Karen K's mom

Karen, you will receive her address as part of a "form" letter of rules and regulations at boot camp. It can take a few days, for us it took nine days. Once they are done being processed and are assigned to a division that information is entered into the computer and your recruiter has access to that address. So after three or four days, you might call the recruiter and see if they can give you an address yet. In the meantime - go ahead and start writing letters and then when you have the address, you can drop them in the mail.

We live in the south and our son made it thru one wicked winter there but he is enjoying his winters in Hawaii now much better!!! lol

I am sorry to hear you have sick family, keep the Red Cross info handy but a word of caution while she is in boot camp. It's really important that she focuses on her training the next eight weeks, they are looking for loose links that they can discharge so try to send her positive, supportive news as much as you can. In the event that a family member passes, they would only let her leave if it is immediate family - no grandparents. Should she be able to leave training, chances are she would have to start all over again and perhaps wait for another opening in bootcamp; many deppers have waited almost a year already. We have had many discussions here if something serious happens while they are in boot camp - do we tell them while they are in training or after they graduate. It's a personal and tough decision to make and I hope that you won't have to in the immediate future. We are here for you -

Hi Karen - welcome to 12/17/10 PIR Group! We're glad you found us. Let us know what Ship/Div she is in; you will see a specific discussion group on our page for each Div. I hope you find the posts and discussion groups helpful and I am looking forward to sharing my journey with you. I am one of four administrators for our group. WELCOME! Lori

Ohhh, it hurts missing a phone call but it happens often. I wish I could tell you when she will call home again but it really varies from division to division and there is no rhyme or reason to it - it depends on their RDC and when they earn a phone call. It's a tough call about missing her PIR - it really is quite an event but they do sell a dvd of it. I do understand for those that are graduating in December and the sailor gets to come home on leave that month too - it can be expensive.

Performance division means they either carry a state flag or perform in the band at graduation. Generally for two or three weeks before they actually graduate - they perform at the graduations before theirs. It means they have extra practice to prepare for this.

AECF stands for Advanced Electronics Computer Field, everyone in AECF is either an ET which is Electronic Technician or an FC which is Fire Control. FCs work with all of the weapons systems that are computer driven now. She will find out right before she graduates which rate she will get - both are good rates!