Quick none-of-my-business question

[WOT?*]

Daughter is getting married next week (argh!).  He's leaving for Japan, she's staying behind while her kiddo finishes school and she gets her ducks in a row to go over.  So, with regard to per diem when one spouse is overseas and one has to stay behind, how does the perdiem and BAQ (or whatever it's called now) work?  Is there a "separation allowance" (like there used to be) to enable them to maintain two households.  (We did get a "separation allowance" if I'm recalling thirty years ago correctly when ex was on the boat.  But what about when the AD is stationed overseas and his spouse stays CONUS?  Is the housing allowance based on where he is stationed?  Where the family is?  Would she be entitled to base housing back here if he's stationed overseas for two years but she has to stay behind (in case her ex doesn't sign for a passport and she can't take her son to Japan)?

I'm just nosy and trying to remember how it all works.  Not that it's my business because it's not but...see the first line of this paragraph.



<object style="position: absolute; z-index: 1000;" id="plugin0" width="1" type="application/x-dgnria" height="1"><param name="tabId" value="{47523054-E231-4534-8AED-BF31F52BC393}"></object>

[WOT?*]

They're getting married about three weeks before he has to head to Japan; he was in Bahrain for the past seven months and has two months home before he's being restationed. She hasn't had an opportunity to get command approval for a transfer to Japan yet. Would that count as "by their choice" since she still has to go through the channels?

[audette]

They talked a bit about this stuff during our briefings for this move (korea, not japan, but similar). I didn't memorize every detail for the families that did not go for sponsorship, as our plan was always for me to get sponsored, so I might not have every detail right, but, here goes. Oh, and DH is army, as opposed to whatever service your soon-to-be-SIL is (I seem to recall you saying air force at one point, but I can't remember).

The Housing Allowance is based on where the dependents are for unaccompanied assignments. Because this will be unaccompanied until she receives sponsorship, and once she has sponsorship, they can request deferred travel to when her kid finishes the school year. He'll get accomodations in Japan, probably on base, and as far as I know, should not have to pay for them. I'm not sure on BAS. He'll be eating at the DFAC, so he might not receive it while unaccompanied.

As far as separation pay, I thought that was paid during unaccompanied tours regardless of choice to stay behind or not, but Stan might know better than me about this detail. It could be that folks with deferred travel lose out on this.

I haven't heard about a per diem while here, but there is a COLA pay, which is figured differently for the folks that are unaccompanied vs. those that are accompanied (as in, DH receives higher COLA with me here than he would if I wasn't here).

She can request housing on base, were he to spend the whole tour unaccompanied. I _think_ there is an approval process for this. The only folks I know living on base while their spouse is here are those who were already in base housing, so it was very much a rubber stamp type of thing for them. But, does she _want_ to live on base? I'll be honest and say that of the handful of bases we have lived at/near, only one of them had on-base housing comparative to what we could rent off base for a price similar to DH's housing allowance (even considering the extras like utilities and trash service, etc). Sometimes, on-base isn't the best option.

[midnightmare81]

My experience is Amry and based off the fact that I could not get command sponsored because H would not be there for a full year uninterrupted (deployment in the middle of his term there). H had to live in the barracks because he was considered a "geographical bachelor", and got a meal card for the DFAC until he requested BAS instead. We got a housing allowance for where I lived. I probably could have requested base housing if I lived near one or wanted to, but I chose not to. They do not get per diem for a duty station. He MAY get COLA (cost of living adjustment) if there is a significant difference in COL in Japan.

We did not get separation pay since even though I was not command sponsored since technically I could go on our own $. Sep pay is usually only when they are deployed or stationed somewhere where spouses are not allowed, not just not command sponsored.

[midnightmare81]

Jan 31, 2013 20:20:49 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

They're getting married about three weeks before he has to head to Japan; he was in Bahrain for the past seven months and has two months home before he's being restationed. She hasn't had an opportunity to get command approval for a transfer to Japan yet. Would that count as "by their choice" since she still has to go through the channels?

Yes, because she could choose to go their on their own dime. The issue with her x and child doesn't have anything to do with the army...

[WOT?*]

Gotcha.

Like I said, I was just being curious, nosey, whatever. I was curious how it worked because it's something we didn't have to deal with when ex was active. He was clocked in the head once too often for us to go overseas. I got to see beautiful central California and Washington state.

Thanks ladies.