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Any spouses feel penalized by ARMY housing and pcs dates being altered due to stop loss?
I feel as if I had rejoined the army when he signed up since there are regulations placed on spouse movement (i.e., hubby gets deployed for 12mos-18 mos. and you're only "allowed" to leave your government housing overseas for a max of 30 days without him losing a section of his pay called BAH. Fine, I understand that. Pls. ship my household goods back to america from germany so I can complete myde gree bc there's nothing worthwhile to beaccomplished in 30 days (smaller post have limitations on course offerings, i.e, no science w/ labs 2 complete a r.n. prog); But if I leave and when he returns I can NOT be command sponsored again UNLEss he has 3yrs left on contract! So i either bend over and take the shaft in one of x ways:1) EROD (early return of dependents) and not be able to afford to stay in europe on our own w/ his salary (which btw he could be making min $160k/yr as a civ. arabic speaker and not deal w/ this) when he returns for the rest of his 18 mos. left on contract. 2)stay and don't do anything to complete my degree till the iraq fiasco is over (post doesn't have courses higher than gen ed that I need 2 complete a r.n. prog) 3)Hope he gets a duty station close to where I live (in n. ca/the houston area) even though the distance from either place would be a min. of a 5 hr. drive since we've both agreed to not add a single day to his contract. 3)perhaps you'll see why I'm so reluctant for him to sign up and he has seen the light as well. I'm due shortly., his unit COULD let him stay for 2 wks. after their deployment so he could see the kid (they've done it before for 2 others), but new ldrshp + unit change has allowed paperwork to get lost/whatever...only answer he gets is they're unsure when they could get a decision about that. In addition to that, everyone in his unit has had the proposed leave of their max 4 wks. before deploying for over a year cut to 2 wks. AND THE ARMY WONDERS WHY PPL DON'T EASILY REENLIST THESE DAYS??!?!!?
Public Comments
- you know...there is no easy answer to your problem, i sure wish there was. i did six years active duty, got out when i was pregnant in 2003 and my husband and i thought damn, bush really lost his mind, so he went to recruiting school to avoid deployment, after recruiting he went to another hellatious duty station all while i was working to my Bachelors in Business Administration and then after korea he got sent stateside where we are now, to serve our last 8 months! Oh....then the army strikes again. we were going to ets may 27 this year and i had career plans back home and our son could start school and not have to interrupt his first year of school. But we get stop lossed for an extra 14 months (and that is including the initial 12 months of deployment, then dubyas special three months included and oh yeah, the 90day required stabilization) who knows if his deployment is going to be extended beyond that. There are no easy answers, army life has its ups and downs. With so much civilianization of things the army used to be in control of we have been fu(%#d up the rear with no lube. Just take your time, maybe make a list with your hubby to include the ups and downs of either option (s) that you have to choose from. maybe writing it down and discussing it with him and maybe another friend or family member to look at the list for an outside opinion only, maybe they might have a different insight to add to your situation. i hate that we are stop lossed, and really am furious that the extra three months was thrown ontop of it but i cant imagine being overseas myself. I mentioned the civilianization of previously army programs because i have been seriously disappointed and disgusted with housing when we moved on post. the last time we lived on post was at Fort Irwin and the army was still in control of housing and we either collected BAH if we lived off post or did not collect BAH if we lived on post. NOW...housing has become super corrupted.1st) if your spouse is deployed, and you want to move home while he is gone you can move but at your own expense and you can get put back on the housing list when you leave. None of the move is covered. 2nd) Bah goes to the housing contractor, and if you live in a new house or it is newly renovated, you also recieve a utility bill that you have to pay even though you dont get the BAH. 3rd) BAH is considered a taxable income even though we dont see any of it, and since it is considered a taxable income we are not authorized things like WIC (which we need) or the Headstart Preschool program so my son could go to preschool on post, but he is put on the bottom of the list or I have to bus him off post and pay out of pocket for it all. 4) when we moved on post we were living for a year off post but wanted to move on post cause of the distance. SO when we signed for housing we moved in on the 24th of September and had to pay an additional $330 dollars to cover the BAH. That threw me for a major loop, I mean WTF!?! We had to pay our full months rent for september in our old apartment and an extra $330 to these jerks who run housing. I am SOOOOO tired of army life its been very difficult to get through all this BS. I do understand you have quite a complicated situation,and I wish i had input to give you but i dont other than weighing your options together with your hubby as logically as possible. Take care and I wish you all the luck with your decision and that your hubby is safe when he is deployed.
- If you decide to move back home while he is deployed you don't lose your BAH. He still gets it and it's still based on where he's stationed, in your case Germany. I know lots of spouses in HI who move back to the mainland during deployments. Their husbands still collect BAH for Hawaii. The only thing you give up are your quarters.
