Norfolk Sailors - Family & Friends

Colleen in PA, my son had his car repainted at the Maaco in Portsmouth and they did a great job for a very reasonable price.  And when he selling it a few days before deploying overseas and the window did something screwy, they took the inside panel apart and fixed it for him for nothing, which I thought was pretty wonderful :)  http://portsmouth.maaco.com

Hi Colleen - usually the insurance company will tell you where. Otherwise I would have him ask the guys around the shipyard for a good place. I am sure some them have been in the area for a while and are not connected to the ship.  Good luck!  I hope all is well and no new orders yet?  Scott was glad to finally move on though he will be based in Norfolk and from the sounds of it the squadron has a rotation of 6months in Korea and then back to Norfolk. Right now he was told it would be for 3 years. Keep in touch it was nice to see your name pop up, sorry it had to be due to someone rear-ending him.  Joyce

Good morning all, definitely got to have a pool!  Living here in FL and in the tropical zone most have pools and we are fortunate to live on the coast just 1/4 mile from the open harbor of the Peace River so we have a breeze all the time. I can remember trying to get through the summers in PA and having an old house with no central air and the heat and humidity settling in in July and Aug. now that was the worst. I was happy to go to work. Plus it never really stayed long enough to adjust to it like down here. It starts in May and goes until Nov. so you adjust and again everything is air-conditioned and you have pools.

Stay safe FL being the lightening capital of the world just in the past week or so 3 have been struck by lightening just in our area and 2 did not make it. As much as I love to watch a storm you need to do it safely. The one guy was on his way to move in doors. The storm was still a ways a way and the sun was still out and was hit. He was the one who did survive.

Enjoy your weekend and 4th of July! Joyce

Tonya - I live in Punta Gorda right where Charlie came through and devastated the town as you well know. I have quite a few friends who had to ride out Charlie since they did not have time to leave and they said never again. If there is a storm anywhere near us they are leaving. With Charlie it was to go up the coast and then ended up making a right turn in the middle of the night while everyone was asleep and by the time they knew it was too late.

We did not move here until 2008.  If we were not right on the coast I do not know if I could take the heat and humidity and the bugs from what I have experienced.  Zephyrhills yes I know where that is at plus are you a relative to the lady that won the Powerball?

Is it your son, daughter or husband who is in the Navy and are they attached to one of the ships or on base in Norfolk? 

What do you do which has you going all over the state?  If you ever come my way let me know and if you have time to meet that would be great.

Have a great day!

Family Readiness Group...it is a group of spouses that provide support for families of Sailors in that command/ship.

Family Readiness Groups (FRGs) are a means of community support and assistance within a Navy ship or unit.  They plan events such as homecomings and fun get-togethers (meetings, barbecues, holiday events) during deployment.  USS Kearsarge has an awesome FRG, for example, tons of activities.  They're organized and run by elected volunteers who have a family member on the ship/unit.  

In addition to the Ombudsman, the FRG is another means of communication between the command and the sailor's family members.  

Some ways to locate yours - 

-  Ask your Ombudsman for the FRG contact info

-  Search Facebook to see if the FRG has a page.  When you find it, make a friend request that includes your sponsor's (sailor's) info (rate, rank, and your relationship) and be approved.    

-  Search N4M for a group for your ship or unit, and ask the members how to contact your FRG.

How to locate your Ombudsman and Family Readiness Group

Joyce Scott's proud Mom,  Nathan will be with the ship til they tow it to Washington.  He's a Nuke EM and the Nukes are needed to monitor the reactor.  Thanks for the advice.  I will tell him to check with the shipyard workers.  The girl who hit him has her ins. in TX so no help there with where to go.  It does need body work and the exhaust fixed so not sure if Maaco can do that.

I am so excited I almost pee'd.  Got a FB message from Stephen !!!  First I have heard from him in two and a half weeks. Oh well that does not actually sound that long but it sure has felt long.  He Loves being at sea, having great adventures and seen lots of neat places.  He said, "now I remember why I joined."  He said he will have lots to share later.  He sent a FB message because he couldn't get his email to work. 

Very exciting CO-Twin, I know that had to make your day. Glad he's doing ok an enjoying his deployment so far. Here's to safe travels for your Sailor.

LOL love your reaction to his message, how awesome you heard from him!  And that he's doing so well, love it.  In re chair, DofS, what are your thoughts?  I'm thinking I'd message him with some pics of chairs and see what kind he's thinking, also wondering about collapsed size for storage.  This one looks cool...http://www.chairpak.com/home.html

LOL don't feel dumb, there are so many Navy acronyms flying at you in the first year that your head spins! This one's easy LOL I was aiming my question at Dad of Sailor - just didn't feel like typing it all out! :)  

Kinda like how I think of you as Colorado Mom, not CO-TwinSalorsMom Ship03Div233 haha  In our "corpsman moms" group, most of us use our first names as we've gotten to know each other better, it's so much easier :)

You're right, I wrote my chair comment confusingly - sorry!  Anyway, hope you can find what your son is looking for, and hopefully they'll ship to an FPO address too.

The only "backpack chair" I know of is a chair that has straps that you can carry on your back like a backpack. I doubt that is what he's looking for and I'd bet he's just looking for one of those nylon folding chairs. I would ask for some clarification first as he will be the only one to tell you how much room he is going to have to store a chair and exactly what he's wanting.

Hello everyone, I know that many of the guys wanted chairs for when  family was coming for the Tiger Cruise since the sailors have to be on their feet most of the time in many of their jobs and there is no place on the ship for people to sit. They were looking for the small camp chairs since there is no room for storing things and then the family member took it back when they arrived at port after the cruise. I don't know what type of ship your son is on but I can tell you they would not be fishing off a carrier.  They might fish if at port somewhere with time off.  

Oh one other thing too they wanted ones that did have the straps since they have to go up and down narrow chairs quickly and they can not have it getting hooked on the railings.

Most ships are constantly moving and fishing isn't possible/allowed. I know we were allowed to fish once in awhile while at sea (off a carrier) but that was during designated times when the ship was stopped for a specific event like a steel beach picnic. Fishing is definitely not something they get to do very often so I doubt that would be why he wants a chair.

Well no tiger cruise in his near future, he is deployed for 7 months.  He is on a destroyer so it is small enough for fishing.  I did hear that they do fish sometimes from his ship and the cook prepares what is caught. I figured he wants a very small chair that fits in a duffle bag given where he sent me to look.  Maybe it is for any free time he has to sit on deck?  Does not sound like he has much free time though.  He said he is kept pretty busy.  Maybe it is for the room (what would you call that Dad?) a compartment maybe, where he works.

Life must be different on the smaller ships. I spent my time on carriers and we didn't get to fish or sit out on deck. singingbird's son was asking for sunscreen a while back so maybe those on the smaller ships get to fish and work on their tan a lot. :)

You're probably on the right track CO-Twin and probably just wants something to sit on when relaxing after a long day. Not many places to sit on a ship as I remember it. 

The place where their racks are (where they sleep) is called the berthing compartment and the chair could be for sitting in there. If you have a middle or bottom rack you don't get to sit up so seating is limited in berthing.

It depends, they are of various size and spread all over the ship. Normally broken down by division so if it is a small division they will be in a smaller bearthing, larger division in a larger berthing. My son started in a 140 man berthing and moved to a 32 man berthing recently. 

and they are called racks...normally stacked three high.

Hey Jackie!  Your question is really Theresa's department, as she lives there and has the scoop.  If you go back a page or so here to yesterday, she said that Busch Gardens Williamsburg is giving free admittance to Busch Gardens or WaterCountry, she had all the details.  Theresa, what else have you got?  

Jackie, how is your sailor these days?  New Orleans and Fleet Week seems like a long time ago, that was FUN!

Alcbcc, my son was on USS Wasp just for Fleet Week last year and had a blast.   Was your son too?  That was so cool, Ft. Lauderdale and New Orleans, tough duty LOL

at Marcy....he is doing good, loving his new rate at operations specialist.  it does seem like forever ago

Sorta related, this is coming up - Navy Motion Picture Service is presenting a sneak peak of "Pacific Rim" at Oceana on July 7 at 5 p.m.

Love this beach!  

USS Wasp is one of the Navy's eight LHDs - amphibious assault ships that are one step smaller than aircraft carriers.  They have aircraft and amphibious landing craft for transporting Marines, and have extensive medical facilities too.  Three are based in Norfolk - the Wasp, the Kearsarge and the Iwo Jima.

Each Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) typically has an LHD, a transport dock ship and a dock landing ship.  They carry Marine Expeditionary Units (MEUs).  As a corpsman with a Fleet Surgical Team, my son has been on three LHDs and they are truly awesome; their capabilities make them ideal for humanitarian and disaster relief missions.

Here is something else I saw for the holiday weekend.

The Norfolk Naval Sailing Center is offering free sailboat rides on the 4th of July! The fun starts at 10 am with the last trip at 4pm. Try something different this Holiday! Need more info? Call the Sailing Center at 757-444-2918.

Here is a video on living aboard for those who have not seen what it might be like. Of course depending on how old or new the ship is will determine how much space as well as the type of ship it is. On a sub for get it! God Bless all who are willing to serve on a submarine and thank you from the bottom of my heart, no way could I even conceive spending a week on one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXDdh5zRle0

I had some problems with this so you may need to copy and paste the URL.