Although I didn't find my exact situation in past posts, I am amazed at how many other questions I had answered just by taking the time to browse. What a great site!

Background:
I'm deploying soon unless things change. I have a wife and daughter. I'm in the National Guard. Let's assume for my question that we're not changing zipcodes.

Question:
If my wife and daughter sell the house and move in with her parents, will this change my BAH? Is there some other pay that will be eliminated if we have neither a mortgage nor a lease/rental agreement?

Assumptions:
Deployed pay will have the following:
BAH, BAS, Family Separation Allowance, Hardship Duty (maybe), per diem (? I'm really not sure), hostile fire (maybe if the rumors are true), and someone told me COLA but I haven't seen this anywhere

Thanks!

OCONUS COLA is only if you are stationed in a location, not deployed.

quote:

If my wife and daughter sell the house and move in with her parents, will this change my BAH? Is there some other pay that will be eliminated if we have neither a mortgage nor a lease/rental agreement?

Once the mobilization order is published there can be no further changes to your BAH.

Per diem isn't very much but over the year it will add up. Some areas, like California, qualify for COLA but how much I couldn't tell you.

NavyWife, thank you for the clarification.
JB, that is true about the per diem. Any time I've gotten it here, it's always amazing how it offsets little things like gas, food, etc. I'll take it if they give it to me!

I guess I should clarify. I'm being told by some guys the following:
1. wife, kid, and mortgage = more money
2. wife, kid, and no mortgage = less money

That's what I'm curious about. If I get more money, then I might as well hold on to the house. If she feels uncomfortable living there, she can keep the house but move in with her parents. If I get the same amount no matter which way we go, we might sell the house and save a mortgage payment. We are praying about this often, and, Lord willing, He'll show us which way to go. Thanks again for your help.

She can burn the house down and it'll make no difference to your BAH. As you're married, that's what will qualify you for BAH.

My advice, plan ahead. If where you guys are going to live has a higher BAH, move now before your orders are published.

quote:

Originally posted by _JB:


Per diem isn't very much but over the year it will add up. Some areas, like California, qualify for COLA but how much I couldn't tell you.

CONUS COLA is different than OCONUS COLA. CONUS COLA is a set rate no matter how many dependents you have married or unmarried. One location I know that gets it is 29 Palms and it is only around $30 a month. San Diego you should get it but you don't, too much cost apparently. Ft Lewis was getting it for awhile as well (why I have no idea).

quote:

I guess I should clarify. I'm being told by some guys the following:
1. wife, kid, and mortgage = more money
2. wife, kid, and no mortgage = less money

In a certain manner that is true. If you have no mortgage because you live in base housing then you get less money. That's because your BAH goes to housing. Otherwise, it really doesn't matter.

There have been some discussions over the last few months that some commands (commands -- not the Army) require a lease/mortgage as proof that BAH should be paid. It probably came from the sham marriages that young single guys (at least used to) get into. We had several instances in San Diego of prosecuting hookers with anywhere from 3-14 military spouses. The guys did it to get BAH w/dependents and the hookers got a percentage of the money. Everyone was happy except the government.

if you are married you get BAH. If you live in a tent or have a 6 bedroom house it doesn't matter, all that matters is that you have dependents

mturnb-

My son that is at Ft. Knox- OSUT right now just received his orders. He'll be stationed at Ft. Carson. He and his fiance will be getting married the end of April on his family day. He'll graduate AIT in June and then have a few weeks of training, then home(he thinks) for a week or so before reporting to Ft. Carson.

My question is does it matter that they are getting married after he has his orders or does the army add her to them? He'll take the necessary paperwork back to Ft. Knox and hopefully it will all be processed before he leaves there. Will they pay for her to move to Ft. Carson?

If my son does get to come home (Oregon) for a bit, will he have to report back to Kentucky, and then go to Colorado, or can he go from Oregon to Colorado?

Thanks for your help

Debbie

quote:

Originally posted by debbie88:

My question is does it matter that they are getting married after he has his orders or does the army add her to them? He'll take the necessary paperwork back to Ft. Knox and hopefully it will all be processed before he leaves there. Will they pay for her to move to Ft. Carson? yes it matters. since she is not on the orders he is listed as single and they will only pay to transport him and a small weight allowance directly from his AIT location to his duty station. the AIT may or may not be willing to do the paperwork to add her to his orders once he shows up with all th erequired paperwork( Marriage certificate, her SS card, etc). If they do not then he needs to report to Carson and then see if he can get them ammended there. if she moves BEFORE they are ammended tit will becompletely out of pocket.

If my son does get to come home (Oregon) for a bit, will he have to report back to Kentucky, and then go to Colorado, or can he go from Oregon to Colorado? Generally speaking they wilol only pay to transpiort between duty stations. he might be able to get them to fly him to OR on their dime but then but they will only pay for what a plane ticket from Knox to Carson on whatever carrier they use. any overage will be out of pocket and he will still have to get to Carson on time on his own.

Thanks for your help

Debbie

Bottom line he can TRY to get his orders amemnded at Knox. be prepared to have them say oh hell no and he will have to report to Carson and begin the process there..and that means a few months possibly before she can move with him.

Transient commands are typically less than willing to process these kinds of changes as they deal with so many normal ones on a daily basis.

I heard this once from my supervisor when he asked his boss to change something on my orders:

"What's so special about him?"

Good luck with the orders.

Once, when at Fort Sill, OK, I had my plane tickets to go home. They came and got me, made me report to my supervisor, TOOK MY TICKET from my hand and recut tickets for a week later. I spent the next week moving sheets, pillows, bedding, and such from one room to another. No pass. They kept me an extra week so I could help organize. I was furious. (And no, I hadn't done anything wrong before you get to speculating )

Debbie, what kind of training is he going to be doing after AIT (doesn't really have AIT with OSUT but that's irrelevant here)? I know your other son is Infantry but I don't remember what this one is in training for. My son is a cav scout and he left Ft. Knox on the day of graduation from OSUT.

If he is a cav scout, he will not have the time to add his new wife between family day and the end of OSUT because they are treated pretty much the same throughout all of OSUT. Some other MOS may get time to be able to do that. I really don't know. If he can get the time off and get her added then he also may be able to get his orders changed to accompanied. If not, then he would have to get her added as a dependent during this additional training. That probably would not give them time to amend his orders, if they would even do so during that time.

Since she is an acquired dependent, but an acquired dependent before the transfer (and keep in mind that I'm speaking from a former admin person point of view and not an actual Army admin person), they may pay the expenses associated with moving her from Ft. Knox to Ft. Carson and any additional expenses that are involved with moving from Oregon to Ft. Carson would be at his expense.

The same holds true for your son. Assuming he gets leave between Ft. Knox and Ft. Carson, they will cover the cost of a plane ticket between the two but it will be his expense to cover the different in flying to Oregon and then to Ft. Carson (Colorado Springs).

Just a quick check on Expedia shows that a trip from Louisville, KY to Portland, OR and then two weeks later a flight from Portland to Colorado Springs, CO would cost about $330 whereas a flight from Louisville to Colorado Springs would cost about $120. That leaves $210 that he would have to pay for in order to come to Oregon on leave. I don't know if Portland is your closest airport but it was the only major Oregon city that I could think of.

Thankyou for responding.

Brandyn is Cav Scout. I do know what you mean about OSUT not having AIT, so to speak. He graduates OSUT June 11 and they are telling him he has to stay at Knox for an additional 3-6 wks. (he doesn't really know yet, thats what his DS's are saying) for additional training because the unit at Carson he'll be stationed with is Stryker unit, and so he'll be getting Stryker training. Have you heard of that being done after finishing OSUT?

So it sounds like they just need to turn in the papers and see what the army does. Fingers crossed.

mturnb, did your son report directly to his duty station or did he get a leave?

My other son is a Medic. Just graduated AIT and waiting for Airborne, then on to Bragg for his duty station.

I'm sure more questions will come to me later. Thank you for always being so helpful and ready to answer. I've seen with my other son that the army does things their way, and in their time so I really try to for warn my future daughter-in-law of that and prepare her for her new lifestyle;0

Direct her to this board we can answer her questions. When she gets to the base she should look into Family Services, usually there is a class that they offer called Spouse 101 where it can explain a lot

It does make sense that they are holding Brandyn over for Stryker training. I know that cav scouts are taught to drive Hummers and Bradleys but there is more training involved with a Stryker. On the plus side, since he will be out of OSUT, he will have the time to get all the paperwork turned in for his new wife to get her into DEERS, get her an ID card and get BAH going. With some luck he just might be able to get his orders changed from single to accompanied during this timeframe also (but I wouldn't count on it too strongly). You might find this article on Stryker training interesting. I couldn't make out for sure the length of the training because it talks about a two-week course and a 21-day course. Either way, it makes for some interesting reading.

She (the new wife) needs to make sure to bring the marriage license, social security card and birth certificate with her to graduation. They will finish graduate about 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. (I'm kind of fuzzy on that because I had to keep flipping back and forth between Eastern and Central time zones for everything we were doing that day.) You can all go out to get something to eat to allow time for people to clear the post and then go back in to get all the paperwork taken care of.

On the subject of leave, my son did get three weeks leave after OSUT. That might get shortened for Brandyn since he has the follow-on training for the Stryker. Some of that will depend on how soon his unit might be deploying. If they are going soon and the command feels that they need him quickly then he probably won't get very much leave. However, I expect that he will get some leave.

If you (meaning you and your future daughter-in-law) haven't checked already, the county seat of Hardin County is Elizabethtown and you can call them at 502.765.2171 for information on getting the license. I found one web site that states the fee is $34.50 in cash, money order, etc. (not including personal checks) and they will need to have a picture ID but having a birth certificate and social security card can help also. You may want to call and make sure that they don't close early on Fridays as you will be hustling from the Family Day ceremony to get over to Elizabethtown for the marriage license.

Best of luck to all of you on this.