Posting this in case their are LO on here that will have LO in OCS class 03-13. Laura K made a face book page for you
Laura K
hello all,
so since i have been so productive today, i made a group for class 03-13, which will be the junior class when our LO's become Candios. since this group was so helpful to me, i want to pay it back and be a mentor to the friends and families whose los are under our lo's wings. If you want to join, the group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/400953786632025/
US Navy OCS Class 03-13 Family and Friends
For the class who checks reports to Officer Training Command Newport on September 9, 2012
4 members · Join Group
Is your son in 02-13? If you look in the discussions up above there is a link to the friends and family support group on Facebook. Also join the group pages for 01-13 and 17-12. That way you'll get a little look ahead at what your son will be doing next. Proudmama is right - - - send lots, and lots of letters from home. My daughter said those were the things that got her through those first couple weeks. She would read them over again just before going to bed!! I would find a lot of cute funny pictures on facebook and copy them onto the letters I was sending her. Anything to bring a little joy to her day!!!
1proudmama,
What class is your fella in? My daughter is 17-12C and God willing will graduate the end of September!!!
Congratulations to your son and his class graduating soon!!! I'm looking forward to their graduation because that means my daughter's class becomes candios and then their graduation is NEXT!!!!! Hopefully my daughter gets her letter accepting her to Pensacola for flight school. Until she actually gets her letter nothing is set in stone but that is the plan!!!!
1proudmama...my son recently completed OCS and is currently in Charleston in Nuke school. He is enjoying it...lots of work as well as memorization but he says it is interesting!
wandak...join your LO's facebook page. It spells everything out. We are very new to the Navy as well and the people on fb can answer lots and lots of questions! Good Luck!
My son is also at OCS right now, in Class 16-12 with 1proudmama's son. They will graduate Sept 7. We are counting down now! What is worst for those of us at home those first few weeks, is not hearing from them, but just keep telling yourself "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS." If they get sick or injured, or they fail something badly enough to get "rolled" back into a later class, or Heaven forbid, they are coming home, they will be allowed to call you and tell you. If you do not hear from them, that means they are still in the program and doing fine! After the fourth week RLP inspection, they will get weekend email and pay phone priviledges, and that helps a lot!
As others have said, just write lots of letters! But be sure you know the rules! You should only send LETTERS in plain, white envelopes. No stickers, or decorated envelopes, and definitely NO musical cards! Some of the drill instructors forbid any loose enclosures at all, such as photos or cartoons. If you want to send pics or cartoons, photocopy them onto the same size paper as the letter, or print them into the letter. Do NOT send ANY food, candy, gum, books, magazines, or gifts of any kind, or it will be confiscated as contraband, and the candidate, even though innocent, will be punished! Only AFTER they become Candidate Officers (Candios) at nine weeks, THEN can they receive care packages from home with goodies in them called Candio Boxes. Make sure that anybody you give your loved one's mailing address to knows these rules!! In Class 16-12 somebody's dear Auntie sent him cookies at about week three, and he had to do 800 (that's eight hundred) pushups as punishment! So make sure everybody knows to send ONLY plain letters at this point.
Ok OCS moms I need some help and guidance. My daughter told me about the silver dollar tradition for the first salute after graduation. Can anyone give me some insight as to how to go about getting silver dollars without paying collector prices for these coins. I've asked at my local bank, my credit union; I've called the US Mint, and I've looked on EBay. It seems you can't get any silver coins for less that $30+ a coin? Is this what new officers spend to give to the DI and CPO for the first salute?? I appreciate all feedback you can offer. Thank you.
They can give any type of silver dollar that they want and some choose to give one with special meaning to them or something they thing may have special meaning to DI. Yes, the lowest cost is around 30-35
I think they had a table set up at PIR the day before graduation selling the coins. My son knew about the coin and had one ready on graduation day. We didn't remind him. I think they have the chance for coins a few weeks/days before.
Anna, we already had some silver dollars from 1923 that belonged to my son's grandfather, so he will be using two of those for First Salutes. Due to the current price of silver, I'm not sure REAL silver dollars can be bought for any less than $30 or so. The Eisenhower "silver" dollars were a blend of silver and copper, so might be cheaper, BUT, an OCS veteran in our FB group said the "Ikes" were considered insulting, because they weren't pure silver, and Ike was, after all, an ARMY general !!!!!
Yes my daughter is in 17-12 and you didn't misspeak about the Morgan silver dollars - I have seen info on the internet about those. Those also run from $30 on up to several thousands!!! I wonder what the DIs and CPOs do with all that extra money they're given????
My LO's class ordered them as a group while they were in OCS. I am not sure where they ordered them from but it seemed like it was traditional that they acquired them that way.
1proudmama, I think the Morgan silver dollars would be OK, just not the "Ikes," as below. The US Mint is still making "Silver Eagle" commemorative dollar coins, which I think some sailors use. I think you can get them from usmint.gov.
I actually called the US Mint and they do not sell silver dollars. They send the coins out to legitimate dealers and they can give you a list based on where you live. I did find two coins recently and was able to purchase them.
I visited their site also. They are not the US Mint - they are located in Minnesota. And their prices were higher than what I found at a regular dealer. Plus no shipping and handling. Just FYI to anyone else who may be looking for coins!!!
Now help me remember - isn't your candidate graduating soon? Or did they already graduate. I have such a hard time keeping everyone sorted out!!!! LOL
Yeah, I was just about to write that govmint.com is a dealer, and not the US Mint which is usmint.gov. I didn't know that you had to buy the Silver Eagles from dealers, because we had purchased some state quarters a few years ago directly from the US Mint, but they must not sell the Eagles direct.
Now I'm only going on what the lady on the phone told me. I visited so many different sites and such I forget where all I went!!!!! I just happened to find a dealer nearby where I live and they sold me two coins at a cheaper cost than I found anywhere online. And I have them in my hot little hands immediately. I found this dealer online just by searching coin dealers in the Chicago area.
Anna, yeah, it's hard to keep us all straight, but it's great that we have so many Moms and others on here to share the knowledge! My son and 1proudmama's son are in OCS class 16-12 and they will graduate on Sept 7. I'm getting excited to fly out to Newport for the festivities!
Oh cool!! I just joined the 16-12 facebook page so I can look ahead at what your guys are going through these last few weeks, especially the candio phase since Jenn will be filling those shoes!!! I'm anxious to hear from you ladies how it goes.
Dawn,
And where is your son now? Did he go on to a school?
SNA frequently don't get their letters until week before or week of graduation. My son got his Thursday the week of graduation so then stayed in Newport until Tuesday when his orders to Pensacola came. All of the SNAs in his class had the same orders for reporting to Pensacola. Once they get to Pensacola NAMI screens them some more and gives them another clearance. It is quite the process.
Not sure if this came up before, but if you're planning to travel to the graduation, two days before, they can leave the base for a few hours to have dinner with you. The day before weather permitting you can watch them go through their paces at 5:30 am and at breakfast. Our LO was in 2-12 and it was cold and rainy so the cancelled that for his class. Then early that afternoon there is Pass in Review; you can wear whatever you want to this. They invite you up to take pictures while they have them stand at attention and parade rest. (My LO specifically asked that I not get in his direct line of sight so he wouldn't break his concentration.) They will do drills and march, after which they are free to leave base. That same evening, there is a Hi Mom's event. It's a reception for the families where the class leadership will be introduced, you can meet and speak with them, awards are presented, and usually has a slide show of your LO thru OCS. Most ladies wore cocktail dresses or semi-formal. Then Graduation the next day, again can wear anything, but most seemed to be in business attire or business casual.
Another note: in the Navy, if the time is 9am, you need to be there 15 to 30 minutes early. The 9am is the moment the event will start, and you'll miss things like seeing them walk into the area in formation, the Navy band playing, and so on. We were told if you're on time, you're late. And it did play out that way.
Glad to pay the details forward. I had to learn details from the FB class before ours, as our LO was short on details too! :-)
If you're coming up to the Candio stage, they do like to receive some homemade items (favorite cookies, candy, etc); some other things they like to receive are coffee, fresh toothbrush, their brand toothpaste, gum, mints, things in individual packages like you pack in kid's lunchboxes, and we also included miniature pinball, deck of cards, sudoku, etc. Our LO loves the Texas Cinnamon Rolls that are individually wrapped, so we added those too. We also sent little airplanes, little wind-up toys -- anything goofy that reminds them of home. Those boxes hold quite a bit of stuff, so have fun with them.
One thing a FB class two ahead of ours did that was awesome (and you didn't hear it from me), was to take random pictures of new OCS candidates and posted them. They don't like it if they see you taking pics, so remember discretion is the better part of Mom valor! ;-)
I see a page for US NAVY OCS Class 03-13 which starts sept 9 so your LO class would be 04-13 but I don't see a page yet for them. Currently active classes are same start in title for 16-12, 17-12, 01-13, 02-13. Join those so u can see how things progress and feel free to ask questions
sorry jaimelss I misread your message. You were speaking about a class starting Sept 30 and I was thinking about the class ending at the end of September!!!
Dawn has all the right info for you. Look for those facebook groups and then see about getting a group started for you/your loved one's class. And one other group to check out is called Officer Training Command Newport group page. They post updates of the classes as they progress, and post pictures as well. It's good to look back at what other classes went through to give you an idea of what to expect. And yes, ask questions if you need to!!!!1
We're heading out to Newport on Wednesday, because our son graduates with OCS Class 16-12 on Friday!!! Can't wait to see him in his dress whites! This has been a long, emotional process for us all. Thanks to everyone here for your support and answering all of my questions when he was first accepted into OCS. It is comforting hearing from all those who have "been there, and done that" because the Navy doesn't give the families a whole lot of info about OCS beforehand. For instance, somebody in our son's class was sent COOKIES about week three, and had to do 800 pushups! I knew from reading posts here on N4M, that goodies are prohibited until they are Candios at week nine. The Navy's OCS website gives the mailing address for OCS, but doesn't say anthing about what is prohibited to send, so we might have made the same mistake, if I had not read that info here. So thanks to all for sharing the knowledge!
Congratulations on your son's upcoming graduation!!! Enjoy your time in Newport and then let me know how it was. My daughter becomes a candio on Wednesday and I can't wait for these next few weeks to be over and it will be our turn for graduation!!!!!!! Wishing you safe travels and a wonderful time!!!!!
Arrive at least 30 minutes early for the festivities...45 minutes for Graduation! We did on the advice of this web site and were glad we did! The weekend is exciting and quite moving! You will be filled with pride like never before! Enjoy and safe travels!
Agree with OkSuzy. If you arrive at the start time, you will have missed a lot. I am perpetually late, however was given this heads-up on this site and am forever after grateful to have seen what I would have missed otherwise. A good acquaintance of mine has their retirement ceremony next Saturday, and have already 'planned' to be there 30 minutes early.
Dawn
Laura K
hello all,
so since i have been so productive today, i made a group for class 03-13, which will be the junior class when our LO's become Candios. since this group was so helpful to me, i want to pay it back and be a mentor to the friends and families whose los are under our lo's wings. If you want to join, the group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/400953786632025/
US Navy OCS Class 03-13 Family and Friends
For the class who checks reports to Officer Training Command Newport on September 9, 2012
4 members · Join Group
Aug 3, 2012
NYNancy
Aug 3, 2012
wandak
My son just left yesterday for OCS in Newport. Any advise for a really new Navy mom?
Aug 19, 2012
Anna
Wandak,
Is your son in 02-13? If you look in the discussions up above there is a link to the friends and family support group on Facebook. Also join the group pages for 01-13 and 17-12. That way you'll get a little look ahead at what your son will be doing next. Proudmama is right - - - send lots, and lots of letters from home. My daughter said those were the things that got her through those first couple weeks. She would read them over again just before going to bed!! I would find a lot of cute funny pictures on facebook and copy them onto the letters I was sending her. Anything to bring a little joy to her day!!!
1proudmama,
What class is your fella in? My daughter is 17-12C and God willing will graduate the end of September!!!
Aug 19, 2012
Anna
1proudmama,
Congratulations to your son and his class graduating soon!!! I'm looking forward to their graduation because that means my daughter's class becomes candios and then their graduation is NEXT!!!!! Hopefully my daughter gets her letter accepting her to Pensacola for flight school. Until she actually gets her letter nothing is set in stone but that is the plan!!!!
Aug 19, 2012
wandak
1proudmama, thanks I will be sending him lots of letters.
Anna, yes he is in 02-13. I found the facebook page for his class and am already learning from it.
Aug 19, 2012
Anna
That's wonderful wandak!!! You will probably see me on there now and again!!!
Aug 19, 2012
OkSuzy
1proudmama...my son recently completed OCS and is currently in Charleston in Nuke school. He is enjoying it...lots of work as well as memorization but he says it is interesting!
Aug 20, 2012
OkSuzy
wandak...join your LO's facebook page. It spells everything out. We are very new to the Navy as well and the people on fb can answer lots and lots of questions! Good Luck!
Aug 20, 2012
susank
Aug 20, 2012
M's mom
Welcome wandak,
My son is also at OCS right now, in Class 16-12 with 1proudmama's son. They will graduate Sept 7. We are counting down now! What is worst for those of us at home those first few weeks, is not hearing from them, but just keep telling yourself "NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS." If they get sick or injured, or they fail something badly enough to get "rolled" back into a later class, or Heaven forbid, they are coming home, they will be allowed to call you and tell you. If you do not hear from them, that means they are still in the program and doing fine! After the fourth week RLP inspection, they will get weekend email and pay phone priviledges, and that helps a lot!
As others have said, just write lots of letters! But be sure you know the rules! You should only send LETTERS in plain, white envelopes. No stickers, or decorated envelopes, and definitely NO musical cards! Some of the drill instructors forbid any loose enclosures at all, such as photos or cartoons. If you want to send pics or cartoons, photocopy them onto the same size paper as the letter, or print them into the letter. Do NOT send ANY food, candy, gum, books, magazines, or gifts of any kind, or it will be confiscated as contraband, and the candidate, even though innocent, will be punished! Only AFTER they become Candidate Officers (Candios) at nine weeks, THEN can they receive care packages from home with goodies in them called Candio Boxes. Make sure that anybody you give your loved one's mailing address to knows these rules!! In Class 16-12 somebody's dear Auntie sent him cookies at about week three, and he had to do 800 (that's eight hundred) pushups as punishment! So make sure everybody knows to send ONLY plain letters at this point.
Aug 20, 2012
OkSuzy
Susank...our LO is submarine...yours?
Aug 21, 2012
susank
Aug 21, 2012
Anna
Ok OCS moms I need some help and guidance. My daughter told me about the silver dollar tradition for the first salute after graduation. Can anyone give me some insight as to how to go about getting silver dollars without paying collector prices for these coins. I've asked at my local bank, my credit union; I've called the US Mint, and I've looked on EBay. It seems you can't get any silver coins for less that $30+ a coin? Is this what new officers spend to give to the DI and CPO for the first salute?? I appreciate all feedback you can offer. Thank you.
Aug 21, 2012
Dawn
Aug 21, 2012
tallymom
I think they had a table set up at PIR the day before graduation selling the coins. My son knew about the coin and had one ready on graduation day. We didn't remind him. I think they have the chance for coins a few weeks/days before.
Aug 21, 2012
M's mom
Anna, we already had some silver dollars from 1923 that belonged to my son's grandfather, so he will be using two of those for First Salutes. Due to the current price of silver, I'm not sure REAL silver dollars can be bought for any less than $30 or so. The Eisenhower "silver" dollars were a blend of silver and copper, so might be cheaper, BUT, an OCS veteran in our FB group said the "Ikes" were considered insulting, because they weren't pure silver, and Ike was, after all, an ARMY general !!!!!
Aug 21, 2012
Anna
1proudmama,
Yes my daughter is in 17-12 and you didn't misspeak about the Morgan silver dollars - I have seen info on the internet about those. Those also run from $30 on up to several thousands!!! I wonder what the DIs and CPOs do with all that extra money they're given????
Aug 21, 2012
Dawn
Aug 21, 2012
OkSuzy
My LO's class ordered them as a group while they were in OCS. I am not sure where they ordered them from but it seemed like it was traditional that they acquired them that way.
Aug 21, 2012
Anna
1proudmama,
I don't want this to sound morbid or anything - - but I'd hate to be one of the pallbearers!! Do you realize how heavy that could be!!!!!! LOL
Aug 21, 2012
M's mom
1proudmama, I think the Morgan silver dollars would be OK, just not the "Ikes," as below. The US Mint is still making "Silver Eagle" commemorative dollar coins, which I think some sailors use. I think you can get them from usmint.gov.
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
M's mom,
I actually called the US Mint and they do not sell silver dollars. They send the coins out to legitimate dealers and they can give you a list based on where you live. I did find two coins recently and was able to purchase them.
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
This link will take you to ones on mint website
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
Dawn,
I visited their site also. They are not the US Mint - they are located in Minnesota. And their prices were higher than what I found at a regular dealer. Plus no shipping and handling. Just FYI to anyone else who may be looking for coins!!!
Now help me remember - isn't your candidate graduating soon? Or did they already graduate. I have such a hard time keeping everyone sorted out!!!! LOL
Aug 22, 2012
M's mom
Yeah, I was just about to write that govmint.com is a dealer, and not the US Mint which is usmint.gov. I didn't know that you had to buy the Silver Eagles from dealers, because we had purchased some state quarters a few years ago directly from the US Mint, but they must not sell the Eagles direct.
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
Now I'm only going on what the lady on the phone told me. I visited so many different sites and such I forget where all I went!!!!! I just happened to find a dealer nearby where I live and they sold me two coins at a cheaper cost than I found anywhere online. And I have them in my hot little hands immediately. I found this dealer online just by searching coin dealers in the Chicago area.
Aug 22, 2012
M's mom
Anna, yeah, it's hard to keep us all straight, but it's great that we have so many Moms and others on here to share the knowledge! My son and 1proudmama's son are in OCS class 16-12 and they will graduate on Sept 7. I'm getting excited to fly out to Newport for the festivities!
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay...
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
M's mom.
Oh cool!! I just joined the 16-12 facebook page so I can look ahead at what your guys are going through these last few weeks, especially the candio phase since Jenn will be filling those shoes!!! I'm anxious to hear from you ladies how it goes.
Dawn,
And where is your son now? Did he go on to a school?
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
My son is in Pensacola. He is SNA
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
Oh that's right - - Jenn is supposed to go there also if she gets cleared and gets her letter.
Aug 22, 2012
Dawn
Aug 22, 2012
NOAM
Not sure if this came up before, but if you're planning to travel to the graduation, two days before, they can leave the base for a few hours to have dinner with you. The day before weather permitting you can watch them go through their paces at 5:30 am and at breakfast. Our LO was in 2-12 and it was cold and rainy so the cancelled that for his class. Then early that afternoon there is Pass in Review; you can wear whatever you want to this. They invite you up to take pictures while they have them stand at attention and parade rest. (My LO specifically asked that I not get in his direct line of sight so he wouldn't break his concentration.) They will do drills and march, after which they are free to leave base. That same evening, there is a Hi Mom's event. It's a reception for the families where the class leadership will be introduced, you can meet and speak with them, awards are presented, and usually has a slide show of your LO thru OCS. Most ladies wore cocktail dresses or semi-formal. Then Graduation the next day, again can wear anything, but most seemed to be in business attire or business casual.
Another note: in the Navy, if the time is 9am, you need to be there 15 to 30 minutes early. The 9am is the moment the event will start, and you'll miss things like seeing them walk into the area in formation, the Navy band playing, and so on. We were told if you're on time, you're late. And it did play out that way.
If this is redundant, my apologies.
Best wishes to all your LOs.
Aug 22, 2012
NOAM
Glad to pay the details forward. I had to learn details from the FB class before ours, as our LO was short on details too! :-)
If you're coming up to the Candio stage, they do like to receive some homemade items (favorite cookies, candy, etc); some other things they like to receive are coffee, fresh toothbrush, their brand toothpaste, gum, mints, things in individual packages like you pack in kid's lunchboxes, and we also included miniature pinball, deck of cards, sudoku, etc. Our LO loves the Texas Cinnamon Rolls that are individually wrapped, so we added those too. We also sent little airplanes, little wind-up toys -- anything goofy that reminds them of home. Those boxes hold quite a bit of stuff, so have fun with them.
One thing a FB class two ahead of ours did that was awesome (and you didn't hear it from me), was to take random pictures of new OCS candidates and posted them. They don't like it if they see you taking pics, so remember discretion is the better part of Mom valor! ;-)
Aug 22, 2012
Anna
jaimelss,
If you are asking about the 28th of September graduation that is when (God willing) my daughter will be graduating. We will be there.
Aug 26, 2012
Dawn
Aug 26, 2012
Dawn
Aug 26, 2012
Anna
sorry jaimelss I misread your message. You were speaking about a class starting Sept 30 and I was thinking about the class ending at the end of September!!!
Dawn has all the right info for you. Look for those facebook groups and then see about getting a group started for you/your loved one's class. And one other group to check out is called Officer Training Command Newport group page. They post updates of the classes as they progress, and post pictures as well. It's good to look back at what other classes went through to give you an idea of what to expect. And yes, ask questions if you need to!!!!1
Aug 26, 2012
M's mom
We're heading out to Newport on Wednesday, because our son graduates with OCS Class 16-12 on Friday!!! Can't wait to see him in his dress whites! This has been a long, emotional process for us all. Thanks to everyone here for your support and answering all of my questions when he was first accepted into OCS. It is comforting hearing from all those who have "been there, and done that" because the Navy doesn't give the families a whole lot of info about OCS beforehand. For instance, somebody in our son's class was sent COOKIES about week three, and had to do 800 pushups! I knew from reading posts here on N4M, that goodies are prohibited until they are Candios at week nine. The Navy's OCS website gives the mailing address for OCS, but doesn't say anthing about what is prohibited to send, so we might have made the same mistake, if I had not read that info here. So thanks to all for sharing the knowledge!
Sep 3, 2012
Anna
M's mom,
Congratulations on your son's upcoming graduation!!! Enjoy your time in Newport and then let me know how it was. My daughter becomes a candio on Wednesday and I can't wait for these next few weeks to be over and it will be our turn for graduation!!!!!!! Wishing you safe travels and a wonderful time!!!!!
Sep 3, 2012
Dawn
Sep 3, 2012
Anna
Thanks for the tip Dawn!!!!
Sep 3, 2012
OkSuzy
Arrive at least 30 minutes early for the festivities...45 minutes for Graduation! We did on the advice of this web site and were glad we did! The weekend is exciting and quite moving! You will be filled with pride like never before! Enjoy and safe travels!
Sep 3, 2012
NOAM
Agree with OkSuzy. If you arrive at the start time, you will have missed a lot. I am perpetually late, however was given this heads-up on this site and am forever after grateful to have seen what I would have missed otherwise. A good acquaintance of mine has their retirement ceremony next Saturday, and have already 'planned' to be there 30 minutes early.
Sep 3, 2012
Anna
1proudmama,
Thanks for the info!! I can't wait for my turn - - - 2 1/2 weeks!!!
Sep 8, 2012
NOAM
Congrats 1proudmama!!
Sep 8, 2012
Dawn
Sep 8, 2012