NUKE moms

Lol! It does look like pepto bismol!

Hi everyone...received some great news today! 

My son passed his boards and got his dophins today..hooyah!!!

And it's my birthday. ...best present ever!

Proud parent, my son just graduated ps October 26, he had 10 days. He drove home after graduation on Friday had the next week at home left for bs the following Saturday and started school on Tuesday. As far as the housing goes the website is ag great idea. The house my son and his buddies rented was found for them and the navy sent someone to check the place out before they even left GC. It is fully furnished with towels and bedding and kitchen ware they did not have to buy anything.

My son won’t be home for thanksgiving. Does anyone know if BS does anything for the sailors?

Rebecca J a HUGE Bravo zulu to your son—that is super news and a wonderful birthday present! Happy Birthday, by the way!!

momterp.....thank you!

Rebecca J - congratulations to your son and happy belated birthday!!

Welcome to all of our new members. Be sure to jump in and introduce yourselves and ask questions.

Looking at one of the discussions above, it looks like we have some that will be headed to PIR soon. Congratulations. Something that is asked often is what do you need to get for your sailor once they are at GC? I will say, that having gone through A school, PS, and now starting Prototype in GC, that it was more important for us to be there in GC to help our son find a bed, and furniture for an apartment and get set up with those things, than him needing much from me when he first got to GC. Be sure to check with your sailor, they will let you know how you can best help them out.

My son will be coming home for Christmas.  I am going to buy him a used car.  Is he able to drive it home or does he have to fly back to school? 

Jen - 

Depending on what phase he is in, he will most likely be able to drive the car back. He will need to fill out the required paper work along with his travel plan. The Navy requires very specific travel plans. There is a limit to how many miles they can drive in a day, and how many hours they can drive. Travel plans must be filed before they leave NNPTC.

My son asked me to pose these two questions to the group. The 2nd, I realize is subjective, but I told him I would ask, so: 

Could you ask the nuke/navy moms what homeport I should ask for if I want to go to the U.S.S Ford? And then what would be the best ports for 2nd pick?

If anyone has suggestions you may also PM me. Thanks. 

Chipmunk, where the carriers are all based is common knowledge. You can get that on Wikipedia among other sources. Their movements are not common knowledge. We can say that the Ford in based out of Norfolk. Every carrier has a fairly unique plant so I would suggest your son talk to other sailors and inquire about their plants and what is desirable about each. That is what my sailor did. He ended up requesting the Vinson out of San Diego and was lucky enough to get that. I don't remember his second choice carrier but I remember it would have been in Washington. 

RebeccaJ, I'm late but I hope you had a great birthday! And congrats on the dolphins! Hooyah!

Hi all - Happy Monday!

Jen - 3B'smom gave you good advice.  Have your son talk to his SLPO before he heads home for Christmas so he has everything approved.  

RebeccaJ - what a wonderful present for you!  Happy belated birthday ;-D  And BZ to your son too lol!

Chipmunk - just remind him that it is a "dream" sheet and it doesn't always work out ~ Needs of the Navy!  And remember there are more carriers in Norfolk than anywhere else so a lot of the surface nukes will end up there.

I'll be posting some fun turkey trivia (I cannot vouch for the accuracy - it is after all from the internet!).  Click on the picture to make it easier to read!

RebeccaJ - Hooyah to your sailor and happy belated birthday!!!

So what's everyone's plans for Thanksgiving?  I mentioned before that it will be just my hubby, my mom and myself and we made reservations at Claim Jumper - looking forward to it.  B and his GF (they are in MI) are having her mom over for dinner.  Our youngest is spending the day with his GF and her family.

What are your plans?

Welcome to our newest member ~ cometlaredo!  Be sure to read the ***NEW MEMBERS*** info at the top of the page.  The Rating Information Card for NF is especially helpful.  Also take a look at the Pages (16) to the right and look through the discussion forum (hit "view all").  And of course, feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Felt so blessed to have our Nuke home for a very quick Thanksgiving/Birthday visit this weekend. It was only 24 hours, but we made the most of it. How is it possible this kid will be 20 years old tomorrow? Time sure flies! Since we had an early dinner, we will be staying in and relaxing this year on Thanksgiving Day. 

Thank you for the information.  any help or advice is appreciated.

Nukelukesmom - nice picture!  And there you go - able to celebrate Thanksgiving/Birthday together!  Awesome ;-D

My nuke is staying in GC and having dinner with friends.  We are doing our usual thing.....  decorating for Christmas (sans the Christmas tree because the other kids want to wait to do that with our nuke) and eating finger foods.  I think that we will also be going to the movies as my middle daughter wanted to go for her birthday but was sick.  Happy thanksgiving to you all!

Chipmunk, Nancy Jo is correct. The Ford is in Norfolk. Each ship is similar yet different.  Each home port has its own advantages and drawbacks. Some ports are so popular that there's less of a chance of getting them. The sailors will end up where the Navy wants them and no matter where that is they have to qualify on that reactor before they can do anything. Wherever they end up they make friends and call it home, when they are not out at sea. 

Hi everyone. .thanks for all  the congrats for my sailor. Im so proud of him. 

The rest of this week will be so busy so I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!  For all of you who have your sailors home...enjoy your time together! 

I'm thankful for this group!

My nuke is in prototype and finishing up his 4 day weekend off-back at it tomorrow from 1230-1230 so we made his favorite no bake double layer pumpkin pie via face time tonight. Lots of fun-wish someone was home to take a picture of us making pie together but apart!  Thanksgiving here (TX) is on Wednesday when his brother can come up from school and a trip to football playoff games on Friday.   Safe travels to anyone traveling and Happy Thanksgiving!

I know its been discussed, but any idea which noise cancelling headphones are good to get. Ehst sbout theft on ships? 

Hope all have a happy thanksging. Everyone with a sailor home enjoy your visit

Pandalvr sadly theft does occur. If your sailor is on a carrier they will have a locker near their rack and a compartment under it which also locks.  

 Can't give you any advice on headphones. I will say that my daughters berthing area was kept dark and everyone was respectfully quiet. 

B'sNukeMoM For Thanksgiving I rented a 5 bedroom house on a lake one hour from GC. When he graduated A school I decided to go ahead and plan to be near him instead of waiting to see if he could come home. My sailor and some of his fellow sailor's are joining us during their time off. It has been seven months since I have seen my sailor and I can't wait to hug him tomorrow.

I hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving.

B'sNukeMom, NancyJo, & JayDee659 thank you for the information. My son called last night so I shared some of it with him but will pass along the rest as well.  He also confirmed that he had signed up to have dinner at a staff person's house, so I am thankful for that. We will be with family. 

My Nuke has come and gone.  She got home last Thursday and left around 12:30 this morning.  Her original plan was to stay until next week, but her husbands sub  is coming in for a short period of time and she hasn't seen him for a couple months, so off she goes.  I'm thrilled for the time with her, but her dad will miss her by one day.  Unfortunately our power was out due to the ice storm until late afternoon Saturday, but we made the best of it.  When she left she took her dog, who has been with me since she graduated prototype.  My dogs are lost without their buddy, but Nuke's dog was thrilled to get into the car and go with her momma.

Hi all - Happy Tuesday!

ProudParent -sounds awesome - what time should we be there lol?!?

Eaglemom01 - awe that's so sweet!  Isn't facetime amazing?  What a fun thing to do ;-D  Enjoy your Wednesday Thanksgiving and good luck at the football game!

pandalvr - theft can be rampant (which is sad to say) so remind your sailor to lock up everything!  I remember PattiP saying her son had his shower flip flops stolen while he was at the shower.  

Chipmunk - nice that your son will have dinner with staff.  I think they all tend to look out for each other.

Mammagoose - nice that your son has some friends to celebrate with.  And that's so sweet that your kids want to wait for your nuke to decorate the tree!

When B was in GC mommamac and her family went for Thanksgiving - stayed in the Villas and invited many sailors over for the day.  As a matter of fact B has spent either 3 or 4 of the last 7 Thanksgivings with mommamac and her sailor!  I'm thankful they have included him ;-D

JayDee - sorry the visit got cut short but I can understand she wants to see her hubby!  I'm sure her doggy will be so happy to be with her now but oh you are gonna have some sad pups!  With all the power problems were you ever able to make her the lasagna?

BsNukeMom, I totally understand her wanting to see her husband and would be a bit concerned if she didn't.  Just bad timing. We had lasagna for dinner Sunday evening complete with the pecan pie she wanted.  When I took the lasagna out of the freezer it was still frozen so all was well.  I just got off the phone with her, they are at the base now to watch her husbands sub come in.  

Mmmmm lasagna and pecan pie!  Sounds delicious!!  Glad she made it back safely to see her hubby's sub come in.  Hopefully next time she heads home dad will get to see her too!

 B'sNukeMoM Dinner will be ready around 2:00! But come anytime just to visit! :)

Questions on cell phones during deployment - I've read so many different things, I'm just more confused. My son has AT&T, I've read about the $10 pass that's good for 24 hours, but it looks like it doesn't cover many of the countries he'll be in. Then, I know he can use FB messenger and apps like WhatsApp, but that's only when he's connected to WiFi, right? He's on a carrier; I don't think they have WiFi (?).  I also read about buying a sim card for his iPhone when he's in port in each country; is that easy to come by? And, finally, the guy at the AT&T store told me to tell him to just buy a cheap burner phone in whatever country he's in; can he text and talk? Of course, he is deployed right now, and he should have taken care of this before they left, but my only email from him has been "mom, can you look into how I can send text messages from out here?". LOL  Any insight would be appreciated! Thanks.

MichianaMom, unless something has changed they are not allowed to use their cell phones from the ship.  Doing so could help identify where the ship is, and that's a no-no.  We are with Verizon. When my daughter turned on her phone in port a message would come up asking her if she wanted to use the $x per day deal. It worked out very well.  She could create a hot spot that she allowed her friends to hookup to so they could make calls.  I've heard that burner phones work really well too.

Welcome to our newest member ~ NukeMom381!  Be sure to read the ***NEW MEMBERS*** info at the top of the page.  The Rating Information Card for NF is especially helpful.  Also take a look at the Pages (16) to the right and look through the discussion forum (hit "view all").  And of course, feel free to ask any questions you may have!

Proud parent...that is so wonderful.  Have a great Thanksgiving!

Hello, friends! My husband and I are buying tickets and getting everytging set up for our son's A school graduation in January. We normally stay at Residence Inns when we travel, but the prices for reserving one of those for 4 days is more than our airline tickets! That may be the route we have to take, but I told my husband I would check here and see if anyone has had good success with renting condos/AirB&B/etc? We just need two rooms, as it is just my husband and I and our Sailor. If ya'll have any experiences to share with that, we'd appreciated hearing about them. We've never done anything like Air B&B, so we are a bit hesitant about reserving a place like that. Thanks, and Happy Thanksgiving! 

One note about a January graduation.....it can get cold and snow in GC. Powerschool graduation in January 2018 was one of the coldest on record  23 degrees so watch the weather and don't be afraid to bring coats!

Havasu - I bumped a discussion "Hotels, villas, other places to book a visit".  CoTwin has listed a VRBO that might be perfect for you.

Ladies, we found that sometime in February Charleston hosts a huge tennis tournament and hotel prices skyrocket for those two weeks. 

Thank you for the info, CSW! Pretty much everywhere other than AZ is freezing cold to us right now, so I actually went and bought a winter coat to bring with us. I'm used to just having a hoodie! LOL!!!

B'sNukeMom, thank you so much for that! I am going to search through that now! 

JayDee659 we are a in a touristy town, and have quite a few events that make the hotel prices go way up too. It's so annoying! But good to know for February!

We took a carriage ride through downtown Charleston in January and it was a blast. A very nice way to see the houses and to get to spend some time with your sailor. Bring good walking shoes, too.  Patriots Point is a must and there are several good restaurants near there. It could easily be a whole afternoon at Patriots Point and your sailor gets admittance for free if in uniform, they receive a discount by showing military id.

Hi all - Happy Wednesday!

CSW - we didn't have time to do the carriage ride when we visited Charleston but we did get to Patriots Point and Magnolia Plantation among other things.  Charleston has so much history and so many things to do - a return visit is definitely on the list for us.

NukeMom381 (Rebecca) - there is plenty to learn lol.  You will find the nuke pipeline (for both you and your sailor) is like being on a rollercoaster.  Definitely ups and downs - good days and bad - lots of hard work, lack of sleep. I could go on and on.  They will make friends for life and do things they previously didn't think were possible.....and not everyone makes it through the pipeline and that is ok!  I like to remind everyone that no matter what happens it isn't the end of the world.  Your job is to listen, encourage, support - be the biggest cheerleader you can.  And remember, we are here for you!

Thanks in advance for any advice-have to choose when to make a trip to see my sailor at Prototype.  Christmas or graduation? There are pros and cons of course to both but not sure when is the better time to go. Driving from TX either time. 

Eaglemom - I bet Christmas in Charleston would be beautiful!  I guess the big question is when will he have more time off?  And when is graduation scheduled for?  You know proto grads are never set in stone so that date could change.  I know some at proto grad just went to pack up and get out so they can get to their next duty station - although he should have about 30 days to report.