USNA life

Profmom2
Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:54:34 +0000

For a death in the family the Academy will assist in getting you home or to the location for the funeral. Son’s Plebe summer roommate went home for grandfather funeral - Academy got him Summer whites before they were issued and got him to and from BWI. He was given 4 days to be with family. During the Plebe Academic year you can put in a chit to attend a family member wedding etc.

During Plebe year my son came home Thanksgiving - Christmas - Presidents weekend (had earned a weekend and put in a chit which was approved - weekends are a bit more difficult to come by these days although the entire Brigade has been authorized one for this next weekend - Columbus Day) Spring Break, and Intersessionals which is the week between finals and Plebe recognition activities. (We live 2 hours by air from BWI - 11 hours in the car) In all we had him home more than many of his civilian college friends were able to get home. Summers will depend on your training schedule. He had block 0 and 3 for training so had almost 7 weeks home - that is not the norm, this past summer it was a total of 4 weeks - 1 week in June followed by 3 weeks in July/Aug.

Youngster year and beyond you are given more weekends so if you do live within a reasonable time distance from the Academy it is a bit easier to go home if that is still your desire.

Although it may not seem like it now, your desire to go home will decrease over your time at the Academy as friends and training become your focus. Mine is a second class now - he is not coming home for Thanksgiving, will only be home a week at Christmas as group of friends have plans for New Years, I imagine spring break will be with the friends and he wants to do an extra training session over the summer which means he may only be home 1 week this summer. He is having the time of his life and as much as he really does like being in our home town and being with family, other opportunities have also become just as enjoyable. It really is OK.