Sub Moms

My nuke son completed his training in Charleston, SC last summer. Following graduation, he and his wife drove back to Illinois to 1 month of leave before reporting to Pearl Harbor. The navy paid to have his car shipped from the POV in St Louis (actually in Illinois). She shipped it shortly after arriving home because it took 4-5 weeks for the car to get there. There are a lot of rules for condition of care, i.e. gas tank has to be nearly empty, no personal belongings in vehicles, etc. The info can be found by googling POV. My daughter-in-law had a house full of furniture/belongings in Illinois and the navy paid for movers to come in and box everything and ship them to Hawaii. Another couple with orders stateside, rented a u-haul to move their belongings and drove their car. They need to check all of the rules for reimbursement of moving expenses. My son's move was completely covered because we went out of the continental U.S.

Can anyone advise me.  I tried to mail my son his computer he keeps begging me for.  The UPS store said they could not mail to the addresses he gave me.  One, which I can understand, is a PO Box.  The other is his name Naval Submarine School and an address line with just a blding and room number then city,state, and zip.  Is it just the person at the UPS store or is the physical address missing?

I used UPS just recently. I sent it to Sub Naval Base Building 499(this was my sailor's bldg, yours may be different) Room 141 (297), Groton, CT 06349. I've sent several packages without a problem. My problem has been with USPS-mail arrives late or never. Good luck.

My son is currently at the submarine base as well.  I've used UPS and have not had a problem.  It should read something like this:

Naval Submarine School

BLDG???, RM???(???)

Groton, CT 06349-5700

BLDG # (this is the building I assume packages get sent to once they get to the base, Rm # (the room that the package are held in at said building) followed by a number in parenthesis which is thier personal room # I believe

Hope this helps!

Thank you both very much for the information!!  This website and all of its members have been a true blessing! 

Hello fellow sub Moms! My son's PIR is June 7th. He is scheduled to ship to Groton, CT. immedately after. I look forward to meeting new people in this group. The whole N4M's experience is awesome. Every time I turn a corner there is always a new group to help us along. Can't thank everyone enough for all of their support these last few months. 

Hello Johanna!  My son  graduates with KevsMom93 and is also going to be sonar tech!  Nice to meet you!  I'm sure there are many tales you can tell about sub school!

Johanna: Hello and thank you for the warm welcome. My SR is from Paradise, Ca. He is really excited about Groton, Ct. even though he's not much for cold weather :-) kind of funny. He's just really looking forward to seeing another part of this great country. He's been talking about getting a bike and riding there, is that something they can actually do as far as more freedom at A-school? 

Congratulations to you and your son's!! Well done, and I can only imagine how proud you are of all their accomplishments!

Johanna: Just looked at your pics, oh my goodness they are so wonderful...made me cry just looking at them and how proud you must be. mrsb and myself are pretty excited about PIR!  Can't wait to have some of my own pictures to enjoy.

Hi Johanna!  We're from So. California, Rancho Cucamonga to be exact.  Have lived here for 17 years, moved here from Round Lake, IL, of all places!  That's only 15 miles or so from boot camp-I didn't even know about the Naval station when we lived there as we were only there for a year.  Before that we lived in WA state, so beautiful there.  Can't wait to move back to the northwest someday!  Where are you?

Hi Terri: It's a small world! My son attended Butte (don't laugh other mom's) College (pronounced like Beau-tiful :D ) thank you for the welcome! My SR is SECF so far I believe that covers a few jobs and he needs to narrow it down? Can't wait to post pics from PIR too. 

Johanna: That's awesome about the bike! My son also loves to run, didn't do too much biking here because of how our streets are designed. He was planning to start riding in Chico, a very bike friendly city just down the hill from us, but that plan certainly changed! 

Kevsmom93, I remember when I lived in Sacramento as a child and on a real clear day we could see the Yuba Buttes-I always thought they looked so cool poking up out of the farmland.  :)

mrsb; They are very cool! A very unique and unusual mini-mountain range. I've lived in Nor Cal for 23 years and I still think they are fascinating :-) if anyone is curious what in the world we're talking about they're called The Sutter Buttes of California.

Has anyone had an opportunity to visit CT? It's 3000 miles away for me but we would consider driving. My hubby won't fly :-(

I'm so looking forward to visiting CT, but I will fly thank you!!!

Thanks for the info Terri!!!

Hi Kevsmom....we live in Chico!  Although my son doesn't even leave for Boot Camp until August 14th.  But, I have learned so much from these sites already.  Going to be a long ride, but we're already so proud of him! 

submomlll: Hello in Chico! Sorry I missed your message earlier I sent you a message on your page. Did you feel the small earthquake about 15 mins ago? Wow, you do have quite a ride in front of you but this site will be there for your every need. I wish I had joined sooner like you have it will make things so much easier with all the support you will receive. I bet we know the same recruiters. I will send you a friend request if you would like to PM me. 

Morning! My son graduates Sonar on 6/13 and has orders for Groton. Thank you for all the info in the Pages section!

A note about UPS: It helps to include the physical street address, 1 Crystal Lake Road.

Heading to Hawaii in next few weeks to vacation with my son.  Any suggestions of military friendly places to go and things to see?  Thanks, in advance!!

My son is stationed in Hawaii but not on the USS Louisville. He's on the USS Greeneville until December. We think he'll be getting a short duty job there too. He's lived in Hawaii for 7 years now. Loves it!!! I love to visit too!!!!

We just got back from visiting Groton. Our son (an MM nuke) was shipped out earlier than expected, and is now in Pearl Harbor. They're planning to fly him and others to join their sub (the USS Cheyenne). We only got to see him twice before he left, but thank goodness for those visits! Those last hugs will have to last a long time. I can still feel them!

My husband and I still had time left to visit the Submarine Force Museum and go aboard the Nautilus. Highly recommended! There's so much to see at the museum that we went back the next day.

Shea, My son has been in Hawaii since June 2012 and left on his first deployment shortly after he arrived there.  He is on the USS Greeneville.

I would love it if our son gets stationed in Hawaii-one of our favorite places to visit!  Of course he has to get out of BC first, then school.  Only two weeks until PIR!!

Yeah!!! Two more weeks!!! mrsb, I too would love it if my Son was stationed in Hawaii!!!  I've never been there and would love to visit him there.  :-) 

Good to hear from some moms out there who's sons are in Hawaii.  Its a beautiful place.  We went on a family vacation  there in 2009 for my son's high school graduation, we cruised all the islands and I think he fell in love with the area.  It's always been his first choice. I think he's still in shock that they are sending him there!

For the moms who's son's PIR is coming up it is an amazing thing to see!  Not to be missed if at all possible.  You will be so proud of all those kids!!

Terri, we love going to Duke's!!  What a place!!

Thoughts on Hawaii:

For those going to Hawaii there is a magazine 101 things to do in Hawaii...like inexpensive activities. Look on some web sites. A lot places give military discounts. Yard House is a good place to eat and they have 100 diff beers to try, I do not like the smell of beer, but my family enjoyed trying a few when we were there last Dec. Teddys Burgers was good. Hiking is free. Drive around the island. Eat fresh pineapple. Walk the beaches. Snorkel Navy Lodge is a decent place to stay. Shop Aloha Swap Meet. Go to a farmers market. My family was not very impressed with plate lunches, although you get quite a bit of food.

My son is deployed at this time. There is a Navy 4 Moms Hawaii group for those with sailors in Hawaii.

My son is stationed in Hawaii on the USS Jacksonville. He did the START re-enlistment while on deployment to take advantage of the tax-free bonus. His additional 2 years will be shore duty, probably as a nuke instructor.

Suggestion to Suzy. I got a N4M private message from you. I believe you did a "Send message to group" - which is OK. But you should probably include in the message the specific questions you have rather simply stating that you have questions - just cuts down on the unnecessary emails. Regards, don't sweat it - takes awhile to get use to this site.

Good morning Sub Mom's, my son is now a Sailor! Hoyhah! We received the call yesterday at 11:32am PST. His PIR is June 7th. Now I'm curious what his living arrangements will be like in Groton Ct.? I understand there are also processing days when they arrive? Are they treated differently now that they are Sailors? Thanks in advance for all your insight and help :-) 

Congrats, Kevsmom93!  My son has been at sub school for two weeks waiting for his class to start next week (classes were full when he arrived - PIR was 5/10/13).  He absolutely enjoys it, which is VERY different from his opinion of Boot Camp.  Every time I speak to him on the phone (which is nice), he is either going to work out at the gym, playing ping pong, or hanging out with new friends.  He is always doing something and he says he enjoys it.  He said he is treated much better also.  He even gets on a shuttle they have that goes into town.  He has two roommates that he gets along with well.  I am sure your new sailor will experience the same.  You will even be sad when he is too "busy" (making new friends) to take your calls.  Especially after the anxiety of not hearing from them in boot camp.

Good morning Shea, Justamom and Kevsmom!  Thanks for the info!  My son is going to sub school with Kevsmom's son so that will be cool for them, as they are now friends.  Sonar tech too!  Maybe they will room together?  Do they live in barracks or an apartment type place?  Very curious!  I feel so much better today knowing that BC is almost finished.  I would love if my son gets Pearl Harbor-Hawaii is our favorite place to visit!  That won't be for a couple of years yet but it would be great!!

My Son was in Groton also now is on a sub but he earned his liberties very quickly, we drove his truck up to Groton the month after he finished boot camp. Having your vehicle is one of the liberties you have to earn that and wearing civilian clothing. There are many others. He was very happy to get his own vehicle, so he could come and go as he wanted of course sticking to the rules of miles away from base and when he wasn't on duty. But there was a sailor in his class that had bad conduct and the whole class lost their liberty for 2 weeks, I am sure he wasn't a popular classmate with all of the others. All in all this was so much better than boot camp, the calls and visits were very nice.

Hi! Is anyone that is on this site from Raleigh, NC?

What a wonderful support you all are! We are in so many different places and stages of this journey, it is enlightening to hear about what's to come, and to acknowledge the successes of our Sailors! Happy Friday, Everyone! 

Hi, BJA57, I'm from the Triad, not the Triangle area, but you can find more Raleigh-area moms in this group: http://www.navyformoms.com/group/northcarolinamoms

You ladies are so awesome! Thank you for all the replies and info.! Yes, mrsb and I have been through this whole experience together on N4M's and then we find out our boys are friends BC, who knew the experience would be this great. Wow, all your responses sound awesome! I am so happy to hear that it's a much better experience at school and I understand it's all earned! I look forward to his next phone call so I can share all this good information with him. He's been fascinated how we have known so much, it's pretty funny :-p I'm sure I'll be back with more questions! 

MarlaCPA, thanks for the information!  Now I at least have an idea of how he'll be living, and he'll be a lot neater than when he lived here!!

Kevsmom, this sure has been quite the experience!  I'm looking forward to actually talking to you next friday!!  LOL!!

My son has been to BC yet. Good info on this group will check back after he starts BC. Thanks