Regina

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As a new member, you will have many questions. Join the New Moms Stop Here group immediately. For new members, this group will be your safe haven - we will support you through those tough weeks before, during and after boot camp. We have members with various experiences and skills available to help you. PLEASE NOTE: Especially read this BE ON THE LOOKOUT. PRACTICE HAVING "SAFE" FRIENDS. Kayleigh and Gloria are gone now but there are other people to beware of. You should have at least one "conversation" with them before you accept them as a friend. NOTE: this is not an auto-generated message. You are getting this message from a real live Navy mom.

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Hello Regina, Thanks for the support and the info. My son has been in the US Naval Sea Cadets since he was 11 and has taken 5 summer trainings, but 2 weeks doesn't campare to 8 or 9 for sure! These last couple of days have been filled with so much emotion. It's been crazy. I will certainly rely on you and other moms from this site to get me through this whole boot camp experience. He's also Grad and Go, so I will get very little time with him for the next several months. Thanks again!

Hello Regina. The Sea Cadets are best described as Navy Reserves for teenagers. Kids can start as early as 11 with approval from the CO of the unit, but most don't start until they are 13. They do everything basically that the reserves do...only on a shorter scale. They drill one weekend a month and take trainings for 2 weeks in the summer (there are some winter ones too but hard to schedule with school and stuff). So, my son went to boot camp when he was 13. He went to Gulfport for Seabee school the next summer, Ingleside, Texas for mine warfare the next, Newport, RI for surface warfare the next summer and his last summer was Petty Officer leadership academy in Norfolk, which is required training to complete the program. If they complete the course and stay in until they are 18, they get an advantage if they enlist. My son comes out of boot camp as an E3 and can test into E4 after 6 months....for most, that is a minimum 2 year process when they enlist. They also get a similar advantage if they enlist in the Marines, but I'm not sure what that is. It's an awesome program and my son got so much and so many advantages out of it!! It was crazy because he went through all this and decided he had changed his mind and wasn't going to go into the military at all. I fought it a bit, but let it go...and then one day out of the blue about a year later, he said he wanted me to set up an appointment with the recruiter. I did and he was enlisted about a week and a half later. We have one other child, our daughter, she is 14.

Regina, thank you so much for your response. My nerves are on edge but I am prayerful for my baby...I dont want to be a bother but I need help with knowing where to stay, what to wear, is she a grad & go etc. These are things I will enquire about with the numbers that I have. However, this is my oldest daughter who turned 19 on the 22nd of this month and it was her first one without us....and it wasnt easy. Through prayer I have maintained because I have another daughter who is 15 and the two of them are inseperable and when the time came for Navygirl to leave I had a bit of a time with the 15 year old she went into a "stooper", I encouraged her that her sister was doing a great thing and she needed to allow her this time away so she could grow-up etc...I was screaming on the inside while telling her this....Anyway thanks again for your response.

He grauates 5/7/10 he will be in groten also. I live on long island so Its a 10 minute boat ride, or 2-3 hour drive for me as well. I received the form letter and the box, and a phone call last Thursday night at 9:42 pm... Which I missed because I didn't know they could call so soon!