A piece of advice for incoming midshipmen/cadets

You will likely be filling out several forms for your unit and mailing them in before you report. Do yourself a favor and make copies or scan them before mailing them. DS' freshman year, he rolled his eyes at me when I made this suggestion, but did it anyway. When he reported to his unit, they had not received or had misplaced his forms he mailed in. He was sure glad to be able to pull out his thumb drive and print new copies, rather than filling out new forms, especially the SF86.

ProudDad17 said:

You will likely be filling out several forms for your unit and mailing them in before you report. Do yourself a favor and make copies or scan them before mailing them. DS' freshman year, he rolled his eyes at me when I made this suggestion, but did it anyway. When he reported to his unit, they had not received or had misplaced his forms he mailed in. He was sure glad to be able to pull out his thumb drive and print new copies, rather than filling out new forms, especially the SF86.

Click to expand...

Photocopies are good. Thumb drive copies are great. Cloud copies are excellent. Having all is best.

This applies not just to US Navy Academy applicants but for all jobs, all professions, all paperwork, etc.

Nice to have when you get a summer vacation rental. Or copies of your passport when vacationing in Aruba. Or when you get pulled over for speeding, get a written warning instead of a fine but then 90 days later get a notice for not paying your fine with $100 surcharge & threat to suspend your license. Marriage certificates. DD214s. Forms W2s, 1040s, etc. Cancelled checks. Copies of bills, invoices, etc. Guarantee on that roof work? Warranty on that transmission work? Etc.

Copies, verification, etc. Trust nobody.

Just saying.