Things for your A school sailor to know!

ARRIVING PENSACOLA: Most arrive by air to the Pensacola Regional Airport. This is a small airport located on the northeast side of town. There is a USO office inside the airport which permits new arrivals to use the phones to call their commands to report their arrival and to make some arrangements for a duty driver to come to pick them up. In the event of no duty driver, a taxi will cost about $25.00 from the Airport to NAS Pensacola.

Once your sailor arrives on station they will first check-in and be assigned to a Barracks. These barracks are not the same as Boot Camp where they were sharing space with their whole division. The barracks are all a little different in age, layout, and design, but primarily your sailor will be assign semi-private quarters sharing with 1 to 4 others. They should be calling you shortly after with an address.

In short order they will be assigned to an INDOC class (Indoctrination). This class will brief them on the base rules, protocols, where to get their mail, Liberty (their time off), areas that are off limits while on liberty, underage drinking, drugs and other problems that will get them in trouble and straight to a Captains Mast, PT, duty and standing the watch among other things. When the sailors arrive, they are squared away and have a strong sense of military bearing. Underage drinking and drugs is a guarantee to a fast track at standing at a Captain’s Mast! As long as they keep their military bearing that will not happen here.

LIBERTY: Once your sailor has completed INDOC he/she will permitted weekend liberty. Liberty is broken up into three phases, which they must earn. All students start Pensacola in Phase I, even those who have completed some schooling in Great Lakes. Liberty is their time off and should not be confused with LEAVE. Leave is similar to Annual Leave or Vacation time in the civilian world. Leave must be requested on a CHIT (in writing) and approved, in advance, by every one of rank up the sailor’s Chain of Command to and including the Commanding Officer.

PHASE I – Must wear their military uniforms at all times outside of their barracks. The sailors can leave the base on liberty with a buddy (never by themselves), must be in uniform the entire time and must return to the base no later than 2200 (10:00 pm). While in Phase I, the sailors will muster 2 to 4 times a day. To muster, basically, means that they gather, in uniform, and take a head count to make sure all personnel are present and accounted for and is usually performed at their barracks. Phase I is normally for approximately 2 weeks.

PHASE II – May now wear their civilian clothes, but still are restricted to leaving the base only with a buddy and do not have to return to the base until midnight. Phase II is normally a 3 week evolution.

PHASE III – In this phase the sailor can leave the base on Friday night and does not have to return until 2200 on Sunday night.

While on liberty the sailors are restricted to be within a certain number of miles from the base. I am not sure what the exact limit is for this area but it is normally 230 - 250 miles. Panama City, FL and New Orleans, LA are on the off limits/restricted list.

The various phases of liberty are earned by each sailor. They can and will be taken away from ALL sailors based on the actions of one sailor. In other words, if one sailor gets into some sort of trouble, EVERYONE in that sailors group, school or barracks could also be busted back in their liberty phase. This is a very hard lesson to learn for some!!

ATT and AWAT Courses

Apprentice Technical Training and Aviation Warfare Apprentice Training are two additional course that you sailor may need to complete prior to classing up in his/her technical A-school class. The time it takes to complete these courses are not included in the number of days or months quoted for A-school. You sailor will not be seated (classed up) into A-school until the preliminary courses are completed.

AWAT is comprised of self-paced, Interactive Courseware (ICW) which allows each student individual control of the information delivery rate. This course is required of all Aviation ratings. With 20 classrooms and 30 students per class, AWAT has a capacity of 600 students weekly. The course is designed to be completed in a 33-hour period, which includes 17.5 hours of AWAT and 16.5 hours of basic corrosion control training.