»» Welcome to the MEPS and DEP group ««

Well got the call last night at 6.00pm they didnt get his paperwork in fast enough so now he's back to his orig date Jan 25th. That was an interesting 24 hours.

PollyAnna- yeh I'm happy he will be home for the holidays...I'm sure it will fly, atleast now I'm a lil more prepared just in case something comes up again!!!

MommyHunt - I think GlitterBomb has a second life in store as a motivational speaker when she leaves/retires the Navy; she has a knack for making us cry. Thanks for allowing us to share her letter! HUGS to you both!

MommyHunt thanks for posting GlitterBomb's letter. I had my son read it as I wanted him to know that he will be part of a great group of people and to always think positive. I agree with Sunny-Meaghan's Mom that she is a great motivational speaker. The Navy is lucky to have her and you should be proud!

JessicaB-SailorMom-sorry I didn't get back to you earlier about the dogs. They are going to help pull me through when my son goes to bc in January. One is an old guy, but the other is only 5 and constantly on the go!

FYI - the job change can happen after signing but you have to be prepared to roll the dice. My twin sons signed as HM in Feb. to ship 11/10 but they really wanted CT jobs. Their recruiters immediately put them on the DR list and MEPS watched for jobs. In the end of May they got the call that MEPS "bought" two CTR jobs for them and they went in to sign a new contract. We have excellent recruiters and MEPS staff and the boys case may not always apply. They really wanted to go and the HM ship dates were so far out that MEPS and the recruiters were pretty sure they would get to change.

It all worked out and they leave 11/2. Less than 26 days to go. We are packing their extra stuff and doing the Goodwill thing this three day weekend. I am getting very nervous but happy for them at the same time.

Good luck to all.

Thank you PollyAnna - I am so proud of them!

For those of you who have Deppers leaving for bootcamp in November, there is a group for you, November 2010 Boot Camp.

The November DEP group is perfectly fine, but it is turned over to the 2011 Deppers as soon as you're done - it stops being personal to you and the new friends you have made along the way. This one stays in place as your own group, and you can change the name later. My month group (December 2009) is still an active group, as is my PIR group. The farther we get from boot camp in the past, the less it matters what week they graduated, it's fun to track all of those with whom we began the process in the DEP groups so long ago.

Anyone have a recruit leaving 12-8-10?

my son is leaving 12-08-10!

I am not currently in the DEP program, but I am hoping to be soon. I have been thinking about joining the Navy for some time now, my bf is currently in and he is an HM I want to go CS which is Culinary Specialist. I am really excited to start this new path in my life and I am hoping that all goes well once I start talking to my Recruiter. Is there any advice you can give me on talking to a recruiter.

Thanks G-Bomb. You have given me an idea of how my son may be feeling and maybe how I can make the next 3 months workable for all of us. It will be hard but it is something we all look forward to.

Hi everyone, I just wanted to say Hi and welcome you to N4M's. My daughter was in DEP for only a month before she went to boot camp. She left May 25th had PIR July 23rd, graduated a-school Sept 23rd and is now on hold for c-school. She is an AO. The better shape you or your future sailor gets in now the better off he/she will be in bootcamp. And learn everything in the DEP book. memorize everything you are supposed to, it will make your life at boot camp so much easier. When you get there, listen, pay attention and do what you are supposed to do. It is a lot about teamwork, so work with the people in your div. Don't talk when you are not supposed to, it will get you and everyone else IT (Intense training). If you can sleep on the plane or in the airport do it, during the first 2 days there will not be much time if any for sleeping. Also, they will hold your mail for the first couple of weeks so don't think that you family isn't writing, there are, you just can't have it yet. The first 2 weeks are the hardest, then it gets better each week. It will go by much faster than you ever thought it would. Families, once your SR is on his/her way and you get the form letter with the division number on it, join your division/PIR group. You will make a lot of new friends who can help you through this journey. And write to your sailor every day. They live for mail call. :-) If you have any questions please feel free to send me a friend request. I am LaLa, aka The PIR Ribbon Queen

My son, Josh said today when they go to PT with the recruiter,they will start learning how to march. He is so excited. After today, Alex only has one more PT meeting before he leaves in Dec. and Josh will have 3 more. Alex has gained too much weight. He will have to work really hard to get it off by Dec 2.

Sean finished his LAST high school class yesterday. He should receive his diploma in a few weeks and can finally go forward with his Navy plans.

Our local recruiters have stopped all PT with DEPpers locally and I was just wondering if this is the case anywhere else? It seems there was an incident a couple of weeks ago with a DEPper elsewhere and now my sons will not test before they leave. They are not worried because they have been testing with their recruiters every month and passing. Anyone heard anything?

Congrats Arwen!

I haven't heard anything about PT issues and Deppers, but then we haven't heard from Sean's recruiter in months.

My heart goes out to the family of the young recruit who passed away trying to serve his country.

SamsMom thank you and I am very sorry for the family of that recruit.

Thanks for the info PollyAnna. My sons have been doing the PT requirements 3X per week for about 3 months now. Our DEPpers only PT at the monthly meeting and we knew that was not enough. At the August meeting they were practicing standing at attention and one of mine fainted even though the IC1 told them not to lock their knees. I bet he will not do that again.

I almost fainted once, and I KNOW I didn't lock my knees. I was rocking my knees like crazy and still nearly passed out. My RDCs didn't believe me, though. So, it's not only those who lock their knees that have problems standing at attention for long periods of time.

My son was also required to call his recruiter once a week & attend DEP meeeting once a month. As his time grew nearere to leave, he elected to go to the meetings weekly.

We have to check in on monday and attend the DEP meeting every 2nd thursday and have one other face to face during the month

When my daughter was a dep her and other recruits would meet 3 mornings a week at a local park with one of them in charge which would be the next one leaving for boot camp and then would exercise and run as a group and it really helped my daughter at lot as she struggled with the running but they had plenty of hydration did not over do it we had meetings once a week with the recruiter he would drive out to our town about 1 hr from vegas and meet the recruits and go over any paper work and closer to leaving for bc would come out and do the ieps and once a month recruits would go into vegas for the meeting and exercise and everyone did great with this! My daughter is in great lakes A school doing her EN strand she pir 8/6 what a great day and weekend. But it really does help exercising as a group those 3 mornings a week and as they were doing that there were also learning the creed, ranks etc which you really need to learn before you get there as there is so much to learn there! And not enough time in the day to learn it and remember ladies write to your kids everyday twice aday they need those letters and photos i wrote 62 letters which she was in boot camp and she also received letters from friends and family. If anyone has questions please feel free to ask Oh and yes I heard from in son in law(they got married whilst she is at a school sept 18th) who is going to boot camp in feb someone did pass away during a vegas exercise session i dont know any more about it other than that. very sad!! Oh and the getting married thing is very common during A school even with sailors that meet eachother during bc and a school my daughters roomy also got married 2 weeks ago and i have heard of many more so dont be surprised!! its makes it more likely they will get same base and saves on paperwork doing it then.

Ugh don't say that about the getting married thing. We have had a talk with our sons about concentrating on the Navy and schooling. There is plenty of time for the relationships later. :>)

I think it helps my sons that they are both going at the same time and have been working out together and with their dad. They still have to call in every Monday to the recruiters.

Sean isn't formally in DEP yet, we're still working through the waiver system.

However, even once he is in the system, he won't be going to meetings.

My older son, Chris, went through this about a year ago. We live 100 miles from the recruiter station, and they don't want him to drive the nasty mountain road between here and there. Too dangerous. They do come out every month or two and do some testing and check his PT readiness, but for the most part, they consider it too far to bother. They just had Chris text his status once a week, and otherwise left him alone to prepare as best he could.

It's lovely living in an isolated coastal town, but we really are way beyond the middle of nowhere.

my oldest is leaving for boot camp but not until june of 2011. anyone else?

My daughter just turned in her medical paperwork to her recruiter to start the waiver process. We're hoping it goes rather quickly, but understand that it rarely does. She was contracted to ship out last July but had to have meniscus repair surgery. We've waited the 6 months post-op and are now starting the process to re-enlist. Anyone else have to deal with waiver issues and how long did it take? Looking forward to getting this process going again.

Hi Jill! Good luck to your daughter and we'll wish her a speedy re-entry!! Unfortunately, there are so many healthy recruits that don't need medical waivers in the system that are waiting for jobs now that your daughter might be waiting for longer than you and she hoped. Below is a link for you to check out; there is a discussion that has had a fair amount of action in the group DEPPERS IN BUT NOT GONE YET and the discussion topic is WAIVERS WAITING. Good Luck!!

http://www.navyformoms.com/group/deppersinbutnotyet/forum/topics/wa...

@duhhuh58-my son leaves june 2011 as well!
We are blessed with a great recruting office here! My son has to report to the office every thursday for DEP training. Tomorrow will be his first day there. I am going to have to sneak over and watch! I was also fortunate to be in the office on a couple of thursdays to see how they work out the DEP's and they go over everything!

my daughter goes to dep every thursday also but they don't do any pt. she's ahead of most of them, she's been planing this for a year and my daughter that is in the navy gave her a book for christmas that has all the navy info in it and she's been studying it

MommyHunt: He is going to the scottsdale station at thomas/scottsdale rd. Congrats on her leaving for bc. How r u doing?

My son is scheduled to be in GL Dec 14th,,,,anyone else?

My boyfriend's bootcamp date is April 2011 but is handing in a request to go earlier. He's waiting until January 2011 to hand in the request and was told he could leave as soon as a few days after the paperwork is processed or it could be weeks. Has anyone gone through something similar?

Thanks for the help! Luckily my only responsibility for the next year or so is my very flexible job so there won't be any problems going to PIR and seeing him if he gets leave. Just trying to spend as much time with him as possible before he goes. He's pretty antsy so I'm hoping for his sake that he gets to leave sooner than later. JessicaB-Thanks! I'm joining that group for sure!

Thanks for the "Tips from a Shipmate" JessicaB. I sent this in an email to our son. I'm sure he knows what he's supposed to learn, but you'd think it must be difficult for DEPs to stay motivated when their date seem so far off.

MJ214- my son's ship date is March 29 2011 and he signed in June. He put in his request for an earlyer date in Aug. He has gotten one call and it was not able to be processed in time. He has never gotten another one sence. He has been told that not very many guy are geing taken early because the Navy is so full right now. They don't alway fill the open spot. That is what we are geing told.

For the next couple of weeks we're getting a sample of what's to come. Two years ago we went from a household of five (hubby, myself, two boys and a girl), to four when Chris left for college. It was a huge adjustment, becoming a family of four after 12 years of being a family of five.

Sean finished his final high school class earlier this month, and this weekend flew to Denver to help his grandmother empty out her house for sale, after "great grandma" entered a care home. So for the next two weeks we get a taste of being a family of 3.

We have to learn to cook all over again (how much to prepare in a meal, and we don't have to avoid foods Sean dislikes) adjustment of chores, and morning schedules. Less fighting for hot water in the morning. His cat is VERY needy, he misses his boy, and the dog is upset because a pack member is missing.

It's all very strange.

Arwen - I'm not in your spot, YET, but will be soon. My oldest is leaving for college December and the youngest will leave for bc in June. If you have any tips on handling the empty nest syn. please share them. All I can say is hopefully our kids have made the right choices and that God will watch over them. Good luck and take care!

LOL, I just realized, my older son is ON the (USS) Denver, my younger son is IN Denver, and yet are half a world away from each other.

AmyTX~ Earlier this year our son and daughter moved out within 30 days of each other. So far the only benefit, that I've found, is I can "serve" popcorn for dinner!
2boys1girl~ Congrats to your son on the Seal contract. What an amazing year he'll have.

Might be a little early to join as my son is in Denver and going to MEPS tomorrow with his recruiter. Very excited for him...Lots to learn, but ready to jump in with both feet. Very supportive of hiim, and all that but not sure how I'm going to handle the first one flying the coop.

misty - Your son really needs to make a list of ratings (jobs) he thinks he might want. He doesn't want to appear to be "job-locked" (wants only one rating). He needs to have like 5 ratings he might be interested in.

It will depend on what his ASVAB scores are to see what he's qualified for, but you can gear those scores to the area that he desires.
If he has time in the hotel, have him look at all the rating sheets, and have him write down the ones he likes.
Here are the various ratings (jobs)... > http://www.navydep.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=36

Oh shoot...he is at MEPS now and probably don't have his cell phone on. His recruiter has been great so I hope he has told him all that.

Good Luck mistydawn it might be a long day for you waiting to hear how he is making out at MEPS. I remember that day seemed like forever for me I kept looking at my phone and then he didn't even sign the first time there because of lack of open rates, took 3 trips before anything was open. Keep us posted on how he makes out.

Thanks!! I do know it will be a long day. It helps not even expecting anything before 4pm or later. Sigh....

Mistydawn - yes - might even be later. I am fortunate to live in the Denver area, and I was working downtown the day my son was at MEPS so his recruiter was able to call me before his swear in and I ran over and got pictures and such. He made his commitment around 3ish, but he didn't make it home until after 7pm. No electronics allowed, so yes - no cell phone. My son had several areas of interest but no idea of ratings so they had multiple people there at MEPS discuss the options and describe the jobs available to him - they were very helpful and I'm sure they will do the same for your son. I think they expect a lack of knowledge in the younger guys so they will help him out. Worst case, he can request a change and hope he gets it. Looking forward to hearing how things go for him - and you! :-)

JDMom - 3 trips? Arg! That must have been frustrating! That first day is all about 'Hurry up and WAIT', I can't imagine 2 more trips!

I wondered if he would swear in. Kathy we live about 3 hours south of Denver. I never thought about a picture of swearing in....He won't swear in if there isn't a job available right? Can't wait to talk to him. He is really experiencing the "independence" thing and wanting to do this on his own. So it is kind of hard to not mother him lol...

Susan, I would just die if I had them both move out that close within each other. I have a couple of friends with twin girls who graduated last year and will graduate with my son. No other children at home to help keep them busy. I feel for them.