CLC3 Day 65: Transportation office, Ammo

We didn't do a big company run today, so we started off at 8:00 with a practical exercise. After that we moved on to a group assignment due on Monday.

There's a snowstorm predicted for this afternoon, so we worked through the lunch hour and finished at 12:45.

I actually missed the P.E. because I had an appointment with the travel office. There, I arranged for my household goods pick up dates and learned about how travel will work for my family.

It's a little tricky how things will work because I don't yet have command sponsorship. As it stands right now, I have to go in Monday morning to get the DA 5888 filled out, and then I can request it. It then goes to Korea for approval, and after it comes back (in two weeks?) I can have my orders amended to reflect approval for concurrent travel.

So as it is, I have several things to work out:

1. Shipping our stuff. I get two shipments -- a small one early (unaccompanied baggage) and a bigger one later (household goods). As I'm listed right now, I'm unaccompanied, so I get 600 pounds of unaccompanied and 3625 lbs for HHG (25% of my normal 14,500). Once I get command sponsorship, that will go up to 1300 unaccompanied and 7250 HHG.



2. Army equipment is not considered part of either, so it doesn't count toward my weight allowance, but I'll have to make sure that it's labeled appropriately.



3. Washer & dryer. Depending on the likelihood of government housing (and type of outlet), we'll either store or bring them. They're about the only things I'd be interested in storing for three years.



4. Where I'm going. Most people go unaccompanied for one year, so the S-1 shop for my brigade doesn't worry about giving people advance notice on where they'll end up -- they wait until you arrive. However, that system doesn't work so well for us. I'd like to have more certainty in this area.



5. Travel. I can arrange for my own flight now, but I'll wait until command sponsorship comes in before I make plans.



6. Dealing with the cars. With command sponsorship, I can ship one at government expense. However, what should I do with the second one? If I sell it, I'll have to rent a car until I leave. If I put it in storage, it'll stay there for three years. Since I don't know where I'm going, and therefore how full on-post housing is, I think I'll deal with them like with my household goods -- I'll ship one early and the other one late.

I can understand now why most people don't mess around with bringing their families to Korea -- it's really complicated.