Information for new navy mom w/son who chose intelligence C.I.??

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Permalink Reply by Marcie on December 5, 2008 at 5:11am

Hi,
My son is IS also. He did his A and C school in Virginia.

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Permalink Reply by Mary (Chris' mom) on December 9, 2008 at 4:54pm

Hi Rene. My son will be going for a-school in Jan.? He PIR's on Jan.9. We live in NC but we are about 6 hours from Va Beach. Even so, I do plan to go up there for a couple of weekends. If your son needs anything put me on your friends list. I will be happy to take anything to him that I can. Maybe he and my son will be able to hook up and get out some together while he's still there. Chris is hoping to do well enough in school that he will be allowed to take his car. As soon as he gets the ok to do so I will drive it up there for him. When we were up there checking it out, they had a trip planned for that following weekend. It was not a lot of money, they left at like 4am to go to DC for the day, they had the freedom to go several different places and then meet back later. If he gets tired of staying there on the Annex, make sure he checks out the MWR and they can hook him up with some of those outings. If Chris gets his car, he would like to be able to go to Kitty Hawk, NC about once a month to continue hang gliding on the dunes. I don't know if that is within their milage limits or not, he will have to check when he gets there. I'm sure he would be glad to have someone to go with him. I will give you my email addy and we will do whatever we can to help your son. Have a good day. Mary

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Permalink Reply by Vikki on December 5, 2008 at 12:58pm

Hi Marcie and Rene,
Marcie where is your son now? Mine is IS and stationed in England. When did he finish up C school?
Rene - I would wrap the presents. It's hard to be apart on the holidas. Are you sure he doesn't get time off for either Christmas or New Years.? Good job on the test too! That is great. The studying really helps!
Both - I messed up with the "certified" thing too - as I recall you couldn't send it certified and insured and I was worried about the computer, phone, etc. He got it all eventually. Take Care, ~ Vikki

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Permalink Reply by Hoppi aka Angie on December 7, 2008 at 9:52am

He will not be allowed to take any of that stuff back to the BC base with him. He can use his cell during liberty after PIR. If he is grad-n-go and goes to the airport you can give him that stuff at the airport.

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Permalink Reply by DawnRae on January 5, 2009 at 8:00pm

I'm Amber, this is actually my mom's profile and i hopped on to check it out, see if you ladies are getting accurate info... =) Anywho I just graduated from C school December 19, OPINTEL to be exact. I'm active duty and am headed to Naples, Italy. Enough about me,

I was reading about your questions about reservists and ma'am i think your son was mistaken about a few things. He may not have been told about C school but im not so sure about that. When i talked to my classifier he gave me a paper stating a few things about the IS rating, C school included. Anyway, reservists are NOT required to attend C school immediately. UNLESS their RIA tells them too. I had quite a few friends that once we graduated A school went home, that very day. 3 out of 8 reservists in my class stayed. One because it was in his contract, one because she wanted to, only one was told by his RIA he was to stay. As for staying for a year, that wont happen... OPINTEL is 6 weeks, this is what most reservists get, GROUND is 2 months, IMAGERY is 3 months and STRIKE is 2-3 months im not sure. very very few reservest get anything but OPINTEL. I was expecting to be there until February but was there until the 19th of DEC. While they may get activated when they get home, this should be expected. They ARE told that they are required to be active for one year. Yes they may go to the middle east but with all due respect, you cannot join in a war and expect to not serve in it. He was given a 20,000 dollar bonus for good reason. IS's arnt kept in safer areas anyway.

I hope this helps you. I hope your son is doing ok. Who knows i may even know him... =) Hopefully the holidays were ok for him. I signed up to go to an instructers house over thanksgiving it was a blast. They take care of their sailors in VA.

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Permalink Reply by Ellen on January 15, 2009 at 8:51pm

Hi, Rene -
My son is in OPINTEL (Operations Intelligence). Here's my understanding of what it is: they take the information from other information-gathering sources and synthesize it into intelligence and report it to their superiors. For example, my husband was in Army intelligence during the 1970s. He served as a Polish linguist. He was a voice radio intercept operator - he scanned the airwaves for anyone speaking Polish and translated it. Other people take survelliance photos of areas of interest to the US. There are lots of satellites gathering information. Some people gather information over the internet. Then, there are people on the ground who are getting information. All of these people send their "piece of the pie" of information to the OPINTEL guys. They are the "big picture" guys. They gather all of the separate bits of information and make sense of them. Then they brief their commanders, who use the information to make decisions about protecting our country. The sailors are not allowed to tell us anything at all about the specifics of what they are doing, and my son takes this very seriously, as I'm sure they all do. I do know that he loves the job he has and says it is the most interesting work he could have hoped for and he'd like to stay in this field. He had originally joined the Navy with a contract for AirCrew, but he really likes being an IS, and there is a good market for people with these skills and the Top Secret Security Clearance in and outside of the government. The schools are hard, though. Jim said he stayed late to study lots of nights because he wanted to finish near the top of his class so that he'd get the location that he wanted, and he did! It has really been good for him. He finished his C shool at the end of October, so not too far ahead of your son. He's stationed in the country outside of London, England and loves it.

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Permalink Reply by Mary (Chris' mom) on January 14, 2009 at 12:49am

Hi!
My son just got to A school and is waiting for a class to start. As a new IS mom are there any specific dos and don'ts that I should know? He says that he can have his laptop but the USPS flat rate box that I have will not fit his case. I have read to send those types of things USPS certified and I've also read to just send them USPS regular mail. He says that if I send it certified then he can pick it up at the NEX with other mail. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to best send his laptop so he gets it quickly and without a lot of hassle?
Also from other posts that I have read on the subject of A school it sounds like they phase up there much faster than at a lot of the schools. Does that sound right or is he possibly getting information from an unreliable source?
Has anyone checked on the cost of renting one of the cottages at the annex for a weekend? My son is supposed to get a copy of the directory for me this week so I can make some calls about renting a cottage but he may forget. He is so excited about school beginning but he found out today that it maybe postponed for another week or two until they have enough students. He does not really mind at this point since he can still work around the base, have some time to find everything, and get some free time but he is just looking forward to getting started on his training.
It seems that IS is a small group so it's harder to find info. If anyone has suggestions, advice or stories from IS A school they are willing to share, I am willing to listen. Thanks!
Mary

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Permalink Reply by Vikki on January 15, 2009 at 1:43pm

Hi Mary!
Not sure about the phasing timing, I do know it is really just best to not even ask anything about his school or job. They can not tell us anything.

I do know my son was insistent I send his things certified. But at the post office I got a bit confused because you can not insure a certified package. I wasn't about to send his phone, computer, clock, ipod etc without insurance so I sent it insured rather than certified. It may have taken longer to get to him, but I felt better. The rest of the stuff, clothes, etc I sent certified.
My son graduated his IS C school last June and he loves it. Best wishes and I added you as a friend if you have more questions. ~ Vikki

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Permalink Reply by Renee Davi on July 11, 2009 at 12:34am

Hi my sons name is Antonino and he is in IS. His PIR date is on 07/31/2009. I am just trying to get through this difficult time before he is off to Virginia. Thank-you for all the helpful info.. I have already learned a ton by just reading your discussions.

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