1. No. Family Separation Allowance (FSA) is paid when a service member is away from their homeport for greater than 30 days. Recruits and members in a training status are not eligible.
2. When the Navy tells you that you can move your family, you (or your wife) will setup a “pack day” and a “move day”. Both should be self explanatory. First one, a group of folks shows up and packs all your stuff that the Navy will move. The second, the movers show up and load it all onto a truck. As part of the setup process, you/your wife will be given info on what can be moved, taking inventory, scheduling a delivery date/time, etc. One piece of advice, take pictures of EVERYTHING before the packers show up. Picture evidence of the condition of a piece of furniture before it was placed into the hands of the moving company is invaluable when you go to file a claim.
3. Regardless of which rate you get assigned, both “A” School and Power School are in Goose Creek. So that’s between 3 and 6 months (not sure how long EM and ET “A” School are now, back in 1991-1992 they were 4 and 6 months) for “A” School, then another 6 months for Power School. If you are sent to prototype in Goose Creek, that’s another 6 months. Then, if you are one of the lucky ones as an MM, you could get selected for ELT (Engineering Laboratory Technician), which is another 3 months.
4. Currently, the following carriers are based in Norfolk, VA. USS ENTERPRISE – set for decommissioning starting after her upcoming deployment, sometime in 2013 (decom, not deployment that is). USS DWIGHT D EISENHOWER, USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (currently undergoing refueling and overhaul in Newport News, across the James River from Norfolk. Current scheduled to rejoin the operational fleet in June of 2013.), USS HARRY S TRUMAN, USS GEORGE H. W. BUSH. Each carrier has around 400 nukes total, with the exception of the ENTERPRISE, which has about 800. So, as Drayer stated, your chances of going to a carrier in Norfolk are good if that’s what you want.
5. While at prototype, you will fill out a “dream sheet” of where you want to go. Some time before your graduate, you will receive a set of Permanent Change of Station (PCS) orders to a specific ship. Deployment schedule is considered part of OPSEC, or Operational Security. No one is “supposed” to give that info out publicly. When you get to the ship, they will tell you.
6. This link
http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/milpersman/1000/1100Recruitinig/Documents/1160-100.pdf will take you to the section of the MILPERSMAN (Military Personnel Manual) that deals with the program you are talking about. STAR (Selective Training and Re-enlistment) is the name. Important note, you must be at 21 months of service, at the bare minimum. MOST Nuke Sailors will not be allowed to reenlist unless they have reported to their first seagoing command. Keep that in mind.
7. My wife and I waited until I went to shore duty to have our first son. I was fortunate that I got to transfer back to prototype as an instructor after 3 years on the ENTERPRISE. Our 2nd son was born while I was stationed on the EISENHOWER, during the ship’s refueling overhaul. We weren’t going anywhere for 3 ½ years, so it was an ideal time. However, keep this in mind. While you are gone, your wife WILL be a single mother. PERIOD. She will have to take care of everything, and trust me, nothing goes wrong while you are home. The minute the ship is out past the 12 mile mark, BAM, things around your house start to fall apart. My advice would be to make sure that your relationship is a good, solid one that can endure the being away for workups and deployments before you make the lifelong commitment that is children.
Last bit of advice. When you get to “A” School, put this other crap like where you are going to get stationed and when you can reenlist in the back of your mind. Focus on school. If you don’t get on top of things from the start, the program WILL chew you up and spit you out. Max effort and good attitude are key. You will be asked to do some stupid $hit by some equally stupid people. Deal with it. Others will get good deals while you will get screwed. Again, deal with it. Work hard to show everyone that you work with and for that you are a “hot runner” and that you are a competent and reliable operator and sailor.
Good luck, welcome to the community and thank you for volunteering.