AECF - FCs and ETs

Fingers crossed!  I hope they are great orders.

Good morning, Yes, Christine my sailor was on hold in GL after A school. It i snot so unusual. She even said to me "Mom, if the taxpayers knew how much money was being wasted paying sailors to do nothing!"  But I don't think it ws for nothing. She learned patience , how to follow orders, how to work hard at whatever job you are given even if it is not an FC job, she learned leaderships skills. She worked in the office, she worked in the gym, she volunteered to work in the preschool on base. She did a lot of cleaning, watch and duty! She kept busy and eventually got to C School.

Hi Everyone, My son is home for 2 weeks...I am sooo happy.  It was a little rough getting here.  He had a 20 min layover in Salt Lake City but as we know flights out of O'Hare are always late and this was no different.  He missed his connecting flight, no more hotel vouchers so he slept the night on the floor in the airport. He was soo happy to finally be home. 

Good morning everyone.  My son (FC) graduation from A school is this Friday and he said he wants to wait on his C school orders before he comes home.  Does anyone know how long that might be?

hi my son just started bootcamp. im having a hard time knowing what he is going to school for since he will be away alot is what I hear.

JuliaM, it can take quite a while for orders for FC.  Several weeks is normal, or even a few months.  But it also could be tomorrow.  Hard to tell, there is no one normal answer.

@lovemyson, you will do better in the boot camp group until you find out his rating, then we can tell you hoe long and where he will go to A school.  

http://navyformoms.com/group/bootcampmoms

I went through ET A school.   They do keep you busy, you have duty every four days, and PT, plus school.  There is no homework, but you can attend extra mandatory study hours if you need to do so (or are ordered to do so).   If you fail one test, you get a chance to take it again after remedial study.  If you fail it again, you get set back to the class behind and get another shot at it.  If someone fails the second time around, they get dropped and reclassified to another rating, or possibly sent undesignated to the fleet.  Once there, a seaman can strike for a rating.   Some are OTJ, but they might get to go back to a different A school.

I'm sorry he is having trouble, but I know they are given many opportunities to grasp the material.  Not sure why his entire class would fail an initial test, I was part of the pilot program to combine FC and ET into the same field so I took some FC tests.  See if the material applied to both ratings (it does, mostly).  They are all multiple choice!  Maybe the instruction style is not suited to his learning style.  That happens, and there is not a lot to do about that.  But honestly, they spent a lot of money to get them this far, they do not WANT to send them to the fleet.  That schooling is optimized to get the most info across to most sailors.  Maybe something else going on too?

The undesignated sailors in the fleet, those who have not gone to a guaranteed A school, can try to get into certain ratings they qualify for.  This could be as simple as finishing some qualifications and take a test. Others get permission from their command to go to an A school.  Strike for means to try for.  Once they are trying for a specific job, they are called strikers.

My son's A school (AECF) is supposed to be 51 weeks.  So he won't have any leave for that whole time?  

His recruiter also recently asked if he could go to BC early, as there are changes being made to his A school?  Change of Iocation?   My son said no, he wants to wait until the date on his contract so he can come with us on our family vacation this year.  But does that sound right?  A school for AECF moving location from GL?

The "change" could be another sailor was dropped from the program.  Have not heard of other changes now.

Sailors in A school do not usually get to take leave. There is a two week stand down around Christmas, and leave requests are approved then. 

does anyone know where C school is for FCs? or at least what the possibilities are?  TIA :)

FC's go to C school in San Diego or Dam Neck Virginia.

Also DaIhgren.

The training commands, which are A and C schools, take two weeks off and close the schools.  The students are allowed to take leave, although there is enough staff to man the barracks and such during that time for those who choose to stay behind.  Taking leave means they can travel home.  Yes, they pay for their own tickets.  

If they have not earned enough leave, they may borrow some of their future leave.  You can make an estimate as they earn 2.5 days each month for 30 days a year.  Never book flights in advance of knowing the official dates, and try to have them back early in the day, or the day before, because flying into Chicago in winter is a bear.  

I wrote a blog entry about the difference between leave and liberty is anyone is confused:

http://navyformoms.com/profiles/blogs/leave-vs-liberty

Italy and the chance to see your daughter sing before the Pope sounds amazing.  I am sure your sailor can appreciate this once in a lifetime chance for you and your daughter!  

Thanks for the info Anti M!

Awesome Austin's mom!  My son is hoping for the same later this year.  :)

Oh, wow! That is wonderful Austin's mom.  U love it when a person gets the job they want.  My son is praying to get Tomahawks too.  He graduates A school in August.

Anti M I have a question regarding Christmas leave. Do they need to be in Phase 3 Liberty in order to get leave or can they take leave at any Phase?

Any phase.  Even the ones who graduate that weekend before!

Hello, My son is in boot camp, he graduates Sept 9th! He called today (yay!) and he mentioned that he had a meeting recently about his rate AECF..(I'm going to get the navy language all wrong, sorry!). Is it true that he will not be able to pick witch route he would prefer, ET or FC?  They pick it for him? He was surprised by this....also he said the paper they had at MEPS with the AECF info was 5 years old and outdated.  I tried to keep things positive with him...Can someone simply explain what each ET and FC does?

They do pick for him during boot camp.

FC is fire controlman, as in firing weapons, the missile systems on ships. What system is dictated by the C school they are sent to, which in turn, dictates the type of ship

ET is electronics techincian, working on radar, navigation, communications,antennas,  test equipment, even weather gear, and more.  An individual ET would not work on all those things, but on what they were taught in specific C schools.  I was an ET,  I worked in secure communications, and picked up micro-miniature repair along the way.  My husband was initially radar, but also picked up the same communications systems I worked on ... we met on the job.

Thank you Anti M!  How do they pick for him? does it depend on what they need? Is there anything he can do that may help get what he wants?

Thanks for the explanation...."as in firing weapons"...makes sense now!!

Anti M,

One more question :)  They don't learn their specific system until C school? A school builds the foundation?

My son in GL right now, but just got his orders and going to Dahlgren for C school.  He thinks he will need a car there.  Can someone tell me if its necessary?

Thank you for the info Anti M. I'm happy to know my son will be home for at least this Christmas.

That will be great to have them home for the holidays :)

I am so excited, my son Alex finally passed his run in FIT and Tuesday I should get the I'm a Sailor call and then I will officially be a part of this group. He will be in A School in GL for AECF - FC 

Alex is officially a SAILOR... He just called me from his new home for the next 173 days.

I am so happy for Alex. I am also so relieved that the waiting is over.

Good morning All! I'm new to this group. my sons PIR was august 14th. It was amazing. Looking forward now. He is in GL for A school-FC. Just wanted to drop in and say HI!

Probably.  C school is where they earn their code (NEC), an ET without an NEC is pretty useless.

Yes, and maybe yes.  Depends on the housing wait list.  It is not on base, it is just outside the gates.  Also, you will need to drive there, the Navy does not ship cars.  He has to earn his liberty privileges before he can put in a Live Ashore package, but that is just a few weeks.

My son is a FC!  He graduated A school earlier this month and one of the positions he was offered happens to be his dream job except for the home port of the ship but it is deploying to a new home port which happens to be his number one pick for overseas duty station. Now if those hard copies of his orders will just come in...Time to play the hurry up and wait game.