STA-21 ECP

Welcome Carol, good luck to your son at prototype. I hate hearing that his paperwork is missing - that could add some stress to his life with only a month to go before the deadline. I hope they find it soon or at a minimum he has a copy of it.

Our son has made it thru the initial interviews and has to put some final touches on his package before submitting it. I'm not looking for him to make it on his first attempt (hoping) but I think it is an excellent practice for him as he prepares for next year's application.

Here's to finding paperwork and being selected...

Thanks Chris and Mary - still no paperwork.... but it seems that all paperwork ( not only Sta -21) is missing for everyone who reported in this week, so I'm sure they will find it soon!

Ugh...keep my fingers crossed for you.

It's very nice talking to my son on a regular basis while he's at NSI. Tomorrow night the Officer Candidates get on-base liberty at the Officer Club. Lee said they will have a nice dinner and some refreshments. He said he will be looking out for his classmates who may be inclined to be "over-refreshed"! It seems somewhat surreal to hear him talk about the Offficer Club. He has duty tomorrow for five hours. He said he should be quite busy with a new class of ODS students arriving.

How wonderful Chris, sounds like he is settling in nicely :-)

Feeling so happy this morning, our son is deployed and we got our first phone call from the ship. So nice to hear his voice! They are waiting for the interview packages to arrive from the other ship that held the interviews. He found out yesterday that one of our Senators has written a LOR on his behalf, don't know if it will help but it certainly cannot hurt!

Chris is your son at NSI right now?

Yes, Whitney, he is at NSI right now. He graduates (or finishes) 7/9/10.

Oh i had no idea, B is there too! They had some mid terms lately, hopefully it will be less stressful soon!

Finally found the paperwork, Capt. interview tomorrow! :)

Lee was studying for two midterms last night. Are you going to graduation? Did B go to the o-club Sat. night?

Good news Carol! Keep us posted re the interview.

Brady went to the O club, on Sat, afternoon with his brother. No I have an internship and I can't miss that many days.

Yay Carol. I'm sure he will do great with the Captain.

Whitney --- Did Brady get selected his first application or ??

Mary, yes, Brady got selected on his first application and he got his pilot option (he's a rescue swimmer so he's always been in the back of the helo he wanted to get up front!!!). Good luck to every one who has interviews. I remember he was so stressed out.

Thanks for sharing that, I've seen cases that it has taken three and four applications. Our son is prepared not to make it the first time but we can still hope for the best.

Brady's whole philosophy in life is to give his very best, so he put every bit of energy into his navy career, I think he spent about 2 or 3 months studying for the SAT and ACT, he raised his scores quite a bit (I know for sure he raised his ACT score 6 points from high school). He planned on apply for the STA-21 before he was eligible (several of his commanding officers told him he should apply). I know he met with several people who had gone through the program or who had been interviewers to learn more about the process. They normally find out results in OCT (i think) but it was well into Nov (because of governmental funding). Brady found out on DEP in the middle of the ocean.

Whitney, sounds like Brady had a well laid planned which always helps. Our son was assigned cranking duty in the officer's wardroom and that seemed to have a lot of impact on him. He has received a lot of support and mentoring from those in the wardroom and they really encouraged him to apply.

Thats what I loved about the Navy, it totally seems like they want to see each other succeed. Brady's old roommate (who he lived with when stationed in FL) is in the process applying. I cant believe how much work is involved with program, but it kind of the first step to a nice career. So i understand that.

Lee has one final this week. His grades are good and he's managing the PT well. LCDR (NFO) nephew in Newport to celebrate his first Father's Day. Lee had dinner with them and his other cousin last night. Three weeks from Thursday 6/24 I'll be there for a dinner. Can't wait.

I'm so bummed that I can't go out to New Port, RI at all. I think they only have about 6 more days of actually "Work"

Tomorrow is the FY11 STA-21 application deadline. I pray all applicants got their packages in on time. Now the wait begins!

Thanks Chris, I'm hoping that is the case as well. Last phone call we got from our deployed sailor was from the ship and not a great connection and when we asked if his package was ready - he replied something was in the mail....hoping that meant his package!

Been following Chris and Brady's experiences at NSI - hoping we will be following in footsteps next year!

Aaron called and said he got his tuirned in..... now we wait....I'm not good at waiting...lol Good luck to all the applicants!

From left to right: my son OC Lee, nephew LCDR Matt, Matt's brother Kenny last week in Newport.

What a great photo Chris, you must be beaming today to see your son!

I can't wait! A tip re waiting for results. I kept up with the STA-21 FY 10 discussion forum at Airwarriors.com. The results came out later than previous years--the second week of November. I saw that the results were posted before my son did. I called him immediately. Five minutes later, after he checked the results, he called me back with the good news.

Waiting for the results are so terrible, Brady was on edge every day. I'm so glad I get to see him when i'm done with my internship in 2 weeks.

I'm just not looking at the calendar again until at least...November! That will serve two purposes; first deployment will be behind us and we will be that much closer to the results!

That airwarrior.com site --- has some awesome information.

I remember Brady was in Europe and every time he called he was said something similar to "I can't even enjoy london cause i'm so nervous" or "Ireland is gorgeous. To bad i'm nauseous with anxiety." hahaha but they had waited well over a month for the results that a normally posted in beginning of Oct. It was well in to Nov when they were released (Obama wouldn't sign the defense budget).

NSI OC are marching in a Parade tomorrow morning it should be be on ABC!

Thank you Whitney. I wasn't sure if it was televised. More here:

Bristol, RI parade

Any who's traveling up be safe!

It was a great time at the NSI dinner. I will put up pics when I get them. They upped the PRT minium. The average on the first test was good low. Average on the last test was excellent medium. Master Sergeant got them in shape! There were three PRT drops IRRC, one in the last week before graduation. PRT--nothing to be taken lightly. Class average was 92.3--everyone was ranked. One to ninety five. Lee's worst grade was in Engineering--he's a Nuke! LOL. He was ranked very high and did very well, as they all did.

Dinner was at the Atlantic Beach Club in a "ballroom" on the water. Buffet style with seafood, chicken with pasta, Turkey tenderloin stuffed with dressing, Prime Rib, Caesar Salad, Asparagas, Rolls, dessert, cash bar, etc.

Some of the OC's celebrated afterward with cigars!

One of those OC's would be mine, B totally a Cigar smoker, has been for years. Some body asked us what our most expensive furniture was and he said Whit's Wine Rack and My humidor. hahah Can't wait to see your photos!

Sounds like a wonderful evening, we will look forward to the photos!

This is Instructor Karla's pic from NSI. Her son Stephen is far right. My son Lee is third from right under the flag. Details to follow.

Great photo!!! Chris/Instructor Karla


Here is B and Jareem (his brother)

They are going in to the Atlantic Beach Club for the NSI dinner in that pic. B and his brother were at the table next to us.

Hmmm i hope all three of them behaved themselves. I normally don't have to worry about Brady, but when Jereme's around he always causes trouble.

Some of the OC's after dinner with Master Sergeant (far right).

OC Lee,roommate John with John's girlfriend Talia

John is a great study in drive, determination, and desire. He was an alternate three consecutive years, including this year. He received a call in late February--"...we have an NFO slot, you have two hours to decide, let us know..." Naturally, he took it.

Such awesome photos!!! They look so handsome in their dress uniforms, keeping our fingers crossed that our son's application is well received and we will have an opportunity to celebrate this event as well one day.

It's been a busy week in our house, our sailor has called from Singapore :-) His ship has been part of the CARAT exercises and he sounds tired but well. Our son in law is on a plane now returning from 10 months of duty in Iraq. Which we are so thankful for his safe return, unfortunately our only daughter (his wife) moved to Watertown, NY this week to join him so sad to see her so far away but so happy that they can be together again.

Great photos Chris!!!

Lee had his first day of class yesterday. He started at 4AM for PT with the Battalion. His goal is to get straight A's (lofty indeed). He is a Business major taking Chemistry and German.

Chris, Brady started on Monday. He has probably read over 100 pages this week and he hasn't even started his weekend home work. Brady is majoring in Finance and will also have to take a foreign language at some point. The PT times are at 5 here. But i think they change to 6 am during the cooler months. Brady asked his Battalion person if the ball was formal long or formal short dresses for women (obviously he asked the question for me) and was put on a committee for it. Oops!

Lee is a Business Major. Will Brady need three years to get his degree? Lee enlisted right out of high school. Four years in the Nuke pipeline is not conducive for continuing education, so Lee will probably take all three years to complete his degree.

Brady finished one crappy semester at community college. Which did not transfer to UofA. So he will be needing to take all three years. B has already spoken about when flight school is done starting to take his master classes. Which makes me very happy because I'm such a proponent of higher education. Jareem B's brother is a nuke and he only had 1 year of online classes from MIT to complete some sort of B.S. degree. They took all of his navy nuke classes. It must be the different rate or because his degree is a Science field.