Ooops I see now, GA. Cool. Is he enjoying it? Chris got orders today, he's going to DC. He has to do his "C" school first. He will be there in a few months. Let me know how you are?
Mary
Hi Melanie! Have you been doing alright? Is Lee still enjoying his training? Has he found out where he is going next? Chris did finally start classes Monday although when I talked to him Monday night he said really all they did was filling out forms and some briefing. The actual learning did not start until Tuesday. I hope your weather has been a little warmer than ours. Yesterday was nothing to complain about but today it's sunny and quite a bit cooler.
I've been laid off for 7 weeks so I'm thinking next week they will call me and tell me that they are making it permanent. I would like to stay there for the insurance and benefits but otherwise it really does not break my heart. They've played around with me for too long. How are things for you? Continued good luck to Lee and I hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Melanie! Good to hear from you! Chris is classing up Monday!!! It is going to be a small class (only 16) I guess they had trouble trying to find 20-25 who could pass both boot camp and security clearances so they are going with what they've got, unless they change their mind again like last weekend. Maybe they are expecting 2 or 3 more to roll on in this weekend. He phased up yesterday so now he wants his car and more civies. I told him it may be two to three weeks before I can get it up there. (Gotta find an extra driver and car for a ride back)
How are you doing? Are you still able to hear from Lee very often? Chris has slowed down on his calls home, he is busy texting his girlfriend, or calling and emailing other friends so I only get a call every three or four days now.
How has your weather been? Our has been up and down all week. Last weekend was warm then we got snow early in the week but the ground was too warm for it to amount to very much, then it turned bitter cold with highs barely in the 30's and lows in the single digits and teens, then yeasterday back up to almost 60.
How long does Lee have to be at San Antonio? Maybe he can be away from there before mid summer when the hurricanes start rolling through. At least he has grown up in an area where he knows the kind of damage that can happen from them. I've never decided if it's better to be on the East Coast and deal with tornados and hurricanes or be on the West Coast and deal with huge wildfires and eathquakes. I think the odds are better on the East Coast, more hurricanes than earthquakes but you get more warning.
The weekend is here so we can take time to reflect on the week behind us the week ahead and take care of things at home. Our guys are on liberty or duty or studying so we don't have to worry about classes and tests today. Have a good day Melanie, God bless you and your sailor and his family.
Melanie,
I'm glad that Lee is doing so well. I can imagine that he appreciates the San An. weather! Chris was ready to get some place a little warmer also. I'm glad they are out of there before this week!
I'm not real sure what they do in Intelligence school. That's one of those top secret type things. He will have to pass all the requirements to have at least top secret security clearances. If the specific job or information that he is working on requires it, he may have to have one step above that. If he passes school, I will never know what he does, how he does his job or what he is working on. I can only pray that every once in a while I may be able to find out where he is and that he is ok.
It all fits in pretty well though with his desire to get a 4 year degree in English or History. Eventually, he wants to get his teaching degree and teach school. He wants to eventually become an officer. If that happens, he will make the Navy a career first, and teach after "retirement".
Maybe Lee will get lucky and after a short tour on ship come back to do the majority of his tour at P'cola or Key West or Charleston. Key West would be a long drive but a short flight. One mom that I talk to says that she and her husband travel to places that her son goes and says they never would have gotten out and traveled so extensively if he had not joined. She thinks it has been great for the whole family.
I'm happy that you are getting to talk to Lee more often. That seems to help a lot. I don't feel now that Chris may be doing without something that he needs. I also know that if I have a question about anything, I can text him and he can get back to me later, when he is off duty. I've told him that I will do my best not to call him since I don't know his schedule. I will leave it up to him to call me when he has time.
I'd better get off here and go check on a way to get his laptop to him. He wants to download some more music to his iPod and email some friends.
Take care and I'll get back with you soon. Have a wonderful day Navy Mom!
{Hugs},
Mary
Hi Melanie!
How are you? Have you heard from Lee yet? How is he doing? I bet he is happier in school. Chris is really excited to be in Virginia. We will see if he is just as excited next week when classes start. For this week he is doing odd jobs on the base and getting processed (again). Today he did medicals and got his pin number set up for the cafeteria. He and his bunkmate were going to the MWR for a while this evening. Unless he screws up he will be allowed to keep his cell phone so he is happy. He has asked for me to send his laptop and some CD's. He says he was told that in about three weeks he will be able to have his car. That really has him revved. What is Lee studying? Chris is going to go ahead and do his Intelligence but he has decided that he wants to take the foreign language school and learn Greek. Then he wants to go to Greece to become fluent in the language. Our guys are all "growed up". It was hard to say good bye again but now I know that he is happy and he will get taught rather than yelled at so it is going to get easier this time around. Have a good evening and let me know how things are for you and for Lee. :)
{Hugs}
Mary
Melanie, Chris called this afternoon. He is a sailor!! Yup, if my plane were taking off now my foot would be out the door, but I have to wait one more day! Tomorrow night though, I'll be packed and ready to TRY to sleep before getting on the plane Thursday am. I'm glad you had a safe trip. I wanna hear about it sometime. Where did you go to eat? Did you get to go see any of the sights around town? All the really fun stuff! I'm glad they've both made it!
Mary
Hi Melanie! I'm counting the days down till I go up there! I'm sorry your son missed his phone call! Well, January 2 is right around the corner. I'm sure you are as excited as I am. I cannot wait.
Hi Melanie,
Thanks for the comment! My son is in Division 907. I'm getting so excited to see him on the second! What part of Florida are you in? How abour this weather?!?! Sure is nice here in St. Pete! 80 today!
I'll talk to you later.
Sue
does he think he's gonna have to pay for christmas dinner?? Crazy kid, write him and tell him their going to a church or vfw or civic organization thats gonna feed them. He's not gonna have to pay. lol How precious is he!
Melanie, I tried to call you a couple of times last night but didn't get an answer. Your last two digits are 48? Just making sure I've got the right number without having to through about my last 300 email notices. I will try again as soon as I know that I have the right number. Have you talked to Lee yet? How is he doing? Chris says he is haveing problems with push ups! To the point he may not grad on time. Have a good evening and hope to talk to you soon. Mary
According to all of the "I'm bored Mom" letters from Scotty while he was in bootcamp, they don't exercise as much as you think, I was really surprised. But, Scotty was in the DEP program his entire Senior year of high school, and they prepared him for boot, so he had no problems at all with the PT stuff.
Hey Mel, What Mary wrote below is right. Lauren got the EPO position by default. She wrote in a letter that the Chief asked the "watch" a question and the "watch" got it wrong, then called the EPO over and the EPO got 3 questions wrong, then asked for the AROC (lauren) to get over there and answer the questions and she got them all right. So the chief took the EPO's collar device and gave it to Lauren. Wallah! Now she is EPO and AROC. AROC is second in command. Right below the RPOC. The good thing about being AROC and EPO is that if she can keep them until graduation its worth a paygrade advancement. More $$$!!!. Im gonna email you as well so i can give you Laurens last name and you can give me Lee's. She and Lee cant really have any contact except for study time I think. Its considered fraternization and really frowned upon. But just so you know, they probably would be good buddies if they could because she is one of the funniest people i've ever met! lol They are probably keeping them all laughing, when allowed! lol email incomming....have a great day.
Melanie, EPO is not an "officers" posistion but what is called a select. Basically it is a meritorous posistion rather than a posistion earned by being excellent. EPO stands for Educational Petty Officer. Chris says his job is to collect test scores and help tutor other recruits. There are about 6 Recruit Petty Officer jobs/division, they include the Reruit Cheif Petty Officer who is the recruit that assist the RDC and is over all the other recruits in his division, they have a Starboard Watch Petty officer, a Port Watch Petty Officer and a couple of others which represent the "top dogs" of the division. Not nessesarially the best at everything but the one who show the most leadership potential, organizational skills, paper work skills etc. Those are earned posistions. The RDC can get mad at the division for shortcomings and yank all his/her officers out of their posistions and give the jobs to someone else. The recruit officers are the one who take a butt chewing for everyone else's screw ups. You know...with authority comes responsibility. And thanks to you also for helping me get through all this as well. I will try to give you a phone call with in the next few days to check on you. Thanks, Mary Powell
Thanks Melanie, Keep me posted. I've not heard from Chris at all this week other than the letter he wrote Thanksgiving Day that I got on Monday. I think the little booger is out of stamps and doesn't want to spend his hard earned money on more :) . I put some in the mail to him early this week so maybe this week he will write. One of the divisions from our training group got to call home yesterday but they had the highest scores on their first exam which made the RDC happy so the calls were a reward. None of the other divisions have gotten to call yet. I know that being EPO this coming week is Chris' hardest because of all the test scores he will have to collect and keep up with besides doing his own training and learning. I guess this is one of those times I have to say "no news is good news". Do keep me posted as Lee is a week ahead of Chris and I'll let you know if I hear anything. Have a good day.
Mary
Hi Mel, I wrote Lauren about Lee as well. It may be hard for them to figure it out by first name though...they all use last names there. If you told Lee she was AROC then he'll definately know who she is. I also got another letter this past wednesday...saying she was EPO now as well. She also said in big bold letters PHONE CALL THURSDAY 4-5pm. But no phone call came. It was such a let down. I'm sure for her as well. I can live without phone calls and I was doing well until she said they'd get one then none came. Its the buildup of anticipation and then the crash of the letdown. ahhh, such a bummer. lol Anyway I think there are approx 88 in thier division. And i think their brother division is 055. But i'm still waiting for her to clarify that in a letter.
Hopefully he'll write soon and hopefully we'll get a phone call soon too. I hope we dont have to wait until after battlestations. That would stink, because I think based on their division they are going to be one of the last going for battlestations and it will probably be close to 12/30 - 12/31 and i'll be on a plane the 31st on my way up there so i'll probably miss the call. I'm still waiting for her to tell me when thats happening as well. If you get a call from him, ask him if he knows when it is. And tell him to tell lauren hi for me! lol and I'll do the same for you with Lauren. That way if only one of them gets a call at least they know we are thinking of them. =)
Have a great weekend and dont worry too much. Only 27 days till we see our sailors!
Hi Melanie! I've not heard from you in a few days, I just wondered how you are doing? Did you hear from Lee this week? I see you've been checking into Battlestations 21. It is a test of endurance, knowledge and skill.
They work and train all day as usual then stay up all night fighting fires, crawling through small spaces, plugging leaks, doing first aid and CPR and all types of damage control. It is designed to test them under the "worst case scenario" that can actually happen at sea, while being deprived of sleep. You can't choose when something will happen in the middle of the ocean and it might happen after you've stood watch for 4 hours in the middle of the night. You gotta be prepared. Is Lee getting ready to do Battlestations? It is usually like the weekend or first of the week just before graduation. After the night of Battlestations they recieve their NAVY ball caps and at that point they are officially no longer recruits, they are real sailors. That is kind of their unofficial graduation. Good luck and let me know how it's going. Have you gotten your grad pack this week? We think ours come out next week but we are not sure.
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Mary
I've been laid off for 7 weeks so I'm thinking next week they will call me and tell me that they are making it permanent. I would like to stay there for the insurance and benefits but otherwise it really does not break my heart. They've played around with me for too long. How are things for you? Continued good luck to Lee and I hope to hear from you soon.
How are you doing? Are you still able to hear from Lee very often? Chris has slowed down on his calls home, he is busy texting his girlfriend, or calling and emailing other friends so I only get a call every three or four days now.
How has your weather been? Our has been up and down all week. Last weekend was warm then we got snow early in the week but the ground was too warm for it to amount to very much, then it turned bitter cold with highs barely in the 30's and lows in the single digits and teens, then yeasterday back up to almost 60.
How long does Lee have to be at San Antonio? Maybe he can be away from there before mid summer when the hurricanes start rolling through. At least he has grown up in an area where he knows the kind of damage that can happen from them. I've never decided if it's better to be on the East Coast and deal with tornados and hurricanes or be on the West Coast and deal with huge wildfires and eathquakes. I think the odds are better on the East Coast, more hurricanes than earthquakes but you get more warning.
The weekend is here so we can take time to reflect on the week behind us the week ahead and take care of things at home. Our guys are on liberty or duty or studying so we don't have to worry about classes and tests today. Have a good day Melanie, God bless you and your sailor and his family.
I'm glad that Lee is doing so well. I can imagine that he appreciates the San An. weather! Chris was ready to get some place a little warmer also. I'm glad they are out of there before this week!
I'm not real sure what they do in Intelligence school. That's one of those top secret type things. He will have to pass all the requirements to have at least top secret security clearances. If the specific job or information that he is working on requires it, he may have to have one step above that. If he passes school, I will never know what he does, how he does his job or what he is working on. I can only pray that every once in a while I may be able to find out where he is and that he is ok.
It all fits in pretty well though with his desire to get a 4 year degree in English or History. Eventually, he wants to get his teaching degree and teach school. He wants to eventually become an officer. If that happens, he will make the Navy a career first, and teach after "retirement".
Maybe Lee will get lucky and after a short tour on ship come back to do the majority of his tour at P'cola or Key West or Charleston. Key West would be a long drive but a short flight. One mom that I talk to says that she and her husband travel to places that her son goes and says they never would have gotten out and traveled so extensively if he had not joined. She thinks it has been great for the whole family.
I'm happy that you are getting to talk to Lee more often. That seems to help a lot. I don't feel now that Chris may be doing without something that he needs. I also know that if I have a question about anything, I can text him and he can get back to me later, when he is off duty. I've told him that I will do my best not to call him since I don't know his schedule. I will leave it up to him to call me when he has time.
I'd better get off here and go check on a way to get his laptop to him. He wants to download some more music to his iPod and email some friends.
Take care and I'll get back with you soon. Have a wonderful day Navy Mom!
{Hugs},
Mary
How are you? Have you heard from Lee yet? How is he doing? I bet he is happier in school. Chris is really excited to be in Virginia. We will see if he is just as excited next week when classes start. For this week he is doing odd jobs on the base and getting processed (again). Today he did medicals and got his pin number set up for the cafeteria. He and his bunkmate were going to the MWR for a while this evening. Unless he screws up he will be allowed to keep his cell phone so he is happy. He has asked for me to send his laptop and some CD's. He says he was told that in about three weeks he will be able to have his car. That really has him revved. What is Lee studying? Chris is going to go ahead and do his Intelligence but he has decided that he wants to take the foreign language school and learn Greek. Then he wants to go to Greece to become fluent in the language. Our guys are all "growed up". It was hard to say good bye again but now I know that he is happy and he will get taught rather than yelled at so it is going to get easier this time around. Have a good evening and let me know how things are for you and for Lee. :)
{Hugs}
Mary
Mary
Thanks for the comment! My son is in Division 907. I'm getting so excited to see him on the second! What part of Florida are you in? How abour this weather?!?! Sure is nice here in St. Pete! 80 today!
I'll talk to you later.
Sue
Mary
Hopefully he'll write soon and hopefully we'll get a phone call soon too. I hope we dont have to wait until after battlestations. That would stink, because I think based on their division they are going to be one of the last going for battlestations and it will probably be close to 12/30 - 12/31 and i'll be on a plane the 31st on my way up there so i'll probably miss the call. I'm still waiting for her to tell me when thats happening as well. If you get a call from him, ask him if he knows when it is. And tell him to tell lauren hi for me! lol and I'll do the same for you with Lauren. That way if only one of them gets a call at least they know we are thinking of them. =)
Have a great weekend and dont worry too much. Only 27 days till we see our sailors!
They work and train all day as usual then stay up all night fighting fires, crawling through small spaces, plugging leaks, doing first aid and CPR and all types of damage control. It is designed to test them under the "worst case scenario" that can actually happen at sea, while being deprived of sleep. You can't choose when something will happen in the middle of the ocean and it might happen after you've stood watch for 4 hours in the middle of the night. You gotta be prepared. Is Lee getting ready to do Battlestations? It is usually like the weekend or first of the week just before graduation. After the night of Battlestations they recieve their NAVY ball caps and at that point they are officially no longer recruits, they are real sailors. That is kind of their unofficial graduation. Good luck and let me know how it's going. Have you gotten your grad pack this week? We think ours come out next week but we are not sure.
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