A Few Thoughts

I sat down last night and wrote John his first letter (from me) and dropped it into today's mail. According to that boot camp letter, all USPS mail takes 5-10 days to be delivered. Jeez! That's a long time. If I would have known that I would have give him one or two to take with him and open up "when needed."

Speaking of that letter, there was a couple of blurbs that stood out. The first one talks about "Transfer from Recruit Training Command" (boot camp) that states: "It is the Navy's responsiblity to provide recruits with transportation to their next duty station." Then right after that is the second point that made me think: "Upon successful completion of basic training, recurits normally transfer directly to thier next duty station for technical training. Leave is usally granted during the time between their initial technical training and thier first permanent duty station."

WHEW!! Okay, that sounds very intense, but what I think it means, is that unless the school is full, John will be going directly to Florida with no opportunity to come home (Rochester). All the info I look at seems to make me think his "A" school will be at least 9-14 weeks. Some "ratings" (that is the job class) go shorter, some go longer. I tend to think that 3 months of intensive training would get you ready. This is totally just a hypothesis on my part. I could call Chaz, his recruiter. Let me do that.

OH MAN! Just got off the phone with Chaz. I'm right, but I'm wrong too! John WILL NOT be coming home at all until after "A" school. The school is most likely 6 months!! Nice! Looks like we'll be going to Florida after Christmas. I sure hope he gets liberty for that!

I found this little thing on the Navy website to kind of give you a time line for basic training.
http://www.navy.com/about/during/bootcamp/

Oh well... bye for now!

We have contact!!!

I got to talk to John today for about 15 minutes. He called to get some address and phone information for his background check. While I was hunting it up, we talked about how everything was going. He said his new hair cut makes his ears look a little big, but the uniform is really cool. He's a little tired and homesick but it is all a lot to take in. Much beyond that, we just chatted it up.

It was quite the day because after I got off the phone with him, I went to the mailbox and found "THE LETTER." This is the basic DOs and DON'Ts for family and friends for a loved one in basic training. Here they are:

1. Write letters. As many as you want.
2. Do NOT send food.
3. Do NOT send pornography.
4. If you send MONEY please make sure it's by Postal Money order.
5. You can send photos.

Now keep in mind (this is from the letter), the recruit has a limited amount of storage. With those guidelines in hand - get to writing!! Oh and speaking of that. Please AND I DO MEAN PLEASE do not get him worked up over any DRAMA that might be going on around here. I want John to keep his head straight and not get worked up over who said something to someone else and who might be seeing who. If you care for John, you will respect my wishes on this.

You can reach him at:

SR Crego, Johnathan
Division 379 USS JOHN F KENNEDY
Bldg 7116
Recruit Training Command
Great Lakes, IL 60088

Signing off!

What's in the box??

Today, another indicator that John has arrived at boot camp. His dirty clothes. Once you're issued your military duds, you get to trash, donate, or send your clothes home. We got a shirt, jeans, belt, shoes, and one sock. I have no idea where the other sock is. It's not in the box, so this is another mystery for John to explain. Inside one of his pockets was his boarding gate stub. I kept that in case it was a "scrapbook opportunity" for Teresa.

Good News!!

Soooo... we didn't get the "Arrival" phone call from John, so after a phone call to his recruiter and a loooong weekend, I called the Public Affairs office at Great Lakes NTC. After getting her to spell it correctly I found out he was there. Apparently the phone call is "voluntary" so we will have to wait for a little while to find out why there was no phone call.

Either way - he's there and that's the important part!

Pictures from the ceremony!

Here's the first one! It's official! Once you watch the video (see below) you'll know that John is now the property of the US Navy.

Recruit Crego is headed to Great Lakes Training Center on a 7PM flight tonight. Once there, the next 48 hours will be a blur as he goes through processing.


As promised! the video! Sorry it's sideways, I thought I had this corrected using Quicktime Pro, but for some reason Youtube tossed it back to sideways.



Here are some more pictures as well!


He's trying to look all serious, but he was actually super nervous.












All Emma could tell people that she met all this week was "my brother is going to Navy school..."

She loves her Johnny-boy!










Here's a full shot of the of the Ceremony room.















Keep checking back for letters from John!

First Blog Post

Okay - this will be the official blog of John's basic training. I'll be posting his letters here letting everyone know what's going on and how it's going for him (if he writes).

Date of Swearing into the United States Navy: Aug 14 2008 - 10:30AM

9 Days and counting!