Reimbursement of expenses

When does the military pay you for your moving expenses related to the timing of COT and JASCO?

I had a reader ask me this. You can ask the military for some money up front to cover cost of moving if you are doing a DITY move (Do it yourself). Contact your local base TMO office to ask specific questions. If the military is moving you then you will coordinate through your local base to have movers come and for them to order your plane tickets.

As far as receiving your per diems and travel expenses you'll incur, like taxi rides, etc. once you arrive to your permanent base the military member can file the claim to receive that money. This will vary from base to base but it took us about a month to see some reimbursements come in. It took nearly 3 months to receive our reimbursement for our DITY move...that was a pain. Again I could see smaller bases getting your money back to you sooner. Be prepared to potentially make a few trips to the finance office to get your money all sorted it.

Shipping your car overseas

There are only a handful of locations in the U.S. that you can take your car to be shipped on the military's dime. The military will pay to have only one car shipped overseas. Luckily, the closes one for us is only 2.5 hours away. During PCS season, which are the months of April-August, they say to plan on it taking 60 days from drop off date to arrival in the new country. Thus we are dropping our car off next week to ensure we have our car waiting for us in Germany mid July.

Renting a car overseas is extremely expensive and they say it is far more worth it to have a rental car stateside than once you get overseas. Luckily we have another car we will use but then hurry and try to sell before we move...that will be fun! I hate that we have to sell our second car b/c it has been such a good car to us. Apparantly though older BMW's are a dime a dozen in Germany and you can get them for a few grand. Top Gun is very excited about this!

To rent a car overseas you have to have a temporary International Driver's License and you can obtain one through AAA for $15. This is different than the actual country's driver's license you will need to get once there.

For example, Top Gun will go to the education office on base before we move to Germany and set up everything so that when we get to Germany he just has to go on base there, watch an hour video, and then he'll get his German license. As the spouse though we have to go through the country to obtain one and can't do anything util we get there.

Oh and to actually pick up your car that you had shipped you will have to already have the German license and car insurance.

Moving--Sponsors

There are so many posts I could do about moving/PCSing (permanent change of station). We are currently getting ready for our PCS to Germany this July. There is so much information I would like to share but I may not get to it until after our move is completed. Mainly because I don't have a lot of time (that seems to be a reoccurring theme!)

The good thing is when you PCS you are assigned a Sponsor from the base you are moving to. Usually it is another JAG. Some sponsors are better than others. As the spouse, I spoke with Top Gun's sponsor before we arrived here to Texas. I wanted to know about housing and schools. I mention this because don't be afraid to ask your spouse for their sponsors contact info so you can contact them with your questions. Top Gun was a sponsor last summer for a new JAG and his wife and I emailed back and forth a few times before she arrived. This will make you feel like you have a friend right when you arrive too.

Still offering Loan Repayment Program despite cutbacks?

To answer your question "Elder Heims", YES, the Air Force is still giving the $65,000 toward loan repayments for new JAG's.

Malea--Officer age cutoff

Hey Malea! I am glad you found my blog. We have been so busy I feel like I am slacking in my updates. Thanks for your comment. Because there are only 3 boards meeting a year I would definitely say the selection process will be even more competitive. Due to military cuts they have been limiting the number of JAG's. The one thing I wanted to say was that there is an age cutoff as to when someone can join the Air Force as an Officer. Once you pass the age of 35 you are no longer eligible to become an Officer in the Air Force. I am not saying that your husband is over 35 but if he did go on a mission for 2 years and has been out of law school for 5 something tells me he may be close to 35???? Anyway, I thought if you've been toying with the idea for 2 years it may be time to decide if it is something you really want to do or not before the option eliminates itself due to his age.

JAG recruiting

As you may or may not know the Air Force is drastically reducing the number of JAGs they are accepting. --"DAP Accessions Board Schedule Changes In February 2011, AFPC announced a reduction of the total number of accessions entering active duty for fiscal years 2011 and 2012. The full extent of this drawdown and how it would impact the JAG Corps did not become clear until February. Based on these lower accession numbers, we were unable to make any selections at the February 2011 DAP Board. In addition, TJAG directed that the number of annual DAP boards be reduced from six to three, meeting in October, December and April. This amended schedule should streamline the DAP board process, while still attracting quality candidates. Therefore, the June and August 2011 DAP Boards are cancelled and the next DAP board will meet in October 2011. The ROTC boards will continue to be held in February and the FLEP/ELP boards in March. Updates regarding the DAP boards will be advertised on the USAF JAGC Recruiting Facebook site, www.facebook.com/USAFJAG. Recruits may also call 1-800-JAG-USAF for more information." Keep this information in mind as you wait to hear back from board reviews as the timeline from here on out will be different than what WE experienced. Hope this helps if you are in the beginning stages of the interview process.

Happiest Place on Earth

We took a much needed family vacation to DisneyWorld. What's even better is that we saved a lot of money and received great benefits. Military members get discounts on Disney tickets. Each year Disney offers different promotions. Last year they offered a 3 day park hopper pass for $99. This year the deal was a 4 day park hopper pass for $138. You can purchase up to 6 tickets at that price. Your friends or family can use them as long as the military member or spouse is there on the first day to register the tickets. Awesome huh?? We saved hundreds. My brother and his family came along with us. To top it off we stayed at this FABULOUS military only Disney Resort..........

The Shades of Green is one of four military resorts. The other three are located in Hawaii, Germany and Korea. The Shades of Green is located right across the street from the Polynesian Disney Resort which has monorail service directly to Magic Kingdom and Epcot. It took about 10 minutes to walk there and made it VERY convenient to get to and from the theme parks. For a rank of O-3 (Captain) it cost us $133 a night for a huge pool side room. The rooms are the largest of all Disney Resorts. I am so glad we stayed here. Such a great vacation. The only problem now is that I don't have anything else to look forward to but our move to Germany. So now I feel a lot of pressure to start preparing and getting things in order for our move.

I hope to do a good job keeping you all informed on all the tasks that go into PCSing (moving permanently) overseas. If I do a good job at updating this blog on all that goes into moving overseas I feel like it could really benefit those of you who will be doing so someday. There are passports to get, 3 different packing dates to coordinate, medical paperwork to get cleared for myself and children and soooooo much more. I better get started!!!!!!