PIR graduation and flying to A-school

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Permalink Reply by NavyDads CoAdmin Jim Gramza on May 17, 2016 at 6:28pm

No limit at the Airport. At least none that I've ever heard of. 

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Permalink Reply by Brian Losey on May 17, 2016 at 8:26pm

I have heard of them limiting the passes to immediate family members...mother, father, sister, brother, wife, etc.  When I was there, my son had to wait at the USO until about 0500 when they were finally issued boarding passes and then made their way to the gates.  He left about an hour after that, so no time to get boarding pass and go anyhow...hopefully your experience is different.  To be honest with you, it really amazed me the lack of time you really get to spend with your new sailor versus the cost to go see them.  When I graduated Navy bootcamp 20 years ago, we got the whole weekend to spend on liberty, and left Chicago early Monday morning.  But don't get me wrong....being there for them is worth every penny a parent can spend....I would do it again in a heartbeat!

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Permalink Reply by Brian Weber on May 20, 2016 at 4:43pm

One of the young men in my son's grad class had at least 5 people with him.  Believe it was his girlfriend and family.  Depending on when your Sailor is set to fly out you may be there for a while.  They get dropped off between 0400 and 0500.  Unfortunately for my son his flight wasn't scheduled to leave until 2045.  We did spend about 12 hours at O'Hare so we know the airport very well now.  It was a long day but totally worth the time spent.  After about 5-6 gate changes my Sailor finally left there about 2230...

I completely agree with Brian Losey...it was well worth the money and time no matter how long or short the time.

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Permalink Reply by Dale Shipman on May 27, 2016 at 9:28am

Our son had a fairly tight window two years ago; we got to take him off base after PIR for a few hours for dinner, we took him to Froggy's French Restaurant and the fell all over themselves fussing over  him.  After dinner we took him back to base and then saw him at the USO (it was REALLY crowded) for an hour before his flight.

Congrats to your son.

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