Nuke fiance with a lot of questions!

[Stephanie C]

Hello! My fiance is currently in A school in Goose Creek for the Nuke program (ET), but he got there recently so we have a lot of unanswered questions. He will be getting briefs this week and then he'll have time off for close to two weeks in which we'll be getting married (12/23/2013). He has already gone in and filled out all of the paperwork for the base housing he can right now and we are planning on faxing our marriage license over pretty much as soon as possible. Does anyone know how fast Balfour Beatty is at getting the housing approved? I would like to move asap since we weren't told how anything would be working out and I've been just waiting around for news for around a month-month and a half. He wrote on the paper he would like a unit ready by 04/01/2014 but we're not sure if that's realistic. I have also seen other people talking about programs or things that they need to do (DEERS, etc) so I'm not sure what all of that would entail. We haven't been told about anything like that or marriage counseling. I feel quite confused.

Thanks for reading!!

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

Welcome to the Nuke world!

I'll try to answer as many of your questions as I can. I never actually lived down in Goose Creek since I was in High school when when he was there, but I have a pretty good idea of how things work thanks to being friends with lots of other wives.

1. He's not going to just "have time off" for those 2 weeks (or more) while he's waiting to get started in A school. He'll still have to show up everyday to work, and they'll probably have him cleaning or doing other busy work for a few hours out of the day, and he'll probably still have to PT too. I guess compared to boot camp it would seem like time off, but just want to make sure you know that he'll only be able to leave the base on weekends, and it's not just a two week vacation :)

2. Balfour Betty has a pretty fast availability. They offer the married guys who arrive from boot camp houses during the briefing process, so if you're not too picky, you'll probably get a house as soon as you get married and the paperwork goes through. I've heard of people getting married one week and moving into their house on base the next down there. There's no real wait list of any sort, so it's a pretty fast process. 

3. The marriage process goes like this. You two go down to the courthouse, or wherever, get married, sign the marriage license, and ta-da, you're married! Then, once the county has that paperwork processed (for us we got married Friday evening, I went Monday morning) you go pick up copies (certified copies) of your marriage license. Our county gave us one free because he's military and they know his command takes one, and then I bought a few extra at like 3 bucks a piece just so we have them when/if we need them. Tuesday my husband took a copy to his command and he added me to his Page 2. The page 2 is what's going to make you eligible for on base housing and it's what's going to give him his BAH pay. It's also going to make it possible for you to enroll in DEERs. Once the ship had processed that paperwork (by Wednesday), my husband was given a piece of paper to bring me over to the Pass and ID office to enroll me in DEERs and get my ID card. DEERs is the dependent system that enrolls you in the insurance program (Tricare... you'll automatically be enrolled in the Standard option) and also gives you base privileges to things like the NEX and commissary (but you have to have your ID card to actually use these things). Once you're enrolled in DEERs, they'll take your picture and get you an ID card. And then, ta-da, you're officially a military wife. It sounds a little complicated, but it's not too bad. If you want your new name to include your husband's on things like your ID card, you'll need to go to the Social Security office before you go to the Pass and ID office. 
Oh, and here's a hint: Make sure you have your Driver's License, Social Security Card, and your Birth Ceritificate, along with your Marriage License when you go to the Pass and ID office to enroll in DEERs and get your ID... Without these things, they could very well turn you down and then you have a nightmare on your hands like I did :)

Hopefully that helps you out a bit. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer!

Good luck!

[Stephanie C]

Thanks for all the info!! :) For the two weeks coming up (12/20-1/4), everyone has real time off for Christmas because the base pretty much shuts down, so he's coming back to Michigan. My county here has given us three copies of the marriage certificate and one is a sealed certificate for us to keep. Would that work? I plan on trying to take care of name changes, IDs, etc as soon as I can while still enjoying my fiance's break with him. I'm just really hoping we'll be able to get things processed through as fast as possible. His recruiter here in MI made it sound like it would be a quick process, that we could get married right after boot camp and I would be able to move so I had left my job with the state to prepare to move and I've already been out of work for around a month. I'm just hoping to get in the swing of things quickly LOL.

[Emily-aaronsgirl11]

Oh duh, you're talking about the fact that it's Christmas time. haha. I thought you were saying he'd get time off while waiting to start A school. Makes much more sense now :)

Yes, whatever your county has given you after you get married and sign everything will work. 

So he's going to be in Michigan when you're trying to do all the paperwork? I'm not sure how well that will work out for you. I'm pretty sure that to do the Page 2, he'll have to be at his command in SC. And I'm not sure if you can enroll in DEERs/get your ID card without being on his Page 2.. Maybe Anti M or Angie can answer that for you. 

Honestly your best bet will probably be to not worry bout any of the paperwork while he's home, let him take care of the Page 2 when he gets back to base, and then once he has a house, move on down and take care of the DEERs and ID part when you're there. Because if you try to do the DEERs and ID part without him you have to have a Power of Attorney which can take a little while to get depending on the command. 

I really wouldn't worry too much about the timeline of things. Everything went really quickly for us, besides the DEERs and ID card part because I didn't have my birth certificate with me when I was visiting him. Like I said before, the housing down there doesn't have a wait list, so everyone manages to get a house pretty quickly, I'm talking in a matter of days. 

[Stephanie C]

Ok, that sounds great! Yeah, right now he's (finally) getting his briefs started. He had PIR 11/22 so he's just been cleaning and things for close to a month. I think when I go to file the marriage certificate, I'll try to order a new copy of my birth certificate too so I'll have that for sure. I would much rather wait till I get to SC to take care of all the paperwork, but some people were making it sound like I would have to take care of everything before moving somehow! That was starting to sound like a night mare! Thank you so much!! :)

[Anti M]

It may very very simple to do the initial paperwork/enrollment in your area.   Find the nearest facility, does not need to be Navy, just any place which does ID cards. Shouldn't take more than an hour or so.

Use RAPIDS:

http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/rsl/appj/site?execution=e2s1

Call and ask them what paperwork you need if your sponsor is with you; it should just be him to sign the DD1172, the marriage certificate, and your drivers license and SSN.  The birth certificate is a huge "maybe".  Should only take an hour or two as the whole process is online now.  Updating the page two is a snap once you're in DEERS.  The page two can wait until he gets back to his command.  I think he can do it locally if he has his CAC card with him, but not sure.

More DEERS info:

https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/milconnect/faces/faqs?_afrWindowMode=0&...