AECF Wives Club for our ET and FC wives

[Mary, Proud Mom of Nick]

There seems to be so many of you lately!!! It is wonderful that you will have each other's support while going thru the process together.

Thought I would start this thread so you can at least connect and share stories together. Seems like there is a fair amount of you in Great Lakes and just as many more trying to decide if you can more to Great Lakes.

[Courtney (Adam's wife) <3]

We have two kids and one due in September. It was a VERY hard decision to make, but ultimately will be worth it in 6 or 7 months I think. My entire family is here in SD, so living in a new place with a newborn, 14 month old and 6 year old seemed silly. I am also a caregiver for my grandparents. Finally, the BAH. Staying in Cali has provided a higher BAH and ultimately has helped us more than IL BAH. If they really do take into consideration where dependents are, then I am hoping he will come right back to SD. That will really make this year of sacrifice worth it. We have seen him 4 times since BC and that has really helped the kids and I cope without him. The thing about the Navy is that our guys will be deployed for 6-8 months at a time....no visits, no communication sometimes... that will be really hard. Until then, I just keep positive and am thankful he can concentrate on school then come home! :)

[Jess]

My fiance had pir 6/4 he will be completing att phase 1 this week.And i found the best house in Zion.Great neighborhood or so it seems.I just got bak to Vt we signed the lease sat and i can move in by Sept first.Because we are not married he can not live ashore.But all duty free weekends and after class until 2100.I am sooooo excited.You guys all helped so much

[proudmom2be09]

Is anyone here familiar with Horizon Village apartments in Zion? Any info would be greatly appreciated! We are looking at leasing an apartment there and its hard to judge when I haven't seen it in person.

[Eddie's Momma]

My son is awaiting orders for C school aswell. He's still in Great Lakes and he's an ET.Can someone give me an idea of where the C schools are located ? I know of one in Pensacola but not sure about the rest or how many there may be.

[Courtney (Adam's wife) <3]

We still get SD BAH. Mine graduated in Feb and then in April it changed to GL BAH. He submitted a chit through his PLR at school (they help you fill out the chit and then it gets sent up through the chain of command. Once approved then you take the approval letter to payroll on base.) It changed back to SD BAH a month later. We do not get sep pay though. That is only for when orders require spouses to be separated,
like on deployment. Hope this helps! :)

[Amanda(proudnavywife)]

Hey FitzFam, I would say if you have nothing holding you back then you should move to GL. It's not that hard. I did it by myself, and there are many women who did. They will pay to move you, and/or move you themselves with little work on your part. Also your husband will be here for at least a year, if you can be with your husband for a whole year with no deployments, why would you not want to? If you can't because your condo that's understandable. You can try to go to a realtor or sell it/rent it out on militarybyowner.com I've lived here since last October and it's been great. My husband is home (almost) every night. The only times he can't spend the night at home are duty days which is every 4th day. But it's not bad at all. It is great, I would have really beaten myself up if I didn't move here with him. I have TONS of family support at home but it is definitely not better then just having my husband. As for concentrating on school, my husband tells me I give him the support and motivation to do good. If I were half the country away it would have not been the same. Also, it really sucks for the guys to live in the barracks and not have a car when they could, if their wife was here. My husband hates when he is stuck on base. All he does is do whatever he needs to so he can come home at night. You are NOT being selfish if you go. He is YOUR husband and your kid's dad. I'm sure he would really appreciate it if he could come home every night to see the two of you. If he is anything like my husband that will motivate him and drive him to do the very best he can. Otherwise it's just going to be a lame and lonely year, when it could have been a great year. You have the rest of his enlistment to worry about deployments and not seeing him, so why would you want to put yourself and your family through that now, when you don't have to??

For all the other women who have stayed behind, I am really not trying to knock your decision, and your stories are more understandable to stay because of the SD orders.

As for locations of C school, I know ETs can be all over the country but FCs are only 3 different places. Dalgren Va, Dam neck (Virginia Beach) Va, and San Diego. For FCs though, any married man whose family (dependents) are not in SD already there is practically no chance of getting SD. When my husband picked orders they told his class any live ashores (married) whose dependents are not in SD as of now are not allowed to even choose a C-school in SD.

FitzFam in your case if your husband ends up being a FC he will be in GL for a year then be going to Virginia for C-school and most likely be stationed there. If his C-school is over 6 months (which most of them are, my husband's is going to be 8-9 months) then you will move with him when he moves. So it will definitely be easier if you are already with him. It just makes so much more sense, especially in your case to move to GL and be with your husband. There are TONS of families here and most with kids. And everyone I've talked to feels so fortunate to be able to live with their husbands during A-school.

Anyway....hope this helps and sorry it was so lengthy! Let me know if you have any more questions.

[Courtney (Adam's wife) <3]

Good for you, FitzFam! :D Do what is right for your family! I wish you the best of luck with your move to GL.. it is so beautiful up there! :)

[Navy Wife Ginnibean]

I know that I can probably find my answers on here if I keep snooping long enough, but my eyes are beginning to hurt, so my apologies if this is a repetitive question = ) I have read lots of info that sometimes contradicts the other so let me know if I've got it all wrong ha ha!

AECF hubby who hasn't gone to BC yet, I have read that he will find out if he will be an ET or FC soon after PIR?

A school is in GL?

C school can be in several places?

if school is longer than 6 months, they will move me to be with him, does that include holds? are holds "known" or are they more of a "as soon as we know" type thing with no set future date for school?

thank you all so much! I love this site = )

[Navy Wife Ginnibean]

ha ha that's already my mentality! I'll take him when I can get him! thank you so much for the info!! I'm pretty good at the wait and see game so I'm excited to even know this much this far in advanced! Would anyone care or get mad if I chose to move up to GL during A school? I know the move would be on me, but I can do that for my hubby. Would the BAH change if I did that? THANK YOU again! = )

[Navy Wife Ginnibean]

hubby of 7 years now! great info! thank you! Your husband FC or ET?

[Navy Wife Ginnibean]

thanks = ) 2 years goodness! how much longer does he have? 2 years from the day he left for BC?

[Amanda(proudnavywife)]

Hey FitzFam, I'm sorry it took me so long to reply but I'm glad that I helped. I don't think you will ever regret the decision to move with your husband. Has he graduated BC yet?

Headoverheels this is also a late reply but when I said a lot of married men whose dependents are with them now couldn't choose San Diego orders, that was for c-school. I know they can be stationed anywhere. But my husbands instructor told them they were not allowed to chose SD C-school unless their dependents were in CA. Hope I cleared that up.