Navy Wife new to Navy Life

[NavyWife_Ship11_Div384]

My name is Tatiana, and I am just beginning my adventure with my Husband into Navy Life. We got married this past June, and he left for BC on Aug 15th and is currently still there. His P.I.R is October 11th (Just 16 days from today :D) He is Ship 11 and Division 384, had his 25th birthday in BC and has A school in P-cola for either 7, 9, or 21 weeks, we haven't been told what rate of A school he will be assigned.

I definitely feel so new and naive to this way of life. I'm currently living in California, and will be staying here until my husband gets his duty station. I haven't stepped foot on a base as of yet, or even gotten my ID. Though my trip is booked for my husband P.I.R. I still don't really know what to expect. 

I would love to hear from other navy wife, girlfriends, fiances, moms and family members about their experience and what you would recommend I learn about first! I'm at a lost on where I should start with my new life. 

I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone and starting new friendships :)

[Amani_2013]

Hi Tatiana ! My name is Amani. I am a new navy wife also. Married my husband in February and he shipped off to BC on August 20th. I'm living in North Carolina until my husbad gets stationed. His A school is in Great Lakes IL for 9weeks. I'm still learning but what area of this are you wanting to learn about specifically? :) it's good to have someone going through the same as me.

[NavyWife_Ship11_Div384]

Hi Amani, Thanks for replying. I was thinking the same thing, about how its nice to know people are right in the same boat as I am. There's so much to learn about, I just don't know what is the most important for me to figure out first? I don't know how to get my ID, or pick a doctor or any of that. I've been told to learn to read his LES but

I don't even know what my husbands base pay should be and how much BAH we are suppose to be getting.So where do I start to figure all those things out? lol.

btw, when is your husbands P.I.R?

[Amani_2013]

Yeah yeah definitely ! It is very overwhelming at first but things start to fall into place. Military ID card, You should get a letter in the mail containing a form to bring to the nearest navy center (they give you a number to call to figure where that is) and you'll also have a met life letter for dental insurance. That is your choice to sign up it doesn't come with the Tricare plan (health insurance) Once you get your card you will automatically have medical insurance under the standard plan which is they pay 80-85% and you pay 15 to 20%. All you have to do is show your ID card to the DR. If you choose prime which is where they pay 100% no copay's, but you have to go to a dr that's on their list. For prime you have to call and send in an application and wait for your card in the mail. His base pay is the same as everyone I think which is 1400 plus BAH basic housing allowance. They also get extra for dependents. So everyone's is different but his BASE is 1400 as an E-1. BAH is based on where you live while he's in bootcamp and until you move in together, when you do it will be based on the area you are stationed. My husbands PIR is October 18 :) Most important thing to focus on is yourself ! everything will fall into place don't worry too much because theres not much you can do for right now. NOW when he gets to A school depending on how long you might be able to live with him. 14 weeks and more you can live together, everything under you can't. While he's in there (A school) he can talk to you normally as if he were going to college, he can have a cell phone. So I wouldn't worry much until he gets to A school and then you start planning the move and etc :) Whewwww THAT WAS A LOT OF TYPING TATIANA hope that helped you though :)

[navywifetiffany]

Amani

Thanks for clearing all this up. This info is very helpful and weirdly reassuring. But, do you know how we get access to our husbands LES statements? Do we have to wait for our SR to send us the info...Like do they set the mypay account up in BC or can we do it for them? I usually handle all of the financial and online access stuff between my husband and I and in order to get a military discount with my wireless carrier I need his LES. Any little bit helps especially with having a busy 3 year old at home.

[Angie]

Legally only the person in the military can access the mypay account

[NavyWife_Ship11_Div384]

Thanks Amani, that definitely helps. I did a little research on getting my ID card so hopefully I can work that into my work schedule. My husband is actually an E-3 due to college education he already had prior to enlistment. And besides me we have a 5 year old, shes my step daughter and lives full time with her mother while my husand is gone... so idk if she would be listed as a dependent. I plan on staying in California for the extent of time he will be in A school. We want to keep my income for saving purposes as long as possible so we decided this was the best thing. The longest he will be in A school is 21 weeks before he gets moved to his duty station so it will just be easier to wait it out and move to where we will be stationed. Thanks again for all the help. I feel much better

[flowers]

Hi Amani.  My boyfriend just left for bootcamp yesterday.  If you have any advice on when to get married or what would be good to prepare as far as marriage goes, please let me know.  Like Tatiana- I am new to this way of life and I don't even know where to begin to start planning for a future.  Unfortunately my bf isn't forthcoming with details or asking questions, so I feel like I have to figure stuff out.  Any help would be appreciated!

[Amani_2013]

Flowers, Hi ! When to get married is totally up to you, I wouldn't rush it because he just joined the navy. Its a big commitment and although im not there yet I know that deployments will be hard and theres no way to run away from that. If you love him and you will endure anything with him then I say go for it! It can be a wonderful adventure and that's what you have to look at it like. There are a lot of things that come along with marriage but everyone's situation isn't the same. The common factor of marriage is LOVE and RESPECT. I would get married while he's in A school if I were to pick a time. Because, a single sailor will be forced to live in the barracks so if he gets stationed and your not married he'll be living dorm style and it takes awhile to get a new marriage processed. So I would do it in the beginning of A school that way when he comes out you can continue on to living together as if you were married before bootcamp. :) Hope that helps, just my opinions but lastly don't marry unless your ready for the commitment that comes with marriage and the commitment that comes with the NAVY !

[NavyWife_Ship11_Div384]

Hi Flowers! I know your question was aimed towards Amani, but if i could do anything to help, I most definitely want to. I agree with Amani, Marriage is nothing to be rushed, but if you guys know you're ready and this is what you want then go for it! I know marrying my Sailor before he left was a huge decision for me, we knew we wanted to get married and originally planned to do it in A school. But decided that if we already knew we were committed to the point of marriage there was no reason to wait.

My only advice would be to keep it simple, me and my husband got married in a small court room with 10 of our closest family members. It cost me less than $300 for a dress and the marriage Fees. My husband originally wanted to give me a grand wedding ceremony later down the line but thats just not important to me. I'm over the moon happy with just being married to him and its even better that we started our marriage stress and debt free. We have our eyes on the bigger picture, want to work towards buying our first home. So saving on our marriage was a small step in the direction and we are both so happy with our decisions.

Anyways, hope I was a little bit of help, good luck with your future. Feel free to message me if you have any more questions. I don't know a whole lot but ill do my best to help :)

[Angie]

Wondering what his contract says for his rating?  as if he wasn't assigned one, that normally means they are undesignated.

[Melissa]

I got married to my sailor after he finished a school, but I'm the only one who attended his boot camp grad. This site got me through all the madness. I too was here in Cali & knew nothing about the military. It will be easier once he gets stationed. Lucky you don't have to deal with signing up for medical and stuff because he'll do all that in bootcamp. Being a military wife will be what you put into it, I was never super involved in military stuff because my husband works a lot and so do i, so on our free time we spend as much time away from base as possible. Anyway good luck and message me if you have any specific questions.

[Anti M]

If he's going to P-cola, then it sounds like he's in one of the aviation rates where they don't give him a specific one until boot camp, yes?  AB or aircrew?  

You should have gotten a letter about acquiring your ID card by now.  You really will need it for many things, and it is also your Tricare medical card.  You shouldn't wait too long.  You'll find the card useful at PIR, so you can go on and off the base easier, and purchase things at the NEX.  Those things sound simple, but trust me, that ID card is golden.  There are time you must have it to get things done.

Base pay charts (remember, there are taxes taken out):

http://www.navycs.com/2013-military-pay-chart.html

BAH calculator (use your zip when he is training, his duty station zip once he has orders). No taxes on this.

http://www.defensetravel.dod.mil/site/bahCalc.cfm

After 30 days in boot camp, you should receive Family Separation Pay.  About $250 a month.