Norfolk Sailors - Family & Friends

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.   

Oops, how could I miss USS Bataan!  They had the epic ten-and-a-half month deployment that ended February 2012.  

It's the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group - USS Iwo Jima, USS New York, and USS Fort McHenry - that's moving to Mayport Florida by early 2015 - about 3,000 sailors.  Smart, I think, not to concentrate so many Navy assets in Norfolk.

I've been fortunate to tour the Iwo several times. What an experience, LHDs are awesome!

Hi all! So, I'm watching the return home of the USS Eisenhower...so exciting!! But, I'm curious....who are all the civilians coming off the ship with the returning Sailors? How did they get on the ship? Some are children, so I am assuming they are family members. Can anyone clarify?

Oh...nevermind. One of them said...part of the Tiger Cruise. :)

Thanks for the reminder TJCsMom, so cool to watch live!  http://navylive.dodlive.mil/2013/07/02/eisenhower-strike-group-home...

I think I will have to find out all about this Tiger Cruise!! I want to go on a big ship with my boy!! :)

@Jackie, more 4th of July free stuff - 
Sony Pictures has announced that they are offering Active Military and Veterans two free passes to Roland Emmerich 's presidential thriller White House Down  on the 4th of July.
Tickets can be obtained at select Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theatres, Cinemark Theatres, or Carmike Cinemas theaters by showing proper military identification.  Seating is being made available on a first-come, first-served basis at each participating location.

there is also going to be a movie staring Tom Hanks on My son Steve's ship the USS Bainbridgehttp://www.wvec.com/news/military/USS-Bainbridge-deploys-211575511....

I see a lot of your sailors are going to be or are already stationed here in Norfolk on various ships. We will be praying for all of them.  We also would like to let your sailors know that there is a place where they can go to relax, play games, eat lots of food, etc....in our home on the weekends. We have been opening our home for the last 13 years here and we love it! :) My husband spent 20 years in the military-10 enlisted and 10 as a Navy Chaplain. So these servicemen and women have been on our hearts for a long time. We even met at a Christian Servicemen's Center in California....I hope you will pass our information along to your sons and daughters...you can check us out at our website:wwwopenbibleministries.com  and we also have lots of pictures posted for you to see all the fun times we have had. We even have a bible Study evening during the week should they be interested.

Thanks for taking the time to read this ladies and God bless you and your sons and daughters!

Yvonne Wagner

Coach Shelia welcome  my son is also on the Truman.  where is a Truman site that you may want to check out.

Welcome Josh's Mom and Coach Sheila!  This is a fun and active group.  

Josh's Mom, we have this Iwo Jima group - USS Iwo Jima - that has info about the ship and how to get on the Ombudsman and FRG lists too.  There is this group Amphibious (Gator Navy) to join as well.

I just came across this amazing Cox Video Diary - USS Iwo Jima Homecoming December 20, 2012.  It's beautiful tribute to our sailors and their Navy families, featuring Navy moms and wives - Kleenex alert!  :)

Good morning all - our son just moved to the Vanguard Squadron and I was hoping to find a group of moms and dads who have a son or daughter who are part of the Vanguard.  This is going to be all new to us since Scott is now headed in a new direction. He loves the move but is something totally different from what he was doing on the Big E.  Any help is much appreciated.  Of course I will stay tuned to our group here too!  Thanks! 

Good morning all...

Wondering if anyone knows of a place or places where a Sailor can relax and hang out and use their laptop with wifi? He knows about the internet cafe at C-9 but I was hoping to find something out in town to get him off base for a while. I've searched online and can't find anything. Seems like there would be some hang-out places in an area with such a large military population.

He's tried Starbucks but you can only drink so much coffee and he feels guilty hanging out in there for long periods.

Are there any internet cafes in the area, rec centers, anything off base where Sailors hang out?

Appreciate any information on where your Sailors hang-out and relax. This is more for the moms who have Sailors living on the ship and don't have homes/apartments to relax in.

I think my son has been to that coffee shop, I sent him to one down by the campus and he really liked it but said it was very busy and hard to get a place to sit.

I've never hung out in coffee shops, is it ok to sit there for hours at a time? I would seem to me you should sit there while you drink your coffee but should vacate once you've completed your cup. Is that how these places work or do kids hang out in them for hours at a time tying up chairs and tables from other customers?

The Ghent area around Old Dominion University has a number of coffee places; Fair Grounds on Colley Ave in Norfolk is a converted house where people hang out, they even have board games.

Downstairs at C-9 is a Starbucks and widescreen TVs and people hang there with their laptops all the time, more relaxing than the internet cafe upstairs that's just desks.  But I can understand his desire to get away!  And yes, people do hang out at coffee bars - order occasionally and sip slowly :)

Prayers being said for the safe return of the sailor who fell off sub. Please keep us posted Theresa...

Josh'smom, sending you a PM :)

Devastating news about the sailor, my prayers join with all of yours.

So sad to hear about the Sailor today, God bless the Sailors family. Rest easy Shipmate!

Filled with sorrow for the lost sailors family, Such a tragic accident was it at Norfolk?  How does that happen? 

Florida Mom  do you know from your son, did they find the sailor? 

Here is the news story; so terribly sad.  No further details at this point are being given at this point, pending notification of next of kin according to WVEC. http://hamptonroads.com/2013/07/navy-divers-recover-sailors-body-no...

WVEC.com - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VA_SAILOR_OVERBOARD_VAOL-?SI...

CO-Twin,

Are there many members, I wouldn't imagine there are not a lot of twins in the Navy and even less with parents on N4M's?

Hope you guys get a good turnout.

A sad day indeed.  Thank you Theresa for updating us.  I did a search and found that Seaman Acosta is from Plainview, Texas -  http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/jul/08/navy-identifies-sailor-overboa...  A handsome young man and beautiful family.  Prayers for them all....

I posted in the 'Texas Moms' group; hopefully there are Navy moms nearby.  Plainview is a small town of about 22,000 between Amarillo and Lubbock. 

I am in Keller (3 1/2 hour drive away).  I will assume he will come back to Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Forth Worth and then the Patriot Guard Riders would escort him to Plainview. I will attend any service that I can.