Thank you USNA.

Big Ugly

5-Year Member
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Feb 9, 2017
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68
Last week my new youngster was enjoying sub-week. I pictured her in the back of the control room on an overnight cruise; nope, she got to drive the fast-attack Virginia-class submarine from 500 feet to periscope depth. Okay, a third submariner child is okay thinks Dad.

Now we hit aviation week; she’s up in a T-34 trainer and her glider pilot experience enables her to fly most of the flight and the pattern. More days and nights of aviation and she announces she” has found her people. What a life; what a culture; and I have to fly carriers because “that’s the coolest ****” as described by the F-18 pilot who took her up in the trainer. “Jets, jets, jets” she writes as she boards the helicopter this morning. Later I read “We’re doing crazy ****; this pilot is insane and I’m living for it. I stand corrected; I would fly helos” streams her messages.


I saw one of the girls from my daughter’s swim team at the pool today. She graduated at the same time as my daughter and went to regular college. She will be running the summer splash camp at the pool. In three years she’ll be applying to an internship at a non-profit for experience and wondering how she will make the first of many student loan payments.


Thank you USNA
 
Last week my new youngster was enjoying sub-week. I pictured her in the back of the control room on an overnight cruise; nope, she got to drive the fast-attack Virginia-class submarine from 500 feet to periscope depth. Okay, a third submariner child is okay thinks Dad.

Now we hit aviation week; she’s up in a T-34 trainer and her glider pilot experience enables her to fly most of the flight and the pattern. More days and nights of aviation and she announces she” has found her people. What a life; what a culture; and I have to fly carriers because “that’s the coolest ****” as described by the F-18 pilot who took her up in the trainer. “Jets, jets, jets” she writes as she boards the helicopter this morning. Later I read “We’re doing crazy ****; this pilot is insane and I’m living for it. I stand corrected; I would fly helos” streams her messages.


I saw one of the girls from my daughter’s swim team at the pool today. She graduated at the same time as my daughter and went to regular college. She will be running the summer splash camp at the pool. In three years she’ll be applying to an internship at a non-profit for experience and wondering how she will make the first of many student loan payments.


Thank you USNA
I LOVE this. I have seen some pictures on FB pages, and the joy in the mid's faces is palpable. I am very excited for our DS to experience this in 3rd block.
Mine just got back from an LREC to Iceland. Talk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It wouldn't have happened if he weren't at USNA.

I went through Walmart the other day. Ran into two of my son's classmates from high school. Both working the day shift at the store, then nights at the local truck stop. Neither of those is a bad thing, but the disparity in experiences and opportunities was not lost on me.

I too am grateful to USNA.
 
When I would go home to my small GA coastal barrier island home on leave from the far corners of the world and meet up with old HS friends, I carefully edited my sea stories. What seems perfectly normal among military family discussions in terms of world travel, unique experiences and stuff civilians don’t get to do, can come across as one-upmanship to a HS buddy whose life was lived closer to home. Not wrong, just different. A HS girlfriend who worked for Delta after college came to visit me for 2 weeks in Rota. We went out tapa-hopping with my single JO crowd, rented a sailboat from MWR and sailed it over to Cadiz and back, took the overnight train to Madrid, toured around the white mountain towns in southern Spain (in my Ensignmobile sports car) and stayed at the parador in Granada, lunched at the Marbella Club, took the ferry to Tangiers, went small plane touring along the Costa de la Luz courtesy of my pilot BF at the time and got to meet the Domecq family (of sherry bodega fame) who were my landlords and had a private tour of the Domecq sherry bodega, and visit their stable of prized Andalusian, PRE and Lusitano horses.

She also couldn’t believe I supervised 65 people, was responsible for four harbor tugboats and had learned to drive everything that floated or moved gear in the naval station port, from tugboats to mike boats to floating cranes to forklifts to stake trucks with ancient stick shifts. And that people called me “ma’am” and saluted me, and I coordinated the daily operational schedule for the port.

That is the side of military life that balances out orders to armpit locations (but armpits always have something to offer), deployments, bureaucracy, exhausting work days, family separations.

I just checked. The Domecq family is still very much involved with horses in southern Spain.
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Last week my new youngster was enjoying sub-week. I pictured her in the back of the control room on an overnight cruise; nope, she got to drive the fast-attack Virginia-class submarine from 500 feet to periscope depth. Okay, a third submariner child is okay thinks Dad.

Now we hit aviation week; she’s up in a T-34 trainer and her glider pilot experience enables her to fly most of the flight and the pattern. More days and nights of aviation and she announces she” has found her people. What a life; what a culture; and I have to fly carriers because “that’s the coolest ****” as described by the F-18 pilot who took her up in the trainer. “Jets, jets, jets” she writes as she boards the helicopter this morning. Later I read “We’re doing crazy ****; this pilot is insane and I’m living for it. I stand corrected; I would fly helos” streams her messages.


I saw one of the girls from my daughter’s swim team at the pool today. She graduated at the same time as my daughter and went to regular college. She will be running the summer splash camp at the pool. In three years she’ll be applying to an internship at a non-profit for experience and wondering how she will make the first of many student loan payments.


Thank you USNA
Your DD's experiences mimic my DD's from a few years back. I too thought it was going to be Subs but then she went flying. She will be headed to NAS Pensacola in the Fall but before, she opted to teach Plebes to sail this summer. Tough summer.
 
I have been finding myself quite thankful lately as well. The smiles, fascination, and texts have been unbelievable. Even more so, my Mids admiration for those he is working with. His time with Navy and Marines that are sharing their experiences, exposing him to the culture of the communities, is fantastic. He is so open minded, and soaking it all in. Ya it’s super cool what they get to do, no doubt, but meeting real Marines and Naval people is incredible.

It’s all working out for his older brother who didn’t get a protramid. But no doubt this experience is beneficial to service selection!!
 
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