The process of moving!

[Julie]

Hello all! (: My sailor left for Pensacola Florida on Saturday. So now we are both on the mission to get me to move down since he won't be done with A School until March. So I was just wondering what others had to do and had to go through in order to move down there. I really don't know what to expect or what to plan for since this would be my first move away from my parents. Any ideas, advice, and suggestions would be wonderful! Also, I'm asking this because my sailor has done alot for me, so the more I can find out and let him know, will help him out alot! Like I said any information will be great! Thank you. (:

[Julie]

Sadly we are not married yet. He went today to ask them about it. So we are HOPING to get married soon. I was told many times that I probably won't be able to live with him, but if I'm at least close to him and get to spend weekends with him, I wouldn't complain about that! haha (: And my sailor told me that A School will move me down if his A School was longer than 20 weeks, which it is, but I'm afriad we have to be married first in order for that to happen.

[meagan5220]

yea you have to be on his orders to a school if he was single when he got them they are unaccompanied orders. you can move their on your own dime. You need to get married as soon as you can in A school then you can start using BAH to save and whatnot and to make sure you are on his orders for his next duty station. He has to fill out a chit and go through counseling. tell him to DO the chit no matter what his instructors say my husbands were lazy and didnt want to do the paperwork three days before I was supposed to leave to go down his chief freaked out and almost told him he couldnt get married. it was a mess. but there is paperwork and he does have to do it.

[skell456 (AO wife)]

You wouldn't be able to live with him at a school in pensacola anyway. If it is a long school like more than 5 months it something like that he can apply for the brown bagger chit after yall are married which means he can stay with you more and I believe live with you. I just spent 4 months there with my hubby he got off at 430 everyday and weekends off except duty times. He was not there long enough to get that. They have two hotels out there that have weekly rates with kitchens and stuff that will be the cheapest route for you. I love the area and Alabama so I'm jealous LOL good luck

[Anti M]

Single sailors in A school do not get to live off base, and they only get to stay out overnight on weekends, and then only once they reach phase two of liberty.  And they have to have a liberty buddy, which in some cases can be you, unless the command is being a pain about it.  Even if you marry now, he has those A school orders in hand, your move will not be paid for, regardless of the length of the school.

Single sailors in the fleet do not receive BAH until they are an E-5.  They can choose to live off base out of pocket but that isn't feasible in every area.  

[brianna1013 (Ship 11 div 366)]

So is it easier for my sailor to do the paperwork in a school and we get married while he's there?

 

[Anti M]

Yes!

[meagan5220]

YES I would say do it in A school!

its pretty simple to do down in Pcola and you can get enrolled in DEERS and everything like that

[brianna1013 (Ship 11 div 366)]

His A school is in GL and the paperwork has to be completely done before we get married?

[HalfOfMyHeart]

brianna - GL is VERY strict about everything. My husband is there right now, it took 4 weeks and 1 day to get the live ashore chit approved, and we got married before boot camp. With the buddy system, he needs 2 buddies to get off base even with me, and he's phase 3 liberty already. He can put in a buddy deviation chit but it has to be 10 days before the day he wants off. If you want to move down there and are married eventually, tell him to study all the time.  If they are top of their class they get nominated for 'best of the best' and if they recieve it 5 times, they have absolutely NO watch duty the rest of the time on base. (My husband has 2 of them)  The navy has taken a lot of getting used to & they are very strict on following all the rules just because they're great lakes. :/ They are also very slow about doing paperwork and getting reimbursements/money to you, but they are very quick about telling you what you're doing wrong lol.  I hope everything works out for you :)

[Brittany proud Navy Wife :)]

In Pensacola once you are married he can turn in brown bagger paper work and live off base with you at any rank and it doesnt have to be longer than five months for that... that just depends on the command. AE and AT's are easy to get brown baggers (it list those right in the welcome aboard paper work) Others are a little harder but very do able. They are also pretty lenient on getting married down here, I would have him check with his specific chiefs but i have known several who just went and go married - no paper work needed (hubby worked as barrack support leader and asked the nti's and his cheif for a friend and they said no paper work was needed too) (again always check with his direct superior but they arent strict here) Once u are married and have a lease with his name on it he can apply for brown bagger. They can take a few weeks to get approved. ours took 2 weeks, ive seen them take less and a few take longer.

[meagan5220]

do be careful abt the no paperwork. Technically, they are supposed to and they are supposed to go to the chaplain for a class. LPOs and instructors can say no and the Chief will still say yes. That is what the problem with ours was. Pretty much the chief got mad that the LPOs and MTIs all told us no paperwork without checking with him and he wanted the paperwork. We found this out like 4 days beffore I was supposed to come down. His Chief can block him from doing it, luckily my husband got permission to leave early from an LPO that told him wrong, the LPO risked getting in trouble with the chief bc he felt bad for telling him the wrong thing. The Chief told him if an LPO would let him leave early one day we could do it. So luckily an LPO took a risk of getting in trouble or else we would have been in a totally different situation! Just like Brittany said make sure he double and triple checks. It was so stressful!