Hi Richard, My son, son in-law (both Corpsman) and myself enjoy fishing for those Pike's and Walleye's here in Minnesota.

Richard,

My son finished Corpsman "A" school on 1/30/09 and is now at Camp Pendleton in the FMTB class that graduates mid May. He will be stationed there for the next 3 years. I also have a son in-law that has been a Corpsman for 13 years, he will also be at Pendleton starting the middle of this month and then for 3 years. It will sure be different this summer not having my son with fishing at the lake.

Hi Richard, To start with, enjoy the PIR. That sure makes a parent pround seeing there son or daughter marching in. As for Corpsman A school, these are some of my interpitation from talking with my son. He should make good use of the study time. He will be sharing a room with 2 other sailors, have him get the ground rules down right away with all them keeping the room clean and ready for inspection. Otherwise they will be standing extra watches. They get three chances on failing room inspections. One roommate fails they all fail. I hope he gets good room mates. My son had a few different ones over time, because of sailors dropping out. The school starts out freedom wise like BC but then they start getting more liberty time as they progress. I think they start getting the more liberty after the third test. My son had a cell phone and laptop during A school. He order a cable modem (Comcast) that he and his roommates split the cost on. $20 each. He lived in what they called the "crack house" because it was so run down. When he was on leave at Christmas, he said it was nice to take a warm shower because the crack house didn't have working hot water in 4 weeks. My son also volunteered to be in charge of the sailors standing watches (Chief of the watch?)in his building, this way he could study and not stand a watch. But he would also have to take care of the supervising and dole out punishment for not be on time and other things.