first duty station Bremerton, WA question and flight info

[heathee12]

Hi ladies! My BF finished A school in MS yesterday and will graduate next week.  He finally received his  orders today and got Bremerton, WA. Does anyone have info about this base- size? Is it commutable from Seattle or Tacoma where I could potentially find a job?

Also, tonight was the first night that he seemed to be shutting down on the phone and not really communicating because there is so much going on - he just sounded so tired and overwhelmed.  He has lived on the east coast his whole life (as have I) and this is a huge change and he still doesn't know when he will even fly home.  He is nervous about money as well. Does anyone have an idea about what the difference in flights is?  He will have a ticket from MS to WA and need to reroute it to NY for his leave.  Is this normally expensive? And then he needs to then by himself another ticket from home to WA? Just wondering if anyone has the scoop on this. 

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

I would not suggest living in Tacoma or Seattle and commuting to the Bremerton base. 

Most people live in Bremerton or Silverdale area. My hubby lives in Silverdale (like 5 or 10 miles from base) and he still has to leave over an hour from the time he is supposed to report in the morning because traffic can get pretty crazy getting on base and parking is even worse apparently. Even while dropping him off in the morning, we still had to leave over a half hour before he needed to be there for muster. 

The Bremerton base is pretttty tiny. Basically, it's a shipyard, a McDonalds, a gym, a Nex, a mini-nex (basically a bunch of alcohol), a commissary, some barracks, and that's about it. The only housing ON base is very very high ranking officer housing. The Bangor base though (both bases are collectively called Naval Base Kitsap or something like that) is a loooot bigger. Lots of on base housing and a much larger shopping area and such. The base housing for Bremerton is off base about five minutes. 
 

Oh, I just saw your job comment. What kind of job are you looking for? There are A LOT of businesses and offices in the Silverdale/Bremerton/Poulsbo/Port Orchard area. So it may not be necessary to commute to Tacoma or Seattle. But like  NavyWife said, it's about a 30-60 minute drive, so doable. I'm actually trying to get accepted to a school in Tacoma because its the nearest one I could find that I'd be happy with. 

He probably is very overwhelmed. Especially reporting to his first duty station. I know Aaron was a nervous wreck and he was being flown to the ship which was deployed at the time so that didn't help. But just be patient with him. Ask if there's anything you can do to help ease his stress even if it's just helping him figure out things like the plane ticket. Make sure he takes it step by step and day by day so he doesn't become too overwhelmed. I know it always helps Aaron when I break it down into manageable steps for him so he's looking at a small part instead of the large picture. 

Is he going to the Stennis? Or I believe the Reagan is there for overhaul right now?

[meagan5220]

you are not probably going to want to get a job over in Seattle unless you absolutely have to. Its a ferry ride to the other side of the water... You can google map it to see what it is for sure. but I wouldnt suggest it. Idk much about the base. but in WA there is lotssss to do in the area.

 

the difference in flights is going to vary just depending on what they have available. For my husband he was supposed to go from FL to WA he rerouted to OKC almost $250 but his friend rerouted a longer distance and it was like 70$. I would say buy his ticket through Southwest. He will find out a report date when he gets orders and he will have a date that he is released from his a school he can take up to two weeks I think if he has it for leave. so if you can have him buy a ticket as least 15 days in advanced bc it will be cheapest that way. also the best time to look for tickets is tuesday at 3 pm EST. With southwest he changed his ticket literally 3 hours before he was supposed to leave OK bc he ended up getting a few extra days and it was only like $80 extra. he got to stay the rest of the weekend .

[meagan5220]

he should be given a number to call as soon as he gets his ticket to change his flight. you also might have him call southwest when he gets his information and see if he can get anything cheaper last minute for military.

[Anti M]

He needs to inform the travel office (SATO) that he is going home on leave en route.  They will schedule the flights from MS to NY to WA.  He will then pay for the leg detouring to NY (they'll fill him in on how that works specifically).  This is really routine, he just needs to talk to the right people ASAP.  He should be able to ask his LPO or chief for help knowing who to speak to about the leave routing.  Which base in MS?

Gulfport?

http://www.dodhousingnetwork.com/navy/ncbc-gulfport/base-directory....

or Meridian?

Travel Office
SATO
255 Rosenbaum Avenue
Suite 152
Meridian, MS 39309
Phone [phone]

Really, he doesn't have to book that ticket on his own, but many do because no one fills them in on calling to change their itinerary.  I'm surprised at all the advice to buy his own.... I never did, I left it up to the travel office to route me home and provide the best deal.  Also, he gets up to four seabags/pieces of luggage while traveling on orders. Get a brightly colored strap for the seabag, they all look the same in the airport, he will want his to have more than a luggage tag on it.  And padlock the darn thing, people steal stuff out of them.

[rxl100]

Hello.  We were stationed in Bremerton but lived on the Bangor base.  That is about a 13 mile (one way) commute.  My husband used to bike it often.  Tacoma is about 40-50 miles away (one way).  We used to have to go to Madigan Army Hospital but there is a closer medical facility between Bangor and Bremerton that most families can use.  I knew of at least one wife that commuted to Seattle.  You have to take a ferry and it's about a one hour trip (one way).  It would be more cost effective to buy a monthly pass if you take the ferry.  Not sure what type of work you are planning on doing but Silverdale and Bremerton are large enough that you could probably find a job.  I worked for Michael's and a temp agency while we were there.  I was underemployed but I couldn't do those commutes.

If he is flying because he has orders and needs to get to his next duty station, the Navy will pay for those tickets.  He doesn't even have to figure out which flight to take, etc.  They usually do all this.  If he is going on leave he will have to pay for that ticket.  Depending on when he has to report to his next duty station, he may have time to take leave.  If he does, I'm pretty sure he can talk to the office issuing him the tickets and they can at least let him know how to incorporate his leave flight.  Does that make sense?  

Hope this helps.  

[Anti M]

Yes, they will arrange the trip home in conjunction with his official travel.