My husband is currently in Basic at Fort Benning. He is supposed to graduate early December and doesn't start AIT until Jan. 4th. What does he do during that time? His MOS is 25S. Also when will he find out if his orders to AIT are accompanied? We have 3 little boys. Do you think Fort Gordon will let him live with us if we move down there? Please give me any details you have. Thanks so much!
I dunno what he'll do between BCT and AIT...but I do know that unless his AIT is over a certain number of days--his orders will not be accompanied. Looks as though for 23S though the AIT is about 6 months long. They *might* make his orders accompanied...they may not, I think a lot would have to do with housing. But then again--it's a fairly decent long AIT and it can be pretty tiring stuff. So I guess what I'm saying is: it's a toss up...lol...AIT's are pretty intense learning. Can leave a person exhausted both mentally and physically....
He will most likely go to Fort Gordon and rake sand. No, I'm unfortunately not kidding. There are some other less annoying duties like working in the library and other yardwork, but they spend a lot of time raking sand. There's also Christmas EXODUS which is usually the beginning of the third week of Dec through Jan 3 - if you can afford to bring him home, then you should be able to do so. That's probably the main reason for what seems like a big gap in days. If that's the case, they'll let him graduate and probably go on ahead to Fort Gordon and inprocess so he "belongs" somewhere ... then he'll rake sand 'til Exodus starts.
25 series are relatively easy schools (as long as your husband had an interest and/or skill in the field to begin with), and if the school is long enough then he should get accompanied orders. However, you may want to keep in mind that they change the lengths of the schools often - and usually it's shortening them, not lengthening. If they have a lot of people to crank through or there's a shortage of that MOS, they'll chop a few weeks off the school, which may make you guys not qualified for accompanied orders.
Best thing to do is wait for him to graduate BCT, wait and see what his orders say, and decide where to go from there. Regardless of what his orders say when they're cut, he can also get to Ft. Gordon and just keep an ear out on what they're doing for families and see if it's an option or not. Orders can always be changed, depending on the willingness of the training command.
Thanks everyone....does anyone know the likely hood of him getting deployed...i know everyone is getting deployed these days but I mean once we get to his first duty station....do you think they will deploy him the first year?
All of 25 series are need a little bit of everywhere. A lot go to Korea, but they also go all over the country. Ft. Gordon is of course Signal headquarters, we have a ton of Signal here (Ft. McPherson), and they go all sorts of other places, too.
Totally depends on the unit they get joined up with - could be 4 or 6 months, could be 12 or 15. Tours in Korea are not technically deployment but are "unaccompanied" or "hardship" PCS tours. They are for a year, unless the orders come accompanied or you opt to ask for sponsorship to move to Korea, then it's for 2 or 3.
Because Korea is a foreign nation with its own agreements with the US about servicemembers and taking responsibility for them, the soldier's command has to agree to "sponsor" family members in the country. Basically, the command is agreeing to take responsibility for you and your behavior, health, etc., while you're there. Simply, it's a step past getting accompanied orders ... that's just paperwork, with the overseas locations there's a lot more involved.
