Jim Harper's Comments

Had to check your site out before I "accepted" invite. Saw submarines, figured, how bad can he be lol Except, I am not a dad, but a mom who is quite proud of him and the career he has chosen and so far has loved all the 3 yrs. he has been in.

Jim,
How is that boat sailor? Where is he assigned now?
Chuck

Last mom heard from Doug he was to busy to be bored..........they have cut their lunch to 30 min. to make up for the training days missed over xmas break. From what he was saying when home, they have started using them for some "light" duties after training hours. He said he spends most of those hours baby sitting repair techs and such without the clearences to enter the various offices. He says it's nice as an E-3 to tell senior enlisted and even a few "lost" officers where they can and cant go without escourts.
Snow...............about a foot deep in my backyard, and thats not drifts. The weather bimbett justsaid an est 5 - 8 more inches between this afternoon and noon tomorrow. Going to see if I can find a way to ship my butt to Fl., to visit the boy until about June, after listening to her. Just cant wait for this great weekend .........super cold and snow, should be fun going to and from work, at least its not the 1st of the month.............all the old folks should be staying inside and not driving 5mph down the middle of the roads.

Well, I still have a pair 13year old daughters at home so it's not too quiet, just a different kind of quiet. With him I got to talk about something other than Hannah Montana, the Jonas Brothers and High School Musical..........LOL.
Guess I'll have to wait until the end of Feb. to talk to him, once he is back at base he is harder to get a hold than an honest public deffender. He has worse hours than I had as a grunt. He has school hours on top of his duty hours, never know when he reachable. Holidays weren't too bad he spent most of the time with his GF too.....................must be a Navy thing.

Doug made it back to base, doesn't have to signin officially until later today. He had said he was just going hide in the room until he had to be seen, which for him means as soon as food is cooked, and he can smell it. Forgot, how quiet the house was when he left for BC.............seems the same now, even the dogs seem to know he left............they haven't been this quiet in months. Well, works about over and time to pack it up and see if my relief shows up on time. Hope you all enjoyed the holidays....................

We have managed to see him a total of 3 times so far................used his weakness "FOOD". Met him and GF for lunch and thats about it. Doug goes back to P'cola by Greyhound on Friday afternoon. He is scheduled to finish "C" school Feb. 26, then he moves down the road about 2 blocks to his 1st duty station. He keeps saying he's there for 3 years.............I never believe the military until I see it happen, but I guess as CTN there are only about 12 places world wide where they are assigned, with most in the states.

Doug made it home by Greyhound........turns out he had company, there were 2 others from P'cola riding to Cleveland. No snow to make him shovel, not that he's around much..........for some reason GF seeing more of him than we are..LOL. Heads back Friday, and won't be back until sometime in Feb. after C school graduation. He gets 15 days leave to move about 2 blocks down the street. Trying to talk him into staying there, and coming up in March so he can attend his high school njrotc units military ball. Figure, it will be for fun to show-up there and mess with (I mean visit with) instructors and cadet staff. Hope you and yours had a good Xmas.

Doug is "supposed" to be staying at Corry Station for the better part of the next 3 years according to the last set of orders he was shown. I wont quit trying to talk him into trying to get atleast 1 short overseas tour in now while he is still single and can enjoy himself. Even a 6 month trip on a carrier would be nice, he needs to understand that the military isn't the 8 - 4 job he has now.

Not enough to move around here yet either. Doug is Greyhounding it up for Xmas/New Years. Why is it the ones with brains have no common sense? We kept on him for the last month to figure out when they would be released.........will the Navy being the Navy told them 1st 1800 on 23 Dec.....................then after someone (guessing here) found out there were NO FLIGHTS out of P'cola after 1800, it was changed to 1600. Of course being a young 18/19 year old that knows everything (both him and his gf) ...didnt bother to return calls and emails when we were trying to get plane tickets. They were 350, now 600 and up if any are left................he and mom had a heart to heart and he is leaving late on 23 and getting here sometime on the 24/25. I will be working so I wont see him until later in the day anyway....hopefully he might actually listen after about 24+ hours on a bus. No if I can only talk him out of wasteing 15 days leave in Feb after C school. He is only moving to his "perm. duty station barracks" about 2 blocks down the road and the Navy is giving him 2 weeks leave to do it..............LOL! Guess they figure he is officer material, and it will take the 2 weeks to find the new barracks.

He starts C school right up the street at Corry Station,. He starts that 12/10/08 until sometime in 02/09, after that unless changed, the last set of orders he saw has him stationed at NIOC Pensacola, for the next 3 years. Was trying to talk him into trying for some where else to get some "real world" experience, but doubt if he will listen.

Hi Jim- just wanted to talk a minute and thank you for your involvement in NavyDads! When you speak with Kyle be sure to offer him my thanks for his service--- and here's a funny didn't know if you've seen about subs!

Doug did one of his famous 1 min calls to Mom...........he passed "A" school and they were going to take a tour of the site where he will be working/going to "C" school.................He thinks his sisters are old enough to handle the snow shoveling. Just trying to work the kinks out to get him home over Xmas. He will have about 10 days...either Xmas or New Years. Then after "C" school he will get about 2 weeks leave, to move about 2 blocks to the building/unit he is scheduled to be with for about 3 yrs according to the orders he has seen. Have been trying to talk him into trying to get assigned to Sugar Grove, WV. There is a NSA site there, only about 2-3 hours from our house down there and about 7 hours from Cleveland.........he wants to stay in FL, go figure.

Jim, don't know if you you've seen these DVDs, but if you haven't, you may put the following on your gift list:

1) A Century of Silent Service
2) Submarine: Hidden Hunter (Discovery Channel)
3) Submarine, Steel Boats - Iron Men

Funny the firefighter thing - that's something Paul has talked about doing when he's done with the Navy. Every since 9/11 he's had a thing for the NYFD. Similar to submariners in that (at least in NYC) they are a super tight group - more so than cops... eating together, sleeping together, etc. Who knows - that's a ways away!

That's great - I wish my son wanted to make a career of it....! A few months ago he was offered an opportunity to go to officer candidate school, and, he turned it down..... But, everyone has to make their own choices and decisions. No matter what, what our sailors learn most of all is self-discipline, focus, and hard work - traits that will stand them in good stead regardless what long term path they choose. Me, if I could do it all over again, I'd make a career of the Navy.

Just noticed that the link to the pics is broken (can't FTP into my server from work so I'll fix it tonight). In the interim, here it is: http://www.kodakgallery.com/kenorian/main/uss_cheyenne_tiger_cruise

BTW, I had an opportunity to spend a couple of days underway on Paul's boat. For those who have prospective sub sailors, the following little article I wrote about the experience might be of interest:

http://www.norian.org/tiger.pdf

Hi, Jim

Paul was in Groton for several months from January 2007. There is lots and lots of work. And, yes, the folks there tend to be at the top of the game. There is a combination of classroom work (nearly all done on computers), and hands on stuff. Lots of time in the "wet trainer". A simulated sub environment where flooding casualties are addressed. The fire casualties are specific to the unique situations on subs as opposed to the general techniques learned in boot camp.

As they progress through the program, their liberty is increased. Eventually, they can go off base in civilian clothes. Paul said the biggest challenge was to stay as focused in BESS as you are in boot. It's still quite rigid, but the slight bit of discretionary time caused some folks to fall behind. Nearly everyone, at some point goes to mandatory extra studying. He shouldn't get too concerned, especially if it's early in the process. Paul did, and ended up first in his class. I think they do it to keep folks on their toes. It pretty much means that you have zero free time.

They do have cell phone access, and access to the internet, though Paul didn't have much time to use it.

What is Kyle's rate? Paul is a Machinist Mate, Auxiliary Systems. Funny, 'cause his strength was always in computer related stuff. I asked him why he wanted to get his hands dirty, and he said he wanted to gain skills in an area that wasn't his natural strength.

The core of BESS is very similar, though, regardless of what a sailor is going to do. Right after BESS the A and C schools will get into the specifics of the rate.

All in all, Paul said BESS was actually fun compared to boot camp. And, BTW, after a year and a half out of sub school including a six month deployment, he really loves being a submariner. Folks on the boat are really tight with each other.

My sons at Corry Station (Pennsacola) and has been waiting since 9/14 for A school (CTN) to start. As messed up as the Navy Schooling schedule is, I swear someone from OPTA must be in charge. He PIR'd on 9/12 and was rushed to Corry Station and is basically sitting on his butt and doing gopher duty.