Navy Reserve Moms

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Comment by Maria (Autry)May on September 27, 2009 at 4:38pm

Carol thank you so much, I am not looking forward to her leaving but she has been in Mississippi since June and was tld they wld be leaving for world unknown next week so like she said we wld know that she is gone when we don't get a phone call from her, she calls almost every night to say good night to her daughter so that is where we are at right now, she will be gone for about 9 months to a year since it changes all the time she ccan't really tell us how long or where and she can't give us an address until she gets over there and I have already started a long letter to her it is about 4 pages long so far so when we get the address she will be getting a long letter. Good luck to your son, I am taking classes online for criminal justice its neat and fun, a lot of work and some I don't understand but get a lot of help from the professors..so again Good luck to the both of you

Comment by doug's mom on September 27, 2009 at 3:41pm

I talked to my son last nite, he called me and is back at Port Hueneme. He was in the desert doing the pre-deployment war games, and there was nowhere to plug into to charge their phones. It was so good to hear his voice and I am so excited and cant wait to see him. Things are definately happening with our Reservists. This was a long month for me, and I cant imagine what it will be like when he deploys in January. The best to all you Navy Moms, God bless.

Comment by Carol F. on September 27, 2009 at 11:48am

Hi guys, Haven't been around on N4M for a long time!
Sounds like things are happening with our Reservists tho.

Maria! Hope your daughter will be okay. I can't imagine the feeling you are going thru but just hang it there. Write her every day to feel connected to her at least. I will be feeling what you feel next spring so..............

As for someone who had asked about the GI Bill paying for schooling. My son is going back to school next week after he got his AA degree last June. He has applied for the GI Bill and we will find out what he will get. As of right now, he got a letter saying he gets 36 months. But no exact amt has been said yet. He is going to find out more hopefully this week on how much.
But it all depends upon how long you have been in the Navy. The longer, the more you get money-wise.

Just an update on my son. He has still been working part time for the juvenile detention dept. He will take 4 classes this fall for a Criminal Justice degree he hopes to get so he can become a police officer. He went to his 2 weeks AT in June and that wasn't fun at all. They worked their butts off getting ready to be deployed next spring.

Here in Oregon, they built a new drill station facility for the Navy, Army, and Marines in Springfield. He is to start drilling there in Oct. He says the complex is "awesome". It has everything you can imagine. So am glad that he now has a place that he wants to go drill to. The last drill station wasn't good.

Then in a few weeks ago, he went up to Fort Lewis, WA for a huge Navy celebration. Cheifs were retiring and they were going thru more pre-deployment stuff.

He is fairly happy but I don't know if your Reservist feels the same way as my son does. But he is just waiting out his time until he deploys next spring. I am not too keen on this. I wished he would get a full time job, even tho he wants to go back to school, he needs money to live.
With the deployment in the back of his mind, he seems to just take life as is and takes a lot more risks right now. Just because he will be gone for 9 months, he thinks he can play now.

Am I wrong to feel this way? I have just left him to be but it is getting kind of tiresome. With his attitude that I can do whatever since I am deploying next year?

Angie, don't know if I missed it but has your son gotten to go Active yet?

Carol

Comment by Angie F.- WA: HM mom on September 27, 2009 at 1:58am

We have all learned together Maria, especially on this Group. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of resources and info readily available to Reserve families at first. I would think a large percentage of enlistees choose to go Active, so that is the majority of the experiance pool here on site. (Just look, 144 members on this Group out of 25,000 total on site?! We're steadily growing though.) I know I felt like the odd duck on a few of my Groups early on, "left behind" in some ways as other's spoke of their Sailors in "C" schools and other specialty training and/or being sent on their first deployments. I was actually referring to most of the Active Duty Moms/members not being very aware (that's what I meant by "ignorant") of how the Reserves even work or that there were Reservists training alongside their Sailors. I'm still figuring it all out, like you have, seems to vary a lot by the Sailor's rate! Every thing we learn and share, helps the newbies coming behind us. :)

Comment by Maria (Autry)May on September 27, 2009 at 12:07am

Angie: I am a reservist mom and not I didn't know a lot about it or how it worked or what was suppose to happen...but I nor any of the other moms are ignorant we just did not understand and were confused, but with a lot of questions and going to family weekends with my daughter I have learned a lot...and I hope that the rest of the moms havve also learned a lot through their son or daughter

Comment by Rene on September 26, 2009 at 7:26pm

Carol(nathans mom) and Marti...being a reservist can be quite confusing and stressful for sure. From our experience anyways..when my son signed a contract as IS, he was told there was A school of course. He got to A school and was told he had to complete C school. SOon as he got used to that change of plans and was excited for the opportunity, he was told reservists don't DO C school. lol. But they do sometimes and he did. DURING C school he was told he had to pick a reserve unit either 4 hours from us, or 5. One or the other. Even though there is one like 5 miles from our house. Stress agAIN..right? SO..he reported home to this one 1st, and has not been changed out of town since. He has been trying to get an active duty assignment in his rate...found out the unit here cannot release him from anything, they don't really deal with his rate,that has to come from the place far away from us to which he has never officially been, even though they are officially his Command Center.. Hmmm....anyway, he is WORKING for this unit daily, in HONOR GUARD, doing Navy funerals. Of which he was never IN HONOR GUARD in boot camp or anywhere else...see where I'm going with this? hahahha! Cracks me up. He is happy, things will work out fine as long as we don't over stress...hard not to though...but one thing is for sure. Being a reservist CAN be just as stressful as active duty. Never let anyone tell you different. Hang in there!

Comment by Angie F.- WA: HM mom on September 26, 2009 at 3:24pm

Hi Marti, first of all "Rate" refers to the job he chose to do in the Navy. Some use "Rank" interchangeably, but that is actually an incorrect term for enlisted Navy. FYI: "Paygrade" refers to his status "E-3" or whatever.

What is the Group you tried to join for his Rate? Many Moms are very ignorant of how the Reserve program works. ALL Navy Recruits go though BC at Great Lakes and they all receive their general "A" school training at the same locations as active duty Sailors. Some then get sent home to start drilling after graduating from that, others go on for more specialty training and or a period of active duty/deployment first.

Good for you for getting the ball rolling on a Group for your Div. :) Did you do a search in the Group forum to make sure there wasn't already one? I would suggest that you change the name of your new Group to "Div 947, Ship 06" as many Moms will put their Div # in first and your Group will then pop up.Go back and search for that first. Ship 6 is also where the FIT Div is located (for injured and ill Sailors who are being held back) so having the Div # first helps you further distinguish your Group.

My son was also a 900 Div Recruit. We only had 6 moms and a couple of them didn't find us until halfway though or more, but the first 4 are a tight core even to this day. Met one of my N4M BFFs on there and then in person at GL for our Meet and Greet and PIR. You sit with your Divamates in 900 Div bleachers for graduation. :) We've supported each other ever since! Definately join the 900 Divs Sailors Group! Usually Moms find each other there and start Discussions for their Divs, but also get to chat and encourage each other talking about overall 900 Div specific stuff plus share photos/videos etc. =) Good luck. Glad you found this Group! :-)

Comment by omega-mom-ship#6div952 on September 26, 2009 at 10:23am

what is RATE?

Comment by Judy -Chris' Mom on September 26, 2009 at 9:27am

Marti- Ship 6 is the ship for the performing division. My son was in the performing division when he went to BC and your son is correct that he will be involved in 2 PIR plus his own. Did you try joining the 900 Division group? Maybe you will find others on that site. Did you try starting your own site for his Division? As far as letters and phone calls, they can only write on Sundays and phone calls are not often. It depends on how well the group does. I waited about 5 weeks for the first call, so don't panic about that. As far as his A school, I don't know about that. I do know that my son is a MA and at first they said he was going to Texas, but a week before PIR they sent him to Virginia. It seems that most Reservist go to Virginia instead. Maybe the the person who created that group is just not aware that your sons job has reservists? What is his rate? Try not to worry. Maybe your son is just in a group that has parents that are not aware of this site. As long as you got letters from him with his return address, you know he is safe. When you write him maybe he can answer your questions about A school. Maybe you have the rate name wrong? Just an idea. Good luck and keep us updated.

Comment by omega-mom-ship#6div952 on September 26, 2009 at 8:13am

Help. Im having trouble figuring out why my son is not with anyone else..I joined a couple of groups and no one else has a child in the same ship or div. but they have the same grad. date. Then I joined group for his A school and the "Creator" informed me that they never had a reservist in the group that they didnt let them do that job. HELP I'm LOST...

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