How to Date a US Navy Sailor

Learn the language. The military has its very own version of the English language, and the Navy is no exception. Your sailor will throw around somewhat incomprehensible jargon because he or she is used to everybody understanding what they are talking about. This is simple to fix - if you don't know or aren't sure what your sailor is talking about, ask.

Have all of your sailor's email addresses. Most sailors have two email addresses - a navy one and a civilian one. The navy email address is typically used for work, but many commands do not allow personnel to check their civilian email accounts on government computers for security reasons. And oftentimes, your sailor may not be reachable by phone for a variety of reasons (i.e. no reception, cell phones not allowed in certain buildings, etc) and it is oftentimes easier to reach him or her by email. This is especially true of ships. Cell phone reception inside a ship is almost non-existent. When these ships get underway, the sailors on-board are completely unreachable by cell phone and have no access to civilian email accounts.

Be flexible. Your sailor's work schedule will change at random, and often at short notice. On this note, try not to plan any surprise vacations. His or her command probably has a radius of several miles (i.e 300 miles) that they aren't allowed to go outside of without an approved leave chit. It would be a shame to spend time and money planning a trip only to find out that your other person can't go. Another thing your sailor will have to do is stand duty every so many days. This varies from command to command, and sea duty to shore duty. Usually, ship duty sections stand duty for 24 hours, and aren't allowed to leave the ship. Standing duty at a shore command is more relaxed. If you don't know what your sailor is talking about, just ask.

Be patient. There's a saying in the Navy, "Hurry up and wait." What that means is it often takes a long time to get anything done, much to the chagrin of your sailor. With schedules described in the above step, sailors often like to take leave, the military version of vacation days. Sailors get 30 leave days a year and emergency leave is deducted from that total if it is used (there is no "sick leave," ill sailors are either hospitalized, put in bed rest [or "SIQ,"] or re-assigned to a duty they are able to perform.) Sailors are, however, allowed to go "in the hole," and have a negative leave balance in some situations and they will earn their leave back. The sailors also have to route a special chit requesting how many to use and when, and get it approved. In fewer words, they have to get permission first. This takes as little as four business days, but up to a couple of weeks or more. Another thing you will have to be patient with, is mail. Sending mail to their command, especially if it's a ship, usually takes much longer than mail sent to a 'normal' address. Send something to a ship deployed overseas, and it will likely reach its destination in a few months, or more. A Christmas card showing up in March is not uncommon. Keep that in mind when sending off a care package to your said sailor.

Be understanding. Your sailor may not be able to talk about everything, or anything, pertaining to his or her job, or even schedule, for security reasons.

Write often, if your sailor is deployed or in a different part of the country or world than you are. Or if you feel like. You may not hear back from your sailor everyday, or even every week, but emails from home are always welcomed.