Norfolk Sailors - Family & Friends

My son is on there courtneya. Are you a FB user?  Friend me if you like and we can private msg.  Kim Reynolds Dohner

CO-Twin,

So happy for you that you sold your house and have finally found a new one!  You are starting a new life, including school-May the Lord bless your time in college, giving you wisdom and the ability to remember and recall all that you learn, not only on the exams, but in the career you will step into. 

Yvonne

dohnermom,

I don't know if you've seen our posts or not, but my husband and I open our home on the weekends and invite sailors to come over to have a place to hang out, play board games and eat home cooked food. We've been doing this for the last 14 years here in Norfolk...my husband is a retired Navy Chaplain, so ministering to these sailors has been on our heart for a long time. We would love to invite your son over if you think he would be interested. If you want to know more about us, just go to our page on this site.

Yvonne and John Wagner

We'll keep praying about your house selling CO-Twin. God has his timing! :) 

Happy to hear your son is coming home. Is he hunting for Elk? We love Elk-better than Venison. :) We had friends who use to live in Craig and they always gave us some. yum.

Yvonne

CO-Twin, Thanks for the idea! I never thought of that. But it sure makes sense, because my posts do disappear after a while. I will send Nancy a message today.

Yvonne

CO-Twin,

What a great idea! I never thought of that. You're right though-my posts do disappear after a while. I think I will check into that. Thanks!

Yvonne

sylviar14 - my son is also on the McFaul - just coming up on his first year anniversary on the ship - he goes by D-13 and is in deck division - hope your son is getting settled - mine is very happy and loves being in the Navy and on board ship -

We'd love to invite your sons, Sarah and sylviar over to our house on the weekends. Go to our page and you will see what exactly we do. 

Yvonne and John

sylviar, We provide a ride to 2 other sailors who come over to the house, so giving your son a ride is no problem.

someone posted a reference to viewing the evening colors, what does that mean?  I am new to being a Navy mom.

Hey All!  Any Bataan Mom's?

Thanks, CO-TwinSalorsMom for Colors answer.  I thought it might be something like that.

yeay!! I can't wait to see it all either! I'll be in Norfolk this weekend, God willing.

Have a great time this weekend!  One thing I can add about Morning and Evening Colors on base:  "Taps" is not played, for which I'm grateful!  Too mournful.  Each flag raising and lowering ceremony has its own ceremonial bugle song.  Morning Colors is upbeat, and Evening Colors is more subdued.  You can play them at this link:  http://www.navyband.navy.mil/ceremonial_music.shtml  I've heard them with a quick flourish added at the end, sort of a punctuation  :)

When I was at the Navy lodge for BC  PIR for one of my boys, had my wind open and during colors there was a bugle playing what I remember as taps, could be wring but a bugle playing non the less. My son said that was evening colors when I told him about it the next day. 

in regards to the evening or morning colors; who has the job of raising or lowering of the flags?  Hope someday to be able to see this.

June - thanks for the prayers and I will be praying for your's and everyone's safe travels too.

thanks Marcy! I'll come back and share my experience with you all! I looked up the weather forecast and it seems like it will be sunny and in the 70s in Norfolk!! yippee!!

All of you moms who have been in contact with us, please give us a call or text while you're here. Unfortunately, because of John's recent back surgery we won't be able to attend this year. :( We hope all of you have a wonderful time! Especially seeing your sons and daughters.

Yvonne and John

Accurate-Tune Plus 757-226-8863, JT is the gentleman to talk to. My son had several things done there and I talked to him personally.  They also have great reviews and we were referred to them. 

http://accuratetuneplus.com/

My son also had work done by JT at Accurate-Tune.  I would recommend them also.

I hope all you moms who were able to be here this weekend for fleet week had a great time. 

I wish we could personally meet some of you, especially those who we've been in contact with. :)

Just a reminder...if any of you think your son or daughter would be interested in joining us and other sailors at our house on the weekends, we would be happy to have them contact us or we contact them. We had a great time last night eating Rubens and playing Settlers of Cataan. We play a  lot of board games here. :) 

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend here.

Yvonne and John

Thank you for the add. Hi all! We are new to Norfolk. By we I mean my new young sailor just got stationed there. Anything you can tell me about the base and area would be great.

Sad for my son. He went back to get his Elk and it was gone, A lion carted it off.

Forever proud... When my boys were little our local vet took us along for a vet call to a local wildlife rehab center. The lady there showed up the lion enclosure. She had platforms built up in trees that were 8 to 10 feet up. She told us how the DOW drops off road kill for her and they put an elk in the enclosure and the lion will grab it and jump up on the platform with it!! That is how strong they are. They also have the ability to open their mouths wide enough to grab an adult human skull. 

My son also went right from the airport to a moving ship when he arrived at norfolk. At some point on deployment he was assigned a barrack so he did have a place to go when he got back. There are also REALLY nice storage places that are really cheap for the sailors to store their stuff.

CO_Twin! How terrible! All that work for nothing! So, I guess I won't be buying a freezer. :)

Proud AG Mama, Welcome! The base-pretty big! :) The area:there's a lot to do here, from museums to the beach to Busch Gardens, to Williamsburg, (this is a big history area).  And a little farther away is DC, just to mention a few.

And if your son wants a home cooked meal and likes to play board games, go bowling, mini golfing he would be welcome to join my husband and I and other sailors at our house on the weekends.  We get together on Saturday evenings from 5 to 9 and on Sundays from 1 to 5. 

We've been here for the last 14 years inviting sailors, soldiers and marines over to have a place to hang out when they're not busy doing other things. :)

Forever proud, we would be happy to invite your sailors over here too when he gets back.

Yvonne and John Wagner

P.S. If you want to know more about us, just go to our page on this site.

Yvonne - thank you so much.  Your invite is a God send. I don't know if I will be able to get my sailor to take the step of meeting new people, but I am sure going to try.

My son can be very driven. He was very focused and accomplished a lot in BC and A School. He has been at his station, like I think I mentioned, for a week. He seems to have lost his drive already.  He can be on the shy side. The sailors he has met so far are into computer games, which is fine short term, but he needs other interests. I would love to see him get out and join your group of sailors.Thanks again. You may be a life saver, at least how I am feeling right now.

Hello all!

I am back from my long weekend visit to Norfolk, or Nor-fick, as the locals call it. On Friday night, she drove us over to Ghent and had dinner. I liked the feel of the small town with the shops and restaurants. On Saturday, it was so great to see my daughter in her element while giving us a tour of her ship. She showed it with pride and explained so much to us. It was overwhelming! We also met some of her shipmates and I made sure to thank each and everyone of them for their service and sacrifice. After the tour of the Porter, we drove over to the Fleet Fest and enjoyed the music, food , car and bike show, and all of the informational booths and displays of the Navy jets and helicoptors. The lines were super long for the ship tours! It is breath-taking to see how humongous these ships are! After the fest, our Sailor took us to downtown Norfolk to the MacArthur mall because we had planned on catching The Book of Life movie, but before the movie we got to walk around the mall and do a little shopping! That is always fun!!

On Sunday, we went to Grace Bible Church I think that is in Virginia Beach. My daughter has been going to this church since she got to Norfolk and really likes it. It is similiar to our home church in Chicago but on a much smaller scale. After that we went to Lynn Haven mall and found the Pizzeria Uno with Chicago style deep dish pizza because that is what she was in the mood to eat. Well, it was ok, not as good as Chicago but I give it credit! The rest of the day we just hung out at the hotel and lo and behold, my Sailor dozed off and rested. I caught myself just staring at her while she slept with amazement at who she has become in her Navy journey. God bless her!

For anyone who's loved one is on a destroyer...our FRG is selling a beautiful ornament. It does not have a ship name on it so can be used for any destroyer. Please contact me if you would like to order. 

No, they are acrylic. They are 5.5 by 5.5 white. The color is just a piece of paper. They are called "Swoflakes". $15. Please contact frgjasondunham@gmail.com if you are interested in ordering.