Shipped Out...

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Permalink Reply by Navy Dads Co-Admin Tom on April 20, 2015 at 12:14pm

Start writing now if you want....it's good therapy for YOU! Number the letters so that he can read them in the order in which they were written. When you get his Ship/Div....send the bunch! Right now, there are a million things going through your mind....put them on paper. Best of luck to your SR!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Chiabotti on April 20, 2015 at 12:23pm

Great idea.  Thank you.

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Permalink Reply by Navy Dads Co-Admin Tom on April 20, 2015 at 12:28pm

No problem...You won't receive his first letters for about 3 weeks. You will find yourself camped at your mailbox. They usually write on Sundays....so your letters will arrive on Wed/Thurs. The first few weeks are the worst!

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Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on April 20, 2015 at 1:57pm

If you think you are alone, this was posted by a dad to another member dealing with separation anxiety....

"I know you have seen some encouraging comments from other members, but I wanted to weigh in here too. On 28 January, a month after completing college, my son was sworn in to the Navy DEP. It was a couple of days after that when it hit me....after 23 years of a daily relationship with him everything was about to change! I knew joining the Navy was going to be the absolute best thing for him. But in spite of that, I became very depressed. I had no idea what I was doing but googled Navy support groups. I found this site. I remember posting my first comments.....reluctantly because I thought others would think of me as less of a man.....how depressed I was already at the thought of my son leaving and he was not leaving for boot until 1 May. Well the responses were surprising! All the admins and a number of other members put me at ease when they responded that every dad on this site, if they are honest with themselves, experienced the same thing. I also followed the great advice from the admins to read as much as possible on this site. All of this really helped! But then came the week before he left. I became very upset and just wasn't sure how I was going to cope. It really took some work to get it under control. Then the day came to put him on that plane to Great Lakes. As the tears flowed, it was my son in a bit of a role reversal that said, "dad, it's going to be just fine." Well from that point everything happened just as it was described by the admins and other members on this site from receiving the "kid in a box" to the form letter to the first phone call. The best advice I received after his departure was to write often. I didn't really think my son would care that much because my son has always been very independent and not the "home sick" type. But I found out two things in writing the letters: he loved them and encouraged it and they were very therapeutic for me! In the 7 weeks after I received his address I wrote 16 letters. All typed, no spacing, and not one under 4 pages long! I would never have imagined being able to come up with that much to write about....but you will be surprised. It truly helped the time move along as well. Then believe it or not, PIR was upon us. My son graduated on 28 June. The only thing I can say about PIR is that as it relates to my son, it was the second greatest day of my life......second ONLY to witnessing his birth! When you see your sailor march into that hall and you realize he/she is now a part of something greater than themselves, it is an indescribable feeling of pride. A feeling that washes away all the tears and angst of the previous 8 1/2 weeks of separation. Now as I look back, I am amazed how time has passed so quickly! As of today my son has been out of boot camp almost as long as he was in it. He is in Pensacola attending IT A school. This is totally different from boot camp. It resembles being away to college as you can communicate freely (voice, text, e-mail) with the exception of when they are in class. So to wrap this up, as others have said, hang in there! You too before you know it will be in the same shoes as many of us....looking back wondering where the time went and posting comments to help parents going through that which you have endured. I cannot emphasize enough how wonderful this site is to help you through it.....from really good information to Navy FAMILY who are there for moral support. God Bless you and your son for his service to our great country!"

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Permalink Reply by Steve Chiabotti on April 20, 2015 at 9:15pm

Thank you all for the responses & support.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Chiabotti on April 30, 2015 at 7:46pm

I thought I would respond back to this post for future anxious parents searching for info.  As many others have noted in posts, we received our son's form letter today - the 10th day that he has been at Boot Camp (4/20 being his first day).  His box arrived on the 3rd day that he was there.  Now, we've shipped off the numbered letters that we wrote prior to finding out his address and are now awaiting his first actual substantive letter.  BTW, my son is in Ship 13/Division 214 and his PIR is scheduled for June 19th.  Any others out there with SR's in the same ship or scheduled for the same PIR?  Good luck to all and God Bless our future Sailors. 

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Permalink Reply by Gerald T Brown on May 1, 2015 at 12:29pm

We received our grandson's box in 3 days, form letter in 9 days and first letter from him yesterday which was 16 days. Our son got a call from him at about 10 days, but he wasn't home to receive it. I sent him 4 different cell phone numbers so that doesn't happen again. With today's speed dialing, who knows everyone's phone number anymore.

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