BMT For Those With Dependants

[SR.AO]

I know we already have a list of things to BRING to BMT, but now I think we need to make a list of things that need to be covered by us Recruits who have dependants, and things for the dependants to get accomplished while we are away at BMT. As always, make sure you bring your dependants Birth Certificates, Marriage License, etc. Do we need to bring the dependants Social Security Cards also?

Hmm I dont know how to start this, hence the reason I'm making this post lol

1. Set Up Bank Account and make sure its a JOINT Account
2. Get a POA For your Spouse In Case You Die With the Navy PT (lol)
3. Have Spouse Go To Nearest Base To Get Their Military ID....When Should they do this, and what paperwork do they need to aquire one?
4. Have Spouse Pack The House Once You Are Done With BMT And Have Started A School.
5. How Far In Advance Does A Spouse Need To Reserve A Room At The Navy Lodge?
6. How Do They Reserve A Room At The Navy Lodge?
7. Bring Dependant Birth Certs, and Marriage License. Are SS Cards Needed As Well?
8. Bring Blank Checks (2) With VOID Written Across Them, AS WELL as an ATM/DEBIT Card. (To Ensure Proper Pay Establishment)



I Know There Is More Needed On This So Help Me Out lol

Remember This is NOT exactly a list of "what to bring". This is a list of what needs to be done before, and during BMT for recruits with dependants. I just added the "bring marriage license, birth certs, etc, since thats something special us married with children recruits need.

[NavyMom2007]

Chris, you can reserve a room at the Navy Lodge one month in advance of your PIR.

Here's the link to the Navy Lodge in GL:


https://www.nexnet.nexweb.org/pls/nexlodge/process_find_lodge_form

Well, for some reason that won't link? Try the main page and click on Find a Lodge:

https://www.navy-lodge.com/index.html

[butterbean]

I thought BMT was Air Force, and you where going to Boot Camp for the Navy? Oh hell, just had to pick on you bro!

[asailorswife]

Don't have your spouse pack the house until you know when you are moving.There's no point until then. We didn't move until nearly 18 months after Tim enlisted. I don't know how long your a-school is, but she won't be able to even talk about moving until you have paper orders. Not to mention that if you get a base like San Diego, you won't even be able to be put onto the housing list until you are physically here. You could also end up with a c-school (Tim ended up with 2).. There are so many variables that it's not even worth it to pack just yet. Not to mention, unless you do a DITTY move, the movers will pack everything for her!

About 2 weeks or so into boot, she'll get a letter with info about dependent ID. She'll have to take care of all of that, but there's a number or a website or something so you can find out the nearest military base that can do IDs like that. By then, she should be enrolled into DEERS by you. Once enrolled in DEERS, both will have Tricare Standard. If they want to be put onto prime, they'll need to do that themselves.

Now, personally, we haven't particularly cared for Navy Lodges. You can find other lodging that's much better for around the same place nearby. Just do your research.. But then, we normally use priceline for hotels, and end up staying in places like the Hyatt, Hilton, etc, so we got a little spoiled. We hate to stay at NL.. Plus, by that point, Tim said he just wanted to get away from the military for a couple hours.. lol

[SR.AO]

Lol Butterbean I thought BMT stood for Basic Military Training. Didnt know it went for one service or the other lol.

As far as Navy Lodge, how bad is it? lol. Yeah I meant to say pack after we get orders. We're not planning on getting base housing since the wait list EVERYWHERE seems to be years so we'll just look for off base. As far as reserving a room at the NL isnt it hard to plan a month in advance sine I'll only be in GL for 4 weeks by then? I could for any number of reasons get set back in BC and my PIR date will change :( Oh well, Navy Life I guess haha. As far as the Military ID, I guess that'll be self explanitory as long as she gets the paperwork from GL telling her what to do and when to do it lol.

[sweetmtn]

Lol Butterbean I thought BMT stood for Basic Military Training. Didnt know it went for one service or the other lol.

I guess the CORRECT term would be heading off to RCT...Recruit Training Command!:roll:

[SR.AO]

Oh, I dont know if this is possible or not, but can my wife buy me my laptop and bring it to my PIR? I know I cant use it at GL but am I allowed to retain it for A School? We found a good deal on an Acer laptop for only 298.00 at Wal-Mart :)

[asailorswife]

I guess the CORRECT term would be heading off to RCT...Recruit Training Command!:roll:

RTC - not RCT... :rotfl: Chris, Navy doesn't call it BMT - it took me a couple of your posts to figure out what you meant when you said BMT.. haha Remember, the Navy follows a completely different vocab and rank structure than the other branches!

I've heard people say they LOVE the NL, but I've heard a lot of people talk about horrible experiences there too. I think it just depends on the kind of person you are. It's pretty much comparable to a motel more than a hotel. When I go to a hotel, I like high thread count sheets (I sleep on high thread count, so anything below what I'm used to drives me crazy), comfy mattresses, etc. At NL, you're going to get pretty basic, and not a comfy mattress (IMO) at all! lol The biggest thing that stuck out to me (about the one in GL) was reading someone on NP posting about how when they stayed there, their toilet clogged, and when they went to the front desk, they handed them a plunger and told them to take care of it themselves. (ugh). The good thing about there (at least when Tim went through RTC) is that people make posts about their Sailors and put them on the doors!! I thought that was pretty neat!! But otherwise, we're pretty much spoiled when it comes to hotels.. ;) We stayed at Residence Inn in a two bedroom suite. It cost pretty much the EXACT same as the NL would have for two rooms. We also got a pretty good breakfast there, so with 4 adults and 1 child, that really helped to cut down on costs!!! Residence Inn isn't the best hotel out there, but at least IMO, it's MUCH better than NL.

For housing, it really is a matter of luck OR your base. A friend of ours just got into a band new house in Mississippi.. We had to wait 10 months for our house, BUT we CHOSE to do that. We got called the first time about 4 months later, but Tim was about to deploy, and I didn't want to move just to have him leave within a week or so of us getting down here. Our housing group has one of the longest waiting lists in San Diego though.. HOWEVER, there's another girl from NP who just moved into here. She got REALLY lucky, and they didn't have to wait at all!!!!! So it's also dependent upon WHEN you move. (more people PCS during the summer than any other time, it's the best time to PCS for housing purposes). But pretty much all bases have a "hot sheet" of housing that's available immediately. My advice - rent out an apartment that will give you a month to month lease until housing is available. We just looked at civilian housing around us, and to get something like we have right now, we'd be paying anywhere from $3000-$5000 plus utilities. We pay about $1800 w/ utilities included! Housing can definitely be worth it!

[asailorswife]

Oh, I dont know if this is possible or not, but can my wife buy me my laptop and bring it to my PIR? I know I cant use it at GL but am I allowed to retain it for A School? We found a good deal on an Acer laptop for only 298.00 at Wal-Mart :)

Unless you are Grad-n-Go, no. She CAN, however, ship it to you as soon as you get to the other side!

[SR.AO]

And when do I find out if I'm Grad-n-Go? Yeah she'll have to look around for hotel prices in the area and see whats best. If the NL is cheaper than most we'll probably have to do that. We're beyond broke right now lol. This moving thing is gonna be one hell of an experience haha! I'm sure we'll be ok though with the BAH and what not to help us out. When does the BAH start for your first permanent duty station? Thanks for all the help! Anything else we need to do, or prepare for while I'm gone at RTC or before I leave?

[asailorswife]

You'll find out during boot.. I don't remember when, but I remember asking Tim about it up until like two weeks before his PIR. I kept hoping he would be as it's a divisional thing, so if he was grad and go, we'd get the whole weekend with him because his a-school was on the other side of GL!

Definitely look around, and if you guys are pretty broke, I'd look for something with a breakfast. It'll save probably about $20/day for you guys!!! Let me tell you, PIR weekend was pretty expensive for us.. I think about 2-3 grand in total. However, we were flying from So Cal, and had to buy 4 plane tickets at pretty much last minute because Tim's division thought they were going to be held back.

You'll start getting BAH for Colorado as soon as she gets onto your page 2. You probably won't recieve it, however, until about a month - 6 weeks after you get there. So make sure she keeps that in mind. You'll get BAH for your first perm. duty station as soon as she gets there, and you change your HOR. We ended up with a strange situation because I guess Tim didn't list a HOR, and we got BAH for San Diego as soon as he got here, not when I got here.

Other things to prepare? Start talking to your daughter about it now. She won't understand, but we find that it helps our girls if we talk about Tim leaving at least 2 weeks before. (this is just underways, for deployments, we talk to Kadie for months). Find ideas for countdowns for your daughter. (there are paper chains, calender, normal type countdowns, etc. We used chocolate kisses (called them "Daddy kisses"). Every day, Kadie got one "Daddy kiss" out of the jar. It was measure so that the amount of kisses in there equaled how many days he was gone. It worked until Kadie got into them one morning and ate a lot of them.. lol :)

Even though it's short, I think boot camp can be harder than deployments. It's the first separation, and there's pretty much no contact other than hand written letters.(of which, btw, I know a lot of people on here will tell your wife to use a different colored envelope, we had Kadie color Tim's envelopes, he said he could spot them from a mile away - they were the only ones colored on). So be aware that it will be hard on your entire family, and make sure that your family knows that. Have her read Honor, Courage, and Commitment while you at RTC - I know it helped me - and you should read it before you leave. Also make sure you save as much as you can right now. She won't get a regular paycheck for at least a month, and that totally threw us off - and we weren't even living on our own. So knowing that, make sure you have enough to cover the bills for at least a month. Maybe longer. (Sometimes the paperwork gets screwed up).

Do you have a joint account now? Or even a checking account? Most banks will allow you to add another person to your account. So one of the bank accounts Tim and I have was originally mine, and he was added to it later. Our Navy Fed account was his, and I was added later. I don't know that we've ever opened up a joint account together. lol

[butterbean]

I guess the CORRECT term would be heading off to RCT...Recruit Training Command!:roll:

It's RTC, Recruit Training Command...:wavetowel2: You're losing your touch mommy, hah.

Chris, each branch calls their boot camps different things, hah. Just messing with you.

[vabchsue]

One thing that we weren't prepared for was being told right after PIR that Michael was now a grad-n-go and was leaving that afternoon for A school. He was told the night before the ceremony that his orders had changed (he was supposed to be sitting at GL for approximately a week before leaving for Biloxi for school. Blew all of our plans to have the weekend to enjoy with him, so know that it can happen and make the best of it is all I can say. We at least got to sit at the airport with him once the Sailors were dropped off at the terminals....

[sweetmtn]

It's RTC, Recruit Training Command...:wavetowel2: You're losing your touch mommy, hah.

Chris, each branch calls their boot camps different things, hah. Just messing with you.
OK...so where do you think Clay got his dyslexia from...:yesnod:

[SR.AO]

Well, hopefully I wont be grad-n-go. I'd love to spend a few days with my wife and daughter before A School. I think It'll have to be the Navy Lodge where we stay, just due to the price. I'll look on Priceline soon to see rates in and around my PIR in October. I'm assuming major hotels will be more costly then since its in a fall/winter season. (isnt that the way it works? Or do prices go down around that time lol) Thank you guys for all the help on the "To Do" and the "To Take" list lol. I'll publish a final copy when the Wife and I get to sit down for a minute and write out a final list of things. If there's more to add then let me know now lol! Thanks again all!

[asailorswife]

I'll look on Priceline soon to see rates in and around my PIR in October.

We've always used the "name your own price" feature on there to get good deals. I don't know how that would work for that weekend though.. BUT call around to the different hotels,they all have some pretty good military discounts for PIR weekenders!

[vabchsue]

We stayed at the Comfort Inn which was right next to the mall. Our reservations had been to stay from Thursday-Monday, but due to Michael heading out to Biloxi after PIR that day, we ended up checking out on Saturday morning and fortunately the staff was understanding in what we were doing and didn't charge us for the 2 nights we weren't going to be there. They have an indoor pool there and breakfast in the lobby. We were there at the beginning of January (last year) and while we didn't use the pool, a lot of folks were in it and I'm sure they were all happy to have it inside and able to use with all of the snow that was on the ground.:cool: