What a 1/2 Way Box Is, Why It Matters, & How we Help

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A 1/2 Way Box goes aboard before the boat leaves the pier. It sits in storage through the first half of the deployment, and at the midpoint it comes out for Halfway Night.

Halfway Night is the turn. The galley puts out one of the best meals of the deployment, often steak, the crew runs skits and competitions, and the count shifts from days away to days back.

The boxes are opened during it, and for most sailors that box is the only package they will get the whole time they are gone.

The window

You cannot mail a package to a submarine at sea. Mail drops happen only when a boat takes on personnel or supplies, and personal mail may not be part of it. So the box has to be aboard before the lines come off. Miss that window and there is no second one.

Space sets the rest of the terms, and the space problem on a fast attack boat is worse than most people picture. There are fewer racks than there are sailors. Junior enlisted hot rack, three of them rotating through two bunks on alternating watch sections, climbing into a mattress still warm from whoever just got up. Racks stack three high with inches of clearance. The torpedo room doubles as berthing and as the gym.

So every box fits a size limit the boat sets, usually a flat rate box, and the prohibited list is the prohibited list. Families could pack far more. There is simply nowhere to put it. What goes in is small: familiar snacks, drink mixes, protein, sometimes a birthday card meant to stay sealed for five months.

Communication runs the same way. Familygrams are short, one-way, and screened before delivery. A few dozen words, no reply.

Who coordinates it

Family Readiness Groups handle the logistics. An FRG is a command-endorsed volunteer organization built to coordinate informational, care-taking, and morale-building activity for a command's families. They collect the boxes, confirm sizing with the boat, and get them aboard before departure.

FRGs are not fundraising bodies. As Navy-sanctioned entities they are not permitted to solicit funds, though they are welcome to accept support. That is where the Foundation comes in.

This cycle

NCSF supported the purchase of the remaining items on the supply list for USS Asheville (SSN 758), forward-deployed to Naval Base Guam with Submarine Squadron 15.

Guam is a long way from anywhere. To get the items to the 758 as quickly as practical, one of the crew's families accepted all items ordered online, consolidated the packaging where practical, and forwarded everything on via USPS. It is an all-hands effort, and everyone involved can be proud of their individual contribution.

Steady as she goes

The Foundation is not a separate entity standing alongside the submarine community. It is its supporters and members, its crews and their families. When a supply list gets filled, those are the people filling it.

NCSF supports three boats. The work is supply lists, shipping windows, and getting the right things to the right pier before the boat goes quiet again. None of it calls for acknowledgment or thanks. The boats and the families merit it, and if they are happy with the work, we have done our jobs.