NUKE moms

Hammer - going on a sub sounds exciting! Glad you got to do that.

Gigi - my son's carrier has not actually deployed yet but they've been qualifying during several underways and have been out a couple weeks at a time so far. We've been able to get through to him via Facebook messenger or a message through snapchat - something he can access with wifi. Regular texting doesn't get to him. Their navy email is a great way as well but my son has something wrong there and so far has not gotten it straightened out. We are hoping he will before they actually head to Japan!

Gigi, Your son should get his bills set up for autopay. Also he should set up his account with you as an authorized user. Even on his NFCU credit card if he has one. It would also be wise for single sailors to have a parent set up with a POA or on their accounts so you can act on their behalf. I was on my son's bank but not his NFCU credit card but my phone was a notifier for fraud charges. Even though I was on his bank account I was not attached to his cc and the bank had to close it down. 

Also the last I knew NFCU has their own POA form that has to be filled out and approved.

4kidsforfun - make sure your son has cleared his email messages. That can bog up their incoming mail. Also they have to get all of the approvals down on the paperwork. He can check with IT - and stay on their good side. 

PacNWmom, did you see that the pictures from graduation were posted on the NPTU Charleston FB page yesterday? I just noticed them today.

Thank you 4kidsforfun for the info, good to know about the Facebook messenger and snapchat. Hoping they’ll fix your son’s email before he leaves.

Chipmunk- thank you but those weren’t our options now. He flew out today to VA. His other bills were already set up autopay, only the credit card his worried about. He’d given me his online password our last option.

Anyone knows if they can access the navy fed account And other bank while on the fleet? Thank you 

MomofJoseph - Thanks for the head’s up! I’m very rarely on FB. This will surely make me log in.

I’m still enjoying the hugs I got from my son and his wife while I was in Goose Creek. It’s great to see them thriving and excited about the next chapter in their Navy lives.

GiGi - My apologies, I have been "Out to sea" so to speak. 

As for bank access on the ship, I think it depends. I do recall my son fussing about the extra authentication requirements that banks usually have for accessing things, because if you can't get a phone signal, you can't get an authorization code. Also, while they are NFCU, it seemed like my DIL or I were constantly having to explain, "they are out to sea, they cannot access anything."

This reply just came back from my DIL - "If the internet is good enough. You have to know your password (she may mean the access code - NFCU has several different things) and be able to log into your email for the one-time password."

As for credit card, he might ask NFCU if he can pay ahead on the card, to make sure there is money in the account to pay off any charges that come through. That is not common with most credit cards, to my knowledge. 

If your sailor is headed out to sea, the ombudsman should have shared a deployment pamphlet. And your sailor will likely need an active ship email to get you authorized for access to the Ombudsman FB page, if that is how they communicate. Your sailor might also be able to directly email the ombudsman with his rate / rank and department chief's name, if he doesn't have his ship email set up, with a message to the ombudsman to please accept any contact from his parents. My son was able to do that with ours while our ship was still in dock, and I am not on FB, so if I did send the ombudsman an email, she still knew she had permission to talk to me. 

Thank you so much Chipmunk. I guess we’re all set with his banking arrangement. He will be using the one that i am on it and not the Navy Fed. I have no idea about the ombudsman, i will tell him about giving me an access. And as of now he is not set up yet with this new ship, but he will eventually he was just invited to join this ship. Again thank you 

For those of you with sailors getting ready to head to the fleet, you might find this information helpful - Naval Sea Systems Command > Home > NNPTC > Ombudsman (navy... - It is a description of the Ombudsman's purpose and duties. Also, for those of you with sailors at NNPTC, the ombudsman contact information is listed directly above in our group page information. 

Some more deployment information if anyone needs it. 

Ombudsman & FRG Bifold Color.indd (navy.mil)

DeploymentSupportHandbook.pdf (navy.mil)

Thank you Chipmunk. I don’t have desktop access right now, i’ll check everything out tonight at home. Yes I have Facebook 

Gigi - That sounds great!

Gigi,  late to see this but last year my son gave me some access to his NFCU account.  I never needed it since I also have access to another account that had enough funds to deal with what I needed.  But this does mean there is some way of doing it.

Mine is on subs so when out zero access to anything.  My conversations with the ombuds lead me to believe that so much is focused on the sailors families on land, which I get, but there are many single sailors who parents deal with everything while they are deployed.

When yours is back on land get a power of attorney done and have a good conversation about when you can use it so you are both on the same page.  I had to use it  for taxes once.

automatic payments set up before they leave is best, as long as they have enough in the account to cover them.

Thank you New Adventure:) This is all new to me, to us. i think we are all set when it comes to bills and banking. He called yesterday was out shopping for what he needs. He seems pretty excited about his deployment. I’m really praying for his email to be set up before he leaves 

Happy Birthday Navy!

Proud Momma - So true!!! Thanks for sharing!!  How are you doing? 

Proud Momma - YES!  Thank you for sharing that ;-D

@Chipmunk and all . . . Good Morning! Happy Wednesday!

Chipmunk, I am doing very well, thank you! :) Enjoying the cool pines of Arizona!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Proud Momma - I am doing well, thank you!  I am glad that you are having a little bit cooler weather. Ours has cooled down as well, but I don't like it being too cold. 

Reminder: Once your loved one has made it to A school - please be sure to update your profile page to sailor's status as: Enlisted. - it really helps out those of us who are keeping an eye out on members in various stages of their time here on the site. 

As well as updating your status if they have finished with their enlistment. Thanks!! 

Q's Momma, may you have safe travels!!

Q’s Momma, I just saw your post.  Hope you made it safely to GC!  Please let us know how graduation went!  It is such a special occasion - so happy you get to be there!!!

Q's Momma - have a great time in Charleston!

At the pumpkin patch!

Good Morning everyone!!! 

B'sNukeMom - what a wonderful family picture!!!

I have been busy with my sailor family and issues that they have been having with the preemie baby. But hopefully a recent surgery is the answer to all of those issues, and our precious little one will continue to grow and be able to go home soon.  

FYI - For those of you with sailors getting close to heading to the fleet or are already out in the fleet -- Please, Please stress to them how important it is for them to share your contact information with their ombudsman - to find out the ombudsman's email address and phone number, to make sure you know their Rate, Rank, and Department information (I think I got that all correct) and how important it is for them to get a ship email, to make sure they share that email with you, and to pay attention for notices from the Ombudsmen who might be trying to vet your information. To make sure they keep their ship email cleared of all unnecessary messages so it doesn't fill up the storage and they are not able to receive incoming messages from home. The first priority for their ship email is communication within the ship, outside communication is secondary. 

When my son reported to his ship and had the contact information for his ombudsman - they were still in the shipyards. But he still reached out to her and gave her all of mine and my husband's contact information (email, phone, address) and let her know that we had his permission to share information with us. He informed her that I did not have a FB account and there were several times when I communicated with her via her ombudsman email or called her. Sometimes it was to help another new mom with a sailor heading to the ship. 

My point - Your sailor has to know they are the primary link - so that you can stay updated for their benefit as well as for your own. 

That message was not intended to be harping on anyone. I just know how difficult it is to sometimes get our sons especially to figure out and share information with us. Because of our large family and going so many different directions, with their schedules mostly in my head, my kids and especially my sailor, seemed in tuned to knowing that he had to double check with me and the calendar on everything. 

Not every child is as inclined to think like my son, so I am just encouraging you to be as proactive as possible, so that you are not scrambling to get information after their ship has left port. Especially if you are not on FB, since most of the private ombudsman groups are handled through FB, it can be difficult to get the contact information you need, even though one of my ombudsmen told me their contact information was public knowledge. It can just be tricky to locate. 

If any of the other "seasoned" moms can chime in, please do. 

Thinking of all of you with deployed sailors - mine is still doing sea trials but the time is coming faster than I'd like that they'll be heading out for good. It's good to have this mom's group as most of the facebook stuff seems geared towards families rather than parents of single sailors. It makes perfect sense since they are all adults but it's still nice to have people in the same "boat"! 

4kidsforfun - There is definitely a different tone on the FB ombudsman pages for the ships. As much as I understand the separation issues with married sailor families and their children, I struggled at times reading the posts by some of the sailor wives. I think part of it, I am older now, I did my days of dealing with little ones when my husband was away for months at a time, not all military related, and living halfway across the country from my family, when internet was not really accessible to the masses. When you had to pay for long distance phone calls - although, those were still cheaper than our cell phone bills or phones are now. When sending pictures of the grandchildren to your parents might have meant loading all of the kids up in the car and driving to the next town where there was a K-mart that offered 2 prints for the price of one, so you could keep a copy and send the other. But then you had to date and put notes on the back of all of them and then load up the kids and drive them to the closest post office, because you did not have any idea how heavy the envelope was and how much postage you needed. 

It is hard to believe that in just a little over 30 years, so much has changed with our communication and our young ones do not understand what it means to wait for any news, even the nightly TV news. 

I agree 4kidsforfun, I truly appreciate this site and being among other moms who have different experiences with their single sailors, than most of the families who are represented on the ombudsman page - I will say though, I did appreciate when they would share their pictures of my son's ship coming into port. They could take their families to the beach and watch for the ship, and I got to participate as well. 

Chipmunk, I thought about this when our son was stationed out at Pearl. He would call us about every week. One time he even called from the deck of the submarine when they stopped for a swim call a couple miles west of Oahu and the connection was like he was next door. He even called us from places such as Guam, Singapore, and Tokyo because cellphones work about anywhere now.
When we visited, we of course went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and the USS Bowfin. The sub base is across the harbor from the USS Arizona and, when they did a ceremony for the 75th anniversary, I could see the BEQ apartments in the background. For the families with sailors there in the '1940s, phone calls would have been difficult to impossible, and very expensive. All they would have would be mail, and that would take weeks. It is hard to even imagine.
BTW, the Bowfin is the best-preserved WWII submarine I have ever seen. It looks ready to set sail. It is part of a monument to US submariners on Eternal Patrol, so modern submarine sailors periodically go there and give it a "field day" cleaning.

Welcome to our newest member - Submersiblemom!  I see your son is an Officer.  Feel free to ask any questions you may have....we have a few officer mom's on here...

I haven’t been on in a while but had to share a couple calls I got. I am a customer service agent for USPS and spend most of my time apologizing and not actually being able to help. So when I can really help my customers it makes my day worth it. I had 3calls the same day from Navy moms who were feeling lost. By the way I have sent them to this site for support. One mom had sent her son who is on the Eisenhower a package and needed help tracking. She was crying and I admit I cried with her and by the end of the call she was laughing and told me how grateful she was she got me to help her. The next call was a boot camp mom also lost sent her to this site another smile on my face. Final call a dad also with a kid deployed and he couldn’t figure out how to format the address. I was able to help it did take awhile but we got it. I feel like sometimes god just wants to make you feel helpful and I did. What a day!

NickSydmom - Thank you so much for sharing that!  I love, love, love that!!!

NickSydmom - Thank you for sharing!! I have had a few conversations with USPS customer service. I am glad that you were able to help these people, even if there were difficulties with their packages, you could still steer them to N4M. It was a blessing to them to have reached you when they called. It sounds like you were blessed as well! 

Good morning everyone!! Life has been busy. I mentioned my son's bicycle at A school elsewhere and thought I should share some things here, especially for those with loved ones either getting ready to head to Nuke school, thinking about a Nuke rating or otherwise. 

NNPTC where Nuke A and Power school are located is a nicely little wooded area, but there are paths where the sailors are allowed to ride their bicycles. My son did not have a car when he first arrived at GC and so he bought himself a bicycle at the NEX. Sometimes, there are sailors who are ready to sell their bicycles as they keep moving through the pipeline, but he just bought his new, kept his bicycle and eventually bought a bike rack and transported it with him to his duty station. After 6 years, he still has his bicycle. My son was able to ride his bicycle on the paths at NNPTC as well as ride to places like Wal-mart and such in GC. 

For A school and Power school the sailors are housed in BEQ's (Bachelor Enlisted Quarters) on site, all housing and food is provided for them. For Prototype, however, they will be expected to find their own housing, pay for it out of pocket, and find their own transportation to Prototype which is located farther down the road at the joint base. Your sailor will receive BAH - Basic Allowance for Housing. However, that is a reimbursement and can take a bit to be added to their paycheck. Your sailor may be required to make a 1st and 2nd month deposit, or a deposit fee, a utility deposit, and such expenses that they may not be prepared for (even when they tell them at A school and PS to prepare.) So, as proactive parents, we can also be aware of what their needs are going to be. Many of the sailors will look for roommates and split the expenses, which does allow them to pocket the extra BAH. They will also be expected to cook and provide for their own food. When my son was there, the lunch area at Prototype was undergoing some changes, so he had to pack his own lunch as well, and I do not know if they had access to microwaves or refrigerators. 

When your sailor is setting up arrangements for Prototype housing and possibly planning to room with other sailors, they all need to keep in mind how they will deal with the rental and utility expenses if someone is left behind, not getting their orders immediately after Prototype. I know this happened when my son was leaving GC, and it has happened to other member's sailors as well. Sometimes one person is left behind and if another sailor is paying the electric bill, another one was the sole person paying the rental (even if others were paying them), there can be issues with breaking the leases, etc. - Your sailors should be able to break their leases with their military orders - if I am recalling correctly. Someone can get left holding the entire bag of expenses, when they were not planning for it. So, there should be an agreement and understanding before the initial rental is planned on. 

I realize this is a lot, but put it on the back burner, be aware of the housing situation, and especially the need for a vehicle and a driver's license for Prototype. And never hesitate to ask questions. 

TIME Change reminder!!! 

Happening this weekend! We FALL back!!