My son leaves for boot camp in January

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Permalink Reply by patti on November 22, 2008 at 4:33pm

how do u get to the great lakes website

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Permalink Reply by Kim on November 22, 2008 at 6:08pm

http://www1.netc.navy.mil/nstc/rtcgl/index.html
Here you go Patti.

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Permalink Reply by Ken's Mom on November 22, 2008 at 4:04pm

Start to collect stamps!!!!!! Mail is his only link to you! Do not send musical cards or anything in the cards and letters also don't write on the outside except name and addresses. Tell him everything even bad news its harder for them not knowing stuff. He just needs to hear it over and over that you love him and will support his every move. Tell him all those deep feelings. My son said it was the letter that kept him going!!!!! I mailed one or two daily sometimes just a funny card but everyday. My son also had a birthday there so we flooded him with cards. Have your friends write and anyone else you can think of!!! Tell him of current events, daily happenings and how much you miss him too!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Debbie Dominique on November 22, 2008 at 4:07pm

Wendy, Send lots of cards and letters while he is there..at least a couple a week. Save all the letters he sends you! Save his notebooks he keeps while he is there. You will laugh later when you read them..how to fold your shirts, how to make your bunk, etc., all in detail! :) Be prepared to possibly not be able to spend much time with him after graduation. My son left 6 hours after he graduated! We got to share a meal..pizza on base and then were able to spend a few hours with him on base just talking and preparing for him to leave for A school in Pensacola that evening. Depending on his orders, he may not be able to leave base. There may not be much he is able to receive from you and take along with him. It depends on what his situation is after boot camp, but we were able to give him a camera he tucked away and money! I have never been so proud, and sad..all at the same time. If you go with no great expectations of the party and the hoopla, it will be easier if that is not what can happen. But, I will tell you..he has been in for 5 yrs. now and has re-enlisted for another 3 and I still have never been so proud of any one or any thing in my entire life as I am of that young man. It has never been easy, but is the greatest thing he ever could have done for himself. He has been deployed twice, in fact is on deployment now on an aircraft carrier until April 09 and has gotten to see the world that I will never see and made some lifelong friends. He met a wonderful young lady in Virginia Beach and married her 2 1/2 years ago and they now have given me my first grandson, Joseph, Jr, who is 17 months old. I could not be a prouder mom and grandma!! Good luck to you and your son!

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Permalink Reply by Ariane Robinson on November 22, 2008 at 7:03pm

We had a send off party because it's a big step for a young person to make for four years and perhaps more.
As far as preparation for graduation. Make sure you have a hotel reservation and a vehicle so you can see something while your here. Great Lakes is very close to Chicago and you will have time to do at least one fun thing in town each day they have on leave.
Just have fun.

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Permalink Reply by Wendy Ennis on November 22, 2008 at 9:35pm

Hi Wendy! My name is also Wendy. My son Ronnie just Graduated from the Great Lakes and it was awsome! Alot can be done to prepare for Graduaton. First of all make sure you take your camera, you can take as many pictures as you like. My son Graduated with 1005 sailors. They will send you a packet in the mail that will give you local hotels close to Base. Try to get there when the gates open, it takes about 20 minutes to get in the gates and get parked. The seats fill up fast. They will let him call home before Graduation, find out what his unit# is. When you go in to be seated there will be signs out on the floor with your sons unit# on it. You want to set in that section of the bleachers so that he will be directly in front of you. They will march in through the door to the left, march past you in a full circle till all the units are in. When they call LIBERTY run to your SAILOR. If you take your eye off of him it may be hard to find him in the crowd once LIBERTY is called cause everyone takes off running to their Sailor. Take your time to visit, dont be in any hurry to leave. My son only got 20min. of liberty before he had to leave base for the airport. We were meeting him at the airport so we tried getting to our car to leave base and we ended up in the parking lot in a traffic jam for 45min. If there is anything i can help you with let me know i will try to help you the best i can. Take care.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon Rawls on November 22, 2008 at 9:37pm

my second sailor will go to boot camp Jan 20. When do your sons leave? We will make hotel reservations as soon as we can figure out when PIR will be- they will have it posted on the web site a few weeks in I believe. It is amazing how much I have forgotten from my first son going through this 3.5 years agon

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Permalink Reply by Diana on November 23, 2008 at 9:03am

Hi Wendy,
My son graduated in Feb. 2008. I told everyone I ran into about my son joining and you would be so surprised on how my former Navy people I ran into to. The one thing that stuck with me was that you need to go to graduation if at all possible. After such hard work and time away form home (a first for many of them) it is such a proud moment to see your sailor and the final result. No cell phone, just the clothes on their back and they need to have their banking info for direct deposit set up.You will receive back the box of their clothing shortly after they leave. That is the strangest moment and I cried like a baby.The only contact is with letters. My son was never big on that, but he did it and you have to be a cheerleader for them. This is definetely a growing up experience for your son and yourself. Best wishes to both of you.

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Permalink Reply by patti on November 23, 2008 at 2:34pm

how do i send money to my sailor and how do u know where there account is because i most definatly want pic and video i have family that lives near the base so that will be where we will stay ty for replying

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Winfree on November 23, 2008 at 3:45pm

Hi, i am new to this site, my son mike started his l4 year this past June l4, he is a lifer..he has been to iraq numerous times to tell, now stationed in coronodo california san diego agrea...done with that assignment requested to be on the uss george bush a brand new aircraft carrier and leaves for norfolk in march,
i will get to see him as he passes by he will be with his grandparents who he has not seen in years he is closer to arizona so he visits his brother there 7 hours away..i remember as if it was yesterday, mike was in the DEP
program at school, so he graduated on a Friday evening and left that following Monday evening to the hotel to get ready to leave the next morning for great lakes and then on to meridian mississippi for school.
he is an officer and going up for chief, i could not do anything like a party at church, we took him and chris my youngest to dinner my x and I and a friend of mikes and then brought him to the hotel and all cried and he cried but when they can and allowed they do write its encouraged for them to keep in touch with their family at home which is very good its after the main training unless they have changed things since l995, You can have a get together with family members and just be supportive that is the best thing i can say praise him for what he is about to do and serve his country and let him know how proud you are to be a Navy Mom things like that and letters really help, and when they are ready to email, thats fun also..mike is at the statge now 32 hear once in a while, not as often as I would have it, but he is a grown young man..single...he says there are not enough good girls out there for him..i think a family gathering if you belong to a church a church group youth gathering of his or her friends is a good idea, just being there and when you go to the graduation, you just go and enjoy i sat there with tears in my eyes when his group came out we were in the heat of the summer when mike graduated back then it seems like only yesterday..where does the time go. my youngest did brother duty in iraq with mike also...and chris stayed in 2 years met a girl with a daughter and got married. he is 31 years of age.
like having twin boys lol write back there is nothing to prepare yourself for other than loving every single min of it and being a Proud Mom, beaming with encouragement for all other parents that are there..if he does not hav eto go to school right after graduation you guys can go some places and take a look at chicago lots of things to do there, mike left for meridian the same day we only had one hour to eat with him outside great lakes and bring him back to leave we traveled from arizona to there, it is an awesome experience bring a camera and take lots of photos to share with us God Bless and I know you will do wonderfully..Lynn from Arkansas orginally Az.

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Permalink Reply by jean on November 23, 2008 at 3:13pm

hi
we had a send off partyat our church camp grounds

it was very nice
alot of people came and lot of people i did not even know came.

alot of retired militray people came too. and wish him well.

since it is January watch the weather it is very cold in gl and maybe snowing
where are you from
i am from tx but grew up in ohio
jean

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Permalink Reply by patti on November 23, 2008 at 3:27pm

yes i know about the weather im praying it wont snow lol im from michigan so we get about the same weather as chicago

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