PIR and Goose Creek

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David B. on May 16, 2011 at 6:09am

My son left at noon the next day from O'Hare.  We got to spend time with him that evening and met him and his buddy at the airport on Sat.  We spent about 3 Hrs. with them there.  Be flexable in your plans.

Permalink Reply by Michael E. on May 16, 2011 at 7:57am

My son was a grad and go after PIr.  Sometime they have the weekend I heard. My Son left at 7:00 am the day after PIR. I was able to spend time with him at the Airport.  The USO was great.

Permalink Reply by Steve Goben on May 18, 2011 at 6:35am

Our son flew out on Sat after his PIR on May 6 to A school in Goose Creek.  His flight was at 2:00 pm, so we stayed at the airport w/him until about noon.  He was still considered Grad & Go!

David's Mom said:

Reading the RTC facebook page, Grad and Go now only  refers to those sailors who have A School in Great Lakes. The rest are now called  Saturday Departure or Sunday Dep. Seems that they are doing things differently than they did year or two ago. From what I've read you will have at least the remainder of Friday with your sailor. Departure date depends on flights available. Your son/daughter will know by PIR but might not know much earlier. You can go to the airport and spend the time from when they arrive till they fly out. They arrive at the airport anytime from 1:00 am to 4:oo am. They may stay at the airport anywhere from 2 to 12 hours. The USO is great at both airports and I've read where some families have taken the train into Chicago for the day as their sailor didn't fly out until later in the day.

Permalink Reply by Thom Barker on June 24, 2011 at 8:14am

Our son didn't fly out until 6 AM Monday. We were able to spend the whole weekend with him.

Permalink Reply by lsdemme2001 on July 5, 2011 at 10:14am

You never really know for sure when your sailor will end up leaving for A school. When we went to RTC for PIR (several years ago) my son was still up in the air about his departure. We were able to spend the entire weekend with him. Turns out that he actually did not leave Great Lakes for several weeks due to some issue with Nuclear ETclass size in Goose Creek. He ended up doing some sort of duty on the RTC grounds for a few weeks. Of course his accommodations and treatment were much better than when he was still a recruit!

PS: He says boot camp was way easier than Power school!

Permalink Reply by Joe on August 8, 2011 at 11:34am

My son's PIR will be August 26th, and we've suspected that he would be leaving on Saturday.  We didn't tell him that we thought that, but in the phone call (30 minutes) we got this last Saturday, he said they'd been told they'd probably be leaving Saturday, so we're trying to figure out what to do on the Friday he will have.  His first request is to go to TCBY.

Permalink Reply by NavyDads Admin (Paul) on August 8, 2011 at 11:42am

most of the sailors just want to see humanity without a Navy uniform!!  And eat non-Navy chow....burgers and pizza are REALLY popular requests as is the want to get a watch!!!

Permalink Reply by Fred Fuhrmann on August 9, 2011 at 4:33pm

Our son had PIR on 08/05/11, he had liberty until 7:30pm friday night.  We took the train to Chicago for the afternoon and had him back at 7pm sharp.  I asked what would happen if he was late, answer, I don't want to find out!  He left Boot Camp at 12:30 am for a 9:30 am flight to Atanta, it was delayed until 12:30, so that gave us more time for visiting.  As mentioned in other replies, the USO at Ohare is great, also family members get to go through security with their sons or daughters without a boarding pass, the USO will give you instructions on how to do this.

While eating in Chicago, a gentleman came up to my son and asked if he just came from boot camp and gave him a free meal, latter at another eatery, we/he were hungry, he was given a 10% VIP discount.  I liked the free meal and discount, but would not go through Boot Camp myself to get them! 

Permalink Reply by Joe on August 10, 2011 at 5:32pm

I've been through this before, my Sailor Recruits older sister is a Second Class Petty officer.  This one will be a little easier, since i know what to expect.  Two weeks from now we'll be in Illinois!

 

We're definitely stocking the small black backpack. 

 

And the way it takes a while to class up, our kids could all be in the same classes.

 

Chris Said:

     We did also take him his requested things to the airport in his black backpack, such as cel phone, ipod, laptop and some clothes...,