Roller coaster II: Get Me (The Parent) Through Plebe Year Class of ‘25 🎢

Our DS had a very small high school class. Early on he knew they made decisions he couldn’t make and still be successful. His Taekwondo family and cousins and sister were his besties. Their is a vast chasm between what he has experienced since reporting to IDay and his classmates. It would be exhausting to detail and really wouldn’t come across well.

He is enjoying his time home with us. And he is seeing cousins and family and many a horseshoe has been thrown. He has gotten a guitar out and entertained us.

I don’t try to push visits with friends or contacts from the past. He decides where he wants to spend his precious time.
Each human experience is different. He knows what he needs and wants and we are here for the ride.

I have learned not to stage big parties or get togethers or plan events when he comes home. Decompressing is a valuable and rare commodity and to be honest, his true tribe will be reuniting on the Yard on the 7th of January.
I am happy for all who have their kiddo home.
 
Heatherg21 said:
Our DS had a very small high school class. Early on he knew they made decisions he couldn’t make and still be successful. His Taekwondo family and cousins and sister were his besties. Their is a vast chasm between what he has experienced since reporting to IDay and his classmates. It would be exhausting to detail and really wouldn’t come across well.

He is enjoying his time home with us. And he is seeing cousins and family and many a horseshoe has been thrown. He has gotten a guitar out and entertained us.

I don’t try to push visits with friends or contacts from the past. He decides where he wants to spend his precious time.
Each human experience is different. He knows what he needs and wants and we are here for the ride.

I have learned not to stage big parties or get togethers or plan events when he comes home. Decompressing is a valuable and rare commodity and to be honest, his true tribe will be reuniting on the Yard on the 7th of January.
I am happy for all who have their kiddo home.
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Editorial time has expired. Their should read there. Ugh
 
DS expressed the same non-interest in getting together with HS friends. He has moved to a different place and realizes his experience is 180 from theirs. He instead spent time with family just hanging out, eating and soaking up all the "media time" he could. It was a quick trip but well deserved and needed. The next 21 days will pass by quickly. Unfortunately he has his last final in the afternoon on Monday Dec 20 but done early enough to catch a flight home.

DS did learn important lesson on his way back to the yard. He was responsible for arranging pickup with his sponsor family. DW and I stayed out of it. He chose to text back and forth versus having a quick chat on logistics. He landed (with 3 other Plebes from the area who were also tagging with him) and went to look for his sponsor. After 20 minutes of searching they discovered that sponsor family went to BWI and they were at DCA. After some debate the MIDN's made there way to the metro to meet sponsor at New Carrollton station. Lesson learned for him....texts are quick but nothing beats a live voice to voice call.
 
LT360 said:
DS expressed the same non-interest in getting together with HS friends. He has moved to a different place and realizes his experience is 180 from theirs. He instead spent time with family just hanging out, eating and soaking up all the "media time" he could. It was a quick trip but well deserved and needed. The next 21 days will pass by quickly. Unfortunately he has his last final in the afternoon on Monday Dec 20 but done early enough to catch a flight home.

DS did learn important lesson on his way back to the yard. He was responsible for arranging pickup with his sponsor family. DW and I stayed out of it. He chose to text back and forth versus having a quick chat on logistics. He landed (with 3 other Plebes from the area who were also tagging with him) and went to look for his sponsor. After 20 minutes of searching they discovered that sponsor family went to BWI and they were at DCA. After some debate the MIDN's made there way to the metro to meet sponsor at New Carrollton station. Lesson learned for him....texts are quick but nothing beats a live voice to voice call.
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A good lesson in “The devil is in the details” as applied to logistics planning.
 
Capt MJ said:
A good lesson in “The devil is in the details” as applied to logistics planning.
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Great lesson for him as there was little impact...they made it to the Yard well ahead of EOL. We "compensated" the sponsor family by buying them tickets to the Messiah performance this weekend. I know Sponsor families don't need/expect compensation but they have been very helpful so far and wanted to express our thanks. Besides if DS parents cannot attend the performance then why not his Sponsor Parents.
 
Interesting diversity of experiences. My 2/C DS is as tight with his HS buddies as he ever was. He on-line games with them (when time permits), is in a fantasy football league with them, and hangs with them when all are home (like this last weekend). They did a road trip to Wyoming this past summer. They go to college all over the place. They are all incredibly smart and athletic. Doesn’t affect his Yard friendships. He is definitely the unicorn and they are mildly curious with some of his unique experiences but it is remarkable how similar their college experiences are.
 
Post trip updates:

We miss DD, the trip went like she never came. Spent some good time watching netflix fav GBBS ( Great British Baking Shoe) and shopping with DW. She baked cookies for HS friends ( and delivered them to her fast HS friends homes), USNA company mates.

Her HS friends were lined up to meet with her and catchup with her even before we reached home from airport and followed by giggles, sleep-overs.

Cannot wait to see her back in 3 more weeks and take a road trip vacay.
 
LT360 said:
DS expressed the same non-interest in getting together with HS friends. He has moved to a different place and realizes his experience is 180 from theirs. He instead spent time with family just hanging out, eating and soaking up all the "media time" he could. It was a quick trip but well deserved and needed. The next 21 days will pass by quickly. Unfortunately he has his last final in the afternoon on Monday Dec 20 but done early enough to catch a flight home.

DS did learn important lesson on his way back to the yard. He was responsible for arranging pickup with his sponsor family. DW and I stayed out of it. He chose to text back and forth versus having a quick chat on logistics. He landed (with 3 other Plebes from the area who were also tagging with him) and went to look for his sponsor. After 20 minutes of searching they discovered that sponsor family went to BWI and they were at DCA. After some debate the MIDN's made there way to the metro to meet sponsor at New Carrollton station. Lesson learned for him....texts are quick but nothing beats a live voice to voice call.
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DS is now a 2/C and drove himself home, through unbearable traffic, and even dropped his sister back at her college as he was passing through on the trip back south. However, plebe year was a different story! Having always been told what time the family was going to the airport, DS was responsible for his own planning and decided he could leave for BWI an hour before the flight. The afternoon before Thanksgiving! Fortunately his local roommate’s mom caught wind of the plan in time and graciously dropped her Thanksgiving prep like a hot potato and raced to the Yard to zip him to BWI. Mom is a dear friend and we laughed about it this year! Always the tiny details that tend to have a drastic effect. Glad it was a good visit for you!
 
Well we have made it! Our kids have made it! Somewhere in this forum someone made the suggestion that SA experience can be broken into thirds---PS, Plebe AY, and then the rest of the three years. If that theory is true, then with completion of first semester (for all intents and purposes), they would be halfway (if my math is correct) thru the SA life. Hard to imagine. I will have test this theory with DS.

Not only is first semester done, tomorrow is first Navy-Army game. We made the decision to skip this year but plan to go the other three years (God willing). I hope we do not regret this decision. I am sure DW and I will need a box of tissues for when the allergies kick in!

Go Navy, Beat Army
 
LT360 said:
Well we have made it! Our kids have made it! Somewhere in this forum someone made the suggestion that SA experience can be broken into thirds---PS, Plebe AY, and then the rest of the three years. If that theory is true, then with completion of first semester (for all intents and purposes), they would be halfway (if my math is correct) thru the SA life. Hard to imagine. I will have test this theory with DS.

Not only is first semester done, tomorrow is first Navy-Army game. We made the decision to skip this year but plan to go the other three years (God willing). I hope we do not regret this decision. I am sure DW and I will need a box of tissues for when the allergies kick in!

Go Navy, Beat Army
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You don't really want the roller coaster ride to be half over, do you? C'mon - aren't you having fun yet?
 
LT360 said:
If that theory is true, then with completion of first semester (for all intents and purposes), they would be halfway (if my math is correct) thru the SA life.
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Your math is correct. As the parent of a firstie, who’s now halfway through the last third, may I offer a clarification? We can call it the MidCakePa Corollary.

Here goes: The “SA life can be divided into thirds” statement is a conceptual construct. When looked at in terms of “real emotional time” (my term), SA life can be divided very differently. In this case — which focuses on the so-called “parental roller coaster” — plebe summer is 60%, plebe year is 30%, the final three years are 10%. There’s also a small window between when warfare community preferences are submitted and service assignments are announced. That window offers stress that’s equal to half the remaining parts.

You follow? When I retire, I may test my theory. If I do — and if it’s validated — I’ll share it here on SAF. Until then, just trust me. ☺️
 
dddad said:
You don't really want the roller coaster ride to be half over, do you? C'mon - aren't you having fun yet?
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No I do not. This is a fantastic ride. Hard to believe last year we sitting around waiting for noms , interviews, appointments and DODMERB clearances. Again there are times when I tell someone (yes I am THAT person who tells everyone that I have a kid at the USNA) and I am in disbelief at DS achievement. Just the sense of family even for the parents was not something I could have imagined. We are all in the boat together. Some of us are in steerage and others are in the pilot house, but still in it together.
 
Talk about rides!!! The Army-Navy game was a shared ride for everyone. Just read that long snapper on the uncalled “fake punt” was plebe from AZ! Nerves maybe? It was the play that made the game. Midn 1/C Faggot who took the surprise snap and made the play looked like it was planned. Those two and the team will have a story for the ages. What a game. What teamwork!

From the Annapolis Gazette:
Remarkably, Fagot admitted afterward he had no idea a fake punt was coming and he would be required to make a play. Apparently, freshman long snapper Ethan Nguyen was the only one in on the fake.
“No one asked for it. The snapper, he just snapped it to me. I wasn’t expecting it. I didn’t know it was coming, honestly,” Fagot told CBS sideline reporter Jamie Erdahl after the game.
“So honestly, I attribute that to God. I just reacted and I played football. I don’t know what else to say.”
Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, who was in tears after the game, confirmed the fake punt was not called by the coaching staff. He later learned that Nguyen thought Fagot had checked into the fake, but he had not done so.

 
Sooooo....Finals week and surprise, surprise (you should hear Gomers voice in your head), nasty cold and COVID are making their way through brigade. Direct source says if COVID positive then you will placed in ISO or SIQ for 10 days effectively cancelling leave. Thus MIDNs are resitant to go to BMU.

Anyone else hearing this? I hope this a deckplate rumor. I can see MIDNs being restricted from air travel for leave but wholesale leave cancelled? I realize this is Navy and Navy will do what the Navy will do.
 
I have no idea about leave being completely cancelled if testing positive, but yes they are in the thick of CV19 and iso. Ideally, if BMU is following the science and best medical practice, they would let them come off of iso if they are vaccinated and have two negative CV19 tests in 24hrs- but who knows. If I were a Mid then yes, I would avoid BMU and contact with others like the plague (no pun intended) until I am off The Yard on leave.
 
LT360 said:
Sooooo....Finals week and surprise, surprise (you should hear Gomers voice in your head), nasty cold and COVID are making their way through brigade. Direct source says if COVID positive then you will placed in ISO or SIQ for 10 days effectively cancelling leave. Thus MIDNs are resitant to go to BMU.

Anyone else hearing this? I hope this a deckplate rumor. I can see MIDNs being restricted from air travel for leave but wholesale leave cancelled? I realize this is Navy and Navy will do what the Navy will do.
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I talked to my MIDN last night. He said ISO is full and they're putting cots in the ISO rooms. Yes, they are delaying the leave of those in ISO. So of course none of them are going to BMU. The good news is every day more MIDNs are done with finals and leaving, making it less likely to spread.
 
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