To the married dudes, this goes against popular routes, but I'd say live near NAS Pensacola while in A-Pool/API and then move up to Milton for Primary if you can swing it. 90% of the bitching from married dudes I hear revolves around the drive they make daily from up North, either Milton or even by UWF.
As a married dude with school age kids I say that is a
horrible idea. In A-pool you'll muster at 0700 and be done. If you get a stash job you might only have to go in once or twice a week (depending on what stash job you do). I don't recall a single day in API starting earlier than 0530 or so. Most of the days started at 0700. It took about 40 minutes to get to work for me, it's not that bad. Trying to move the family, switch schools in the middle of the year, and find another house? Screw that! A monster pain in the butt!
The general rule is to live near Milton and suck up the drive during A-pool/API. That way when you start primary at Whiting, you are in close proximity and can get to the CPT's, briefs, flights, and squadron with time to spare.
And by the way, fuck moving twice. The Navy won't pay for that second move and you probably will have trouble breaking your lease anyway. Whiting doesn't exactly qualify as a PCS.
This! Have fun trying to move everything up to Milton or driving from P-Cola in the mean time when you have 0530 sims and 0445 brief times for flights.
Like I said, if you can. You don't have to sign year leases. I signed a 7 month and thats about the time needed for APool/API/CPool. I was planning on going to Whiting, but am now Corpus bound. Just a thought. And a moving trailer rental for a weekend isn't that expensive.
It's possible, but way more headache than you need. There's a lot more to moving a family than forking up some cash for a trailer. If you are ever in that situation in the future, you might understand.
Not really true. They WILL pay for 600lbs of HHG which is more than nothing and you should be able to break your lease or just get month to month which may then qualify you for per diem.
Yea, how'd that work out for you? If I remember correctly PSD said that if you moved the family down here via a PCS move, you aren't technically TAD anymore. Thus, no per diem and no BAH from your previous duty station until you went on to Whiting. I recall having my BAH knocked down and paying Uncle back because someone made a stink about the per diem thing.
To the OP: I recommend moving the family down. It is worth having them here while you go through flight school. You'll have plenty of time away from them when you get back to the fleet (as I'm sure you're aware).
