No Thanksgiving break

Yes, of course. I wasn't addressing the USNA situation but rather presenting the practice as it has existed in the past. I strayed too far from the original post and didn't provide context. (guess that is what happens when you are multi-tasking during a conference call!) Sorry. I will step back and let the thread get back on track.

Actually this sounds a bit similar like our Sponsor program. Liberty for Thanksgiving Day is very likely, and Sponsors who are comfortable hosting midshipmen (It’s totally understandable for those who are not, but many of them are still welcoming mids over) would be an option along with mids with family/close friends in the area. The trouble with granting leave is that travel poses a very high risk of contracting the disease unless you’re just driving a car. But a well-planned visit to a local house for Thanksgiving where the standard protocols are observed is pretty low risk in comparison.
 
@Kierkegaard do have a feel at all for how covid is going in the brigade? As expected? Better or worse?

Is having liberty affecting positive rates? Does leadership share that with y’all?

One of my Mids is involved with some sort of testing. He does a blood draw is about all I know. I get the feeling neither one particularly cares about covid on a personal level.
 
@Kierkegaard do have a feel at all for how covid is going in the brigade? As expected? Better or worse?

Is having liberty affecting positive rates? Does leadership share that with y’all?

One of my Mids is involved with some sort of testing. He does a blood draw is about all I know. I get the feeling neither one particularly cares about covid on a personal level.
Numbers are being withheld from mids and the public for OPSEC reasons. All we know is that our numbers are low, and as a result we can go on liberty. The gouge is that liberty didn’t affect numbers so liberty will keep happening. But, gouge is gouge. The Dant said publicly that we are trending down.
 

I really love the Navy and Marine Corps and by a stroke of great luck or by Divine Providence I was blessed with being a member of the Navy/Marine Corps team. Three times. Plus my son is in the Marine Corps. I follow his career like reading a graphic novel. He teaches 18-20 year olds to blow up stuff. My personal best at-sea period without pulling in is 110 days. That was during the Iran/Iraq war and all that that implies. The only liberty at the edge of that empire was during in-chop and out-chop. The USS Stout shattered that with 208 days at sea. That's a lot of missed birthdays, holidays, first steps, first time baby saying da da, and many missed kisses from the honeyco.

I know I put too many Danny Downer posts on here on these type threads but my wife and I have been where current parents are now. She has plowed through this as a wife (numerous deployments aboard ship and with Marines) and now for nine years as a mom. On one of my son's deployments, he on his burner phone would call me before boarding a helicopter. I hate flying on helicopters. On one call I could hear the engines roaring and rotors rotating. I never asked him to not do that because I figured it might have brought him comfort to talk to me before leaving on a mission.

I stopped teaching during one period today to check messages from my daughter about my eldest grandson's dental procedure. They sedated him and I was worried. My students understood which helped me get by until I knew he was OK. I've written on here before that we see our son usually once and occasionally twice a year. And that has been in the past nine years. It does not get easier. I still see my boy as the kid who I've thrown 10s of thousands of batting practice pitches to and who went to the weight room and lifted after baseball practice to stay in shape for football season. He's a man now and is doing things that keep the free world free. These are the same things your kids will be doing in just a little while. It happens quick. Y'all need to get ready for that.
 
@devildoc, I appreciate the insight. As parents, the worry will never go away. I hope your grandson's procedure went well.

If (and that's a big if) our DS gets to come home 13 Dec., there will have been 168 days in between hugs. COVID has made the current mids and some of their parents likely better prepared for the fleet then we would have expected. I am usually a make margaritas out of limes (lemonade out of lemons) kind of girl. Maybe the silver lining of the COVID plebe year is that we might have been prepped for long separations. Just my train of thought.
 

I really love the Navy and Marine Corps and by a stroke of great luck or by Divine Providence I was blessed with being a member of the Navy/Marine Corps team. Three times. Plus my son is in the Marine Corps. I follow his career like reading a graphic novel. He teaches 18-20 year olds to blow up stuff. My personal best at-sea period without pulling in is 110 days. That was during the Iran/Iraq war and all that that implies. The only liberty at the edge of that empire was during in-chop and out-chop. The USS Stout shattered that with 208 days at sea. That's a lot of missed birthdays, holidays, first steps, first time baby saying da da, and many missed kisses from the honeyco.

I know I put too many Danny Downer posts on here on these type threads but my wife and I have been where current parents are now. She has plowed through this as a wife (numerous deployments aboard ship and with Marines) and now for nine years as a mom. On one of my son's deployments, he on his burner phone would call me before boarding a helicopter. I hate flying on helicopters. On one call I could hear the engines roaring and rotors rotating. I never asked him to not do that because I figured it might have brought him comfort to talk to me before leaving on a mission.

I stopped teaching during one period today to check messages from my daughter about my eldest grandson's dental procedure. They sedated him and I was worried. My students understood which helped me get by until I knew he was OK. I've written on here before that we see our son usually once and occasionally twice a year. And that has been in the past nine years. It does not get easier. I still see my boy as the kid who I've thrown 10s of thousands of batting practice pitches to and who went to the weight room and lifted after baseball practice to stay in shape for football season. He's a man now and is doing things that keep the free world free. These are the same things your kids will be doing in just a little while. It happens quick. Y'all need to get ready for that.
I'm not on Stout (obviously) but if their experience is similar to my >100 day at sea period, then their morale too was surprisingly high. Unlike the folks in "Mr Roberts" when they were sailing from Apathy to Tedium, I witnessed a very different reaction during long stretches as long as they stayed busy and felt that we were "doing something".
 
The USS Stout shattered that with 208 days at sea. That's a lot of missed birthdays, holidays, first steps, first time baby saying da da, and many missed kisses from the honeyco.

The one big difference between modern times and the days of old (mid '80s) is the availability of phone/internet communications. The modern sailor and marine is a lot more connected to home than we used to be. (I think they at have at least satellite internet at sea, perhaps even Facetime/Zoom; it is certainly available at even the most remote land sites).

I am not sure if instant communication is really a good thing for the family back home. As Doc noted, there is that level of anxiety when you spouse or kid is deployed, and driven more when you know they are operating "outside the wire," or flying etc. Back in the day, a call home was both difficult to place and/or expensive, and we never really spoke about what we were doing because it was assumed that all wires were bugged.
 
The one big difference between modern times and the days of old (mid '80s) is the availability of phone/internet communications. The modern sailor and marine is a lot more connected to home than we used to be. (I think they at have at least satellite internet at sea, perhaps even Facetime/Zoom; it is certainly available at even the most remote land sites).

I am not sure if instant communication is really a good thing for the family back home. As Doc noted, there is that level of anxiety when you spouse or kid is deployed, and driven more when you know they are operating "outside the wire," or flying etc. Back in the day, a call home was both difficult to place and/or expensive, and we never really spoke about what we were doing because it was assumed that all wires were bugged.
In the early 1990s I was in Africa DW in Korea. No internet. Mail took 4 weeks each way. The only other comm’s were HF phone patches.
Ten years later I would return from a combat mission to find an email from DW. Could I make a nonrev reservation for her and the kids to Florida? Like I had nothing else to do.
 
One day becomes the next. The time at sea which the total number of days isn’t known, but is measured by beer days. We do a steel beach picnic every 45 days and the crew gets two beers. Ships from every other navy in the world get a couple drinks a day. No big deal there because in the US Sixth Fleet for example, the Carrier Strike Group has eight or nine ships and the Amphibious Readiness Group has another four or five. The other friendly navies in the Med have just two to a few. They can drink every night while the USN/USMC carries the burden of keeping the sea lans open.
 
USS Stout had a beer day with 3 bronze stars on that cruise....

in my day, our longest at sea period was 78 days I think, seemed like a long time at the time. we had one beer day, and were fully expecting another one, and all of a sudden we got a short notice port call. that was a nice break after having the first 3 port calls cancelled at the last minute.

agree with above, back then we had mail every few days via COD, but it came in bunches. a few weeks with no mail then a big pile of it. there was a pay per use sat phone we could use, very unreliable, and cost about $3/minute. i bought a 10 min phone card and got about 90 sec of quality connection.

beer day was fun - always a way for an enterprising person to scrounge up a few extra beer tickets.....
 
One day becomes the next. The time at sea which the total number of days isn’t known, but is measured by beer days. We do a steel beach picnic every 45 days and the crew gets two beers. Ships from every other navy in the world get a couple drinks a day. No big deal there because in the US Sixth Fleet for example, the Carrier Strike Group has eight or nine ships and the Amphibious Readiness Group has another four or five. The other friendly navies in the Med have just two to a few. They can drink every night while the USN/USMC carries the burden of keeping the sea lans open.
We managed to have steel beach picnics just about every Sunday afternoon. Barbecue cooks were the Wardroom, Goat Locker and 1/C mess on alternating weeks.
 
IMO, improved connectivity has made things both better and worse. When apart, parents and kids weren't used to communicating with each other every day, let alone Skyping, emailing, texting, etc. So, long stretches without comms were normal. It's obviously nice to be more in touch today, but that makes separation more difficult.

For parents out there, keep in mind that the mission of USNA is to graduate ~1000 officers each year for the USN and USMC. USNA doesn't have the option / luxury of the 5-year or 6-year plan. Everything else, including liberty and leave, is secondary to that mission. And while everyone would like certainty in terms of leave and liberty and class schedules, we have all come to realize that, during the pendency of this pandemic, the best-laid plans can change in an instant. Getting angry with the USNA administration because parents are not consulted or even informed about certain things is not helpful or productive. And will set you up for years of misery when your DD or DS hits the Fleet.
 
It was nice being able to Skype with DW on her last two deployments but yeah, dual edged sword.
If there was a casualty the internet was shut down until next of kin was notified. I kept this from the kids so they wouldn’t worry along with me, but they soon learned what it meant and would be nervous for the next 24 hours.
One time this happened and the next day DD was at school in the hall way when she saw one of her teachers walking down the hall with two Army personnel in their greens. She said she started breaking down... when they walked right by her. They were recruiters.
 
I went to boot camp in 77 with hair a couple inches past the bottom of my collar. I had the classic boot camp shearing in the barber chair.
 
It was nice being able to Skype with DW on her last two deployments but yeah, dual edged sword.
If there was a casualty the internet was shut down until next of kin was notified. I kept this from the kids so they wouldn’t worry along with me, but they soon learned what it meant and would be nervous for the next 24 hours.
One time this happened and the next day DD was at school in the hall way when she saw one of her teachers walking down the hall with two Army personnel in their greens. She said she started breaking down... when they walked right by her. They were recruiters.
Ugh, that must have been horrible for your DD! (Made me teary-eyed just reading that) I literally hyperventilate when I hear of accidents involving the aircraft my DS flies - even when I know it's not him. I'm glad that the internet allows us to stay in touch when they are away, but being a military family is NOT easy.
 
I went to boot camp in 77 with hair a couple inches past the bottom of my collar. I had the classic boot camp shearing in the barber chair.
Same here with the shoulder length hair but 2 years ahead of you. Between boot camp and hospital corps school I spent the entire winter 75-76 at Great Lakes. No liberty during boot camp and I believe only 1 or 2 phone calls.
 
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