I think it needs to be said: it is great to see so many family members, spouses, and especially moms, participating in the sub forum. I hope ya'll stick around - your questions and insights are valuable.

I dunno about that: I get called a booger eating moron for doing 20 years active...

Of course, the fact that I AM a booger eating moron might have something to do with that...

Actually you can only send your son paper or media, and only one envelope at that. If you want to send him any more real mail, send a letter to his girlfriend now, have her add it to her package. They might be letting some stuff slide, but this is what I was told when I was told about the mail drops for this patrol.

Just as a friendly reminder, please keep OPSEC in mind whenever you write anything online. This base has been having lots of issues with family members lately and there are some bad repercussions.
You didn't say anything wrong in your post. But I learned as much about your son from one post, as some of my friends on another board have learned about my dh in 2.5 years.

quote:

Originally posted by PO1_Kline:
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.

Adam and I did the same. Besides, there was too much that wasn't allowed in emails that I'd want to talk to him about.

PS I'm confused....since when are girlfriends allowed ANY boat information? That is supposed to be priviledged and restricted to family (and a priviledge that can be taken away).

Here's my experience from my first and only patrol not too long ago:

Everytime I got watch I have new emails on news and sports etc... in my mail box. I didn't let my family knows about family gram or my email underway because I don't want to know if anything bad happens until I get back, so I never recieved anything from back home.

Maildrop is totally depend on the oppisite crew's YN. Expect not to get anything until you get back even you get port calls.

quote:

Originally posted by j4ck:
Maildrop is totally depend on the oppisite crew's YN.

No.

It used to be...but you and Adam haven't been around long enough to remember those days....

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:

quote:

Originally posted by j4ck:
Maildrop is totally depend on the oppisite crew's YN.

No.

Maybe I was wrong, if so would you teach me?

The way I was explained by the boat's YN is when your family send out a mail it goes to the "pre-deployment building". The off-crew YNs are the one who picks the mail up and drop it off at the mailing place, and then the mail flies to where the boat picks up the inspection team. If the off-crew YN never sent it off, you will get no mails.

I remember my first off crew I had help the YN load few bags of mail on the van several times. Same thing goes with the movies, as the boat's movie PO I have to do the same thing for the other crew so they can watch new movies underway.

Then again I might be wrong, I apologize if I mislead anyone.

Hey, Submom...is your son on the Georgia? If so...is his LPO an MMC named Hipple?

Sorry - I've been out of pocket a few days. No, my son isn't on the Georgia. Since he's underway I probably shouldn't say what boat he's on. Not sure if I'm carrying things too far, but I'd rather err on the side of safety.

Quick question: For a guy who's busting his butt and really trying...how long does it normally take to qualify?

No problem with that. I know the MLPO on the Georgia, (as does Adam) and thought your son might have gotten lucky.

As far as quals? Sub quals - done well - should take 9 months or so. That is in addition to his engineering quals...as a machinists mate, I would expect fully qualified in less than 1 year...then, of course, there are cross rate quals, QA quals, EWS/EDPO....

I spent 8 years on the Wyoming. I never stopped qualifying.

quote:

Originally posted by PO1_Kline:
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.

weve only been gone 2 and half years from the boat in ga, when we was there we got 8 family grams but not for emergency any emergency information HAD to go through red cross.
Guess its changed....

Yeah...the emergency stuff and/or bad news was supposed to go through the Red Cross, and you had to be careful about using what might be construed as "code", lest your familygram get lost somewhere in the offcrew....

Of course, if the code was good enough, you could get away with anything (not that I would do such a thing.... )

quote:

Originally posted by PO1_Kline:
Yeah...the emergency stuff and/or bad news was supposed to go through the Red Cross, and you had to be careful about using what might be construed as "code", lest your familygram get lost somewhere in the offcrew....

Of course, if the code was good enough, you could get away with anything (not that I would do such a thing.... )

Yep lol I told my husband about the familygrams for emergencies only and he was even like HUH no their not that stuff goes through red cross...or it did lol

I wasn't going to add anything to this thread - but it tickles me...so I will. (I know, I know; you can always call the Mods on me).

Anywho - back in the day (here it comes) diesel boats were making long patrols (particularly the Regulus boats) with one crew, in a supremely nasty environment, with no contact with the outside world (save occasional 'directives' from On High). Oh, we'd copy the skeds, of course, when we could. But there were no 'familygrams' or other intrusions into our little world.

Every couple of months we had to refuel - and fix whatever had fallen off in the storms. (Snorkeling in a State 5+ sea raises hell with your superstructure). Anyway, when we'd pull in to 'fix and fill', mail would generally come pouring in. I hated that. Because we had another 'leg' (or maybe more) to go. Our deployments were generally 6+ months. Invariably, someone would get some word that they could parlay into a trip home - and I'd be down a man.

The absolute worst was when we pulled into Yoko, "...and what to our wondering eyes did appear, but a couple of wifies standing on the pier"!! Once it was the XO's wife...a.k.a. The Mouth of the South! Well, enough of those 'fond memories'. My point in all this (there's a point?) is that we went a loooong time without contact - and it worked real well.

"Mack the Knife"
CDR USN (Ret)

Well. In some ways the "new and improved kindler gentler" navy does better than the old ways...

Of course, on the whole, I think I'd rather be doing it the old way. At least we (you) wre built more in the warrior tradition than the manager tradition...

quote:

Yeah...the emergency stuff and/or bad news was supposed to go through the Red Cross, and you had to be careful about using what might be construed as "code", lest your familygram get lost somewhere in the offcrew....

I did patrols for 3 years out of Scotland and a few more out of Kings Bay. My wife and I ALWAYS had codes. I remember when she found out she was pregnant with our third son, she sent me a family gram about the dog. The dog finally had puppies, all girls except for the last one, it was a boy. This meant she was pregnant with a boy.

We had all kinds of codes worked out. We used dogs, cars, schools, church... you name it. Each one was actually a symbol for something else.

Never got caught, never learned of anything that upset me. Just normal news that I felt I had a right to know, that Uncle Sam may or may not have wanted me to know.

That said, I would not recommend that to anyone else. I really risked a lot doing that, and anyone here who did that would be risking a lot. Do as I say, not as I did.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: lamedog,

quote:

Originally posted by j4ck:

quote:

Originally posted by catherine0830:

quote:

Originally posted by j4ck:
Maildrop is totally depend on the oppisite crew's YN.

No.

Maybe I was wrong, if so would you teach me?

The way I was explained by the boat's YN is when your family send out a mail it goes to the "pre-deployment building". The off-crew YNs are the one who picks the mail up and drop it off at the mailing place, and then the mail flies to where the boat picks up the inspection team. If the off-crew YN never sent it off, you will get no mails.

I remember my first off crew I had help the YN load few bags of mail on the van several times. Same thing goes with the movies, as the boat's movie PO I have to do the same thing for the other crew so they can watch new movies underway.

Then again I might be wrong, I apologize if I mislead anyone.

Ours was always scheduled around personnel transfers by tugboat.
The blue crew would coordinate everything,the ombudsman would send out a phone tree message to the spouses tell us when the mail drop would be and when we had to have our letters at the off crew by. they would take our letters out to the boat with them hand the bag over and the sub would give them the bag of mail from the guys to us and they would mail those off to the spouses when they got back.

Thats the only way Ive ever known them to be done.