I'm a proud Navy mom of an MM2 - nuke and have enjoyed reading your posts on the life of a submariner! My son, Ben, graduated from power school in 2005, went to NY for prototype and then stayed on as a SPU for 2 years. His boat is being refitted as an SSGN(I think that's the correct term) in Norfolk so they sent him to GA to start his quals on another boomer. This is his first patrol and haven't heard from him in several weeks - understandable of course.

I've sent him some email, 1 family gram and, just in case they get a mail drop, I've sent him 1 letter. How reliable are the emails? I'm sure it depends on the mission, but are they able to get to communication depth very often to check emails? Are mail drops very common?

I know that Ben's primary focus will be getting his dolphins and I'm sure he's busting his butt trying to qualify. Based on your experience, what're his days like? Don't hold back - I can take it. I appreciate any feedback you can give me. I just want to understand what my son is experiencing.

Thanks to all of you for your service to our great country,

Karri

mom

There were a bunch of guys that rode my husbands boat once doing exactly what your son is doing now. They were on the boat for the sole purpose of qualifying subs. As such, they had to work much harder to qualify, because they had a much shortened amount of time to do it in.

Also, since he is not part of ships force, he may not have his email set up quite right. Hell, sometimes for the crew they couldn't get it to work either. Many times it would be a long period before they even downloaded email, let alone send it. Also, there are certain times that they absolutely not allowed to send off email.

When my first little girl was born, I had no idea for 2 weeks if my husband knew or not, despite sending a red cross message and an email. as it turned out, he didn't find out when I sent the message at all. I was quite happy when I finally got confirmation that he knew about her (especially since they told us during both my ultrasounds she was a by !)

Mail drops are completely unpredictable at best. Family grams usually get sent out in a timely manner, but they require they other crew to send them.......so not always work as fast as we'd like.

A messages sent and recieved are a privilige too, and can be taken away. I know of one boat in GA that stopped all coms for a good 2/3 of a patrol for an OPSEC violation. BAD STUFF. Definately NOT a normal occurance among the silent service, but still possible.

I taught at prototype in NY until 2003.....

Adding to what Cat said....if the boat is on alert, the e-mail goes away....they just can't afford the exposure for what is (realistically) low priority stuff. Not to mention the transmission of e-mail is very very very very (are there enough "very"s there that you get the idea?) slow.

We have to transmit to receive e-mail. On alert, that generally won't happen.

Your 50 word Family Grams are the BEST way to talk to him NOW. If he's Alert, you just have to hope he gets them. Family Grams are LOWEST priority for radio traffic. They get sent when they get sent, but BELIEVE ME they are NICE to get.

When I was in we didn't have email, and I wouldn't imagine that it's very often used except maybe when Ident con 3. (just tooling around, making noise).

quote:

Are mail drops very common?

Being a new guy he will be on the Mail Bouy Watch. Ok so I am teasing you. If the boat is deployed there will be no letters from home.

Hey - thanks for filling me in everyone! Would you believe that when I fired up my computer tonight that I had an "i'm still alive" email from my son?

He says he's keeping busy with quals and hopes to have his dolphins in less than a month...says life will be much easier then.

If he qualifies soon, will he be presented with his pin while underway or do they wait until they return? I know it's a really big accomplishment so is there a ceremony or certain traditions involved?

That would be up to the command. Most try to present the dolphins reasonably soon after they are earned. I know there were several traditions involved when I got mine...most of which would be considered "hazing" in our new, wonderful, terrific navy



(anyone else getting the sarcasm here?)

So, the mail on SSGN's and SSBN's are different. My husband is on a SSBN and when they are on alert, they can receive them the whole time, b/c it doesnt give away their position when receiving only retrieving.
So as SSBN wives, we send emails the whole time, even tho there will be weeks that we dont hear from them, they still get our emails. It really helps them out.

quote:

Originally posted by MsBunny68:
So, the mail on SSGN's and SSBN's are different. My husband is on a SSBN and when they are on alert, they can receive them the whole time, b/c it doesnt give away their position when receiving only retrieving.
So as SSBN wives, we send emails the whole time, even tho there will be weeks that we dont hear from them, they still get our emails. It really helps them out.

PO1 was correct based on when he was in regarding SSBNs (he was on one with my husband). They used to have to transmit to say they were ready to recieve messages, thus potentially giving away position. It was VERY recently that they changed this policy, thus allowing boats to recieve messages while on alert.

My best friend's husband is a radioman and he says that the reason they can receive email and not give away their position is b/c the way the system is set up, anyone, any boat can receive our emails. That is why they have rules against emailing anything with dates, how long they have been gone, when they are coming home, anything like that.
But when transmitting emails is when they can give away their position, not receiving.

quote:

Originally posted by MsBunny68:
My best friend's husband is a radioman and he says that the reason they can receive email and not give away their position is b/c the way the system is set up, anyone, any boat can receive our emails. That is why they have rules against emailing anything with dates, how long they have been gone, when they are coming home, anything like that.
But when transmitting emails is when they can give away their position, not receiving.

I know. Like I said, how they recieve emails changed in the last few years, right as my husband left the SSBN, and is a very new policy.

PS that information is NEVER allowed in comms, even over phones, and it's even priviliged to spouses......it is also a privilige that can be taken away in a heartbeat, and I've seen it done before.

There is a reason we are called The Silent Service.

So, let me see if I've got this right.

It's not true that deployed submariners (FAs, at sea for about xxx months) and SSBNs, SSGNS, at sea for about xxx months) have little communications with loved ones?

Thanks.
Nancy

quote:

It's not true that deployed submariners (FAs, at sea for about xxx months) and SSBNs, SSGNS, at sea for about xxx months) have little communications with loved ones?

It can be true. It depends on what they're doing.

quote:

Originally posted by nancybonar:
So, let me see if I've got this right.

It's not true that deployed submariners (FAs, at sea for about xxx months) and SSBNs, SSGNS, at sea for about xxx months) have little communications with loved ones?

Thanks.
Nancy

Oh yeah it is true. You can hear from them often or you may not hear from them at all. The longest we had between his emailing me was over 45 days, and I mean longer. He did get some of the emails I sent and other ones he didn't. They are out there somewhere in emailland. Usually I will # the emails as well as the letters so he can get some idea of what has been sent when. It honestly depends on what they are doing, where they are, etc... Even the emails get read before they are sent out. We had specifics on what could be said and what couldn't be said. I have heard of emails being shut off completely because of something that was said.

quote:

Originally posted by Navywifeinparadise:

quote:

Originally posted by nancybonar:
So, let me see if I've got this right.

It's not true that deployed submariners (FAs, at sea for about xxx months) and SSBNs, SSGNS, at sea for about xxx months) have little communications with loved ones?

Thanks.
Nancy

Oh yeah it is true. You can hear from them often or you may not hear from them at all. The longest we had between his emailing me was over 45 days, and I mean longer. He did get some of the emails I sent and other ones he didn't. They are out there somewhere in emailland. Usually I will # the emails as well as the letters so he can get some idea of what has been sent when. It honestly depends on what they are doing, where they are, etc... Even the emails get read before they are sent out. We had specifics on what could be said and what couldn't be said. I have heard of emails being shut off completely because of something that was said.

lol weve had lots lost lol I finally started numbering them so did he it was funny to get #3...#5...#1 in that order and thats about how many emails Id get during a deployment ha ha ha 3 lol once I didnt get a single email he was sending them I just wasnt getting them lol.
Had a friend go all deployment with no emails day before the guys pulled in she got 7 all at once from through out the deployment ha ha ha

I don't know anything on this subject yet since this is the first deployment I've gone though. I came here to ask the same question you did, decided to look around and see if I could find the answer first.

I'm pretty sure I met your son. Actually, I dropped him off at the boat right before they left. So just thought I would say hello and remind you what a small world the military really is.

Are you kidding me? How cool is that? He said that he rode down with a few guys from GA. I hope you've heard from your sailor. I've only gotten 1 email but his girlfriend has gotten about 3 so far (typical...mom's don't rate as high.) We found out that he did get our letters in a mail drop and that he'd gotten about 7 of our emails. I hear that the family grams are the most reliable way to reach him. I don't think email is that reliable.

Shoot me an email if you need anything!

I'm a couple days behind, I see, but I don't venture down here too much.

Nice to see ya NWIP.

My DH is on a boomer, & we're also in Georgia. Been here about a year. Alert stinks bad enough, I can't imagine them not even being able to recieve.

Family grams.. Haven't sent one of those yet. We were told by the wive's club to try to save those for emergencies. Thank goodness there hasn't been a need yet.

Sending boat movement info is definitely a no no, along with a few choice words, such as: death, pregnant, divorce, anything along those lines. The emails are read 7 (from what we're told) times between leaving your outbox & reaching your sailor, so anything that could cause him to be less than 100% will not make it to the boat, or will be hand delivered by his chief.

We had 3 mail drops DH's first patrol. Second patrol, we didn't have any. It's a toss up as to when or if you'll have them. If you do, be prepared to only have a few hours (or a day if you're lucky) to get the stuff (whatever you can fit into a large manilla envelope) together & down to the offcrew office. Slim Jims & candy, a magazine, stuff like that goes over well. I'll be sure to put the food items in ziplocs next time because appearantly Starbursts can start to taste like Slim Jims after a while. Ew.

Congrats on your son entering the Silent Service. It's kind of a big deal.

Wow. Things have changed in the 5 years since I left.

We were given a limited number (10?) of familygrams....they were the preffered method of communication, as they did go out, but might not always be received. They were also very very public...

E-mail was new...to us....as I left in 2002. we could only do the e-mail thing when not on alert, which wasn't much of the time. And the e-mails were the lowest priority communications...even behind parts requisitions and baseball scores.

My wife and I bought 2 steno pads prior to each run. I used one as a diary, and she used the other. When the mail drop was scheduled (usuially at the end of the run, to coincide with the arrival of an inspection team), we'd swap books and read what the other had wanted to say for the last 10 weeks. Old tech, but it worked.

And yes, we still have those steno pads. They are now good for a laugh.