PIR DEBRIEFING

[Sassafras Proud Mom of a Sailor]

INTRODUCTION: A place for parents and others who have attended PIR and graduation weekend to share comments, suggestions and ideas that will hopefully make it easier and more enjoyable for other familes who are preparing for their own PIR events.

 

WHAT TO DO: This is an 'interactive' forum, with each person encouraged to start new topics (by posting your comments in the 'blank' at the top of each page) -and- respond to individual posts (by clicking 'reply' on that particular post).

 

ALSO: Over time, I will be organizing some of the posts herein as a sort of 'guide' which will be static -- that is, there will be no new posts to that discussion... thus it will not actually be a 'discussion' but more of a factual and flowing narrative that takes the reader, moment by moment, through happy hours of PIR, covering the basics with good recommendations about what to do, what not to do, and how to do (or avoid) doing it.

 

To get started on this process, it would be very useful to hear from you regarding which posts and/or particular information do you think should be included? Sincerely, I look forward to hearing from you and transcribing our collective wisdom for those who will attend PIR soon.

 

 

 

 

[Sassafras Proud Mom of a Sailor]

Hello all you everlovin moms, dads, siblings, spouses and significant others. My son graduated PIR on10/29/10 and I loved the whole PIR program. Still, there were some bumps in the road which better planning could have easily smoothed out if only I would have had more information.

For example, it seemed that our little family unit (2 brothers, 1 sister and mom) spent way too much time 'figuring out' what we wanted to do and then 'finding out' where we could go to do it and how to get there... which, by the time we got all that handled it seemed that we did not have time to do whatever it was that we wanted to do.

And it wasn't that we didn't try to put together a game plan, but in all the research we did we somehow failed to learn about the motel that has a waterpark inside (until after we checked into and paid for another place), or that the city where we chose to stay had only fast food restaurants, or that the Gurnee Mall had an ice skating rink... All of which info would have been highly useful had we know it before the fact, and hopefully some of these comments will make it easier for others to have a really good time.

Because time during graduation weekend is at a premium. If your Sailor is Grad & Go, you are already totally aware of this. However, if your Sailor has Liberty on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, it will be good to do some advance planning to make the best use of it.

For one thing, even though they have weekend Liberty, new Sailors may still have assigned duties to attend before they can head out, or may be required to report back earlier than the somewhat standard 8pm... however we did not know this when weekend liberty started and when we found out it had a real impact on our plans.

Another thing is that the Sailors have about a 20 to 30 minute walk from the NEX to their Ship... and it is their Ship that they must be back at by the assigned time. This also means that in the morning, when you go to pick them up, if they have had to do duty that morning and are going to call you when they are free,, they must walk 20 minutes to get to a phone and then call you and then you must drive from your motel to the base.

In our case, our motel was 8 miles (aka: 30 minutes) away. Thus by the time we started liberty with our Sailor, 50 minutes of his liberty time was already gone.

Of course much of this delay could have been avoided by simply permitting the Sailors to have their cell phones immediately subsequent to PIR... but this is not allowed and, respectfully, I believe the Navy should review and change this policy. I mean it just seems like such a waste of resource to me that I had to pack up and mail my Sailor's cell phone to him two days after I saw him in person and could have handed it to him.

Anyway, those are my thought and I hope others will add to them with their own recommendations about how to make things easier or better for our Sailors and their loved ones during liberty after PIR. Congrats to all who have experienced it, and warmest wishes to those looking forward to it soon.

[Michele]

Thank you ever so much for sharing your experience. Our son just started bc 2 weeks ago and will graduate in January and this info that has been shared is very helpful. So thanks again.

[bradleysmom(S11DIV060 PIR 2/4/11]

Hi Missy what ship and div. is your son in? My son left Nov. 18th with 3 other guys, and his ship is 07 div 051. thought maybe we might have our kids in the same.

[proudmomofj]

Hi...when is your son's PIR? Ours is January 14th. Sounds like yours might be around that time.

[Nkeiru]

hey my husband PIR on this day . do you know anything about liberty for grad and go ?

[JessicaB-Sailor Mom]

Nkeiru   here is the link to your PIR group    http://www.navyformoms.com/group/pir1142011

 

Where is he going to A school at?

[Toni17]

Just curious what to where to PIR? 

[Toni17]

Thank You! Sounds good.

[SandraG]

Good advice! Thank you!

[lorriemi navy mom x2]

thank you this is very helpful info .... what city did your sailor graduate from

[proud mom of matt ship9 div069]

my son is gradu 2/11/11 i was wondering he is going to school in great lakes, and i a was wondering if he'll get to spend fri, sat and sunday with us, his recruiter said probably not sundat because he'll have to get ready for school, but i dont want to take the chance of missing a day with him if he can see us, and its to hard to change a plane ticket at the last minute, i see other people on here say yes and some no, i really dont want to wait till the last minute to book a flight, any info would be great thx so much

[proudmomofj]

Hi.  My son graduates this Friday, the 14th, Ship 07 Div 048!  It seems like forever and I cannot wait!  In one of his last letters, he told us that all he wanted to do besides go shopping a little bit, was veg with the fam.  He said to bring lots of board and card games and movies.  He said that mostly he just wanted family time!   He is going to be in A school in GL and he gets to spend Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon because it is a holiday!  He has said that on Tues he will move his stuff for his school.  But that normally though, that is on Mon.