Boot Camp Moms (and loved ones)

Rosanne - So exciting!!! I am glad you are getting a letter. 

We have a lot of lurkers on this site, but we are always glad to hear from them. At least I do. I feel like I am talking to an empty wall at times when no one posts. But we also all have busy lives as well. 

Roseanne - that's exciting! I can't wait to get a letter!

Patience is a virtue!

Lurking is totally fine!  Just don't ever be afraid to jump in with any questions you may have....someone will be able to help!

LMCinTN - If you drop your son from your insurance does that affect your premium? I don't know if this is an issue or not. 

If that is not an issue, you might have to just wait until open enrollment and not add him back on your family plan. I know this is not what others would post and say, but at the time when my son was just out of BC, my husband would not remove him from our policy, despite what I told him. When I called our insurance company directly, they told me that they would defer everything to Tri-Care. In due time, my husband finally just did not add him on as a family member on our family coverage - and we had changed insurance as well. 

You might try calling the insurance company directly. (HR in my experience has not always been helpful to the employee.) Or seeing if you can go higher up the chain of command. They are looking for a proof of life circumstance change to cover their liability. Before the laws changed, I don't think this was so hard. 

Another option, do you have an ombudsman for your son's A school, that you can reach out to and ask if they can help in anyway?

Rosanne - woohooo - STAMPS IN THE HOUSE! It's such a great feeling! 

B'sNukeMom - love that Charlie Brown meme - sooo can relate - esp. in the early weeks of BC! 

LMCinTN - I just reached out to my insurance to do this same this week (still waiting to hear for confirmation). I explained on the phone and via email that they don't have official insurance cards - that they just show their military ID when they need medical care. Then I sent a picture of my son's ID. I'm hoping that's sufficient. I'll keep you posted. 

I got to see my sailor's GF in the PIR video - she is upfront as a flag so it made it easy. Then her mom sent me actual pictures! She looks so good and her smile is so contagious!  Funny... I held it together at my son's PIR - but watching hers, alone in my office - I got all the feels that I held back last Friday - just overwhelming pride for both of them. This isn't an easy journey - but it's moments like this that make it all so very worth it! 

CBMom hope you enjoyed the best hug ever! 

LMCinTN - If you can't get HR to drop him, at least call your insurance company and let them know he has TriCare and they are not primary. BelovedbyHim, might have more insight, as she is more familiar with TriCare. 

Tammy - Definitely a Proud Momma / Momma in Love moment!

LMCinTN - you might try getting a copy of his orders for proof of life event. I work in licensing and personal lines ins. and they usually need something official in writing showing the person is enlisted. I don't do group health insurance, so that may be different. I would 2nd whoever suggested talking to the actual ins. company in case they have a work around. Unfortunately, even the littlest things are now difficult to accomplish in the world of insurance. :(

AgnesB - Thanks for sharing! I agree - Insurance is becoming more and more difficult to deal with. 

LMCinTN - You are now the designated most knowledgeable person on this!! I will do my best to keep track of this information, but I am glad you figured out at least a plan of attack!!

LMCinTN -- They are just being stubborn. Keep pushing back.  If you can have him scan his orders (His name and the Navy Logo and a date should be fine.  You don't need to give them more than that) You can submit that if they need "Proof" but the truth is they DO NOT need proof.  You have told them he has other coverage and that is all that is legally required.  It may or may not reduce your insurance rate.  That may be part of why they are arguing.  Just keep asking for the next person up on the chain till they agree.  Tricare WILL push to have them made primary despite what you or the insurance company say.  That's their Job... to reduce costs.
https://www.tricare.mil/Plans/Eligibility/ADSMandFamilies

LMCinTN -- Sorry... Just now getting through all the emails from the last 2 days... Yep, it's not that you can just "Say" that you want Tri-Care to be Primary.... They are forced to be Secondary by the "rules".  Please do let us know if going on this site works. 
Honestly there is NO reason for these HR companies to be so Difficult!! I'm sure most of it is out of Ignorance but it's annoying every time I hear of a mom (or dad) having this issue!

Tricare has two sets of rules, one for active duty, and one for dependents.  Active duty are not allowed to have any other insurance, and are expected to deal with it not being on other family plans.  Dependents can have other insurance, in which case Tricare must be secondary.  I'm on Tricare for Life, which is just Medicare with Tricare as the part B +.  

If one of your sailors is having an issue, they should call Tricare directly. In my experience, they're very responsive, and are used to helping new sailors making the transition to the Tricare requirements.

LMCinTN, I know that you are hard at work with this insurance thing but just wondering if anyone told you to not remove your recruit until he becomes a Sailor. That does not happen until PIR. I know we all want to get our ducks in a row and do everything just right but   Occasionally things happen beyond what we expect. It is very important to keep them on your insurance until PIR  just in case. Your a awesome Mom working so diligently just wanted to put this out there for anyone who doesn't know this. Prayers for your recruit/Sailor. 

LMCinTN - glad you got that solved! Insurance companies are such a hassle.  I worked with medical billing for 10 years. It's a headache!

Got TWO letters from my girl yesterday! She's doing well. Says it tough, as she expected, but she's digging deep and handling it. She was made section leader.  So excited for her and her journey.

Rosanne - That is wonderful!! If she is a section leader, it will be easier to spot her during PIR. Keep in mind though that things can change at the last minute. It doesn't mean that your SR did anything wrong, but the RDC might decide they need to move people around for various reasons. That happened to my son. 

LMCinTN - I am so glad that you were able to hopefully get this issue resolved. 

Chipmunk - Thanks!  Yes, definitely keeping that in mind.  My daughter even said it herself, telling us the pin she gets to wear as long as she doesn't get "fired"! Fingers crossed!

*the pin - typing too fast!

JNMnavymomOH - any updates... or more details.. it is so hard when things change and you don't have many details.. our sailor got ASMO'd back for two weeks..  we had taken the make arrangements flexible..

Thanks for asking.  My SR was pushed back a week.  They did not get a call to update on status.  I reached out to the PAO on Wednesday and received a 2 min phone call about 8pm. So now his PIR is 10/14.  I have not heard when the next OPFA is for him.  He said he wasn't given his time for the run, so I have no idea how far off he still is.  I know he can see the finish line.  He said after passing BS21 that it was boring and he was ready to be done with it.  

LMCinTN  -- No need to be sorry!! But Yes for others following along  Northwoodsmom is correct.  While they ARE Covered from Day 1 of Boot camp, IF something happens and they get separated before they finish BC then you have to get them BACK on your insurance and sometimes that can be a HUGE hassle!! AFTER PIR then yes, take them off!  You are also now our resident Expert!!

Rosanne --YEA!!!! Letters are AWESOME!!! 2 letters are Twice as AWESOME!!!!!

Be sure to join your PIR group.  Here are the links:

 PIR DECEMBER 2022

PIR NOVEMBER 2022

PIR OCTOBER 2022

Good Morning everyone!!! May you all have a wonderful day today. In the past, I don't think the SRs made calls on Sunday, but if they still have the Chapel services divided up for distancing, there might be calls in the afternoon. When my sailor was at BC, Sunday was the only time they were allowed to write from what he said. 

They may attend chapel and they also spend their day catching up on things like folding laundry, polishing ?, studying. My son's letters generally started with, "I only have 10 minutes to write."   The one week I did not receive a letter on my normal Thursday delivery, I found out in a phone call that following Saturday that he had gone to medical for a persistent cough, and he wanted to make sure to have it checked out because he did not want to get set back because he knew I was expecting him to graduate on such and such date. 

PIR Review for 9/30:ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!!! Driving back right now from Great Lakes and will be on the road until midnight. Wow what a weekend. It’s mostly a blur though on specifics but graduation was amazing. They are so serious wow! He passed right by me right and front and did not see me cause he was doing his job being di used on marching. He’s sooo skinny now I was worried. I had a birds eye view of him luckily throughout three graduation which was wonderful. I enjoyed the graduation especially the part with the gun throwing and twirling but honestly by 10am it was all I could do to not jump off the bleachers and run up to give him a hug! Tammyrunbikelovefaith- that was the BEST HUG EVER!!! We both completely broke down. It was crazy after that. He had to run to go check in and grab his phone and then met us at the photo lab which was complete CRAZY CENTRAL. He hadn’t listened to me about mailing home his photos and had ordered a ton of them but hadn’t paid so I paid for them having no idea if they were right or not or what was going on with other things being mailed out later. I think he got the division yearbook or something? Package C? But package C was not on the list they gave. We got back to the hotel and he was able to then see his little sis, girlfriend, aunt and grandparents. It was very emotional especially with his sister. He then talked non-stop for several hours about all his times and experiences he was permitted to talk about.  We then got a clothes folding lesson and then got to give him a bday cake then which was nice since we couldn’t celebrate his birthday last week. We ordered food and hung out till he had to go back. He went back really early -730. I thought this was crazy till we pulled up and there were tons of other Sailors checking in at gate 8. The main gate that you could driveway through had like a 2 mile back up so I’m glad we dropped him off. Then he told us his flight was leaving in the afternoon but he didn’t know when he would take the bus to thr airport. He texted me from the bus around 400 and we all hurried to get up and head over to O’Hare. We found the USO office very easily since I was rereading Chipmunk’s directions above the Delta airlines station. Let me tell you that USO office was the best! They put us all in a family room and we got to spend several hours of pretty good quality time with him-he’d had no sleep so was a little zombie like- and they have us food and drinks and it was wonderful! And they are all volunteers. Shout out to Mike whose daughter is going in the Air Force soon- he was incredibly helpful and patient with my family. His daughter is not even in military yet but as soon as she signed up he decided to start volunteering! We have a donation on our way out to his terminal. We were able to all get gate passes. It was very emotional when he left and when everyone saw all the Sailors on that flight everyone started clapping for them so the crying restarted lol. My daughter completely lost it and I was taking care of her trying to calm her down when we realized just after leaving the secures area that she forgot her phone. It took me 45 min to go back through security. Another passenger saw a Good Samaritan hand it in to one of the ohare staff but apparently there are like 4 different businesses that work there and they all have different processing for lost and found - it was crazy. Do not misplace anything there - I don’t know that we will get it back even though someone found it right away. I met someone else who also left a phone and they even told her it was recorded to be in lost and found but the desk was closed and she was unable to obtain it. So that whole mess just made things even more emotional but I finally left the airport and found my family. We got some rest and food and then left this am. 

Wow! I filled it up! Anyways - so good to be getting calls from him now- I LOVE IT! And to hear him asking for my advice again. He says A school is “cool.” Poignant mom moment though- I brought his chapsticks because he has trouble once it gets cooler and even sometimes when it’s warm and he told me he didn’t need them- because he already had some!! He’s taking care of himself now like an adult. Amazing! Just knocked me over. Super painful to say goodbye and I was sick to my stomach again but better today now that he’s re-settled and sounds much better/got some rest. He’s actually excited about the new place. Thanks to all of you here! You got me through the past few months and especially this weekend. I was talking to some of the moms and many of them are just on fb and didn’t know about this group- so they may be joining soon! Best moms live here though;) Happy week to all!

Roseanne- Congrats on section leader!!! Wow!! 

JNMNavymomOH- Hang in there! BNMHs - it will all soon be worth it! Hoping 10/14 is the final date- keep us posted. We are all rooting and praying for you and your Sailor. 

CBMom, it sounded like you had a amazing time. So happy for your son and your family. Prayers for a safe trip back home. Congratulations again!

Thanks Northwoodsmom!

CB Mom - Congratulations to your son! Sounds like an awesome trip!! (except for the lost phone). And it bet it WAS the best hug ever!! It's amazing watching them grow into young adults!  Safe travels home!

Got to talk to my girl today for 50 minutes. Best phone call ever! She sounds great!

Roseanne- 50 minutes?! Fantastic!! How’s she doing?

CBMom -- WOW!!! Sounds like you had a wonderful time!! (Lost phone not withstanding! I Hope you get it back soon!) Yes, They do grow up so much and so suddenly.  Have a Safe trip home!  Welcome to the Hive!!

Rosanne -- Congratulations on the 50 minute phone call!!!

CBMom - I am getting teary eyed just reading your post!  What amazing memories to cherish!  Congratulations again!

Roseanne - a 50 minute call is awesome!  Still waiting for my first letter and my first phone call - I'll be so glad to hear his voice!

JNMNavyMomOH - Hang in there - praying that 10/14 will be the day!

LMNCinTN - did that letter do the trick for your insurance company? I'm now running into trouble and they are pushing on this whole thing of "you have to notify us within 30 days of the new coverage taking effect" or you have to wait till the next open enrollment to drop him (which isn't until January 1st). Waiting to hear back from my son to get the letter -but I think they are going to be sticklers about this. So annoying. It doesn't change the premiums AT ALL so I don't get why they care that I want to drop him. I even told them he will get in BIG TROUBLE if he uses my insurance. After working with our HR rep, my next step is to make sure it's at least secondary insurance. Ugh. 

JNMNavyMom-  Glad it was just a week he got pushed back. Prayers he gains the speed on his run that he needs. Big hugs to you on this emotional rollercoaster of the great unknown! 

CBMom - Wow - sounds like an incredible time! So glad you enjoyed that hug! I remember sitting there right around 10 thinking... enough already - let me get to my sailor! LOL! Welcome to the other side of bootcamp! It is pretty wonderful. My son also is really taking charge of himself and his own needs. It blows my mind time and time again. And he ordered all his photos and paid for them. I saw the receipt. I can't believe how much money he spent! Crazy - but so thoughtful because he knew how much I would want pics and to be able to share with others.  Hope you get that phone back soon!

Roseanne - what a lovely call! Congrats to your SR! 

My son's GF also had her PIR this weekend - though the whole thing had a ton of challenges - including zero sleep between Friday and getting to Aschool Saturday. And now that she's there - she said she might not actually start classes until January!! Poor thing. Wish they could've at least allowed her more time for the weekend with her family and my son before she had to ship off to just now wait around for school to start (of course she'll have work/duties till then but.... I really wish they would give all the new sailors at least all of Saturday with family befor sending off to A school. Welcome to military life!)

CBMom - sounds like an amazing time!  

Rosanne - a 50 minute phone call - wow!  That does the heart good <3

Be sure to join your PIR group.  Here are the links:

 PIR DECEMBER 2022

PIR NOVEMBER 2022

PIR OCTOBER 2022

JNMNavymomOH - prayers & fingers crossed that's the final date for PIR for your son and he makes his run!!

Tootie - My daughter left 9/12 - it took almost 3 weeks to get our first letter.  Hope you get one soon!  

And thanks everyone.  My heart is so happy right now. 

tammybikerunfaithlove - the letter that my son got from the TriCare website worked perfectly to remove him from our family insurance. When we submitted it, we said that the letter was dated retroactive to the first of the month of the month he left for bootcamp, but that we could not request him to be removed from insurance until such time that he PASSED all of his tests and assessments and finished bootcamp (end of August). This seemed to satisfy them, and they went ahead and removed him effective 10/1 and sent us a confirmation letter today. FINALLY. WAHOOOOOOOOO!!!!! Best of luck on your end. I hope it goes somewhat smoothly, or as best as we can hope. 

tammybikerunfaithlove -- It's a bit of a catch 22 for GL.  They only have so much room and they expect that X number of SR's will leave each week and X number more will arrive each week. They do not have tons of extra space! (~1000 leave and arrive each and every week!). The A schools have fewer Sailors arriving and so they are better able to house them longer. (Think 100ish or less each week) The Good news is that she'll have some time to recover from BC and adjust to this new phase.  The waiting is a bit boring but it's not the end of the world and she should get to go home for Christmas!! In the Fleet it's Iffy but in A school it's 99% for sure!

LMNCinTN-- awesome info to know!!  We should make a Sticky with that info and your wording is PERFECT to use with these insurance bureaucrats!!  "The letter was dated retroactive to the first of the month of the month he left for bootcamp, but that we could not request him to be removed from insurance until such time that he PASSED all of his tests and assessments and finished bootcamp."

belovedbyHim - i think i misspoke... my son is at GL - and we are excited that he'll be home for Christmas. His GF is in Pensacola. Neither has a start date for school - but Pensacola is potentially not till January. She's a CTT. On an unrelated note - she just sent me a full picture of herself - she lost 20 lbs! I could see it in her face from some of the graduation pics - but holy smokes! She looks so fit and so strong. So proud of her.  And I think she gave that weight to my son - he's tall and thin but now he's tall and pretty buff! LOL 

LMNCinTN - thanks for the info. Hopefully this all works! 

Good Morning Everyone!!!

CBMom - Thank you for sharing your PIR experience! 

New Discussion above - PIR Weekend Experiences - Post Covid CBMom - PLEASE CONTRIBUTE!

I have been intending to put together a discussion for recent PIR information post Covid, and so after our recent comments from several of you about your experiences, I am asking if you would copy and paste those into the discussion above. I also am asking for other information to be shared there as well, such as motels, places you visited, shopped, including eating out. Whether you used a shuttle, taxi service, went to Meet n Greet. 

I love to read the posts here, in the comment wall area and more of the members see it, but in a week's time, it will be harder to locate. So, if you post here, then just copy and paste in the discussion above and add more details. 

The way the discussions work, as a new one is posted the older ones are bumped out of the queue, but when someone replies to an archived discussion it comes back into view. Once we have several comments posted on the discussion above, I will see about getting it linked to in our PIR weekend page that stays posted on the right side. 

Be sure to join your PIR group.  Here are the links:

 PIR DECEMBER 2022

PIR NOVEMBER 2022

PIR OCTOBER 2022

Final PIR group for December was added - 12/14/2022 - WEDNESDAY PIR.

No PIR 12/23 or 12/30/2022.

Chipmunk - Great idea. I added to your discussion.