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It's a really good thing that we're still waiting on a waiver. Sean officially didn't graduate from high school today. He should finish his final class over the summer, but he sure doesn't make the process any easier.

I ship out July 12th too!

Welcome Kimmy. My daughter leaves August 9. I visited with a friend yesterday and she relived her daughter's BC experience. It's been 10 years, but when she told it - it was just like it was yesterday. I'm so glad we have N4M. I am fortunate to have other Navy Moms in my area to share with.

My son is leaving on July 9. I am getting nervous. We were not foresure when he was leaving until today.

He had put a request in to leave on June 9. So I thought he was leaving then but we found out today that meant only if they had a vacancy that he would leave then.

He is going to try for Special ops. But if not then he is a culinary specialist

what about your son what is he going to be doing after BC?

This is new to me. My daughter married a sailor but after he has been in a couple of years. They are in San Diego, CA. I am excited for my son to start is life since he graduated in May. I am like you though nervous to. I have been watching the boot camp website to see kind of what to expect. I bet your son is getting excited.

my daughter leaves July 20 also

Hi KK,

Where are you all from, we are from kansas. I need to know if anyone else out there is having the same discussions, my son keeps telling me not to write him everyday. I am having a hard time with this as I am a single mom and I know I will miss him bunches.

Lovingma, My second child will leave for BC in Sept. Our daughter is currently in C school. When she went through boot she said the most supportive thing we could do was write every day. You would not believe how eager the recruits were for mail call, especially the guys. They crave the mondain everyday details because of the isolation they feel from the outside world during that 7 - 9 weeks. She talked about hearing the recruits cry in their racks from homesickness, even on the guys side. It is not gender exclusive believe me. I sent jokes,newspaper clippings about sports, cards of encouragement and even quotes from some of the previous bootcamp recruits. It all helped. I know some will feel sad to hear this goes on, but remember they are growing up and sometimes there is growing pains with becoming an adult. Hope this is of some help. Your son might say no letters, but he will be glad to hear his name called after a few weeks in BC.

thank you JM(Aubsmom) this does help.

JM(Aub'smom) Thank you for sharing your experience with us. It is hard to hear that our sons and daughters may go through this but it helps to know that we can help them through it rather than find out later what we could have done. I am already having moments of panic missing my son so I anticipate the worst when he is gone. I know this will be one place I can turn to find someone feeling the same thing. :)

One things that I also found was they had little of no time to write. This made it really difficult on us Moms (&Dads) as we were currious as to what they were doing. I found on this website many questionairres (sp) that was fill in the blank or mark the box kinds of things that made it much easier for them to get information home without spending a lot of time writing. I will try to post them so they are available to you are. I plan on using them with my son too, as I will expect it will be like pulling teeth to get information out of him. Our daughter was better at filling us in.

I am so glad that I have found this web site. It is full of information. I would like to get the information on the questionaires I know my son is not a writer and I am scared I will not hear from him. I am glad you are all here, I know as time goes it will get harder to think of him being gone. I do appreciate all the support.

Ok tried to post them but am not having luck. Lisa, I have them but I know you emailed them to me originally, can't seem to figure out how to get them on her if you can help that would be great.
The other moms, if you want to friend me then send me your email address I can get them to you just as easily.

I have a silly question, I am new to the web site so how do you friend someone?

Click on their sign in name and it will take you to their page. On the side it allows you to send a friend request. Let me know if you need more help and I will walk you through.

My son is headed to Wichita to do a 30 day evaluation and some other stuff. Not foresure what it all is, but he got told about it a couple of days ago. It seems like things are moving forward, I feel my self getting a little more excited and sad at the same time. :)

Hey guys-
i have a concern...my daughter was scheduled for leave for bc Aug 30th---yesterday they called her and told her it was changed to the end of this month!!!!!After shedding quite a bit of tears (mine and hers) we decided that no matter when she actually leaves it isn't gonna be easy BUT i am worried she is not in very good physical condition at present. we kept thinkin she had time still to work on the physical aspects but now....!!.what are we gonna do?!!-nineteen days isn't gonna get her in to shape

Hi tori's mom, Wow, your daughter sure didn't get much warning. My son leaves in October and I would feel as you do with the PT. I wonder if that happens very often. My son said you can take the earlier date or leave it the way it is but I am not sure. Did they give her a choice or just tell her that she leaves earlier. My son had his first dep meeting tuesday and was sore three days later from the PT. He thought he was in good shape. lol.

My son did have a choice so far, he was offered to leave last week, his contract is not until November, he said that he couldn't because he had not graduated yet, he will next week, so that was a legitimate way out of leaving earlier, so I don't know what will happen if he is offered again after graduation?

we were pretty surprised at the earlier call because we were trying to get her job of MM changed and the recruiter told us her ship date would probably be later, and now she did not even get a job change and they called her to leave earlier. she asked if she had a choice and her recruiter told her 'not really'. i am not really happy with the recruiter she has, i hope this is not an indicator of how it will be the whole time. i personally feel our recruiter has done only the bare minimum--my girl has not had a pt date since she joined -"because of the weather"--please we live in GA!! and she doesn't follow thru with much she tells us--I always have to feel like I am hounding her for answers-and we often get info only after the fact, usually too late for it to benefit us in any way, like she could have got a sign on bonus, and she can enter as a E2 if she takes this certain test etc...., I really am unhappy with this recruiter and feel a lot of frustration in this situation, but what to do? There is a lot of emotional turmoil NOW even more with the earlier date but....I have a sneaky feeling this IS military life, so I just need to adjust, right?

My older son is IT (Information Technology), and last year his date was moved up from April to December. He's getting ready to graduate from A school in the next couple of weeks, but if his date had not been changed he would be doing PIR this coming Friday.

IT is an undermanned rating, one of the few in the Navy. In the last round of promotions, 100% of those who passed the E-4 exam were promoted.

Arwen - My daughter will be IT. she was offered ship dates of June, July or August. Then was called back and offered May. She will be leaving in August. How long was his IT school? I have been told several different lengths.

IT school is self-paced, they can finish fast, but they still have to wait around for others to catch up.

For my son's class, they spent 4 weeks in computer school, and 10 weeks in radio school. They are given their "sparks" (the IT insignia to wear on their dress uniforms) at the end of computer school - then they have to finish radio school to keep their sparks.

However, they keep changing the curriculum. At one point there were three classes working under three different curricula, three different schedules. They have a new computer-based system and they're trying to figure out the best way to organize the whole thing.

I don't really know much about changing schools. I have heard of some who have been able to change schools, but others who were denied. I think it is easiest to put in a chit to change schools while still in DEP. I think changes in boot camp are mostly done for the "needs of the Navy." Otherwise they have to wait 2 years before changing jobs.

I have seen recruits change in boot camp, usually because their school is crowded, or something else happens. Sometimes it is a clearance issue, but not always. It seems rather random. Some people want the change, others don't.

For Michelle, My daughter Natalie is in DEP waiting to ship out. So yes- I do have a reason to be on here. By the way I"am 60 yrs old with plenty of experience with the Military. I'am a Vietnam Vet Army and Navy 69-78. I'am carring a 100% disability with Uncle Sam. I just know when to give tough love and when to praise and Love at the same time.
By David B

Hello. I am new to the N4M site and my son is at Meps today. I am full of pride and at the same time scared to let go. This site has been very helpful with many of my fears. I am waiting to hear from him this evening to see how it went and when to go get him.

Yea gcmb !!!! So glad he finished HS and is ready for the Navy!!

Congrats gcmb! Don't they just amaze you sometimes.
Good Luck Evermore if you are like me it will be a long evening waiting for the outcome, let us know.

I really hope I get to leave early. I was originally contracted to leave July 12th, but they made a mistake and accidentally canceled out my contract (UGH!) So now I'm leaving on August 31st....which really sucks. We had already made so many preparations. We went down to one vehicle thinking I only had four weeks left. Our apartment's lease ends on July 31st. My husband and baby were going to stay with my in laws until I finished up bootcamp. But now they'll have to stay there for three months....not going to go over well!!! And I quit my job, to spend some quality time with the baby before I left (again thinking I only had four weeks) so now I'm jobless and we only have one income for the next two and a half months. Don't know what we're going to do!!!

Congratulations gcmb on your son's graduation. Now for the next step of his journey of life.

Morning All...I just joined your group this morning. My son will be leaving for BC July 15th as a corpsman. He was suppose to leave Aug 2nd and yesterday , it got moved up. I suppose thats good for us both , as we can get the hardship of BC over with sooner. I look forward to being a part of your group . Have a great day

Good morning all...It has been a while since I have been on here. Life has been insanely busy with end of school year stuff. :) Anyway, we are still DEPping away. My daughter leaves 8/2 and it is so astonishing how time is going by so quickly!!

Hope all is well!! Navy hugs!!

Hey Everyone:
My son has choosen a machinst mate job and is scheduled to leave in november. he would like to leave earlier. what jobs are getting earlier bc calls?

so if the recruiter doesn't give us an actual date, but tells us her ship out date has been moved to the end of the month what do you think is really happening here?? My daughter was scheduled to leave for BC aug 30th. She got a call from her recruiter on the 7th telling her her ship out date has been moved up and she will leave "the end of this month" When she asked what day they promised to get that to us 'in two hours'. It is now 2 weeks and several vague conversations later- and still no date! ugh!

ginny,
thanks, I guess we are waiting until this Wednesday (the office is closed this Monday and Tuesday, why I'm not sure) and then we will either get a date or an appointment with the rinc to sort this out. I just am really glad N4M is here for me to vent (:

My son graduated two weeks ago from high school and he is now in the DEP.He joined the Navy on April 13. He is so excited and can't wait to leave. We actually went to a lawyer and made a will, power of attorney, and health proxy for him. I wanted to make sure I have everything covered. We also had his wisdom teeth taken out last week. They will do it in the Navy but again I wanted to take him to our dentist. I guess I just wanted one last time to baby him....lol....

You just deprived him of two days of rest in the middle of boot camp, LOL. Seriously, if the Navy does it, they get two days off to rest in their racks. Chris thought it was the best two days ever. He actually caught up on his sleep for a while.

I'm starting to get stressed about the whole waiver thing. We're still working on getting all the right paperwork from Sean's doctor to prove his knee is stable and the screw is gone from his knee. Tomorrow will be the day to finish the civilian doctor stuff and start with fitness and about 30 pounds of weight loss. He has a lot of work to do before they'll let him start looking for a job. He might even have to take the ASVAB again.

Arwen I am with you about the wisdom teeth thing. Let the Navy do it. My twins leave Nov. 2nd for BC and they just had their 6 month exam at the dentist. I didn't go and they sent a referral home for removal of all 4 impacted wisdoms in both boys. Cost to me after dental coverage is used - $2700. No thanks - let the Navy do it!

Good luck on the knee thing and waiver!

that is what my son says, why should we do it here when he can do it there? i would like to baby him one more time, however the choice is his

This is my first post as I am a New N4M. My son heads off to bootcamp on the 28th of this month. He is also going to San Antonio, Tx For MAA school. We did have his wis. teeth pulled a few onths back. Just trying to make sure we have everything ready before he goes to the hotel on Sun.

Hello all! I find something new everytime I log on to NFM - my son leaves for BC March 16, 2011 - it looks like a lot of deppers get called early - I hope that's not the case for my son but he would be thrilled! He can't wait to leave for BC - it's going to be quite an adjustment for everyone!

sandman713 have you seen all the posts about the things that should be handled before he leaves, like power of attorney, passport, banking info, etc. I think it is in the discussion from this group, Dont forget to before he/she leaves.... There were a lot of things I never would have thought of including having him pack a box of things he will want when he gets to A school and is allowed to have his own things. I figured we have enough time to slowly handle everything.

My daughter's wisdom teeth are going to have to wait until BC, she was dropped from my insurance on her last day of the semister.

Thanks glm31461 for the info. I will surely pass it on to my son. Best of wishes and safety to both your sons.

Does anyone have their son/daughter leaving for boot camp around July 8 or 9?