Cryptology ~ CTI ~ CTM ~ CTN ~ CTR ~ CTT ~ CWT Corry Station Pensacola Florida and Monterey California

brought tears to my eyes- and what a handsome sailor ! You should be proud. Question- what is the red strip on his lower sleeve for? ( I am still learning)

Each stripe equals 4 years :)

Thanks- i don't mean to question but I thought two stripes on the upper arm were his rate. I know my sailor has two stripes - because he is an E2...Soon he gets his third stripe for E3 which will be in a week. (YAY)  which is his rate. But the one near his cuff? That designates ? years?

I am talking about the red stripe not the white strips.

Those are service stripes, or "hash marks".  So everytime they hit 4 years, they get automatically get one.  Once they hit 12 consecutive years, without getting in trouble, the stripes will be gold for good conduct.

navymomj- The red strip down by his hand is his years strip. He has been in for 5 years now. The red strips just below the shoulder is his rank. He is a petty officer 2nd class. The symbols above is his rate which is AT2. The top symbol if I remember right is petty officer.

And you are correct about the stripes for E-2 vs. E-3.  The sailor in the photo is an E-5 (Petty Officer 2nd Class) hence the two Chevrons. When he advances to E-6, he'll have three chevrons (PO 1st Class). 

All petty officers have Chevrons and the white eagle...the middle symbol (or specialty mark) is different depending on their job, i.e. BM, CTT, AO, etc.

COOL- I am going to print out that depper's cheat sheet that Craig posted and learn this !

Here's a link if you want to get real technical...You never know, this info could prove handy in a Navy trivia game :)

http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/support/uniforms/uniformregul...

Craig - I know my CT is DIRSUP and was supposed to deploy in January - not going now.  Thinks it is funding.

Hey mumzie. what is DIRSUP? Maybe I still have hope then if they are calling off deployments LOL! My Sailor would be disappointed, he wants to go. I mentioned the freezes to him and he said they are still going, so we shall see! I am getting him a nice external harddrive for Christmas that can store alot to take with him. I am struggling finding anything else beside a george forman grill!

momoffour- My son wanted a ninja blender so he could make smoothies anytime he wanted. We got one for him at the black friday sales. He says he can get all the fruit he needs when he goes for meals.

It is hard to know when they are single and live in the barracks. Mine is heading to Japan so he doesn't know how much room he will really have once he gets there.

craig - by freezing the orders does that mean these sailors could stay on hold till next october?  my son is a CTT and we thought maybe after the holidays but from what your saying could be much longer?  Do they just keep them in Pensacola on hold?

Your CTT will probably be at Corry until October in a hold status.  I am actually helping someone that is in this same situation.  PM me your private email address and I will tell you an option he might have.  I don't want to post it here since it's an open board and anyone can see my post.  Plus I'll have a zillion people doing the same thing which would screw my guy.  

Oh this doesn't sound good. Good question clockard about boot camp. When my son was working at the recruiters when he was on leave, he was told they only can recruit 1 a month. I was like...what?...they had to cancel two contracts recently for "over recruiting" feel bad for those people.

Here's a different hold question. My son reported to his first duty station on  Nov 27th. meet with his sponsor a few time to "get stuff done." but since then he's been doing zippo. Shows up in the AM to check in then nothing for the rest of the day.  He said he won't be on hold till next week. So what's he in now and once he's on hold what will he be doing.  This is so much more confusing than when my other son went through this.

 My other son E5 has orders to Okinawa but first he must pass his C school...grad date is end of Feb.. before they become "firm orders." Then he scheduled for Okinawa March 7th.  Do you think this will still happen or will he be put on hold too?

CTmomof3. Last feb. My e5 went from washing to Florida duty stations. During his move he said he was glad he was past the point of no return as all others moving duty stations had been canceled. They had to stay where they were due to funding issues. They had to wait until the goverment gave the navy the next alotment of money. This only lasted a month and things went back to normal.

clockard - They still allow the processing thru boot camp.  The Navy knows they will lose xx% through attrition.  They don't know who those people are yet.  So they allow them to transfer and get to their 1st duty station.  Then the pipeline is long and hard for some of them.  Let say CTT 6yo or even Nuke.  They know they will be in school for at least 1 year, and they know the instructors will still be there, so they allow them to go.

What most people fail to realize is that being on hold at Corry will be one of their best times in the Navy.  Yea, they seem to get disappointed because they can't move on.  However, one month on a dang ship cures that really quick.  They will be saying to themselves, "Why did I come to this ship when I could have been at Corry and having fun".  

CTmomof3 - I bet his orders gets pulled.  I bet he doesn't go.  Just guessing.  Its going to be kind of cool to see how this all plays out in the next couple months.  At least it gives us something to talk about.  (yea, great, our sucky economy).  

Well, Craig you will be getting another private message from me.  My son has been at Corry since April (after reclassing from Aviation and moving over from NAS), so he has actually been in Pensacola for exactly one year now.  He is so anxious to get out of there.  He is also a CTT who graduated from A school in Sept  and as class leader and honor grad in shipboard ops at the end of Nov.  If he finds out that he will still have to stay there until Oct.,  he will have a cow.  He is only a 4 year CTT, so if this is true, almost 2 years of his time will be spent in Pensacola, rather than out in the fleet.  :(   

We really can look at the bright side here.....While our sailors may be in "limbo", they are still getting paid.  My daughter calls me with the same concerns and I just have to tell her to make the best of it, find something good in it and be glad she's getting paid, has medical benefits, etc.  There are a lot of people in this country who are busting their asses just to find a job and can't.  Plus....the Navy (and it's funding) can change on a dime.  I've seen it happen many times where one day they say the funding for such and such is gone till the next fiscal year, only to be told the very next week that they now have so many thousands of dollars and people's orders are reinstated. 

Betsy if he does stay longer there are worst places to be. Tell him he could be in great lakes freezing. If this is an issue they may just release them slowing into the fleet as money comes available. I could not imagine them not going at all they would run out of room to house them all.

navymom, that's true about GL.  I was thinking the same thing about the housing, when I read Craig's post.  They can't possibly keep them at Corry for that long.  They still have boot camp graduations regularly, so they would get pretty stacked up with kids eventually.  lol   He is just so bored there now.   

salpetty, I agree with your reasoning 100%.  But unfortunately, I just don't want his being on hold for so long to cloud his thinking of the Navy.  Right now, he loves it, but he is just itching to get out to do his job.  He knows that he will like his job, he just really wants to do it.  

I totally know what you're saying about the "cloud his thinking part."  I totally worry about that with my daughter since I kind of pushed her (gently) in the Navy direction.  I keep telling her to look at it as an adventure and if she's stuck in Pensacola to just stay involved with activities that will keep her mind off of not knowing the when or where.  She's also looking forward to her job...she says the material is very interesting.  Hopefully after a week home at Christmas, she'll go back refreshed.  I'm going to visit her at the end of January so at least she can look forward to that too :)

Congrats to your son navymom3! Enjoy your time with your sailor :) My son is still in limbo at Corry. He said the freeze on orders doesn't apply to his rate. Still crossing fingers that he will come home on Christmas Eve.

salpetty, has she already received her leave approval for Christmas?  My son is STILL waiting for that and he put in for it two weeks ago.  At this point, I'm not even sure how if he or we will be able to afford the airfare to bring him home.   :(

She did get it approved.. But she put it in well over two weeks ago.  Before hers got approved, she said that everyone was telling her they all get approved.  But who knows.  Maybe you could get a ticket and pay the extra $30 or so for trip insurance, meaning that if they couldn't make that flight, they wouldn't get a refund, but credit toward a future flight.  I know what you mean about airline prices...it's very depressing.  Tell your son to keep asking about it.

salpetty, Yeah, my son says it will be approved, but I'm a big ole chicken about buying a ticket before he has it in his hand.  I think we are going to have to try Priceline and name a price, because they tickets are now well over $900. Yikes!  

I keep telling him every single day, but he still hasn't found out .  :(` 

I'm gonna pray for a sale!  Hang in there.....

Betsy, Have you tried Priceline without naming a price? They are usually a few hundred dollars cheaper and you get to pick your airline. If you don't care what time or airline, naming your own price will get you a really good deal. I made reservations for a friend and it was $400 cheaper that way.

Sons orders are still for Hawaii. Date unknown. Praying for after Christmas.

sunshine your must still only have verbal orders. Once he gets the hard copy it will have a date. When does he finish school.

Our CTT son has had written orders for a while and he is still moving.  He is checking out of his command in Hawaii.  Movers are coming next week.  He leaves Hawaii January 5 and is headed to Denver/Aurora for training.  Then on to Fort Meade.  His orders have not been affected by any "holds", but he has written orders in hand.

Long story on the orders. Here is the condensed version: had written orders for Hawaii to leave after C school (date was open bc the class is in modules), C school class got dropped/something about changing the curriculum (class has a 90% fail rate), son got certified in areas of his C school but they ended all lessons where they were last week (he had 3 lesson left). There is more to this but he couldn't discuss it. Whole class is being sent to the Pacific but thought that they were going to the east coast.  It is about to drive me crazy. I like to be able to plan but I am learning that I can't do this in the Navy.

Joy - Have him look me up when he gets to Denver....

sunshine- That would be frustrating. They should let them have leave before heading to the pacific. But when they will let them leave is the question. You would think they would get them out of there before they go on holiday break.

mine didn't hard hard copy orders until after he graduated a school. He had verbals then when we got to graduation he was told he had c school also and was staying there for a while. I was trying to prepare myself for him not being here for thanksgiving, his 21st birthday and christmas. But thank goodness for the c school as he will get to be with us for all 3 this year. I am sure it won't be the same next year.

And you can plan a holiday trip to the pacific for next year. Spend christmas at the beach.

Clockard, my son told me last night that he'll be in hold till April. was Feb. His poly is scheduled for March.  Seems polys are only done two a day about 2-3 x a week. That seems crazy to me. He never ever complains about things but this frustrated him. One would think it could be done more often so these sailor can start being productive.  The old hurry up and wait thing happening big time now. At least he said he's going to start taking college courses..Yeah for that comment.

CTMomof3   my son got to Ft Meade in August, didnt have his poly til October and wont start his job until january  He started college courses at University of Maryland and did Honor Guard and some volunteer work while in holding

My advice however for your son is to make sure the tuition has been approved first before he signs up for courses.   My son ended up paying for his first course out of his pocket because the tuition assistance wasn't approved in time

Craig, I will definitely have my son look you up when he gets to Denver.  Checks in on Jan 7 I think.  Thanks 

What exactly is the a "poly"?  

My son finally got his leave approved today.  Woohoo!  The flights were averaging between $800-$900 today, so I tried Priceline and they were the same.  My last resort was Name Your Own Price on Priceline.  I put in $350 and they accepted it!  He arrives home on Dec. 17 and has to report back by 0700 on the 27th, so he will fly out on the 26th.  I'm so happy now.  :)  :)  :)  

Wow betsy that was a great savings. I have always been to scared to do that. Thought I would end up with a time I couldn't do. Great job.

Wow!  I am so happy for you. He get's to come home AND you got a great price!  I'm gonna have to start using priceline!

Betsy- a poly is the poly graph test.

aka "lie detector" test :)

Awesome news, Betsy!!! I love Priceline.

Awesome- Betsy- I don't know why it is so expensive to fly in and out of Pensacola!  My son was paying close to $600 each time he got to come home. But $900 is ridiculous. Glad you got the great rate.  Now that he is in San Diego- it is only $99 one way to Denver- MUCH BETTER. He is driving his car back after Christmas so telling him to go the southern route, and not through the Mountains. 

My sailor got is flight to Japan yesterday. Today he had it adjusted to fly from jax instead of pcola. It only cost 45 bucks to have it changed which is good. Now he lands in the morning in Seattle so my mom is going to go spend the day with him. She will fly in just before his flight lands and then fly home on the last flight back home. She only lives 5 hrs away from seattle but doesn't drive at night anymore. And not sure how the roads would be. Plus its only a 1 hr each way. He hasn't seen him since june 09. when he graduated high school. When we last visited he had just left for BC. Hope she recognizes him. Might have to have him fly to seattle in his uniform if possible.

AWE Navymom3--that will be so neat !  Our boys have changed so much from high school graduation- it will be so nice for her to see him and the changes he has gone through- I am always so blown away with my own son and the changes he has made. God bless him and his neat visit with your mom.

Here they are at his high school graduation

And this is him in Sept. at a school graduation

Thanks, ladies.  I just can't wait to see him.   The problem with the prices were that he couldn't leave until after 4p.m. on the 16th of Dec and all the good prices were before 4p.m. of course.  He is flying out of Mobile, AL because thank goodness it's only about 45 mintues away and they were cheaper than flying him from Pensacola.

navymom4J, Wow, that is an awesome price!  I bet that flight isn't so long either, that's nice.  My son is hoping for Orders to SD, but of course when he comes home, he would still have to fly all the across the US since we are in MD.      

navymom3, awww, that is so nice that he will get to spend some time with your mom.  I bet she will be one proud grandmother when she sees him.