Boot Camp Moms (and loved ones)

VintageGal - Yeah for letters!! I can just picture puppy looking up at you like, "really, you want me to go walking one more time?"

B'sNukeMom - Thank you!!! And it looks like the PIR group is working properly now. Yeah!! We appreciate you!. 

Everyone!! Have a good evening!!

Remember, we are learning and growing just like our loved ones. in BC. This group and our other groups are all to help us learn and grow so we can give our sailors the best support and protection they need when they are out in the fleet!! While your SR is probably getting yelled at a lot, our intention is to offer encouragement and knowledge as best as we can and we are all in this together!

B’sNukeMom⚓️MMN: *Thank you* for creating the PIR October 2020 group!!!!

VintageGal - Sigh!! It is hard to hear our kids but it sounds like he is searching for the positive. Your last line was so heartfelt, and I pray for him and others to sleep well tonight!!

Welcome to all of our new members!! We are glad you have joined us!! There is a lot of information here, but we also have some changes due to COVID - 

Be sure to check out BelovedbyHim's blog: First Things First-- The Quarantine Edition

Please come introduce yourself! 

Your questions are always welcome, since we all volunteer our time on here, sometimes we miss something so feel free to ask again. 

Good evening friends!! I also received 2 letters today. More of the same....he's angry about his rate. He was def still in ROM while writing too. They’re (not sure who) is telling him he’s going to be doing things like chipping paint, washing dishes, mopping floors... and that’s not why he joined. I’m not sure if this is true (and how the hell would they know?!)  but I told him this is just a starting point...just like ANY CAREER. He can change what he’s doing once he’s in. (I don’t know how easy that is) I was really at a loss of what to tell him & I don’t want him to feel like this or that he’s stupid or that he was lied to by the recruiter. This is what the one recruiter told me after MEPS...and I reminded him.

“It’s a seaman apprentice program where he can choose between multiple jobs. It’s great in my opinion. Automatic advancement to e3 when he picks his job. He gets to try multiple jobs before he makes his decision instead of right now they just telling him this is it.”

I begged him to just fight through the next 2 weeks... the toughest. I told him “I KNOW FOR A FACT  that if you quit now – YOU WILL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. Stick this out – get through camp & graduate. PLEASE – if not for yourself – I’m begging you to do it FOR ME. You can/will change your rate if that’s something you still want to do after making your decision on which job. But geez just give this a fighting chance. I realize covid screwed up his entire experience but there is NO BC WITHOUT COVID for the foreseeable future.”

Oooooooh ladies.....how I long for graduation 10/29 - 4 weeks from today. Hope you all had a great day...I’m going to go back a few pages and catch up now. Love to all!

Kristel and Vintage - it really stinks that covid has messed up your SRs boot camp experience!!  Kristel, I so hope that your SR gets through this because it is what you want and you can see the opportunities. Oh how our hearts ache when they are struggling. I was miserable while my son was “separating” from the university we worked so hard to get him into.... it’s hard when we are so invested in the path they are on. But sometimes “bad things” open up new doors for better things. I know you want you SR to graduate, and I hope he does and is one of the many sailors that are really happy they stuck it out. But I would imagine it’s not for everyone and he may be more successful at plan B or plan C. I know it meant a lot to my son when I supported his decision(s), which were very anxiety provoking!!. The Navy was his plan C - he quit college after two years of Pre-Med and another half plus year of General Ed, undecided, economics, political science - which was all really just a loss of interest. Sometimes you just want to pull your hair out and I hope with your love and support, things will work out for him, whatever he decides. 

@daves.....aww thank you so very much. I hope the same. I know he’s not meant for college. This was his dream. I think when he gets a little more training in (BC) he will feel so much better. Of course I/we will support him no matter what but he needs to give this a real chance. I don’t believe he will do anything stupid to get kicked out - he really just needs a little bit of confidence bc now it’s at an all time low. My heart DOES ache for him. So now I will go back to hoping to GOD I get no more phone calls in fear of the ring of fire or worse. 

@leann....thank you so much for reaching out & connecting with me! Thank you for sending me the very informative links on undesignated & PACT too. BNMH!

time for me to head to bed....talk to you all tomorrow. 

 Hey Ladies,

I know I am posting late but hopefully you ladies will see it before it gets lost in the shuffle.

One of the things we all do is encourage each other and be a listening ear as we all go thru boot camp and beyond. I am not a admin either but I believe in paying it forward so that is what I try to do. 

Things are very different now with COVID and with the re opening and lifting of restrictions through out the different states. Some bases may let you do something where others may not!!

It's important to ask questions to find out things, if in doubt ask away like we always say on here. Always be mindful of what you post and what you have open on your profile whether it be here or on any kind of social media. We are all constantly learning especially now and this very well may be our new normal. It's just hard to say right now. 

Protect yourselves, your Sailors and don't let loose information that you wouldn't say other wise. Be wise in your posting and you will be fine. 

LBF-was right they do the moment of truth the first night they are there.

No PIR's for awhile until our Navy feels it is safe enough for all of our SR's and families. I know it's disappointing but know that you will see your brand new Sailor as soon as you can. 

I just read back a couple of pages so I am catching up. 

VintageGal- Hooray for letters!! I am so glad you got some and that he seems to be doing well. He doesn't have long now before he is done with ROM. 

Kristel2400- I'm glad you got letters. Will be praying for him tonight and every night until he is done. He's got this and he's going to get thru it. 

C'sMoM2020- Hooray for getting letters to. I am glad you were able to hear from him. 

leann- Thanks for reaching out and sharing with Kristel2400. That was great. 

Shanny- Hope your day was great!!

Don't forget to wear RED tomorrow for all of our Military that is deployed!!! 

LBF, Phoenix & Beloved - thank you for the info on BS, PIR and the timing on the I’m a Sailor call. I know it’s been posted before, but my memory isn’t as good as I’d like!  I appreciated the BS21 link too. 

LBF - those beautiful floors are gleaming! Thanks for sharing the pics. 

NWM - think it must have been far worse for you and others, to have attending PIR taken away last minute, than it is for us, knowing we won’t be able to attend from the beginning. My heart held onto a little hope, but logically knew it would not happen.

Chipmunk - thank you for all the opsec info and links. Decided to shorten my name now.... Will make other recommended changes over the next few weeks as I transition out of BC moms.

WLH & others - thank you for all the stripe info. Funny to hear sometimes the Navy puts the wrong stripes on their uniforms. My SR did not tell me his rating in our call. If I forget to ask at the Im a Sailor call, will he have stripes on his uniform at PIR (assuming I am lucky enough to spot him in the crowd)? 

New Moms - it gets easier. Really it does. The tears become less frequent, and the ladies here will help you through the trials and tribulations of bootcamp. I just wished I had more time to spend on this page, and really looked forward to reading and posting. 

Good morning everyone!!

I have my RED on!  How about You!!

Good Morning All, Happy FRIDAY! YAY! was waiting for this day as the day's have been long! work all day and then go home to clean house what FUN! LOL! better to get it done now and I can have the whole weekend to do other things.

Hope you all got a great start to your morning, was watching the news and it seems like our president and wife now have been exposed to covid, news sometimes isn't so great so I changed it and was watching this Movie called the Visit, what a creepy movie...............Things I watch! well ready to get this day and over with.............hoping you all are too.

Have a Great Day Folks!

Wishing everyone who received the I'm a Sailor Call best wishes, so excited for you all, although I'm really sorry that PIR's are not in Person they are the Best! Hopefully soon! A Big HOOYAH to all the Handsome and Beautiful sailors Job Well Done Sailor!

We praise You O Lord, for You are our trustworthy God and never-changing Saviour. Thank You for the truth of Scripture and for the assurance that Your Word will stand fast for ever. Thank You that You will never let us down, despite our own faults and failings. In the name of Jesus, we pray that we may become more and more like Him, as we submit to the leading and guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives. AMEN.

Congratulations to the six award winners from this week's graduating recruits!

The following is a description of the six awards:
• NAVY CLUB OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY EXCELLENCE AWARD: Presented to the graduating recruit who best exemplifies the qualities of enthusiasm, devotion to duty, military appearance and behavior, self-discipline and teamwork. This is the highest award a recruit may earn.
• NAVY LEAGUE AWARD: Presented to the graduating recruit whose enthusiasm, supportive attitude, and willingness to help others during their training period exceeded Navy training standards.
• MILITARY OFFICERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA AWARD: Presented to the graduating recruit whose meritorious performance in recruit training demonstrated exceptional professionalism, maturity, integrity and leadership.
• MILITARY ORDER OF THE WORLD WARS AWARD OF MERIT: Presented to the graduating recruit whose meritorious performance in recruit training demonstrated motivation and dedication to duty.
• ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AWARD: Presented to the graduating recruit who maintained the highest academic and assessment standards throughout all phases of training.
• UNITED SERVICES ORGANIZATION SHIPMATE AWARD: Presented to the graduating recruit whose enthusiasm, supportive attitude and willingness to help others during their training period exceeded Navy training standards.
Remember to follow us on Instagram @rtcgreatlakes

Morning ladies!!

Toby - he would know who quit at moment of truth. Someone in my currents SRs div called and said someone was getting ASMOd so they kind of know some things. I figured one day their fellow recruit is there and the next they are gone leaving the rest to wonder if set back or separated.

Cs mom - send little pages of puzzles to do like you mentioned. Boredom changes things, lol. P1 day is moment of truth. So yes your SR did good, lol. We had to encourage #2 to join so we told him to stay seated during MOT, lol.

Kristel - if he is undes chances are he will be doing a myriad of things and being undes and low man on totem pole who knows. My son who is RS has some undes in his little group on ship. He LOVES being an RS.  Your son could also do DC which I hear those in that rate enjoy. There are some great advantages to starting undes = you get to see what you like and I am not sure how easy it is to pick what you want from all the jobs you try but how great to be able to try them out to see if he likes them first. Silver lining?

Party - missed  you on yesterday!

Davesmom - yep on PIR I sent my 1st 2 not knowing I would not see them PIR, they had done some photos in the compartments for a few weeks of PIR and just before my #1 PIR they stopped. Sending my 3 & 4 were harder as I knew I was sending them off not knowing when I would see them again. I got so excited to see #3 march in his PIR and boom, pulled just before marching due to a COVID scare. Praying I see something of #4 PIR. You do not have to transition out of BC moms - unless you want to!

Vintage - trying my best to understand based on no punctuation, lol. So because a recruit was put in their div and separated 10 hours later your SR lost out on a promotion? If his run time was good enough 2 weeks won't cost him that much time, he will do fine on the run. Your story about your dog had me cracking up!  I hope you did not pounce on the mailman!!! I am still crossing my fingers your son ends up in my son’s div!!

Welcome again to our new members! We wear RED on Fridays to Remember Everyone Deployed!

Looking forward to hearing that you have received letters and phone calls!  Hoping those watching the PIR video will get to see their sailor today!

If you do not have the RTC Bootcamp website just click on the blue letters and it will take you there. The home page lists the links to watch the virtual PIR (Pass In Review) also known as graduation. 

For our new members: 

We have a lot of information on this page, look at the upper right corner for a topic you might need. In the upper left are links to videos and also  Navy Speak.

Did everyone get a chance to join the OCT 2020 PIR Group ? If you requested and are awaiting approval, just be patient! Remember not everyone is in your time zone or able to do everything. 

DavesMom2020 - Your sailor will have stripes on his uniform at PIR. However, I have not watched any of the recent ones, so I am not sure if they are marching in their dress uniforms or not. I don't recall what is on the other working uniforms. 

Here is the link to join:

PIR OCTOBER 2020

While their photos are in their dress uniforms, as of last week they still march in their ndubs.

Regarding stripes on uniforms and rates, this is actually a reference to a comment in another group but I will explain here. 

For those of you who might have SRs (Seaman Recruits) that signed a Nuke contract, they will not receive their actual rate until they meet with a career counselor at BC. In the past, this happened around the 5th - 6th week of BC. There are three rates for Nukes - MM, EM, ET. The first two rates are classified as Fireman and ETs are Seaman. Invariably, the ETs arrive in SC with the wrong colored stripes on their uniforms from BC and have to have them changed at their expense. 

For further discussion or information on the Nuke program, please join us at NUKE moms, especially if you have a future sailor headed to SC for A school. 

For those of you that are New Welcome, Glad to have you along, I will post some sites that you may want to begin reading to give you a little insight as to what to expect.

Be sure to check out BelovedbyHim's blog: First Things First-- The Quarantine Edition

See Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA) and Fitness Improvement Training (FIT)

• Ship/Division--How it Works
• 800 and 900 Divisions
• Phone Cards and Phone Calls
• Letter Writing & Fun Stuff/Questionnaires to send to your Recruit

Good morning Phoenixmom!! 

I will let you take over! Hope you are feeling well today!

My page had not refreshed during my postings. Now I have to play catch up!! 

Good Morning Mrs. Chipmunk, I am well Thank You, Hoping all is well with you as well. Glad to see you on here posting! The more the Merrier! Have a Great Day!

VintageGal nothing like Insidious that was scary! this is just creepy, about two kids brother and sister who go visit their Grandparents but no t really their Grandparents. suspenseful creepy. Last weekend me and my Grandson watched CUJO and Silver Bullet good old movies but creepy as well! LOL! What so funny is when I went to the Dr.'s they had on Hocus Pocus and I was just laughing Loved that Movie and everyone was just staring at me. great Movie!

VintageGal I will probably be watching movies tonight with the little Man, he has been so bored lately and all grandparents have been doing their Honey do list so no time for him, so this Nana will be spending the time with him. He Loves watching movies.

Oh another movie called MAMA and MA those are good thrillers not to scary.

Only my kid...  as he says... joined the Navy so he wouldn’t have to do landscaping anymore. Has the senior chief ask if anyone knows how to run a weed trimmer. My kid says yes he did landscaping for two years. Senior chief says good come with me. Guess who is weed trimming, edging, and leading a crew to clean up around the barracks?  He’s like this isn’t a million dollar mansion job (the properties he worked on were in the multi millions lake front houses) this is worse!  Only my kid. 

oh and we talked before about the issues with his contract when he enlisted...  they did not give him the credit for the 3 recruits he brought in or the year in DEP on the new contract

Ok... I have asked this before, and I did get the link. I cannot find it, and I have been going backwards yet unable to find it.

What is the link to the photo packages?

Embarrassedly yours,

~MaterNauta :)

PS: Shanny, that's hilarious!!!!

https://navyformoms.ning.com/group/bootcampmoms/page/division-t-shi....

Try this. 

MaterNauta,

I posted the link for you in my post that I just did. :) 

PartyOfSeven: *Thank you!*

MaterNauta,

Your very welcome. 

Thank You PartyofSeven, Hoping your day is going well.

one of those movies has been coming on Cable but never watched it, Thanks VintageGal will need to check it out!

Phoenixmom- Hey, how are you? It's Friday. Yay. 

It's been busy but good. My family just left. It was a great visit. 

Loved the prayer this morning. 

Amen!!

Shanny - tell him Navy stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself! As far as credit for DEP/recruiting - you only go up 1 rank for that….did he still leave as an E1 or E2? My daughter left as an E2 with DEP, 2 recruits (her younger bros) and PFA/DEP test passing.

Vintage - I hope you get that call as well! 

Shanny - tell him Navy stands for Never Again Volunteer Yourself! As far as credit for DEP/recruiting - you only go up 1 rank for that….did he still leave as an E1 or E2? My daughter left as an E2 with DEP, 2 recruits (her younger bros) and PFA/DEP test passing.

Vintage - I hope you get that call as well! 

So I was stalking the FB page for RTC and then went and did some chores. They posted the photos of this week's graduates and they are in their NWUs for the marching.

Hi PartyofSeven Family visiting How Nice! here working Blasting my music, LOL! making time go by fast. Listening to some Red Hot chili pepers (Hey-Oh).

For some reason my email notifications were off and I had to go back a bit to catch up.

I have a letter!!! Finally. It is a Sandboxx letter though, so at least 5 or 6 that he sent are missing :(. He said they have gotten the scholar flag, STAR flag, and marching flag. He said for all the tests they have taken so far, he has missed one question (I wonder if that helps with the scholar flag).

He said he has missed no points on inspections (what the heck has the Navy done to my baby??????!!!???!?!?!). He said there were some SEPs because kids could not stand quietly for an hour. He said he has not been personally disciplined for anything yet.

He has some good friends, and he seems happy. He is sorry he did not spend more time talking to his older sister (by 9 years) before he left .... they had a contentious relationship .... they are too much alike. Seriously ..... what HAS the Navy done to him???!?!?!? Now if they could just improve his penmanship .....

I am glad it is Friday. I did manage to get about 2.5 hours of work in today, bake a cake, make burger buns, mix 2 dips, cook bacon (for the burgers), do the groceries, go to the post office, do a load of laundry, write a 2-page letter to my SR, get caught up on this site, treat & do some chicken chores, and water vegetables. Now it's 11:30 and I want to go back to bed. It is hubby's birthday though, so I have some more things to get done (I have not wrapped any of his presents yet :(). 

Katherine YAY! Letters! and Happy Birthday to your Husband! as we would say in Spanish "Feliz cumpleaños!"