Boot Camp Moms (and loved ones)

US National Weather Service Chicago Illinois

NoahsMom, I was going through that as well.  My son went into the DEP program halfway through his senior year in high school.  He finally developed something that worked for me, when I would start getting emotional he would look me in the eyes and say "Mom .. I'm still here".  That would bring me back into the moment and remember to enjoy the time that I had with him (when he wasn't pissing me off .. haha).  Ask you son to start doing something like that .. it helps.  Good luck!

Friends and family of Recruit Training Command, please be advised that as of the first graduation ceremony of 2018 (January 5), we will be adjusting our Recruit Family Welcome Center hours of operation. Our new hours will be Thursday [10:00 AM to 7:30 PM] and Friday [5:30 AM to 8:30 AM]. Please make note, we will no longer open on Wednesday for normal ticketing hours. Thank you

Ladies it is quite normal to feel the way you do, I never thought so much into it before he left it was after he left it hit me really bad.....And again the not knowing part was what ate at me, Not being able to speak with them not knowing how he is or what his struggles may be.....But like they continued to tell me No News is Good News, so I took it for what it was worth and then the Letters came and then the calls, once that started happening it made the weeks go by even faster. But I do understand, My Son will be getting Deployed shortly so I am full of anxiety right now not knowing what our communication will be like this time around. So I am finding myself back where I had started when he was in BC.

Congratulations to this week's Captain's Cup winners!
Div. 044 won in the non-integrated (all-male) divisions while Div. 909 won in the integrated (male-female) divisions.

Congratulations to these Divisions Way to Go!

The Pass-In-Review graduation ceremony Feb. 9, will contain 16 divisions for that training group. Thus, because of the large number of recruits, the number guests allowed per recruit is reduced to THREE guests only, age 3 and older. All guests, including active duty and veterans, must be on the access list in order to receive a ticket. As a reminder, only guests who have tickets will be allowed on base.

The divisions included in this training group are: 095-106, 807 & 808, and 914 & 915.

Got the 20 sec scripted phone call last night. Thankful for this 

group so I knew how short it would be and to talk over him so he knew he is loved supported and can do it. Thanks to you all I feel both of us were as prepared as we could be. #navymom

Good Morning All, Happy Thursday.

Good Morning to all the New Comers to the site Glad to have you all along this Journey that Both you and Son/Daughter will be taking. Please post any concerns/Questions/Thoughts. You will get to meet a great deal of Ladies/Gents that may be experiencing the same as you and it is a Great way to meet New People and maybe a Friend for life.

jmommym so glad that you posted and shared, And best wishes to your New SR. (Seaman Recruit) and to you also.

I'm feeling a little somber today, I have two more days with my Son before I send him back. Don't get me wrong the time with him was Fabulous and Great, And am so Proud of him and the young man he has turned into, I think it is the part of him being deployed soon and the worries that comes with that. Deep down inside I know he will be fine. and I pray for him all the time and ask for him to do the same and to never lose his faith. Thank You for hearing me out. 

May you all have a Great Day! 

I would like to share the verse of the day. (Daily Bread)

Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken.

Amen!

Phoenixmom - Two days before my son went back to A school after Christmas leave was my toughest, because I knew the time was short and I couldn't stop time. Then the next two days we had more family and prep for the airport and spent time with him at the gate.

Welcome to all the newcomers and those headed to or at GL for PIR, enjoy!! If attending Sarge's Meet n Greet, be sure to donate as able, this helps him keep the blessing flowing to future Navy families.

Good Morning Chipmunk we plan on doing that as well, Thank You.

Thank you Phoenixmom for sharing the verse. I know how hard deployments are. Our Marine son's boot camp was 13 weeks and only got one call toward the end. Then not much communication at all the 7 months he was deployed in Iraq. I spent most nights praying all night. It was the only way I could cope. With this son in boot camp I'm more proud than fearful. Still there are so many nights that are spent praying more than sleeping. I have gotten one letter and one call so far. I threatened to put kitten stickers on the envelopes if he didn't write. Of course I wouldn't. 

Are they allowed to have cell phones after PIR?  So then they can take it with them to A School.  My son's PIR is 1/12 and I wondered if we could bring his cell phone to give him after the ceremony.  

Thank You Mountain Mamma for sharing, I was doing fine while he was in A school but this is something else I will have to overcome. and Praying is one way of helping me cope.

KKNOhio after A school yes they are able to have Cell phones or let me rephrase that my son went to A school in great Lakes he was able to have his I pad and cell phone. and it was given to him on liberty after PIR.

I am seeing an awful lot of you that haven't joined your PIR groups! There is a lot of information in those groups for you!

Below are the current PIR groups.

Please clck the link and join the conversation with others that have loved ones in the same TG and division as your!

PIR: December 15, 2017 TG 06 - 8 Divisions (037-042 and 906, 907) 4 guests 

      NO PIR: December 22, 2017 & December 29, 2017

PIR: January 5, 2018 TG 09 - 14 Divisions (043-054, 908 and 909)  4 guests

PIR: January 12, 2018 TG 10 - 7 Divisions (055-060 and 910) 4 guests

PIR: January 19, 2018 TG 11 - 12 Divisions (061-070, 805 and 911) 4 guests       

PIR: January 26, 2018 TG 12 - 12 Divisions (071-080, 806 and 912) 4 guests

PIR: February 02, 2018 TG 13- 15 Divisions, 081 - 094 and 913.

PIR: February 09, 2018 TG 14 - 16 Divisions (16 Divisions, 095-106, 807 & 808, 914 & 915) 3 guests

REMINDER!

If you are attending this Friday's recruit graduation ceremony, you must pick up your tickets in advance at the Recruit Family Welcome Center at Burkey Mall, 2630 Green Bay Road, North Chicago, IL 60088.

Ticket pickup hours: 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Thursday and 5:30 a.m.-8 a.m.Friday. If you are picking up your tickets on Friday, please allow yourself ample time to pick up tickets and arrive to the ceremony prior to 8:45 a.m.

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I would like to make you aware. and it is totally up to you how you make your plans and what is cheapest. but make aware of your debit card.

Be aware that if you use a debit card to book your hotel room or a rental car that they most likely will put a hold on funds for more than the amount to cover any unforeseen charges, so you may want to use a credit card when making those reservations or make sure that you have plenty of funds in your bank account so that your card will not be denied when you go to use it.

See Saving Money PIR Weekend and PIR Day and Liberty during PIR Weekend.

US National Weather Service Chicago Illinois

mountain mamma, KKNOhio - and others, as Phoenixmom said your sailor's may have their cell phones after PIR, as long as they are not still on RTC. So, they may have their phones while off base on liberty. If they are staying in GL for A school they will have moved and will be able to have their phones. If they fly out to A school, then parents have to take their cell phones, laptops, and any other electronics to the airport and meet them there with these items. Keep in mind, their bags will all be packed full to the brim. Sailors that fly out to A school return to RTC the night of PIR and are not allowed to have their phones on site.

It is my understanding that sailors who move to THU (Temporary Holding Unit) until they have their orders completed for A school, are considered off site and they may have their phones as well.

U.S. Navy Recruit Training Command Anyone without a ticket is not allowed on base. A recruit must submit the names of their guests on an access list.

The Pass-In-Review graduation ceremony Feb. 9, will contain 16 divisions for that training group. Thus, because of the large number of recruits, the number guests allowed per recruit is reduced to THREE guests only, age 3 and older. All guests, including active duty and veterans, must be on the access list in order to receive a ticket. As a reminder, only guests who have tickets will be allowed on base.

The divisions included in this training group are: 095-106, 807 & 808, and 914 & 915.

I would like to mention that if there is anything you may need to ask or information you may need please post. Remember there is no such thing as a dumb question, I feel anything you ask comes from the heart, it takes a while for one to have complete knowledge of the Navy Life and everything that come along with it. Believe me I am still learning myself but am more than willing to help in any way. Thank You

Kbpoohbear sorry to hear that, but please come back it would be nice to have you back!

Even as an old timer here, I have all my email notifications for the groups turned off.  Way too much traffic here for me to keep up with!  I just drop in a few times a day.  Perfectly fine to check in infrequently until it is go time.  There are DEP groups here too, so those may be useful for some.  

Hello Anti M, good to hear from you, thank you for posting.

To those that will be traveling or Attending  PIR please be safe in your Travels to and from.

I would like to extend a Great big HOOYAH to you and your Sailor. and may his/her Journey be as Great and Blessed as can be. Please enjoy your time with them and send Great Big Hugs from me to them. What a site it will be to see them looking so Handsome/Beautiful in their Uniform. If you are attending the Meet and Greet tonight have a Great time because it really is, Sarge and his Wife put an amazing spread out, and those that donate Thank You! some put together amazing nice beautiful baskets to bid on so make sure to take money, they also will have a Vendor their where you can buy shirts, sweatshirts, Flags, Blankets. You can put names and whatever you like on them. I recommend buying a Flag put your Sons/Daughters ship Name, Division # and their name it will be the best thing you did. We brought it home and hung it in my sons room, he had no clue we had purchased it. so when he came home for the holidays and seen it on his wall let me say his eyes lit up. it was around 75.00 with all the wording. shirts ran around 25.00 and the blankets 20.00. also at the PIR they will have vendors inside selling Division coins, they start at 15.00 on up depending on what you buy. and also shirts with their flag and Div. not sure what those run. so get their early lines are long. hope this helps.

And this goes for any PIR that you attend, and the Meet and Greet. so go prepared. And also the Hotel you stay at will decorate your door for your Sailor or you yourself can decorate just let it be known you are attending the PIR. It is quite the surprise for them.

To guesstimate the PIR date, count 9 Fridays after your recruit arrived to get the most likely PIR (graduation) date, but then know that it could be the week before if s/he is placed in one of the last divisions from the previous week and is in a "Push Division" (this happens more for those arriving on Monday or Tuesday, but even those arriving on a Wednesday can end up in a Push Division if there were delays in shipping recruits to the RTC) or the week after it if the current week's divisions are filled (this happens more for those arriving on Wednesday or Thursday or in the wee hours of Friday if the RTC skips a week and does not have PIR, which happens most often around the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but it can happen anytime; it can also happen if there were storms that caused flight delays anytime during the week, which changed the arrival dates for some and/or resulted in some recruits who are bused in to receive an earlier ship date thus increasing the number of recruits arriving that week; it happens often for recruits arriving in June, July, August and September when a lot of recruits are shipped who signed up prior to or at the beginning of their senior year of high school). It is more likely for a recruit to be at the RTC for 8 or 9 Fridays than for 10 Fridays. Counting Fridays until PIR may also help to make the time pass more easily than counting days

Reasons to wait on The Form Letter before sending letters:

1. The PAO at the RTC asks that loved ones wait on the form letter before mailing letters. See http://www.bootcamp.navy.mil/fam_guide.html.

2. The recruiter does not always give the right address and letters that do not have the correct address may be returned or may be delayed several weeks in getting to your recruit since it will not be a high priority for those in the mail room to look up the correct information.

3. Even if you do have the correct information, your recruit will not receive letters that are mailed before receiving the form letter much quicker, if at all, than letters mailed after receiving the form letter because recruits do not receive mail until they are in their permanent ship and a Recruit Mail Petty Officer is trained. The first Mail Call is on day 1-3 or 1-4 DOT.

***

Note: If it has been at least 2 calendar weeks since your recruit arrived at the RTC and you do not have a form letter, then you can call the recruiter and get the address and mail letters to your recruit, but be sure to double-check the address against those at http://www.bootcamp.navy.mil/contact_recruit.html or Ship/Division--How it Works.

If you know where your sailor is going for A school or his rating, check for groups listed by Job Rating. Later, If you know what ship he has been assigned to, check for groups listed by name of his ship - the active ships out on the Fleet (the real thing) not the bootcamp barracks named after ships. Looking for a local group or special interest group to join? 

GROUPS: Listed By Name of US Navy Ships/actual US Naval Vessels (clickable link)
GROUPS: Listed By Navy Job/Ratings (clickable link) and companion 
     Ratings, A School Locations & Links to Groups

Parking passes will no longer be available beginning October 6, 2017.

If any of you are interested in knowing what Battlestation-21 is and what they need to do in their final test please go to you tube and look up BST-21. This is an intense test, they cannot fall asleep

Battle Stations-21 (BST) is the final test for the recruits and is a 12 hour evaluation program with 17 ship board scenarios from missile attacks that can cause fires to flooding caused by exploding undersea mines. Recruits also stand watches on the bridge and are tasked with engineering scenarios, lookout scenarios, and mass casualty drills. Battle Stations-21 is conducted several times a week, at night, on board USS Trayer (BST 21), a 210-foot-long Arleigh Burke-class destroyer simulator. It begins around 8:00 pm CST and ends the next morning. Throughout the various scenarios, recruits are evaluated and graded not only as individuals, but also as teams and as an entire division. The morning that a recruit passes Battle Stations-21, s/he attends a capping ceremony around 8:20 or so that lasts about 20-30 minutes where s/he removes his/her “RECRUIT” ball cap and replaces it with a “NAVY” ball cap, which signals to the world that s/he is a US Navy Sailor!

Thank you for this! I am going to watch it :)

That is really interesting information! I knew they had a big test but, wow. Is that in the 7th week?

here is the link gives you great information.

Battle Stations-21 (BST) - Navy For Moms

Here is the Link if you would like more information, very good and interesting.

Battle Stations-21 (BST) - Navy For Moms

One thing that I can say is if you read all that they go thru, you yourself will know more about what they will endure and go thru than they do. I learned this from writing my son he had no clue what BST-21 was. I had seemed to know more than he did. Hope this helps and enjoy!

The following was posted by the PAO within the RTC's fB site:

WHEN WILL MY RECRUIT GO THROUGH BATTLE STATIONS?

Battle Stations-21 is the recruits' final test that can take place anywhere from eight to two days prior to graduation. We do not give out the specific date your recruit's division will be taking this test nor do we allow the dates to be posted. We do not post any specific training details and we urge everyone to practice Operational Security by not posting such information.

_____

A few weeks before PIR, be sure to write and ask your recruit when Battle Stations-21 will be. You can then PM others with loved ones in the division and/or Brother Divisions so they will be informed as well--but do not post BST dates openly on the web. When you receive your "I'm a Sailor!" call, be sure to ask your new Sailor if everyone in the division and brother division passed and be sure to post that within the PIR group for others who are also waiting on this call. You can post that you have a Sailor once BST is over.

And this goes for any PIR that you attend, and the Meet and Greet. so go prepared. And also the Hotel you stay at will decorate your door for your Sailor or you yourself can decorate just let it be known you are attending the PIR. It is quite the surprise for them.

Bravo Zulu. This is a naval signal, conveyed by flaghoist or voice radio, meaning "well done"; it has also passed into the spoken and written vocabulary. It can be combined with the "negative" signal, spoken or written NEGAT, to say "NEGAT Bravo Zulu," or "not well done."

NAVY TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

hello all!

my son will soon become a depper.  we dont know yet when he will leave for bc.  he is a senior this year, so possibly summer.  he is my second son to join the navy.  my oldest son just got out this past year.  i have a somewhat   understanding of bc.  it helped to keep in touch with others while he was in bc.   my first son went in as a nuke, but this son is going in the PACT program, so it is alot different. i want to say good luck to all the SRs and their families!  

Below are the current PIR groups.

Please clck the link and join the conversation with others that have loved ones in the same TG and division as your!

PIR: December 15, 2017 TG 06 - 8 Divisions (037-042 and 906, 907) 4 guests 

      NO PIR: December 22, 2017 & December 29, 2017

PIR: January 5, 2018 TG 09 - 14 Divisions (043-054, 908 and 909)  4 guests

PIR: January 12, 2018 TG 10 - 7 Divisions (055-060 and 910) 4 guests

PIR: January 19, 2018 TG 11 - 12 Divisions (061-070, 805 and 911) 4 guests       

PIR: January 26, 2018 TG 12 - 12 Divisions (071-080, 806 and 912) 4 guests

PIR: February 02, 2018 TG 13- 15 Divisions, 081 - 094 and 913.

PIR: February 09, 2018 TG 14 - 16 Divisions (16 Divisions, 095-106, 807 & 808, 914 & 915) 3 guests

Good Morning Ladies/Gents, Hope all is well this Monday morning.

Welcome New Comers Glad to have you along, this site is to put any concerns/Questions/feelings anything basically you would like to speak on. Just be careful for the   "Importance of Navy OPSEC." their are many of knowledgeable Ladies on this site that will help. and many of Ladies/Gents that are going thru what you may be experiencing so please ask away.

For those who attended PIR this past Friday how was it? was it as amazing as I mentioned? hope you all had a great time with your Sailor!

For those attending this Friday's PIR Please be safe in your travels and RSVP for the Meet and Greet much information can be learned from Sarge and it is a great time! And Congratulations on your New Sailor!

Have a Great Day!