This site is for mothers of kids in the U.S. Navy and for Moms who have questions about Navy life for their kids.

FIRST TIME HERE?

FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO GET STARTED:

Choose your Username.  For the privacy and safety of you and/or your sailor, NO LAST NAMES ARE ALLOWED, even if your last name differs from that of your sailor (please make sure your URL address does not include your last name either).  Also, please do not include your email address in your user name. Go to "Settings" above to set your Username.  While there, complete your Profile so you can post and share photos and videos of your Sailor and share stories with other moms!

Make sure to read our Community Guidelines and this Navy Operations Security (OPSEC) checklist - loose lips sink ships!

Join groups!  Browse for groups for your PIR date, your sailor's occupational specialty, "A" school, assigned ship, homeport city, your own city or state, and a myriad of other interests. Jump in and introduce yourself!  Start making friends that can last a lifetime.

Link to Navy Speak - Navy Terms & Acronyms: Navy Speak

All Hands Magazine's full length documentary "Making a Sailor": This video follows four recruits through Boot Camp in the spring of 2018 who were assigned to DIV 229, an integrated division, which had PIR on 05/25/2018. 

Boot Camp: Making a Sailor (Full Length Documentary - 2018)

Boot Camp: Behind the Scenes at RTC

...and visit Navy.com - America's Navy and Navy.mil also Navy Live - The Official Blog of the Navy to learn more.

OPSEC - Navy Operations Security

Always keep Navy Operations Security in mind.  In the Navy, it's essential to remember that "loose lips sink ships."  OPSEC is everyone's responsibility. 

DON'T post critical information including future destinations or ports of call; future operations, exercises or missions; deployment or homecoming dates.  

DO be smart, use your head, always think OPSEC when using texts, email, phone, and social media, and watch this video: "Importance of Navy OPSEC."

Follow this link for OPSEC Guidelines:

OPSEC GUIDELINES

Events

**UPDATE 4/26/2022** Effective with the May 6, 2022 PIR 4 guests will be allowed.  Still must be fully vaccinated to attend.

**UPDATE as of 11/10/2022 PIR vaccination is no longer required.

**UPDATE 7/29/2021** You now must be fully vaccinated in order to attend PIR:

In light of observed changes and impact of the Coronavirus Delta Variant and out of an abundance of caution for our recruits, Sailors, staff, and guests, Recruit Training Command is restricting Pass-in-Review (recruit graduation) to ONLY fully immunized guests (14-days post final COVID vaccination dose).  

FOLLOW THIS LINK FOR UP TO DATE INFO:

RTC Graduation

**UPDATE 8/25/2022 - MASK MANDATE IS LIFTED.  Vaccinations still required.

**UPDATE 11/10/22 PIR - Vaccinations no longer required.

RESUMING LIVE PIR - 8/13/2021

Please note! Changes to this guide happened in October 2017. Tickets are now issued for all guests, and all guests must have a ticket to enter base. A separate parking pass is no longer needed to drive on to base for parking.

Please see changes to attending PIR in the PAGES column. The PAGES are located under the member icons on the right side.

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Navy Speak

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Navy.com Para Familias

Visite esta página para explorar en su idioma las oportunidades de educación y carreras para sus hijos en el Navy. Navy.com

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CO relieved of command USS Theodore Roosevelt – My personal journey through this...

I read the news feed when it first started on Tuesday. It sunk a hole in my heart that the USS Theodore Roosevelt had coronavirus.

However, while I had concern for the lives onboard her I had the confidence in the Navy to handle the situation. This isn't the first time that a ship has had contagious disease upon it. In the history of naval fleets they have dealt with outbreaks of disease.  Even though this is a new virus there is still protocol to follow to help the sailors, to stay on mission and to keep our national security intact. The Navy does not stop because of illness. They take action.

That may sound cold to you. "I have a loved one onboard, how can you be concerned about the Mission and National security?" 

I'm not trying to be cold and unfeeling...it's just that I have been at this a long time and I have had 35+ years of "training" (Husband full time Law enforcement for 35 years and 30 years of reserve military) and so the bigger picture pops into my head automatically now. Well, most of the time. 

From Tuesday to Thursday I read and was concerned. Still am. I pray that they get this spread stopped and everyone recovers healthy and hardy. 

Here was my thought Thursday night though as I was going to bed, “Should I be reading this? Is this safe for our country?" Think about it. This is how I am feeling and a question I am asking myself before the CO was removed from his position. I am not saying I knew what was going to happen. I am saying that based on my personal experience the way that the information was coming to me caused an alarm to go off on my radar.

Then Friday morning I see that the CO has been relieved of his command. My first knee jerk reaction was,” What?! Why?!”

Then I put my knee down and I read why. This is the why (an excerpt from the SECNAV’s statement):

"As I learned more about the events of the past week on board USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71), including my personal conversations with the Strike Group Commander, Commander, SEVENTH Fleet, Commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet, the Chief of Naval Operations, and CAPT Crozier himself, I could reach no other conclusion than that Captain Crozier had allowed the complexity of his challenge with COVID breakout on the ship to overwhelm his ability to act professionally, when acting professionally was what was needed most. We do, and we should, expect more from the Commanding Officers of our aircraft carriers."

(Bold and italics mine)

The SECNAV fleshed out “the why” in his statement to the press. He had much to say and I believe that he did it with integrity.

Now, I did not initially read the bolded line from the SECNAV’s statement directly from his statement.  I was reading it from an article online. I also read that the CO’s letter had been leaked to the public and published. I have read it..

You want to talk about emotion.

I had a double-knee jerk reaction.

My thoughts: This is a document that I should not even have eyes on.

Let me be clear…it is not the letter itself that produce that reaction in me; it is the fact that I have access to it when I shouldn’t.

After seeing the initial article my husband and I sat down and hashed out our thoughts and feelings. I trust his reaction to this as he has been in it. He has been in extreme adverse situations with lives on the line while he was in a leadership position. He has the authority to speak on it as he has experienced it himself. I watched a man who has been in it…”in the sh!t” (it’s an expression) if you will because that is the only way to describe it, become overcome with emotion as he talked about the reason why it was necessary for the CO to be removed from his position. Let me be clear when I use the term overcome I mean just that, overcome not overreact. For me, that influences how I should react to this. I value his judgement. I have experience with it to help me come to a conclusion for myself. I don’t have blind reaction. I have information from outside and personal experience.

It is a great and weighted responsibility to act professionally when faced with great challenges. The Navy (military) knows this and they are prepared for this. This is why there are rules and regulations. This why they train. When they are faced with something new that training is what helps them to face the new challenge. 

Take a moment and think about it. Have you ever had the best intentions to address a problem and went about it in the wrong way.  I have (raises hand!). What happened next? It has the opposite effect. You are no longer dealing with just the initial problem; you are now dealing with taking the wrong actions to solve it along with the initial problem. You’ve added hurt to hurt.

There is no doubt that the CO was acting in the best interest of his crew. No doubt at all. I am also not saying that the CO leaked the information to the public. There is no proof of that. What there is proof of is that it leaked and he was the initial bearer of the information. It was his responsibility to act in a professional manner and take the care that was necessary in keeping that information in the right hands. Information goes up the direct Chain of Command, not to outside sources and certainly not to the public.

While the Navy doesn't need to ask you this I’m going too...take a moment and put yourself in the Navy’s shoes. You have seen and heard words such as, “trust and confidence” and the loss of it by the Navy in the CO of the USS TR. What does that mean?

Let me suggest that it means that up until the point that the CO pushed the “Send” button on his computer the Navy trusted in and were confident that he had the abilities to perform as the CO of the USS TR.

To go beyond that you have to think back to what it takes to appoint someone to this kind of a position. It’s not a walk in the park. To quote my husband, “You don’t just appoint (his name) to be the CO of an Aircraft Carrier!” I have no idea what the screening process is to be appointed but think about what it takes to just get a job today. Background checks, psychological tests, capability tests, past experience, references…and that is to just work in the fast food industry sometimes!

Now go forward and think what it takes to have to remove someone from that position. It is based on the trust and confidence that the Navy has in the individual to perform to their full ability within the position given to them. This is what they have to go by. It is not based on feeling. It cannot be and I wouldn’t want it to be. What a mess that would be! I trust in my Navy to be the fine-oiled machine I expect it to be for my welfare and this Nations welfare.

Some have said that the SECNAV acted too soon. Well let me suggest this. Let’s go back to the “problem” scenario mentioned earlier. Instead of addressing it (wrong or right) let’s ignore it. Give it a pass. What’s the outcome? You have left the potential (not saying it absolutely will happen) that it could happen again. The potential for more harm.

Let me ask some questions. In this situation is that a risk that could be taken? And, are those that are in authority over me not held to the same standard that I am asked to uphold? My answers would be: No and yes they are.

Many have posted their opinions on the net as to why they think he was removed. Many of those are one-lined ones with no fact to back it up. I’ve seen, “he’s a scapegoat”, “the Navy is using him as an example” to name a couple. Okay, if that is what you know then what evidence do you have to back that up? Explain it to me and we’ll talk about it.

Another is that the Navy doesn’t care about our Sailors. Again, back that up. What factual evidence do you have? 

There is a bottom line here on why the CO was removed. I hope that along the way in my story I have been able to convey that. I am not in any way trying to discount anyone’s emotions. My point in bringing this up is not to stir the pot but to ask you to look at the contents.

We are retired now, but you never lose your connection. It may take a different position in your life, as it should, but it is never lost. The fact that I am writing about this tells me that.

I have a husband who has “been there, done that”. I have a son that is enlisted in the Reserves in the Navy. I have another that is working “the front-lines” as an EMT in an emergency room in a hospital. I stand where you stand.

Respectfully,

FTLW

**I finished this over the weekend but waited until today to post this out of respect for joyful Sunday.

I realize that there are still events unfolding in this situation but did not add them to my post.

Views: 234

Comment by Chipmunk on April 7, 2020 at 12:17am

FTLW - I had intended to respond earlier this afternoon but Mom duties had to get done. I stopped and read your blog to my husband. He said to let you know he truly appreciated your comments! I as well appreciate my husband's perspective on many things in life, including the military. I know there are not as many members probably on the Navy Dad site, but I went to the site today, just to see what the discussions might look like. They were few, only one that I found and it was asking specifically about what the Navy was doing to care for the sailors. The reply was a link directly to the USNI News, with no other comment. 

When we went to our son's PIR and attended Sarge's Meet n Greet, we met a mother whose son was in my son's division. She already had one son in the Navy, serving on a sub and she was sending another one. Throughout our conversation that night and then after PIR on Friday waiting for my sailor, she passed on her words of wisdom to me. She explained to me what the role of the Ombudsmen was, and how important it was for my son to get our information on her list to be able to contacted. She also told me about OPSEC and why it was important to not post information that I wasn't certain if I could or not. She said, a good guide was to see if it had been posted by the DoD, if it had then it was okay to post because it was now public. This was primarily in reference to ship movement.

I am thankful to you and others who have helped me learn and grow as a Mom and a  Navy Mom, to think outside of myself, my desire to be in control of my children and their lives, to think big, think broad, and to dig for truth, to look for source documents and to also admit when I am wrong. It is a process, a personal journey. Thanks for sharing your personal journey through this particular part of our lives.

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