FYI for JANUARY COT

FYI, some JAG's that are going to the January 2010 COT class have been notified about where they will be stationed. I hope the rest of you have too and or will soon! Happy Thanksgiving!

More answers to 'AM' Q's

1. Beyond the medical field, what sort of jobs do you see young spouses working in? I was scared by a post I saw on a different forum that said no one will hire a military spouse because they know you’ll be moving. I have a BA in literature and philosophy but have been working in the Foreign Policy advisory world out of D.C. for the last two years. I’m open to changing fields depending on what base he is placed at, but it’s important for me to work.

This will highly depend on where you are stationed. I have a friend who worked in D.C. as an artificer. She can't find a job remotely similar to what she was doing b/c we are located in a rural area. Most Air Force bases are located in rural areas. Thus it's harder to find unique jobs like yours. Many wives work in the school system as teachers. Each base has job opportunities too whether is in the library or family readiness center, youth centers, etc.

2. Can you walk through the process of what happens after [if] he receives an offer? Are you told where you would be stationed before you accept? If not, how long after? Do you really have two different choices or do they just tell you where you’re going? Do you always have a choice with each transfer?

If they make an offer it is contingent on whether you pass the bar exam. Once you do, then they'll set up medical clearance, have you fill out a TON of paper work etc. After ALL that clears then they tell you when your COT and JASCO class begin. Then you are told your 2-3 choices of where you can be stationed and it's not until you choose one that you become committed. That is the only time you have a choice on where you are stationed, generally speaking. After that, you put a wish list in and they try to accommodate you but really they'll just place you where there is a need for your second transfer etc. I have heard of someone working it out where they were offered a place after their first 2 years and talked their way out of going to that place and being given another option. So it is not unheard of by any means. As you stay in for more years and become higher ranked with different responsibilities you can potentially get choices again.

How much do JAG's make?

General Answes for 'AM'

This is public knowledge and is based on rank and years of service. You can go to http://militarypay.defense.gov/pay/bp/paytables/2009%20capped.pdf

-JAG's come in as 1stLT also known as O-2 rank. At there 6 month mark they get promoted to Captain, O-3 rank. Look at the chart to see the increase in pay overtime. You'll start off making O-2 with under 2 years experience making $3058 a month. (This will increase next year 3.4% b/c of the standard of living adjustments). This payment is referred to as Base Pay.
-Plus you get what they call a Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) which totals roughly $225 a month.
-Then you get a BAH, Basic Allowance for Housing. This is based on zip code of where your stationed, rank, and whether the JAG has dependents. A spouse is a dependent.
-If you live on base ALL your BAH goes to the housing. Housing includes all utilities except for things like phone and cable.
- Dogs are allowed in base housing. Some breads however are not and this likely will vary from base to base.


I will answer the rest of your questions soon. Top Gun promotes to Captain this week and then there's Thanksgiving so I've been kind of busy ;)

Top Gun's 1st Court Martial

Top Gun had his first court martial last week. It went so well. I watched him give his closing argument. He was CLEARLY nervous but overall did really well. It was a drug case. It was sad to see the young airmen who was clearly addicted to drugs plead for mercy. It brought tears to my eyes when he said it was "bitter sweet seeing both my parents here today." His folks have been divorced since he was a little kid. I felt bad for him and was even sad that Top Gun had to be so rough on him. But that's the law. He needed to be punished for running away and doing cocaine and heroine. Those are some serious drug to be sprung out on. He got 12 months in confinement so hopefully he'll sober up and change.

Trick or Treating on base

Happy belated Halloween!!!

We had a blast trick or treating on base for Halloween. Our neighbors set up the projector outside and we watched a movie and ate chili while trick or treaters came around. We took our kids around too and there were SOO many kids/families, GREAT candy, and a lot of parties like ours with neighbors out in their driveways. What was really great, but on the funny side if you ask me, they had these young, fresh Airmen trainee's "patrolling" the neighborhoods during the designated trick or treating hours of 6:00-9:00 to make sure everyone was acting accordingly. I looked at Top Gun and said I don't think those "kids" could handle any kind of "problems" if something where to actually happen.

Top Gun had the JAG phone that weekend too. Basically, when the police on base or the investigators need something they will often call the JAG office to ask questions on how to charge people or how to go about bringing in suspects and witnesses and all kinds of other issues. Therefore, there is a JAG phone that one of the attorney's will have on them for after hours and weekends. The phone gets rotated.

Halloween was Top Gun's turn to have the phone and I just knew it would call...and it did...more than once!!!

Luckily it wasn't until around 9:00p.m after we had been Trick or Treating.

To get on our base there is 100% I.D. check. Well one of the guards while checking I.D.'s of each passenger noticed alcohol in the car of 4 young Airmen. The Airmen tried to drive threw the main gate with open alcohol containers in each of their possessions in their car! Here's the real kicker, they were all underage drinkers. Smart ones huh?