Leave time..

[salros13]

CO called today to inform DH that he is being referred to a MEB after DH filled out the MAR2. Because we are OCONUS(Oahu), I am trying to plan our escape route should be he be medically retired. SO, here is my questions,

1)How do they look at leave time during this situation. Does the army allow him to clear housing and then take leave so we can go back to mainland and look for housing? During this leave time, is BAH from hawaii still paid? Or do they pay place of residency where the furniture is heading?

2)I know the army will fly us back to our home of residency. Ours is Maryland. But I dont want to be flown back to Matyland. I want to send one vehicle(the one the army pays for to MD and The one I pay for to San Diego.) I then want to fly to California and pick up vehicle to drive to MD. Do they give me the price of the ticket to use if I do not want to go to the place they would normally buy the ticket for? Because I would quite framkly rather take a C17 space A flight to Travis(allow me to move around etc). But do we loose that money if we just take the Space A flight?

TIA for any help!
Michelle

 

[donaldjshaw93]

Michelle, I just seperated from Schofield Barracks as a medical retiree in August. During the leave time, you have to be careful where you are during that time. I started leave on August 6th, but I flew Maui on my own dollar for a quick vacation. I then used the Army to pay for my ticket on August 15th to NY. Since I left the island on the 15th and didn't retire until September 17th, I received BAH for NY instead of Hawaii. I also lost out on COLA the second I left the island. You guys will be authorized 30 days of TDY on top of his leave time but it is the COMMANDERS DISCRETION to allow it.

I had 52 days of leave and tried to add the 30 days and he shook his head no because it would have had to gone to 3rd Brigade/25th ID and he did not want to go through that. So I took 42 days and sold 10. You can have a ticket purchased for wherever you want in CONUS. If he is being retired they will send it wherever HE wants to go.

 

[T-man]

Michelle,
Another option that you can try is talking to the travel agent that does your booking to Maryland, if they can book a connecting flight to San Diego instead of LAX. Since, you are going to the East Coast, most flights has to be connected in California.

Funding(Finance & Official Travel) and booking (Travel Agent, SATO) are two separate things. Yes, the Uncle Sam funds the trip, but the travel agencies does the booking. The $$ amount paid by the government is a flat rate per person, and it has a ceiling; which the travel agencies cannot go over. It is the travel agency's job to find any flight available for you guys at the time of leave, as long as the cost is not above this set ceiling. A lazy travel agent will just put you on any flight that they see available while booking, but there are some good ones that will take their time and check out other connections. Since you have a bit of time, you can start visiting these places and get to talk to them.

If all works in your favor, upon arrival at San Diego, it's your call weather the whole family stay and drive or just have the rest of the family continue to Maryland and you just get off to take care of business. If you end up staying at San Diego, don't worry about the unused portion of the ticket, Uncle Sam will be quick to take the funding back. Hopefully this helps.

Good luck.

T-man