I have a couple questions about my first duty station. I served 6+ years in the Corps and a year in the Air Guard. I'm enlisting in the active duty Air Force for the first time and have a couple questions about how things work in the USAF. Basically it's two questions:
1.) concerning the moving of my civilian house hold goods to my first duty station, does the Air Force pay for this, is it out of my own pocket or reimbursement? My wife is a little worried because she doesn't think we've saved up enough if we have to pay for the move ourselves (I'm hoping money earned at Tech school will help cover it if it comes to that).
2.) How long does a person usually have to report to their first duty station from Tech school? I'm concerned my wife might have to handle all the moving affairs while I'm away and it might be too much for her.
1. The AF will pay for your move, up to a weight limit determined by your rank.
2. Usually, you'll have up to about two weeks (not including Recruiter Assistance Program, if this is something that you've coordinated ahead of time). You'll have a Report Not Later Than Date on your orders, and this establishes the date that you have to show up at your duty station.
Please reassure your wife. The ladies really are much stronger than they sometimes give themselves credit for. After I was commissioned, my first duty station was Ramstein AB, Germany. My wife and kids were able to remain in family housing at Randolph AFB, TX until I was able to get quarters--we did NOT have concurrent travel. After I was able to rent an apartment, I got travel orders cut and mailed to my wife. She set up two moves--one for our stuff coming to Germany, the other for stuff going into storage. She got immunizations and passports for herself and the kids, made travel arrangements, got cleared of our quarters, got herself and the kids to the port and then to Germany. Like I say, don't underestimate the strength of these ladies, and don't let your wife underestimate herself. On the other hand, don't force her to do something that really feels that she's not ready for.
Have you had a TMO briefing yet? Those folks in that section either at your tech school base or your next duty station would be able to answer your Q's spot on.
PPR - I think he's just trying to plan ahead. I gathered from his post that he's not on active duty yet, but will be entering active duty in the near future. But, yes, he should be able to get that definitive information from any Transportation Management Office.
Agreed Major... matter of fact my wife just bought our first house while I'm deployed, all the while dealing with a 17 month child that doesn't like to sit still. In the course of the week that she flew down to buy the house (she's been staying with her mother) she made two airplane trips with the boy, closed on the house, gathered help and moved all of our belongings into the new house, got an alarm system installed, forwarded the mail, got all the bills started up... the list goes on I'm sure. She didn't think she had it in her but she did wonderfully.
When I got my overseas assignment from techschool my RNLT date was about 40days after my graduation date.
However it really depends on how much leave you have and if your taking RAP or not. It seems you'll have plenty of time to get to your base before that RNLT date but you probably won't have the leave saved up to actually take all those days to finally show up to your base.
I took rap which was 10days and 8 days of leave. plus they gave me 2 travel days via plane.
Thanks everyone for the help! The Major is correct, I'm just trying to be prepared. I wasn't worried until my wife started having doubts about doing most of the planning on her own. This is why I'm trying to do as much as possible i.e. packing, paying bills in advance and organizing stuff.
It's great to hear the USAF will pay for the move. When I first joined the Corps they said the same thing. Long story short, everyone in my class at tech school including myself were single and when we brought up the question of moving expenses our instructor said there would be none. We were told we would just start fresh. Joking or not, no one brought it up again and that's what we all did. In retrospect, it really wasn't all that good, bought a lot of stuff I already owned.
My tech school is about a month or so long from what I'm told. I'm slated to go into contracting. Getting ready to sign my contract soon. Been jumping through hoops because of the different paperwork and codes from my time in the Corps and the Air Guard. Anyone familiar with the contracting afsc? A Tech Sgt I know said it's something like a cross between supply and Admin. He also contractors act as middle men between the USAF and civilian companies/workers. Anyone know if this is accurate?
uumm there is a bit more to it than that explanation.....take a look at a few of my other posts where I have gone into more detail about Contracting. Right now its a pretty fast paced career field. We are on a 1:1 deployment dwell, we do ~65-70% of DoD contracting (yes DoD), we have the highest promotion rate to full bird in the Air Force, the list goes on and on....if you get tired of working government then after 4-6 years experience get out and make 6 figures easy.....
