Norfolk Sailors - Family & Friends

We attended First Baptist for years; it is a great church but is actually closer to Virginia Beach than Norfolk. We now attend Virginia Beach Community Chapel, which we love.  We went to services on the base in Norfolk when we lived on the Naval Station. Really good worship service, but very small congregation.

video r, my sailors go to Blessed Sacrament on Granby in Norfolk.  The Priest is great.

Clamom, my son is getting an apartment in The Pines of York.  It is about 15 minutes from NN. Friends of ours live in Yorktown and recommended them.  We will be helping him move in next weekend. He will be driving to Norfolk until the Enterprise is towed to NN.  His sister is transferring to FL and he had to move.  He is currently on Enterpise, Hi ShortBecky and Carol in FL!  My son is a Nuke and will be with the ship for another couple yrs, til it is towed to Washington state.  The nukes have to monitor the reactor.  Not such a pleasant ship with all the dismanteling going on.

Hi Theresa, thanks for the endorsement for Pines of York!  It is nice to know it is a good choice.  This is his first time living alone.  I hope he doesn't keep to himself too much.  He isn't very outgoing. He needs a couch if you know of any for sale!  We will be checking craigslist this weekend.

Theresa, thanks for the offer, I will let him know. My daughter said to go to a store called "The Dump" in Norfolk. She said they have lots of furniture at decent prices, open Fri, Sat. Sun so I guess we will go there this weekend as part of helping him move!  We may also check out a thrift store called "Second Time Around" if he can't find one there.  My daughter and her fiance got their couches there.

At the Dump not the thrift store!

Hi, you can also negotiate with the sales people at the Dump so don't take the listed price. Have a great day

My neighborhood is having its yearly yard sale, as well. It is usually really well stocked. Check out the Baycliff neighborhood in Virginia Beach off Mill Dam Road between Great Neck and First Colonial.  The sale is from 8-2 on Saturday.

Thanks to all for the furniture, yard sale, stores info. We are on a mission to get him one this weekend and we will have our truck along.

I am starting to look for houses for my Sailor and 3 other Sailors to rent when they return from deployment.  I am using a realtor to find the rental home and was told today that we probably wouldn't find a house that people would rent to 4 single Sailors.  I just about fell out of my chair.....

singingbird,

Sure you can send it to him. The problem with the ships store is that it is very small and limited to what they have. If they did carry it at one time they very well could be out of it as the store runs out of things often. I remember the things in the ships store were more for surviving life aboard ship and I don't know if sunscreen was something they carried or not.

If he needs it for his job he could talk to medical and see if they have some they can give him or maybe the ship's safety office.

I've not tried it yet but it may be cheaper to buy/send him stuff from amazon.com especially if you have a prime account with them.

Hey just some good info I came across ; my husband brought my son's car to what they call the Hobby Lobby on the base at Norfolk. Not only to they have tools a sailor can use to work on his/her own car, but they also do maintenance and repairs for you for a reasonable rate! Convenient and less expensive. :)

I was impressed too because they looked at my son's squeaky brakes and said they were fine, just needed to be cleaned.  We would have believed them and paid the $ if they said we needed a new brake job.

Anyone else here have a son/daughter that is driving a vehicle in Norfolk that is registered to you (the parents) in another state?

My son is driving my vehicle and the website says it needs to be registered in Virginia but since it will eventually come back to me I don't want to register it in Virginia since I live in Arizona. If the vehicle was in his name it wouldn't be an issue but it is in my name.

Anyone have experience with this? Do they enforce this for military folks in the area?

My son had his car there for over a year until deployment.  It was in his name but he kept it registered in Texas.  I know they want you to register in VA, but he didn't want to.  The car is back in Texas now.  We just paid the registration and mailed him the sticker for his car.

Dad, to get base decals for the car from the Pass and ID office, he'll need a notarized letter from the vehicle's owner giving him permission to drive the car along with proof of registration and insurance.  Pass and ID office is at 9040 Hampton Blvd Bldg, 757-322-2976.

Singingbird, just remember you can't send some things such as aerosols, and put the sunscreen in a ziplock bag :)  This is a good group for info and inspiration too!  Care Package Ideas

Tumbleweed, that's good to know!  My son had some work done at the shop at Little Creek, and had less than great results - in fact another shop said one aspect he was charged for wasn't done at all :(

Thanks all, I just called the DMV office and she told me their website is confusing on this issue. As long as I'm not in Virginia also then my son can drive my vehicle with an active duty id card.

Thanks everyone for the information.

Gwen B, at the time the car and my son were still in VA. 

Our sailor's car is in his name and it has Oklahoma plates (where his dad lives).  He will be attached to the Enterprise (we've been told) another two years and he will continue to keep Oklahoma tags.  This isn't a problem re: inspection because Oklahoma did away with inspections many years ago.  My DH and I live in the Dallas, Texas area so I'm not sure how the inspection would be handled for vehicles title/tagged in Texas (that has a strict inspection policy) but stationed in VA.

I agree with Dad of Sailor ~ I LOVE Amazon for sending things to my sailor, especially when the Enterprise was deployed last year.  I have a Prime account and it was easier, and with free shipping (with Prime), to have Amazon ship the items to Blake directly than to have them shipped to me and I in turn shipped them out to Blake.  I sent single serve "buckets" of Ravioli, Raman noodles, toothpaste, deodorant, books, trail mix, battery operated fan and batteries, Nutella, etc. via Amazon.

Gina

RE: Cars, registrations, etc.

Just a headsup.  My son kept his home address in FL as his permanent address with the Navy.  So of course, kept license, car registration, etc in FL.  When he received a traffic ticket in VA, uh oh.  He found out that Florida is a state that does not allow their drivers to go to traffic school, etc to get points off when the ticket was issued in another state.  There is no way to get points off....the only hope is to try and get the ticket dismissed.

So if your sailor is debating whether to change residency to his duty station state...or....keep it in his/her home state, this may be one factor to consider, depending on how his/her state handles things like this.

soonergirl,

How long did it take on average for him to receive the stuff you sent him from amazon?

diannep - thanks, just as helpful here as you are in the bootcamp group.

Hi...about the car registration etc....our sailor just switched his registration to VA...hope that wasn't a mistake..car was registered to my husband but in NY and NY requires inspections  car isn't here so we had him register it in his name in VA and get his own insurance.  Everything is so confusing....but it wasn't convenient for him to drive it back here for inspection...

Help needed

My daughter is moving SAT/Sun  may 4  ALL of her help baled on her she needs to be out by tue 7 th so she can go to FL  please we need help

she is a single mom with 2 kids this is a quick move less then 30 days so the navy could not move her , also she just came from a 2 week out to sea ( Bush) please if ANY one can come over to help  . she is off of little creek norfolk VA  , I drove drove down from ohio to help please give me a call 614- 390 1722

we need some guys to help move some big stuff

Gwen:  Tell him to drive safely!  :-)

Dad of Sailor:  Thanks for the kind words! 

My son's permanent residence is not Virginia.  He purchased and registered his car in VA, and because of his active military status is exempt from the annual registration renewal fee and personal property tax, just has to present his LES each year. Military local vehicle registration exemption  Also this VA DMV FAQs

Marcy, thanks so much for this info!

They have to wear uniforms at all times while deployed on a ship. They will wear civies when they pull into liberty ports and go on liberty. They can take them but their space is very limited. My son only took a few civies and he still says he "brought way too much" because he's so limited on space.

That is so neat, love it!!

Hope they didn't make them come in to work today just to take that picture. Hope their Chain of Command was smart enough to do this during the week.

Neat picture...

Well Dad Of A Sailor  I appear to be following you. Twin 1 just got orders today for Norfolk on a destroyer.  He wanted Italy but two others in his class got that.  He was hopeful as he finishes third in his class. 

CO-TwinSalorsMom,

Congrats to your son and welcome to the Norfolk group. My son also wanted Naples Italy but they gave that to a girl in his class. He got the Bush in Norfolk.

As far as being at sea, it varies depending on what they are doing. Work ups (underway periods prior to a deployment) are normally 2-4 weeks at a time then in port a couple weeks and back out. Deployments last 6-10 months. Your son being on a Destroyer may be shorter periods as it is easier for a Destroyer to get in and out of port than it is a Carrier.

Please let me know if you have any questions, I've been doing a lot of searching for my son as they don't get a lot of information when they arrive in Norfolk. Also, the base isn't setup very well for Sailors who live on the ship and don't have transportation. My son wasn't planning on getting a car but he found in short order that he couldn't make it in Norfolk without a car so I shipped his car to him.

Yes, there is a sea shore rotation for every rate in the Navy and an IT's first sea assignment is 42 months and the first shore assignment is 36 months. He has probably been in the navy about 9 months already so he would not even have 42 months left on his enlistment so he doesn't even have 42 months left in the Navy so he will be at this command for his entire enlistment. He will have to reenlist to get shore duty orders and he won't leave this ship until he's done 42 months onboard.

Here is the current sea/shore flow message that tells how long they have to stay at sea and be on shore duty. Scan down and find the IT

SEA SHORE FLOW ENLISTED CAREER PATHS

CO-Twin,

One good thing...your son being on a Destroyer he'll get to do computers and radio stuff. On an Aircraft Carrier they are in different divisions and do one or the other and never get experience on the other side of their job. Your son will get to do both.

While in port, the Naval Station chapel has services that I have seen younger sailors attend. On my daughter's destroyer, she and another person took turns conducting Sunday services, which was more of a Bible study and prayer time than a formal service. Your son may have an opportunity to become involved there. Hampton Roads has a lot of wonderful churches, so your son should be able to find a church home nearby if the base chapel is not to his liking. 

@Singingbird-you have it right.  Sailors are assigned to a ship for a period of time (in this case, up to 42 months); what the ship does during this time is another story.  There may be one or more deployments (defined as being away more than 90 days, anything less is an "underway"). There may be a shipyard period, there will likely be preparation for deployment (known as "workups") and then there are other underway periods.  A lot depends on the ship's maintenance cycle and what is happening in the world.  These days, budget concerns can play a huge role in how much time a ship spends at sea.  It is pretty safe to say your sailor should experience at least one deployment and a fair amount of sea time.  Keep in mind, being at sea doesn't necessarily mean visits to foreign ports.  My husband's last deployment he was at sea for nine months and he only had two days off the ship.  My daughter, on the other hand, had a six month deployment and had lots of opportunities to see foreign countries.  It is anybody's guess!

singingbird,

Lol, yeah reading that again I can see the confusion ..my post was kind of a mess. beachmom is exactly right, that post was talking about their rotation from from their current duty assignment (sea duty) to their next duty assignment (shore duty somewhere where they don't go to sea). It isn't talking about the amount of time they will be at sea or in port during their current sea duty assignment.beachmom summed it up perfectly.

Hope A got his application figured out and you're having some communication with him.

The large ships (carriers) have chaplains, I've never been on a small ship but I wouldn't think smaller ships would have an actual Chaplain. More than likely they have a crew-member that volunteers to run services for their faith. Hopefully others here can verify that.

Smaller ships such as frigates, destroyers, and carriers do not typically have a chaplain assigned to them permanently so while they are in port or on a short trip, there is not one on board.  However they do *try* to bring one along for deployments or sometimes very long underways. My husband did his first tour on a cruiser and now is assigned to a destroyer squadron staff.. He did two deployments with the cruiser and both times they had a chaplain.  His squadron has a combination of 10 destroyers and frigates and he has spent time on many of them while at sea. So far, they have always been able to secure a chaplain for each of those destroyers and frigates for deployments but of course it depends on the availability of chaplains.  All of the ships he has gone to sea with have always had groups of various faiths on the ships so the sailors can support one another and lead different services regardless of whether a chaplain is available or not. Hope that helps :)

My son was rear ended on 64 on his way to his apartment :(  He is okay and so is the lady that hit him.  His car didn't get too much damage but you never know.  Body work is so expensive. It is a 99 Firebird so hopefully the book value is more than the cost to repair it and it won't be "totalled"!  He loves that car, it was my husband's and we gave it to Nathan after he graduated Power School. He said it helps him feel connected to us.

Colleen,

So sorry to hear about your son getting in an accident. I hope it all turns out OK.

My second son who will be in South Carolina in a month for A school would love that car. I have twins one who will be here in a month and his twin in BC now.  The one in BC has always loved cars.  When He arrived at GL he said he got to talking cars with the guy drawing his blood and the guy only halfway filled the vials so he had to do it again.  My son wrote that he took about a cup and a half. LOL  Hope all works out well and he can get it fixed.