As I watched the Class of 2019 Plebes have the doors shut behind them today, I got to thinking about my DS who is a reapp for the Class of 2020 and what it will be like for my him (yes I am thinking very positive here) when he has liberty to get away from The Yard or for those Holidays when he can't come home. My thoughts went to the Sponsor Family Program and I was wondering if a really close family to ours (they claim my DS as one of their boys..they have 4 and he is with them in NOVA as I am writing this spending a week with his best bud before heading to college) that lives in Northern VA (we used to live down the street from them) can be DS Sponsor Family or must he have one that is closer to the Academy? They live about an hour and half away. For me and DH this would be a great setup as they already know him.
NOVA Sponsor Family
- Thread starter NavyMom19
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Google "USNA edu sponsor," and that will take you to the info pages. Official sponsors generally live within a 22-mile radius of Annapolis. Plebes have precious little liberty, and the drive time back and forth would feel significant on a Saturday.
It would take a special request to go outside the radius as a Plebe. I used to live in NOVA and the drive back and forth would take a chunk out of liberty and be a pain. I lived on the very north side of NOVA and could get to Annapolis in less than an hour and the drive still sort of sucked. Plus most Plebes don't spend every weekend with sponsors. They go to movies, out to eat and other stuff. They also go to other friend's sponsors. The doesn't prevent your family friends from visiting him, going to football games and tailgating after games and if he is granted an overnight, going to stay with them. Plenty of options and lots of time to visit.
You'd have to check with the sponsor program office, but I can tell you we live in Arlington, VA and other Arlington kids were able to come home on town liberty last year. Kids from Fairfax were also allowed home on liberty. Not sure how far the "metropolitan area" extends, but I have been told that they don't inquire about exactly where you've been, they just want you to be back on time (and we all know DC traffic is unpredictable and you have to pad your trips with plenty of extra time). Agree with MDDADD that it would be helpful to have a sponsor who's much closer to Annapolis, and that your son may still be able to spend plenty of time with family friends even if they are not sponsors.
Every company handles it different. Some allow a verbal they can go home and most just have them route a chit up for the semester or year and then get verbal approval from their chain of command. It prevents paperwork every week or few weeks.
thank you all for your responses..very helpful information. Getting the cart before the horse here, however just wanted to get a feel for what might be exceptable. I know all about that DC/VA/MD traffice as we used to live there out near Dulles airport and DH worked near DC. We made trips to Ocean City only once maybe twice a year because of thr Route 50 traffic coming back. Sounds like the best thing to do is get a Sponsor Family in or close to Annapolis and for DS to use his "second" family as his Holiday crash pad when he can't come home.
If patterns hold true and Plebes keep getting overnights after football games he might get more visits in than you think! It's usually pretty easy to Uber or catch a ride from an upperclassman to New Carrolton and ride it to the closest stop for pick up.