Grad n Go, A School Questions

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Permalink Reply by Mary, Proud Mom of Nick on August 5, 2008 at 5:54pm

All of our Sailors go thru A school. Boot camp trains them on how to be a Sailor but A school trains them on their specific job and in his case...Boatswain Mate. Although there are alot of A schools held in Great Lakes, they have A schools all over the US.

I will put his job description in the school and information forum for you and it usually will spell out where the school is and how long it last.

PS - Our son did have grad 'n go orders but stayed in Great Lakes, in his case it just meant he had to move out of his ship immediately following the PIR and moved to the other side.

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Permalink Reply by ksuzanne on August 5, 2008 at 6:27pm

OHHHH, thank you Mary and KYmom. That explains a lot. Also, Thanks in advance, Mary, for posting that in the forum you mention--I must have missed that topic in the forum list. I didn't attempt a search for "A school" because I figured I'd have a gazillion hits--didn't think of putting his job description in. Duh.

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Permalink Reply by KYmom on August 5, 2008 at 6:02pm

Grad n go, could mean that he flys out that day to his A school if elsewhere, or he could be leaving sometime that weekend.
My son was grad n go and he left on sunday morning to go to MS.

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Permalink Reply by linda (161 NEW SAILOR 4/08/Seabee7/08 ) on August 6, 2008 at 9:00am

Hello suzanne, My son was Grad n Go' after his april PIR. He left for the airport around 2 that day. he was headed to Gulfport, Ms. We went to the airport ahead of him, got a boarding pass(for military familys) and sat with him till his plane took off. It was hard to let him go so soon, but he was actually happy to start his new adventures in Mississippi. Hard part is...they do NOT get those orders and flight plans until the DAY OF PIR. So, although we knew he would be leaving, we had to wait till AFTER the ceremony to find out WHEN. welcome to NFMs!, Linda

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Permalink Reply by Trish on August 6, 2008 at 10:31am

My son is grad-n-go also. He doesn't yet know when he leaves GL. All he knows is that he has to report to Charleston, SC by August 17. He did say that he will get his itinerary on Thursday. I hope like crazy that he doesn't have to fly out on Friday!

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Permalink Reply by ksuzanne on August 6, 2008 at 9:30pm

Hello everyone,
Got my usual wed letters from bootcamp. My son told me that he is attending A school at Great Lakes after PIR, so hopefully we will get to spend a lot more time with him. He also said he got his official orders from the Admiral--whatever that means and they are the same. My daughter said he wrote her last week and will be going to San Diego after A school. Guess we will see, huh?

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Permalink Reply by Chris A. on August 7, 2008 at 3:01am

My son was grad'n'NOT'go. He PIR'd on 7/11 and is still at GL waiting for orders to go to A school in Pensacola, FL. He would have been happy to be grad'n'go instead of waiting around, wondering how long it's going to take to get him on the way to his next round of training. The longer it takes, the longer before he gets his pre-deployment leave.

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Permalink Reply by ksuzanne on August 7, 2008 at 10:02pm

I can imagine how frustrating that is for both of you Chris. Hopefully he will get his orders soon!

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Permalink Reply by Sylvia on August 7, 2008 at 3:45am

When do they find out about this Grad N Go thing? I will be traveling from CA and don't want to stay longer than my son or even take alot of people to sit with him in the airport.

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Permalink Reply by ksuzanne on August 7, 2008 at 9:58pm

Sylvia, as in Chris A's case above guess your never really sure if they're going--unless his A school is in GL then I guess they just go across the street or to the other side as Mary mentioned.

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