NUKE moms

Thanks Chipmunk.

My dad was in the Navy from 1956-1959.  He went in at 17 years old - his mom signed for him. He was in 11th grade.  His dad was pissed because he lost his farm help lol.  I found these pictures while going through dads stuff - he looks like a baby!

The first picture is his boot camp graduation (in San Diego back then) and the 2nd is from his cruise book on the USS Boxer.

 B'sNukeMoM⚓️MMN(Vet) - I love those pics!  Thank you for posting!  

Tulip and Northwoodsmom - Congrats to both of you for your Sailors' accomplishments!  Those brought happy tears to my eyes!

joe-mom - I hope your son will be responsive when you reach out to him.  My son was in contact with us relatively often, mainly asking us to pray for him every time he had a test (which thankfully was at least once a week!)  And we only live 4 hours away from GC, so we were able to visit a few times.

I'm guessing your son will be graduating this Spring from A school?  Are you close enough to visit for graduation?  The graduation ceremony was really small, but it was so great to watch.  I hope y'all can make it.

B's - It's good to have you back. So sorry for the loss of your dad; I know you have great memories. Love the pics! 

MomofJoseph - Yes, he graduates A school in March. We won't be going to that graduation (hoping he'll be able to come home for a bit afterwards), but we've already booked a trip to Charleston in June. We're also planning to attend power school graduation, if everything works out. Nice that you live so close!

Thank you - it was fun going through old pictures.  We are planning on having his Celebration of Life in August on what would have been his 85th birthday.

B'sNukeMom - That sounds like a wonderful tribute, and a good day for some closure as well.

B'sNukeMom - thinking of you! Did the same thing last year with my father.  I have his enlistment pic from the Coast Guard. I hope the memories you have make you smile.

Pizanche - it's hard but yes, the memories to make me smile. I'm sorry for your loss too.

 joe-mom - that is so exciting that you have a trip booked in June.  We are going down in March for Power School graduation, but that might be our last trip to Charleston for a while.  I hear the Prototype schedule is CRAZY!

MomofJoseph - I can hardly wait to go! It'll be our first time visiting Charleston, so let me know about any "can't miss" tourist attractions. I hope you have a great time at PS graduation. Congrats to your sailor. I've heard the same thing about Prototype.

joe-mom - Charleston is a beautiful place to visit!  Be sure to look at the discussion up above "sightseeing in Charleston".  You'll find some fun things to do while there.  We only went once but it's definitely on our list to go back.

B's - Thank you!

The flyover in the Super Bowl this weekend is being done by an all female team.  You can read about it here:

All Female Flyover in Super Bowl

I’m feeling pretty selfish, I know humanitarian aid is needed in Turkey but I’m so worried the deployment will get extended for HW Bush and I miss my boy. On a lighter note I feel the need to brag on my daughter, I was so proud when she was blue jacket of the quarter until she got Sailor of the year for the USS New York takes the sting out of missing the boy.

NickSydmom - it's ok to feel that way - no one here will judge you! 

And BZ to your daughter - what a wonderful accomplishment ;-D

NickSydmom - Congratulations to your daughter!!!

joe-mom - Yes, enjoy your time in GC. I was able to visit for all the graduations and each time we did one thing special. I will say that with Prototype, my son wanted to spend a day with his friends, so my husband and I actually visited one of the old houses on our own. 

B'sNukeMom - I had to laugh at your meme yesterday! That is one bad hair day!!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!! Especially those of you with sailors out to sea. Hopefully, our messages of love will reach them. 

NickSydmom - I have been thinking about you and praying for your sailor. I don't always keep up with the news as well as I should and sometimes the first that I hear of something is from a post on this site. 

Praying for Michigan and MSU after the active shooter event last night. Both B&C graduated from MSU and C is still a grad student there. I was on the phone with C when she got the alert to "run, hide, fight - active shooter on campus".  She was at home but it was still very scary as she had friends on campus.  It's heartbreaking the number of these shootings that keep happening.

B'sNukeMom - I am so sorry to hear about this! I am glad that C was okay and I hope her friends were as well. 

joe-mom - I will definitely let you know if we do anything in Charleston that is fun (although I'm a little skeptical because my son just bought a house, so I think our visit will be filled with shopping for supplies).  :-)

BUT, from a previous visit, I highly recommend going to Patriot's Point.  When we walked onto the Yorktown Aircraft Carrier, we were looking around, trying to figure out which way we wanted to go first, and someone at the reception desk asked if they could help us.  We told him that our son was in Nuke School, and he turned to his coworker said, "Robert, this one is for you."  And Robert took us on a tour of the ship, comparing and contrasting the Yorktown with the ships that our son will be on.  It was amazing!  We can't wait to go back!

MomofJoseph - That reminded me of my trip to GC for my sailor's A school graduation. My youngest son and I drove out for the graduation. My sailor's class had taken a trip to the USS Yorktown, so he was able to show us around the ship also and especially enjoyed telling us about different things in the engine room.   

I also mentioned to Proud Momma in the discussion above to visit the online visitor's information for Charleston, SC. 

Visitors | Charleston, SC - Official Website (charleston-sc.gov)

I don't know if they have updated their parking information properly or not, but when we were there, they no longer had free parking as I recall along the main street down through Charleston. (I forgot the name off the top of my head.), So be prepared for parking meters. I think they take cards now. 

The other thing is walking around in the evening by the shops along the Slave Market area, there are only a couple of public restrooms, and we had a hard time locating them with my husband's GPS. But there is a motel that is part of an indoor shopping gallery. We were told that even though the shops were closed, we could go in at the entrance to the motel, and then to the right of the desks there were public restrooms still available, maybe until 9 - 10 PM. Again, I do not recall. Most of the little shops do not allow for public restrooms, only the restaurants for paying guests. 

MomofJoseph - Thanks for the info! I've heard that Patriot's Point is a must-see, so we'll definitely be doing that. Congrats on your son's home purchase. That's a big move!

Chipmunk - Thanks for the heads up on public restrooms in Charleston. Our favorite thing to do on vacation is eat, so while we're out and about we'll try to stop at multiple eateries, as necessary, to take advantage of their restrooms! :)

joe-mom - There were a couple of yummy ice cream shops down by the market but as I recall, those did not even have public restrooms! 

Welcome to our newest members ~ Proudmomof2 and BraysNukeMom!

Please be sure to read the ***NEW MEMBERS*** info at the top of the page.  Lots of good info there.  Also take a look at the Pages (20) to the right under the member profiles - be sure to hit "view all".  And the discussion forum above has some good info too - be sure to read Chipmunks "Nuke A School Daily Schedule".  And of course, feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Proudmomof2 and BraysNukeMom - Welcome to our group!! We are glad you are here. Please come introduce yourselves and let us know where you are in this Nuke journey. 

My son is actually finishing out his last months of his enlistment. It is hard to believe! He is an ETN2 who chose not to do the Star reenlistment, but did choose to marry a Navy gal, who has reenlisted. 

Do not hesitate to ask questions, we have members active in this group with many different scenarios with their Nukes and what they are doing. 

Good Morning and Happy Monday!

C just started in her 3rd trimester! Wow, this is going fast - easy for me to say lol.  We head to MI on the 9th for the baby shower on the 11th.  Can't wait to see B&C and to help finish up little Oli's nursery.  I've got so much stuff to take with, gonna have to take an extra suitcase!

Good morning fellow Nuke moms! So, after weeks of silence, I finally heard from my son last night. It was just a text, but it was something. Not great news, though. He injured his knee before Christmas but didn't think it was very serious. So it sounds like he pushed himself too hard and has now re-injured it. He was planning on applying to STA-21 but has now been disqualified from that program because of the knee issue. Because of all this, he's been really down - so down that he started going to counseling. This is out of character for him, as setbacks usually just roll off. He now realizes he's vulnerable, which in a way is a good thing. He's focusing really hard on school right now (graduates "A" school in 3 weeks). I'm just worried about him because there's nothing I can do to advocate for him and don't know how this injury will affect his status moving forward. I'm still kinda new to the Navy world, so I'm not sure what to expect. Do any of you more seasoned moms have experience in this area? I'm grateful for any information or suggestions you have to offer. And please say a prayer for my boy. He has LOVED his short Navy journey up to this point - felt like he really found his place - and I hope that will continue. Thank you all!

joe-mom - I am sorry to hear that your son has been disqualified from the STA-21 program, but I am glad to hear that he has sought out counseling on his own. That is a good thing! I do not have any experience with my sailor having an injury like yours and recuperating, etc, but my understanding with the military, it is important to get all medical things documented and looked into, as you never know the ramifications down the line for things such as disability or such. 

I don't know if you wrote him a note, but now that you have this knowledge of what things he is dealing with, you have something to write about. He may not want you to dwell on it, but you can at least open the dialogue of conversation, such that you appreciate him confiding in you, and that even though you can't change the outcome of his circumstances or choices, that you can support him with your love and prayers. Open communication and honesty helps that to be a lot easier and lets you not be as worried, when he just does not say anything at all. 

After learning about the development of a person's frontal lobe, and that it often is not until the age of 21 or so, when they can start to identify the long-term ramifications of their actions or choices, it has sort of become a "joke" in our house. And when things happen where any of us, but especially our children do something that we are like, "what were you thinking", it helps us to laugh and say, "I guess your frontal lobe wasn't working very well. But next time...." Hopefully, we learn from our mistakes and sometimes we have to go through things to make us wiser and stronger for the next thing around the bend. But while we are in the midst of that trial, knowing we are not alone, can be the biggest comfort and support. 

Thank you, Chipmunk. As always, your wise words and grace are a huge help to me. I've written several letters to him but held off on mailing anything because I wanted to give him a little more time and space. Glad I waited, because now the tone of my letter will be very different! Love the "frontal lobe" jokes.

joe-mom - My children have all done things that they regret or feel like failures over, because they made choices or said things they regretted. I have as well. Learning to grow through those and gaining more experience, is just part of life. I have had to learn how to be gracious with myself and my children both. 

Chipmunk - Amen to that!

Happy Thursday!

joe-mom - I am sorry to hear about his knee injury and I hope they are able to take care of it.  It's good to hear that he recognizes he needs to talk with someone - nothing wrong with that at all.  Unfortunate that he won't be able to apply to the STA-21 program but just remind him it's not the end of the world.  

Hopefully everything will work out in the best possible way.

Thanks, B's! We'll keep sending him positive feedback and let him know we're always here for him, when he's ready to share more. It's hard being on this side of things...

joe-mom, don't know how physical injuries will affect his journey but my son went through some obstacles which turned out for the better. As moms we want them to be the best they can be which still rings true but we also want them to lead a happy life. Prayers being held up for your son, may he turns this obstacle into a new found strength that will  benefit him in his Navy journey. God Bless him with quick healing and peace.

NWM - Thanks for your encouraging words and prayers. Not stressing too much yet... I know God has a plan for him and that everything will turn out the way it's supposed to. Hoping to chat with him this weekend and learn more about his injury and how the medical staff is handling it. 

joe-mom, I am crying as I am reading about your son and reading these encouraging responses.  I have been praying for you and praying that you would hear from your son.  It breaks my heart that he is disqualified from STA-21, but I can't help but feel proud of him for several reasons: 

1)  He was disqualified because he got injured and kept going.  That is nothing to be ashamed of.  (How often do I wimp out at the least discomfort - I'm impressed with someone who pushes through pain!)  And there are a LOT of worse things he could have been disqualified for.

2) He sought counseling!  That is such an amazing sign of strength to admit that you need help.  What an amazing son you have!

3)  He is working hard to finish A school strong!  He could decide to give up and quit trying, but I am proud of him for buckling down and working hard!

You have an amazing son, and I can't wait to see the amazing things God does with his life!  BNMH!!!  

MomofJoseph - I can't thank you enough for your message. I'm so encouraged by what you, and all of these wonderful women, have offered. Navy Moms ROCK!