Naval Aviation

Happy Mother's day to all you lovely N4M!

My DS sent me a 'Happy administrative assistant's day' card for mother's day. LOL!  He says that's what I do for this family and he is so right! I know we all do the million little things to keep life running smoothly. We N4M are a fabulous ground crew for our Navy LOs.  My best wishes to everyone today.

Love the administrative assistant's card, that is so true for all mothers.

@Cheri - all he said when asked is the patch came from a uniform shop. I have asked him to get at least one more before he leaves P'cola or at least get me the name of the shop. I'll let you know what he comes up with. He heads to Corpus on the 23rd.

Hope all of you had a nice Mother's Day. DS called from Japan this weekend and my other two were here, so I was lucky. The forward deployments are especially hard, but at least he wasn't on cruise! That's when it is difficult to talk except for the rare days they are in port.

I'm already starting boxes for cruise. For those of you who are wondering what to send, the PO flat rate boxes are terrific because weight is irrelevant. DS especially loves magazines; they pass them around the squadron until they fall apart. Even as officers, they have very little storage, so keep that in mind. Last summer, one of the guys ended up with having to stow motorcycle tires in his room because they were forwarded to the boat! LOL! I've also learned not to send clothes for the same reason.

Kris...will keep my fingers crossed for a port call. You and your DIL really have a great chance to get to know each other, but it would be doubly great to see Mitch.

Sheila...prayers are still coming. I just know that with everyone here behind you, you'll make that winging.

Happy Mother's Day N4M moms. Makes me smile to read about your phone calls & visits!  My DS is at SERE right now so no contact, but thought ahead to send me a massage certificate.  I haven't been on here since our winging, which was awesome.  I got to meet several N4M friends.  Here is a picture from after the ceremony. I flew two of his sisters in as a surprise and he was SO happy!

JudyM and jmwrites: Good luck to your sons on SERE. In some ways it is harder on us than on them because they know that this is critical to their safety. At least it is Spring; my DS was in Maine in a snowstorm. He still lost about 10 lbs., and he is not a big guy to start. Will pray for nothing more than nicks and scratches for your guys!

JudyM: What a wonderful surprise from your sons. How very thoughtful of them.

love the photo gonavymom; prayers to the guys going through SERE; and still praying for you Sheila...that you find a diagnosis and make it to winging!!!

I had lunch with Judy yesterday.  Once of the things we got the biggest laugh out of was how each of them came up with their call name. 

Vcstones - Yes, this is just the new version of the roller coaster.  Yes, what Kris said be ready for anything.  When things get overwhelming come here and vent with us.  Remember the Groves rule:  Never let them know you already know something, just play dumb.

Mine got his for his smooth landings.  Its the state fruit for Georgia. 

Hi Moms...just got home from a wedding.  DS was a groomsman; first time I saw him in his dress blues.  That gets a few tears welling up.  It was a very quick trip, but so grateful we got to see him and his sweet wife!

hey Nancy W.-I don't post very often-DS has been in for 13 years and I sure wish this sight had been around then. we just re-located to Oak Harbor after being born and raised on Long Island NY! our  DS gave us our first grandchild and they were tired of living here all alone(they live in Mount Vernon). we had visited in the past and my husband said he was ready to retire and get out of NY(way too expensive). so now I sit in my dining room and listen to the jets overhead from NAS Whidbey just down the road.maybe sometime we can meet up and get coffee. I don't know my way around Seattle yet and it is pretty far away, but maybe we can meet halfway or if you get up to  Anacortes...

Just got a call!  DS is doing his cross-country and will be here for dinner on Wednesday!  So excited!!!  He hasn't been home since he got married a year ago. Off to the grocery store to get his favorite meal fixins.  

Sheila...praying you get some resolution and relief tomorrow. 

I love the son is coming home and off to the store we go!  CheriH Enjoy your visit!

NNM Sheila; hope you & Dad are feeling better. Serenity place sounds wonderful.

We are having a family BBQ on Sunday, usually 20 people or so. I'm making ribs and lemonade.  So you all know how the pre-party goes...plenty of chores and driving my husband a little crazy.  A lot crazy.

Leslie; my boys have a standing joke that they never set anything down cause I will throw it away!  I hate clutter.  Have a good weekend lovely moms!

Our son is stationed at Tinker AFB in Oklahoma City.  Their home was damaged but is still standing.  By the grace of God, they left on leave 1.5 hours before the storm hit.  About 10 members of his squadron have lost their homes over the weekend, between the 2 storms.  The Navy is reaching out to all those affected and helping them. Please keep them and all those in Moore in your prayers.

Oh Sheila....prayers for you dear!

Had a blast with DS while he was here on his cross country.  We got to watch him land last night; climb up to see the cockpit, take pictures with his IP, take him home for dinner, listen to all sorts of flight planning stuff and then watch him take off this morning.  So thankful for the window into his world.  One happy mom!

KathyB - congrats to your daughter!  Monterrey is beautiful.  My daughter lives just 30 minutes up the coast in Santa Cruz.  I love getting to Monterrey every time I visit.  There is so much to see and do there.   And did I mention the perfect weather???

Sheila - I did wonder about lupus.  I have heard it's difficult to diagnose.  Hope you have some answers soon.

NW&M - How exciting to be asked to LT pinning...and in Hawaii!  Have fun!

Leslie....keep us posted on meeting the girl...quite a recommendation when they like her dog!  lol.  I think my DS partly fell in love with his sweet wife cause he loves her dog!

Leslie, I wondered that as well.  Took me awhile to figure it out.   If you look to the right of the comment box; there is a link that says "follow new members" or something.  If you click on that, it will email you when somebody joins the group.  They don't have to post anything, 

Welcome SusanW...we are glad to have you join us!

Hey ladies we're officially here in NAS Pcola and he checks in on Wednesday!  So excited for him!

Welcome to all the newbies! This is a great place for information, support and handholding. My DS is halfway through his first deployment (Japan).

NW&M - Have a wonderful time in Hawaii! Conor's getting his LT pins this week, and I would love to be there. Even if I weren't teaching, I think our trip at Christmas blew the budget for quite a while. Congratulations to your flyer.

Vcstones - My son didn't live on base when he was in Pensacola, but I did visit a friend of his and his wife who were in housing there. The base is probably one of the nicest in the States because they had to rebuild most of it after a hurricane. Thus, it may be one of the oldest bases from a history standpoint, but it is gorgeous. The Navy Lodge is like a resort if you get down there. It's right on the base and has a lovely beach.

P'Cola is an "open" base, which will make it really easy to do shopping, etc. Sorry, but my son's friends didn't have children then, so I don't know much beyond the basic layout.

SusanW - Congratulations on graduation and commissioning. My son was U of I ROTC. He was in Pensacola through Intermediate and then Norfolk. His dad was in the navy during the end of the Vietnam days, but we certainly didn't see ourselves as a military family, either. You will find that the Navy will be a second family for your son. Good luck and don't hesitate to ask. We all learn a lot from each other. 

Hello Ladies,

I joined you a while ago and tried to comment but they never went through.  I must have been doing something wrong.  I am trying again because my son went to Pensacola last year.  There was one rental management company that totally took advantage of my son.  They also did wrong to 2 of his friends.  Deposits were never returned and they would not even answer his phone calls or letters.  I see the thread about kids moving to Pensacola and want to warn all of then not to use Pointe South Realty or Management Company.

thanks, lou2924, I feel validated!

Susan, Austin Woods is a good apartment complex for your son & his buddy to check out.

Also in any lease agreement, look for a clause that releases them from the agreement if they receive military orders to relocate.  Tell them NOT to negate that clause -- some folks learn the hard way by initialing to not include it, and then are stuck with paying rent for the rest of the lease period in addition to paying rent at their new location!!

SusanW I used Ahrn.com and zillow.com for our house search it was fabulous. We found a great little home.

my DS goes to Corpus next month for primary. Any housing ideas or pitfalls? thanks

jamielss, my son was on Padre Island (15402 Fortuna Bay, Corpus Christi). I believe he said the most important thing was to room with other aviators to study and work together. I would ask him, but he is at SERE.

thanks JudyM! thats good advise. I will pass it on. 

Jamielss; my DS found an apt at sugartree on SPID.  The best thing was his apt had a great view of the bay.  He chose to live in his own place, balancing studying alone with group study occasionally.  I think they each find what environment works best for them.

Dawn: I've found www.cafepress.com to be a great source for all things Navy. They have framed and unframed prints of planes (DS got two framed ones at winging), patches, hoodies, mugs, etc. I just sent him a barbeque apron, mug and stein for promotion to LT and he seems to like them a lot.

Prices are reasonable, and the site often has good promotions (like the spring one for 30% off everything), so you can do even better if you are not under a big time constraint. So far so good with everything I've ordered.

Just got a text - DS back from SERE. Said he needed a shower and real food before he could talk - I feel so much lighter!

JudyM - Yay!