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

Best of luck to your daughter, Craig!  

Congrats Craig. I love the pics.

You have a lovely daughter with a beautiful smile, Craig. Why did she choose the Air Force instead of the Navy?

harpist -  So,  my daughter recently came up to me and wanted to join the Navy.  She has been studying medical stuff in college and basically burned herself out. She wants to do something new and fun.  Do you know what I told her?  "DON'T JOIN THE NAVY".  It's not a good fit.  She want's to do a medical job. The problem is, AND IN MY OPINION,  the Navy actually kind of sucks for learning medical stuff.  My daughter didn't want to be a corpsman just passing out Motrin.  She wants to work near a combat zone (since females can't actually work in a combat zone), seeing and helping at the blood and guts level (emergency trauma), which you don't get in the Navy.

She wants to do Medevac flights helping those that need her help. Her ultimate goal is to be a Physician Assistant.  

To get to that goal she needs to have 2000 hours of one-on-one patient care, and she needs to finish her complete her college classes geared toward PA school.

In the Navy, you can't get even begin the college education because of the new rule that says you must be at your 1st duty station 1 year before you can even think of taking college classes.  By the time boot camp, "A" & "C" school, and your 1st duty station is done, you'll have only 2 years left.  

Read para 5 here:  NAVADMIN 105/10

Secondly, the medical equipment on the ships suck.  If you have major problems they will helo you off and send you to carrier, then on to a big medical shore station.  Ships only do the minor stuff.  That is not my daughter. 

I found this picture to be awesome. These are the military people she desires to help.  

This is the uniform she really wanted to wear, but being a female, she can't.  

notice the cover (hat) ie USMC

Great photos Craig.  Beautiful family :)  Congrats to your daughter!

Congrats Craig everyone looks so happy.  She is lucky to have you as a dad to help guide her in the correct direction.

Craig- congrats to your daughter! And I could not find anything much for AF moms.

Lady Hamilton- My son is also at Goodfellow and should graduate 4/26 from C school, then on to Misawa Japan (another AF base).  And yes, AF facilities are nicer.  There is not a lot to do in San Angelo unless you have a car.

A few Sailors at Corry have just gotten verbal orders to various pre commissioned ships.  My daughter included.  Her Chief told her to expect written orders next week to USS Arlington (LPD 24) in Norfolk.  This could be very exciting.  There's nothing like the fanfare involved in a commissioning ceremony!  Hope those waiting for orders get them sooner than later :)

Salpetty how exciting for your daughter.  My son is probably in school until Nov.  so I'm sure he didn't get verbal orders.  My son called me yesterday and said the instructor let them have a beach party they had alot of fun and got some sun.

CRF230dad, Haven't seen around in a while.  I think my son is right you are building the machine that they work on from toasters and microwaves.  LOL

That is an awesome shirt! Love it!

My son got me that tshirt I love it.

Love that!  My daughter told me about that shirt when she arrived at Corry.  But wanted to wait till she graduated before she got it.

Thanks Craig I sent that on to my son.

Craig what are the zones?  Where do you find out what they are?

CTmomof3: my son is a CTN and he's hyper about this also.  As a matter of fact, the last time I sent him something via facebook he got angry and said it was on a "need to know basis" - and I told him that it was reported by the Associated Press! He has a fb account, but i don't post anything much on it. Guess our sons are being overly-contientious lol!

Mine is CTM and he has a fb. We are just very careful about what we say. If we have a question we use the private message or text. He posts pics and stuff not not much while he is out floating. but we do private message while out floating and email.

My son has a facebook page hardly posts and it isn't even set to private.  I think some instructors tell them not to have facebook it just depends.

Cinder - This is what I wrote on my website:

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Question:

Originally Posted by ctraggie  CTR has been steadily increasing the manned % ever since I signed my contract... It's up to 92%, was in the 80s when I signed. Is this a sign that they'll soon be cutting it down?

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Reply by BKinsman:

Just from my understanding but it is at 92% of where they want it to be. Meaning they ideally want it at 100%.

E1-E3 looks heavy but E4 and E5 look undermanned which is excellent for advancement. If I read it right getting from E3 to E4 is at 100% which effectively means TIR, a few months after A school and we should be Petty Officers 3rd Class. And E4 to E5 is at around 56%, also damned good.

Getting E6 oddly looks tougher than getting E7. In all areas we are above the Navy's average as far as advancement except for E6 where we are a good bit lower.

The main culprit for that looks like the number of 'wanted' CTR1 drops by 91 from FY2012 to FY2014, going from 95% manning to 106% if it stays at the present number. Anything below 100% is good for us. E1-E3 doesn't matter overmuch except that you know they will be 'flowing up'.

That's my understanding of it at least. Craig, could you give ctraggie and I some insight on what is notable on the CTR community overview?

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My answer:

Totally agree. 92% is a great number. Being undermanned is where you always want. 
You guys are good till your 10 year active duty point, then after that your screwed using today's data. But things will easily change by then. You have nothing to worry about. If you notice the senior levers are overmanned, so that means that some of those sailors will not make the Perform To Serve (PTS) board (ie they will have to cross rate or be kicked out). This sucks for them, but it will open positions up for you guys. The Navy is just "Thinning the Herd". 
What is good is you look at the Zone levels and they are great for you newbies. You are doing good. Just to explain what Zone levels mean:
Zone:
A = 21 months to 6 years
B = 6 to 10 years
C= 10 to 14 years
D = 14 to 20 years
E = >20 years. 
So look at the CTR sheet with the above link. You will see that a CTR with the NEC 9138 will get a multiplier of 2, if you are in Zone A. (ie Zone A means you have 21 months to 6 years of active duty). If you had that NEC, and you decide to reenlist at your 6 year 1 day point, you will get nothing since you now have fallen into Zone B.

Per the Facebook topic.  The CT sailors always goes way overboard when it comes to security (which is actually a good thing).  I have never heard of the Navy wanting to stop people from using Facebook.  All they are saying is be careful when using Facebook...  

Yea, when you will read military stuff in the newspaper or on the news.  You should say clear of those topics with your sailor.  The reason is we (the CT's)  get so use to working with classified information that we talk openly about it at work.  You might mess up and say something you shouldn't when you talk to family members about military stuff in the newspaper.  What happens then is you must to a "Self Report" to the Security Manager and this gets logged into your record.  They say these (self-report) don't count against you, but they do.  What's good about getting this logged is when you do your next polygraph and they ask if you ever pass classified information to someone not authorized to receive it, you can say "Yes".  They will then ask if you reported it and you say "Yes".  They check it out and your golden.  However, if you fail this question, you're screwed.  Bottomline is just don't talk real world military stuff.  Stay away from it.  Then they never have to second guess stuff.  Just like here with me, you'll notice I will never talk about real world military topics.  

But here is what the Navy is officially putting out:

http://www.doncio.navy.mil/ContentView.aspx?ID=1818

Ok, maybe I'll talk about the new Air Force aircraft carrier....

Cinder - Yep, he's good....

What about CTT's??   Is it the same for them?

NavyMom4J - Cinder asked that 5 post below this one (ie 1 below the Air Force aircraft carrier.....)

A little early in the morning huh?  j/k

oh ya---  bleary eyed and did not have my coffee yet!

My daughter just got orders to a pre-com unit for the USS Arlington (LPD 24).  She’s gonna be a plank owner!!!!  I am so proud of her.  She heads to Norfolk in May!  But of course she comes home to Long Beach first!!

http://www.arlington.navy.mil/

What is a plank owner???

A plank owner is a term for an original crew member around when the ship is being readied for commission and/or part of the commissioning.  The Arlington is expected to be commissioned in late winter/early spring 2013.

Cinder:  Here is a really good explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plank_owner

That is very cool she must be very excited.  I couldn't tell by the picture but what type of ship is it? 

LPD - Amphibous transport dock or Landing platform dock.  She is very excited.  I guess a Senior chief from that unit was visiting Corry today and my daughter said he was really cool and talked about other members of the crew that are just real nice people.  She's looking forward to all the training she's gonna be getting prior to commissioning.

In 2 hours I'll be at the airport hugging our son on weekend leave. Can't wait

Have a wonderful weekend with your son CRF230dad!!!

Oh I know.  A few members of my unit and myself worked during the USS Dewey Commissioning a couple years ago here in Seal Beach, CA.  What a sight.  Here is a picture of the ship being "brought to life." 

I got my sons Challenge coins at Challenge Coin Depot and also got the CT coin engraved as well.

cinder~when my sailor graduated A school, I had CTR "Last Name" on the first line, and then the graduation date on the second line. He loved his coin. 

Lady Hamilton:  I absolutely LOVE that coin design.  It looks so classy!