AECF - FCs and ETs

Vickymed, will say a prayer!! 

I know just how you feel. My son wants to drive to NJ from Dam Neck to my cousin's wedding in October. I am having nightmares thinking of him driving through big cities.

Connie, we live out in the country. There are only 7,000 residents in our little town. We do drive to Colorado Springs everyday. However, it is not as bad as Norfolk.

His flight back to great lakes left from Denver International. He hated the drive there. Wonder what he will think of Norfolk.

Fair winds and following seas to the USS Donald Cook;

When I was a kid, dad's orders took us cross-country more than once.  Mom didn't drive, so he did it all himself.  Never did take more than 4 or 5 days, but that was when Navy docs still handed out "pep pills" in the 60s.  Mom took "diet pills" then too, used to stay up all night decorating my lunchbags for school.  Yikes.  

These days, hubby is a trucker, he can legally drive up to 11 hours before he must take a break.  Not everyone can do that!  Breaks are good, there's so much of America to enjoy along the way, why rush it?

Navyblu, I was stationed in Japan for a long time, Yokosuka, but my hubby was in Sasebo.  While it is very expensive, it is a wonderful culture and very safe.

Yes, a long farewell deployment is common.  When the ship is decommissioned, he may or may not get another ship in Sasebo, or he may be on the decommissioning crew.  There's a lot of variables with that scenario.  

Hi Everyone...TSC put together guidelines for facebook privacy settings for Navy personnel. Some are presented as "suggestions" ...but some are "a must." Might be good to share this with your sailor if he/she is on facebook.

http://www.slideshare.net/USNavySocialMedia/facebook-privacy-septem...

Nayvblu, it all depends on what will be done with the ship. Most are sent to the US to decommission, which means they need a crew to sail her back.  Sometimes they don't make it back to the states at all if they are sold to a foreign navy.  New orders do not mean stateside orders, to save money, as much of the crew as possible will be transferred to other ships or billets in Japan.   Things change, but that's what hubby and I have seen in the past.

So, variables.  But the deployment should be a lot of fun for him.  Tell him to apply for his passport ASAP so he can go on side trips on liberty if the occasion arises.

Hi Mattsmom, and welcome!  I'm pretty new here too, so I don't post very often.  My son's still in A school at GL...he'll be an FC.  But I did want to welcome you and say that I hope your father gets the opportunity for a tour of the base.  That would be awesome!

Hi mattsmom and hrmqueenmel, I want to welcome the two of you to the group.

My son is an FC and he is in (C)school in Dam Neck. he loves it there.  If you have any questions. Feel free to ask.

mattsmom and hrmqueenmel...Hello and Welcome! Our sailor is also ET and will be graduating "A" school this coming week. Yippee!! Then we play the waiting game to see where he will go for "C" school.

Hope to hear more from both of you!

Vickyrun, homemade cookies. Yum!!  You are making me hungry.

My son loves my Lemon-bars. However, they need refrigeration. Do you have a recipe for Lemon-cookies that would travel well?

As your sons and daughters report to their ships, you will find they have a FRG (family resource group) or more recently referred to as FSG (Family Support Group) in the old days, these used to be the Navy Wives Club but the Navy has a new look today...it's not all wives sitting at home waiting to hear from the ships!  They do alot to support the ships while they are deployed but they do social outings, dinners, etc. for the families that are back at home.  

Our ship will be out for the holidays so they are working on a pillowcase banner to hang in the passageways, so we had a little fun working on our pillowcase this weekend...

Mary, love the pillowcase. It is so cute!!  Did you mean these pillow cases will be hung in the passageway of you son's ship?

FSG group sounds great. What if you are a land-locked. Would the FSG be online or do they have gathering in your State.?

Anyone else with a family member in A school for ET finishing Dec 9 or so?

My son is in that group.

Hi Moms, I'm a little sad today so I need to be close to my Navy Moms. First welcome to Hrmqueenme and Mattsmom. This is a great group and we have great conversations and alot of helpful info. Navyblu Congrats to your sons orders. I know Japan sounds far away but what an awesome place to go. Maybe a great chance to go for a visit. Mary, my friend, Great pillowcase. You are an art-teest. I'm sure Nick will be pleased. 

Ok here is my story maybe there is something in here to pass along. Chris finished C school about 2 weeks ago. First the plan was he would take leave and come home but because of Hurricane Irene he evacuated and came home then. So Sat a week ago he decides to start his journey to Washington State. He had 8 days to get there but he did it in 6. Had a blow out outside Chicago. He signed in to his new Ship on Thurs afternoon. Where he was told you're deploying. If he had known before he would of bought extra coveralls and gotten name plates made. Maybe gotten and advance on the PCS out to Wa. So now after driving for 6 days he is jumping through hoops. File travel and hopefully the money gets put in his bank acct. (1500.00 he spent getting out there) He had to register his car so he could leave it on base. All the in processing. Buy uniforms and all the little things he would need. Get patches sewn on. Norfolk is still in whites and Wa. are in their blues.All this on Friday. He picked up a few things at the NEX on Sat. Was not able to get his name plates for coveralls made so maybe I can find a way and get those done and mail to him. So in hind site don't think I'll take care of it when I get to the other side. Always get the advance when PCS ing, Go ahead and buy the extra coveralls and have them ready.etc.. cause you don't know what you are going to find when you get to where you are going. So now he has left on his first big adventure doing what he was trained to do. When saying goodbyes he said he was excited but a little ancy. This feeling for me is a little like bootcamp but different. I know he was trained to do this but I guess it is the unknown for us at home. Sorry I ranted but If it will help pass on that when you sign in be prepared to go. You may have weeks or months before the next deployment or you may only have days.

Vickymed, maybe in a way it is better that you didn't have much notice that your son was deploying. It kind of gives you less time to worry about it. I know you can handle him being deployed. It might feel like this is boot camp but remember it is not. He is going to be going on an adventure and he will be able to write to you. Does your ship have a FB page?                                                   I know that it will be hard for me when my son leaves on his first deployment. When that happens I know I will be crying to you ladies for some prayers for sure.  I guess if I were in your place now. I would try to keep myself real busy.

I am thinking about starting a scrap book and title it. From boot camp and beyond, LoL. I think it would be funny if I could read all my old posts from that time and include them in the book too. I know I was a nut back then. Still am.                              

Vickymed. How long will your Sailor be gone?  It is good to know that a lot of ships have a Family Page. At least you wont feel so totally isolated from your son.  What is PCS?

  I think it is a good idea to plan your trip to WA early. I hope you can get a good deal on an airline ticket.

All of my dad's family live in WA. I heard it is a beautiful State. I was born there but have never been.  Seattle is a fun city to visit. There is lots to see and do.

Mary...the pillowcase is great and I bet fun to put together. It is sure to bring a smile to Nick's face!

Vickimed...Wow..my head would be spinning if we had such an unexpected quick deployment too. Like you said, Chris has been trained well. But I understand how you feel about this being different than BC. I just spoke to another Mom here locally who said the exact same thing you did....the feeling about him being so far away. So...here's lots of big (((((NavyMomHugs))))).

Regarding care packages...just a reminder about the Blue Star Mothers of America. If you feel inclined to check out and join your local chapter, your deployed sailor will ALWAYS be assured of receiving a wonderful huge care package each month. If your chapter is anything like ours, it will include everything from hygiene items, to treats, canned food...the tuna and jerky they all love, socks, t-shirts, magazines, videos, and on and on.

I'm not talking a little box either...these are big! Our chapter gets together for a monthly packing party in addition to the monthly meetings. I think it is great because you can expand beyond just Navy. You get to meet and hear stories from Moms from every branch of the military. You find we are all alike, all have the same hopes, same worries, same pride.

In addition, you can (if you want to) get to be part of some fun community events that raise awareness of how to support all the troops, which of course benefits all our kids. If you have any questions, let me know.

Check them out:

http://www.bluestarmothers.org/

Hi All. And thanks for the many kind greetings as well as good advice. I'm really happy to hear about touring the base. My Dad will be thrilled as will the rest of us.

I feel like I learn so much from you all every time I visit this sight. Matt will be leaving for Norfolk in January and has already been assigned a ship. Lots to learn about that. My son is not a big talker, bless his heart, so I truly value all you guys have to say.

Chrissy has been gone a week. I am not worried at all. BC and A school was more worrieseome. Now I know she is well prepeared and doing what she wants to do.

I agree about the Facebook she posts on there every day. 

congrats whiteclay! He went thru pretty fast!

LOL, considering how many different patches you need to update all of your uniforms each time you advance, and how many sailors there are, it would cost millions in tax dollars.  But yeah, I used to think that myself.  At least ONE!  And then you have to buy the collar devices too when you advance.

With the old dungaree shirts, we could use iron on crows instead of an embroidered patch.  If you were very careful, you could add another chevron when you jumped from E-4 to E-5 and up to E-6.  That's when every ET or FC came out of school as a petty officer, and no one had seaman stripes on their dungarees.  MUCH cheaper than the new NWUs. Wore out faster too, but so, so comfy.

No, they don't take the advancement test, but that's basically what A school is.  They do have to wait until the rest of the Navy hits the advancement cycle to go up to the E-4 they have earned by completing their school.  

The old way was you got your crow when you finished school.  Made future advancement cycles very confusing and off schedule.  

Angie, they do have to complete their military leadership courses to advance  don't they?  Is that a petty officer indoc class now?  We just handed in the complete workbooks (I vaguely recall???)

Woo Hoo everybody! Our sailor graduated "A" school! Now we wait to find out where "C" school will be! Congrats to him and all his fellow graduating ET shipmates! You all studied long and hard!