 09


We had been seeing up to 13 divisions graduating at one time.....we should continue to moniter that site and see if it changes.

Patty: I was in Norfolk April 1st for my sons homecoming (USS Ramage). The Cole was moored next to the Ramage and was the sponsor ship for the homecoming. I being the nosey type, spent a lot of time talking to Cole Sailors who where on duty at Pier 5. Wish I had your daughter's cell number, I would have connected with her....

I do a lot of volunteer work here with recruiters. Recruiting has been cut somewhat. The Navy can retain a recruit in DEP for up to a year. That may explain your daughter's friends situation.

To answer your question about what is "common", with budget cuts, recruiting and active duty at recommended levels, the Navy is not in a rush to do anything. I don't even believe there are any rates currently undermanned. We may experience a lot of "hurry up and wait" between now and October. And heaven only knows what future cuts will be made when the new fiscal year begins.

I was talking to my son in Norfolk and his ship is in Yorktown unloading ammo b/c they're going into drydock for scheduled maintenance. Usually that maintenance is for 5 - 6 months. This one is only for 2 months due to budget cuts.

No, they're aren't in the same strike group. Ramage was with the Iwo Jima Strike group. They are due for a late summer trip to England and then back to the Gulf towards the end of this year. I'm hearing the CO's may have to lengthen deployments b/c of the budget. But that's another "wait and see". I hate to think they'd be out there longer than 7 months. But we all know what the Army is doing....

When was the Cole's last deployment?

How come the Cole has been in port so long? What CG is it assigned to?

I have heard that it could be October when those in GL will get their orders. That's when the new fiscal year begins.

My nephew was on the Tarawa which is the ship that brought the Cole home after it was attacked, years ago.

CONGRATS April!!

Once your recruit goes to boot camp the recruiters really can't help much. It's up to your son to find out on his end what is going on. Hang in there ladies, it will work out!! Taking college courses on line is a good thing to do while on hold.

I'd like to give our recruiters a chance to reply to our concerns. The majority of recruiters are PO1 or PO2. They usually have about 6 - 8 weeks of training after a recruiting assignment. They do not have time in their daily jobs to keep up with everything that goes on with the Navy. They have a lot to do just to keep up with the recruiting end. All recruiters fall under the "Naval Recruiting Command", NRC out of Millington, TN. They have very limited access to recruits and their Naval careers once they report to RTC.
I'm going to post some of the daily news releases in here from the Navy and the links so you all can sign up and receive those releases to your personal email. That may help answer some of your concerns about your Sailors orders and why our recruiters will not have an answer for you if your question does not concern recruiting.

I met with a Rear Admiral last month who did a fantastic job of explaining the Navy's budget cuts. They are across the board and effect just about every aspect of the Navy. I have a son on a destroyer in Norfolk, a nephew on a cruiser on San Diego and get a lot of feedback from both of them. They are still receiving paychecks, so I don't think the Navy has run out of money. If you look at the Navy's budget for next year, you'll find just about all rates have met their manning levels. Which means the Navy is full, not broke.

Here's a great link with tons of information that you can subscribe to and receive daily news releases:

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4016

Don't get me wrong, Melissa, I love recruiters...my nephew is one of them!!

Donna, thanks for your input. You were able to word it much clearer than I did.

One of the first Navy budget cuts was the training hours for pilots. I think that speaks volumes!

Yes, Hoppi (Angie) & Will are both in GL and are full of info.