Randall W. Adams's Page

Glad to see your son overcame his challenges and successfully completed training. He still has quite a bit of road in front of him, though. When he gets to his boat the qualification process starts all over again. He will have all his Nuke qualifications to complete and he will also have to work on his submarine qualification (Dolphins) at the same time. A few tips I would give him to make his life easier are 1.) Keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open. 2.) Get to know the A-Gangers. They own about 70 percent of the ship's qual card and it's way easier to get signatures if you have a good rapport with them. 3.) If you are awake and not fully qualified, you should be working on getting qualified unless you are actively engaged in work. 4.) You will crank (work in the galley) at some point. Use this time to work on getting to know the non-nukes on the boat and getting signatures on the non-nuke stuff on your qual card. 5.) The faster you get qualified and supporting a watch bill, the better your life will be. Don't be a NUB (New Unqualified Body) forever. 6.) Almost as important as getting qualified, DON'T BE THE STINKY GUY. Bathe regularly (you would be surprised at how many people actually have to be told that) and wash your sheets at least weekly if you can. This is especially important if you're hot racking, which you, most likely, will be. 7.) on that same note, every time you go underway bring AT LEAST 2 weeks worth of socks and underwear. Every division has a laundry day scheduled throughout the week, but the chances of you actually getting to do laundry every week are pretty slim. I could probably come up with more, but I don't want to fill your page up. As always, though, feel free to contact me with any questions that you might have.

Welcome to Navy Dads, Randall. Thanks to Ethan for choosing to serve our nation! How far along the pipeline is he? We offer all kinds of groups that should give you the information and support that you seek. Please feel free to ask any questions that you might have. We are all here to assist you .....

Welcome to NavyDads.com Randall ! When my daughter enlisted in 2005 and left for RTC, I had virtually no knowledge of Navy life or how the Navy did things. By the time her PIR rolled around, I was starting to get the hang of things and understand some of the language and abbreviations, but still felt like a fish out of water when dealing with most topics concerning the US Navy. When my son enlisted and left for Great Lakes in 2007, I got serious about trying to learn as much as possible about the Navy. Now, several years into my journey, I’m blessed to say I have two sailors in the family - my son Eric (AM2) was on the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), was attached to Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 37 (HSM-37) in Hawaii, was attached to VAW-125, and just transfered to VRC-40 ("Rawhides"). My daughter Kat is now a Navy veteran and was stationed on the carrier Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) as a Mass Communications Specialist(MC3). If NavyDads.com were around in those early days, it would have made my first days as a Navy parent much easier!

I'm sure you'll find NavyDads.com as useful, educational and informative as I have over the past few years. Click How To Get Started for a guide on getting going in your NavyDads.com experience! I hope you take the time to explore the site and make some new friends. Read the discussions and add your comments. Browse through the postings in the various groups or start a new one. If you have any comments, questions or concerns about your sailor and what he is going through...be sure to post them! In my experience someone here can answer your questions or concerns or can point you in the direction to find out. And Randall this is a great place to brag as well! So join in, get active, and be sure to let us know how your son Ethan is doing! Please remember that we talk about the Navy here and we must keep the security and safety of our sailors and the fleet in mind. On the right or starboard side of every NavyDads page is an area we call Key Information. Please take a minute and read through the Operations Security (OPSEC) link for some guidelines as to what we should not talk about in a public forum like NavyDads.com.

Best Regards- Paul