Guam Moms

Wooo-hooo!!!! I look forward to welcoming you to the rock! I think you will like it very much! Feel free to message me if I can help with anything.

Sue, I am sorry you are going through a tough transition. If your son is committed to communication you will be surprised how easy it is to talk to each other. I live here on Guam and email/ call/ web chat with friends and family almost daily. The only thing that ever gets in our way is our schedule. Assuming he is coming to Guam Naval Base: If he does not order the internet/ phone and cable package available from MVC or GTA, he will still have free internet access at the Single Sailors Lounge and the Library on base. You could send him a Magic Jack and he can purchase a basic phone to hook up to his laptop or computer to talk to you for free. You can set it up so his Magic Jack has your area code and it will be free to call each other. A Magic Jack is so small you could send it in the smallest/ cheapest USPS Priority package! My mother and best friend, who are not very computer savvy, have both set up yahoo messaging on their computers and we get to see each other on webcam! I used it to walk them around our new home on base and show them the front and back yards, etc. I got to see my friends' newborn baby! Instant messaging is free. Everyone back home is coping better than expected! With all this convenience today we are more blessed than past Military families have had it with snail mail! Your son will hopefully enjoy Guam and his new experience as much as we do.

Hi Guam Moms,

my son will be over in Guam in the next few days How did you ever get used to the huge time difference. I am in Oklahoma its 16 hours difference.

tahl1, that is wonderful! I know you will give him a huge welcome!!!

Thank you I hope when he is there mu cell phone bill don't skyrocket. I'll add more when he finally is there.Wednesday he was still waiting on his ship date orders. or whatever they are called.

Shannon, that is great! What all did you get to do and see while you were here on Guam?

Hi Joeena- If you are reading this I met your son the other night at Jamaican Grill! Very nice young man! The food was great too!

Hi Joeena!- Hmmmm... Not sure if I have tried Kilequen(?) and Fendenny yet?
@Shannon- this pic is for you. Our new puppy was refusing to walk when traffic went by and we snapped this pic during one of his "breaks":

Boy- I know Kmart was expensive. Too bad you couldn't get in the NEX, etc. I will have to check out Pirate Cove and the history museums. Also Two Lovers Point. We are trying to spread out our experiences since we are here for a few years!!

Hi fellow Guam moms, Does anyone know how long the Guam Tour is? My son should be there soon and he told me it was forever. I am just curious. Thank you

Hi and Thank you, Jacob isn't assigned to a sub its just a ship. Are we allowed to say the name of ships on here?

Karen - My Guam wedding photos were done by the people at www.timelessphotoguam.com . Faithe and her husband were wonderful. Even though we did not have a reception, we still came away with 90 gorgeous pics in our album. I will post some of the pictures on my page if I haven't already... They were reasonably priced too.

lol- It isn't Hawaii, Donna but it has its beauty!

I talked to my son for a few minutes tonight and he now thinks he will be leaving on Friday. He said he is bored right now all he does is hang out with officers all day. I can't wait till he knows somehting for sure.

Hello everyone its offcial Jacob is on a plane for Guam right now. He said the flight is long with 2 stops inbetween 1 in Atlanta and 1 in Tokyo. I am sad he did not get to come home before going but I am so very proud of him.

My son flew on Delta I am still waiting to seee if he arrived safely or not. its been over 24 hours that he left Virginia His cell goes right to voice mail. I am going crazy not knowing

I just checked the internet and there was a earthquake 5.4 at 4:46 PM 6:46 UTC but as far as where exactly it was I am not sure.

My son finally contacted me via Facebook. He said the weather is nice there sunny and hot. He says the guys he'll be working with are a great group guys He started his FIT today. I am still waiting on him sending me an address. Hopefully buy weeks end that will happen.

Hi, My son is a Seabee about to deploy to Guam. Is there any thing we should know about life on Guam? If I send care packages is there something that he won't be able to find there that would be a treat? I assume that he will find most anything in the stores there that he would find in the continental U.S., is that so?

Yes, I wrote about an earthquake tremor on my FB, but didn't even think to post here too. I thought there was a smaller one today but it was hardly noticeable. The first one shook the house for about 5 seconds- kind of like a wave.

Wow, Jolynn what an ordeal. Glad he got here okay after all that!
Barbara, a webcam is a great gift if he has a computer/ laptop without one. A Magic Jack can be great too for saving on phone bills. When he calls home it is free. You can set it up with your home area code so when you call him it is free for you. The sailors have access to all kinds of candy at work- it is kinda ridiculous! Home items are nice, like towels, kitchen utensils (if he cooks). Another thing you can do is buy him a Kmart gift card online. It works here!!! The Kmart is HUGE.

Thanks for your ideas LivNLrn. I am looking into getting a Magic Jack. Are earthquakes common in Guam, or were those a rare event?

Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Guam Mom's Day!!!!! It is very nice to have all of you sharing your stories and listening from home! Thanks for being there! :)

P.S. -I have only experienced the one minor tremor a couple weeks ago and the small wave swell after the Chilean quake. I have felt very safe here, especially living on base.

We don't have a best buy but we have Kmart and Macy's here.

I hear that it is the world's largest Kmart.

Hey- I didn't even know that (worlds largest Kmart). I just googled it and you are right! It is huge though. lol.

I haven't gone to the Macy's. Everyone acts like it is awful and expensive, plus whatever we need is at the NEX so far...

Thank you for the insight Shannon! I will have to check it out too!

Becky- thank you for sharing those great pics!!!!

Carrol and Andrea(ATO), I hope your sons enjoys their time in Guam. If he gets a chance, tell him to stop by Fleet and Family Support to get on the next tour (I think it is every month) called Welcome Guam. I finally went on it and it was great. Really gave me a big appreciation for the chance to be here. And I found some places I was looking for!

Andrea(ATO)- his rate will change during his stay here, so his living situation may change too during that time. I encourage trying to live on base if possible. Rent and utilities are insane here and if you live with others there is no telling if they will break the lease on you.

@Carrol, he will receive an official email address, if he hasn't already, which he can use on the ship. There is a communication delay though.

David & Kathi- that is wonderful! I hope he enjoys Guam.

And sometimes you can get lucky and Priority may get there in 5-7 days. But expect 2 weeks to be on the safe side! Priority is by air- beware- I had a clearly marked and paid for priority box end up on a ship and take two months! I had a receipt showing Priority and everything. It is the only box that arrived in bad shape too. I am surprised my shoes didn't fall through the gaping hole at the bottom!

Yes, a Kmart e-card is the way to go. I did that for my then fiance and it worked great because it was immediate.

Mona! That is wonderful!

Hi my name is Jen and my hubs just got orders to Guam.. :)

Hi ladies.. hope everyone had a nice weekend..

Hi there Jen! Welcome! What took ya so long to join us ;) ;) lol! Hope you had a nice weekend too!

lol wanted to wait till we actually got the orders anything could have changed if we didn't get the orders i would have felt weird being part of a forum for guam haha.. I am so excited about going now but the whole process is making me crazy.. i have to get 2 shots and one of them made my hubs arm hurt for almost a week so not looking forwards to that..

Don't worry about the shots girl! I had to get ALL of them when I got here! Whatever you didn't get done, just bring your shot record. And after the shots rub the spot on your arm all day- that is supposed to ease the pain.

I beleive you will get use to the shots. How is everyone doing? I thought aI would come by and say "Hi". I hope ya'll are having a great time.

lol thanks i'll def. use the ice cube trick.

i'm doing good. hope everyone is well and having a nice week.

Hi hope everyone had a nice weekend.. My son was sick all weekend but is feeling much better today.

Hope everyone is well..

Hi Becky- sorry it took me so long. Yes, we love it here. Mostly we are happy to be together, but the situation has been so ideal for us we are probably spoiled. I get to see hubby every day for now and have a home life, which I know will not always be the case. A lot has happened. DH just got his ESWS pin AND promoted to BM3 in his first 6 months! I am just so proud of all the hard work he puts in. here are pics from the two ceremonies!

@ LivNLrn- yay what an amazing achievement for your husband..

Thank you so much!!! Yes, I am really proud of him, as we all are of our sailors!!!

@Carrol- does your son get to see a bit of Japan while he is there? Everyone encourages us to visit the surrounding places as opposed to going home the first year because if we don't we may never have another chance and it is so expensive to travel home. (For many nearby places it is only $200-400 to visit) It is a heart wrenching choice though.

ESWS - Enlisted Surface Warfare Specialist

hi ladies hope everyone is well. congrats to all the achievements so exciting..

So the ESWS, is that part of the Qual process? We have never been on a surface boat before, so I have no clue what is going on...lol Oh and do you call it a boat or a ship? We call the sub a boat. I feel all new again like he just got out of boot camp or something.

yea it's part of surface quals like for submarine it is called submarine warfare.. my hubs is submarine and we call the sub a boat and surface a ship.. but my neighbor who is surface says it doesn't really matter but to some it does..

This is going to be fun. Hubby gets to be a nub again...lol

Mona- Please say hi and congrats to your son from me for getting his ESWS-great picture! I think at one point they were going to study together but didn't get a chance. That is by far the most difficult and long test so far! Testing for DH's rank was hard too- but mostly bcuz he had less study time. Glad your son is getting a long break after that! Love that he is surprising lil brother! And yes, during the EOD we went to a friend's house in Tumon and played karaoke and ate great BBQ and dumplings! Very strange to have hubby say, "oh honey tomorrow we need to leave the house a while cuz there is this WW2 bomb"...lol. They are quite experienced with handling such things. And it was a good excuse to get out.
Hi luvinmatt & Andrea- Basically ESWS is a test about absolutely every thing you can learn about your particular ship- so it varies from ship (or sub) to ship (or sub, lol). Everything from ship dimensions, layout, fire emergency, man overboard, sonar communication, departments, anchoring, getting underway, hazards, etc. Once you achieve it, if there is any question regarding the ship someone like Mona's son is a go-to guy!

Carrol- Thank you so much for advice! I do want to get out and see as much as I can! Hopefully, family will understand...

Christmas- You sound like such a strong person to endure so much. Be well and hopefully you can use the Skype or ooVoo or some other messenger available to you.

Bev, i cannot imagine what you are going through and will say a prayer for your strength and recovery. Regarding skype, if you have the internet on your computer, google search "skype". Select the skype website and click the download. Remember if there is a prompt to add stuff to your toolbar, get newsletters, etc. just un-select those marketing ploys. That's it!!! Once downloaded you can just click the skype icon on your computer and send free instant live messages back and forth with anyone who also downloaded it on their computer. Some people use yahoo messenger or msn messenger or oovoo- but they are pretty much the same thing! You do not need a webcam, but if you get one- they don't cost much at all- it is easy to attach to your computer and your loved ones can SEE you for free too!!! Feel free to send me a message with any questions on how to set it up.

Carrol- How about a framed family photo- or even a digital frame. Bath towels? Phone card and Kmart/ Nex gift cards are useful.

Andrea- Is the coffee in a yellow can? I cannot think of what her brand was called but my Maw Maw drank coffee from a big yellow tin religiously in N.O.! She was always up at 5:30AM with her coffee and coupon clipping! :)