NUKE moms

Hi Tulip - It is good to hear from you. Congratulations to your sailor! Thanks for sharing about the SkillsBridge, hopefully some of our other sailors will be able to participate in this program as well. Prayers for your sailor and his wife!

Thank you, tulip. My sailor is at least four years away from separating if not longer, but I am going to flag and save your post because that is very useful information. Thank you for sharing.

Tulip - thank you for sharing about the SkillBridge program.  That is a fantastic opportunity for sailors transitioning to civilian life.  Wishing him all the best in his new adventure!  

Boy the time sure does fly by lol!

Here's a link with some info on the SkillBridge program:

Navy SkillBridge Program

Tulip - thank you for the heads up about the SkillsBridge Program.  (And thanks to B'sNukeMom for the link.)  Just like DsMom2020, I saved it for later.  We have at least 5 years left, but this is good info!!!  Thanks again!

***PLEASE DON'T DELETE YOUR PROFILE***

If you leave Navy for Moms ALL your posts will disappear.

The way the Navy for Mom's website works is if you decide to leave permanently any and all posts/comments that you have made will disappear (and we have no way of recovering them).  

We ask that if you have contributed information to groups then please don't permanently leave the site.  Your information could be helpful to current and future mom's.   

You can leave individual groups and your posts won't disappear - this is only if you leave the website completely.

Please consider what you have contributed to the site before you decide to leave permanently and delete your profile.

Thank you.

B'sNukeMoM, thanks for the info about not completely leaving the site. I will keep my profile active. Also, thanks for posting the link. Another organization sailors may be interested in when they are transitioning out of the military is called ACP. It focuses on helping military personnel find mentors and link to companies for potential careers after they leave. I've mentored about five individuals from Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and Navy. Another great resource! Here's the link: https://www.acp-usa.org/

I suppose the timing depends if you want to spend any extra time with your sailor. Often the get several weeks to transition and some like to travel home for a bit  

I do not recommend flying in the day before graduation unless any connecting flights are through airports that have rare delays. My son stayed on an extra two years as an instructor after prototype, so over his 4 total years, I had many trips to see him. One trip, I was stuck in Dallas for 30 hours due to thunderstorms. So glad it was just a regular visit and not a special event. I’ve also had delays flying home. Charleston has thunderstorms which delayed the flight by 45 minutes. Missed my connection (last of day) so missed half a days work the next day. I am a nurse and we have a small staff - I was supposed to work in surgery that morning. :| 

nukenavymamabear - My apologies, I meant to reply to you yesterday. If you are juggling two graduations on the same week that is never easy!! As I recall, four of us flew to SC for my son's Power School graduation. We always stayed at the Days Inn that was closest to NNPTC. There are pros and cons to it, but it had breakfast, was the cheapest and closest 

If the schedule is still similar to my son's, your sailor will be expected to be moving or have moved out of his bachelor quarters at NNPTC and be moving into his apartment where he will be living for his Prototype training. There was rain the weekend of my son's graduation, so instead of it being 1 graduation time, held outside, we had two indoor graduations. Which meant we missed the store with the T-shirts, coins, etc, being for sale, being opened. FYI if that is of interest to you, dbl check with your sailor about the store times. 

We spent the Saturday going shopping and helping our son get things he needed for his apartment, and then I am fairly certain that we flew home on Sunday. I believe my son flew home with us and had about a week + before he started Prototype. 

We always made sure we sent our sailor back a day before he was due, to make sure there were no issues with the airlines / weather. 

I'm back from vacation - trying to catch up!  Had so much fun with the kids and the grandson.  Weather was a bit chilly but I survived!

B'sNukeMom - I am so glad that you had a wonderful time with the family, even if it was a bit chilly!!!

Thanks Chipmunk!  It was great fun, although too short!  Thankfully they're coming to CA in May to celebrate hubby's 65th and Oliver's 2nd birthday.  And we're all going to Disneyland! I can hardly wait ;-D

My sailor is home, asleep in his childhood room, after a day-long trip (flying) across the Pacific. He is officially detached from his ship, going into TPU, then leave then out.

It is a small world, NukeMom-wise. Also returning was Helena2000's sailor who, through this site, we helped transition to the fleet 4 years ago. It was great to see him again. We took them both to check in at TPU then home, respectively.

I can't believe that it has been almost 6 years since we began this journey. This site has been so wonderful and full of useful information.

Canuka and Helena2000 - Welcome to the veteran side of Navy Mom life!! I am so glad that we have been a part of this journey together and I hope you can continue to come share as you are able. My son is happily working as the stay-at-home dad, doing online college with his GI bill and in the reserves now. 

B'sNukeMom - Disneyland will be so much fun!!

A few pictures from our Michigan trip:

Bowling

Watching Pops play in the snow (notice Pops is wearing long pants - it was 12*)

Flint Firebird Hockey game

Fun, Fun, Fun!!! I did laugh, I guess even Pops gets cold and will finally put his pants on!!  (for those of you that don't know - B'sNukeMom's husband, much prefers to wear shorts and warmer weather)

Chipmunk - it was the ONLY time he wore long pants the whole trip and as soon as he came in his shorts were back on.  Even when we went out for other adventures he was in his shorts lol!

For those of you who are new here - hubby wore shorts in our wedding - and he lives in shorts!

B'sNukeMom - He has his idea of comfortable and he is comfortable with it!! 

@B’sNukeMom, I think we married the same man! I’ve already started working on him to not wear shorts to our son’s Bootcamp PIR. Lol

Question for all…if everything goes as planned, my son will be headed out to Nuke A-school after bootcamp - is a laptop recommended for anything beyond personal use? I understand they need to do all of their studying in classrooms so materials don’t leave the site. Wondering how that would work w/a laptop.

Lastly, I know they can buy laptops/tablets via Navy channels for discounts. Is this something he could do when he arrives at A-school? I’m assuming NEX at Great Lakes wouldn’t have any.

He wasn’t going to have us ship his desktop because he didn’t want to be distracted by friends and video-games when he should be studying. 😁 But he’ll likely want something other than his phone to send emails, do his banking etc.

Thanks!

Staci - Welcome to NukeMoms!! We are glad you have joined us. My son actually purchased his laptop once he got to GC. (Goose Creek, SC. - NNPTC). He arrived the weekend before Labor Day Weekend, so he was not in classes and was able to do some research on the computers in the lounge or someplace and called his father (he also did not have a smart phone either), to get suggestions. I think he had to wear his dress whites, but he had been given a free bus pass and so he used it to go into Charleston to the large Best Buy and actually got a better deal on a computer with their Labor Day Sales and his military discount. That was in 2017 and he still uses that laptop for his personal needs and his online schooling. He has been out of the fleet for over a year now. He also ducktaped his box and every time he carried his little laptop, he packed it in the cardboard box!!

Yes, they do all of their studying in a secure location and are not allowed to have any outside electronics, including certain types of watches. 

Staci - My son is in A-School in GC and he bought a new laptop at the NEX as soon as he arrived.  It is only for personal use because as you said studying and assignments are only allowed in the classroom.  Good luck to your son!  My son will be graduating Nuke A school in a few weeks!!  He really likes it there and has made many good friends!!  

My son also bought a laptop first opportunity.  A $2500 gaming laptop top!!  No worries about gaming interfering with studies. If the student isn’t doing well, they have mandatory study hours in the classroom (my son never needed that though). They need their down time to do whatever they enjoy when they have time off. They work hard and it can be very stressful. My son loved it and made very good friends. They were competitive with their grades and happy for each other when one of them was very successful. He graduated from the pipeline in 2022 and I still keep in touch with his two best buddies. My son became a JSI (junior staff instructor) after the pipeline and one buddy is now in  officer candidate school. The other recently got his E 6. All took different paths and all love what they do. 

Thank you all for the feedback about the laptop, it’s super helpful! Much better than us shopping around for him and shipping it. Also good to hear your sailors enjoyed the program. Everything I read online is about how difficult it is. 

@DsMom, I can envision my son buying a gaming laptop too…then never sleeping because he’s studying all day and playing all night. 😁 Jokes aside, he’s actually pretty disciplined when he’s set on a goal. He will definitely need to take advantage of down time doing something he enjoys.

Thanks again all!

Staci - The Nuke Pipeline is difficult, there is no getting around that, so they do all find ways to help them during their down time.