One was a member here a while ago.
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Living on The Boat
- Thread starter picklesuit
- Start date
One was a member here a while ago.
I know a DH (OPSO at VP-1 a few years back) that did this at Whidbey. Worked out well for him.
Minnesota Tomcat
Turkeybeast
Do it. Living on the boat is cheaper then living in town. 
I was a tight wad when I served and went the cheap way out every time. It really depends on which option saves you the most money. I was and am still not the night life type. So it all depends on what you really want.
I was a tight wad when I served and went the cheap way out every time. It really depends on which option saves you the most money. I was and am still not the night life type. So it all depends on what you really want.
Experienced taster?
If you have the right gear on the boat, it's actually very comfortable. I lived aboard a boat for 3 years in Annapolis while growing up and it's colder up there. The problem is properly equipping the boat with something like a forced air heater and making sure you have bubblers around the boat for ice. Also, walking to and from the showers every morning in the winter gets old.
All that doesn't even get into leaving your boat while away on deployment. The boat knows when you leave, and it will wait for one of it's through-hauls to fail until right after your ship gets underway.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
So I was a little off, memory was fuzzy. Anyone collecting BAS gets charged the standard government meal rate while onboard a ship for each meal eaten. This works out to about $14/day or $430/mo if you ate every meal onboard the ship, which is a little higher than the enlisted BAS rate of about $360 (these were 2014 numbers).
Enlisted crewmembers don't collect BAS, thus shouldn't get charged for their meals onboard the ship. Someone mentioned a while back in another thread that enlisted members of the airwing get BAS, which would explain why they have to pay a mess bill U/W.
Any extra funds collected by the wardroom/mess decks above and beyond the government meal rate is supposed to go into a separate account. On our boat, extras like premium coffee or whatever was run through either MWR funds (whole crew) or the wardroom fund (officers only), neither of which was run by the suppo. Mixing money is a big no-no.
One thing the cooks liked to do on my boat was to charge an officer for a meal if he so much as grabbed a cup of coffee for a meeting. Most expensive cup of shitty Maxwell House coffee with complimentary grinds in your cup that you can buy.
The 'reduced rate' I was referring to was officer vs. enlisted BAS. The supply dept. has nothing to do with your pay; if you guys were getting the enlisted BAS rate, consider yourselves lucky.
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You're missing the point. By your own numbers:
2014 BAS is $246.24 for Os. So since an enlisted doesn't pay into anything, he only loses his COMRATS, and an officer has to bay more for his meals (BAS plus the difference), the enlisted is losing less money. Yes, I get that the officer has more money available to lose, but it doesn't change the point that the Os are subsidizing the overall mess bill for the ship by paying more for their meal than the enlisted...for what is the exact same food, by the way.
So I think we can all agree this is bullshit. How do we fix it?
I hate that I pay money to live on the boat. Like Gatordev said, we pay more money a month than we are given for BAS so it costs us money to deploy. And it doesn't matter if I only eat 2 meals a day, every day, I pay for 3 meals regardless. If only there was some way for us to swipe a card or something prior to each meal so they can track who is eating, maybe some sort of ID or CAC thing. Just like every other branch of the military does. Enlisted just have their BAS shut off when they deploy.
The worst part of this is that even when mom is sitting off the coast supporting combat operations, Os are paying for their meals. Everyone else sitting on dry land eats for free, has little shops that they can get free snacks from even gets Per Diem. It's the little things that can really suck the life out of moral.
I hate that I pay money to live on the boat. Like Gatordev said, we pay more money a month than we are given for BAS so it costs us money to deploy. And it doesn't matter if I only eat 2 meals a day, every day, I pay for 3 meals regardless. If only there was some way for us to swipe a card or something prior to each meal so they can track who is eating, maybe some sort of ID or CAC thing. Just like every other branch of the military does. Enlisted just have their BAS shut off when they deploy.
The worst part of this is that even when mom is sitting off the coast supporting combat operations, Os are paying for their meals. Everyone else sitting on dry land eats for free, has little shops that they can get free snacks from even gets Per Diem. It's the little things that can really suck the life out of moral.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
The only thing I missed is what you meant by 'lose.' I thought you meant that enlisted crewmembers were paying a mess bill with base pay like officers are when the ship is U/W. I'm aware of what officer BAS is, see below about that.
Be careful what you wish for. Most officers make out on the deal of collecting BAS every month, regardless of duty status, since BAS is intended to subsidize food eaten at government mess facilities. Even on sea duty, if the ship is inport you're usually eating lunch every weekday (~$140) plus the meals when on duty...the whole bill ends up coming to about $175-200/mo. depending on the duty rotation. That means you get to pocket about $75 of tax-free money to use however you like. Alternatively, if you decided to order out for lunch or bring your own sandwich from the supermarket, you can apply your BAS to that instead of automatically losing that money for not eating at a mess facility. Many officers on shore duty don't use government mess facilities at all, yet continue to collect BAS.pilot_man said:
If you wanted the Navy to be uptight about paying for the meals you actually sit to eat U/W, they could come back and get uptight about withdrawing BAS when you are not using government mess facilities. That means you don't get BAS at all, you will just swipe the card when eating on the boat or base galley 'for free,' which would be a net loss for most people. Personally, I'm okay with paying a little extra underway knowing that I'm getting the better deal in the long-run.
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Of course you could also just go VP or VQ (or VRC until they get plopters and are stuck on the boat, at least that is what I heard) then you get this thing called per diem that kind of makes up for having to pay for real meals served to you in real restaurants. Such is life....
As do the enlisted.
I think you have it the other way around. If an enlisted is living on base in bachelor housing, they don't get COMRATS because they're supposed to be eating in a mess facility. If they get permission to live out in town, they get COMRATS and aren't required to eat at a govt. messing facility. So applying that to Os, who are expected to live out in town (or in family housing which from a pay standpoint is basically the same), then they'd still earn BAS even if they don't eat at the messing facility.
Minnesota Tomcat
Turkeybeast
During the time I served I didn't have to pay money to live on base in the barracks. I don't recall paying to stay on ship either when she was in port. How long have they been charging to stay on ship?
Again finances were not my strong point and to don't recall if they took money out of my check for berthing. That was why I tended to be tight with my money during my service years.
Again finances were not my strong point and to don't recall if they took money out of my check for berthing. That was why I tended to be tight with my money during my service years.
Spekkio
He bowls overhand.
No. Enlisted servicemembers assigned to sea duty on a ship are not authorized BAS unless the ship is in overhaul.
http://www.public.navy.mil/bupers-npc/reference/milpersman/7000/Documents/7220-180.pdf
It doesn't matter where they live or what the marital status is. Enlisted crewmembers not receiving BAS get $0 back if they miss a meal on the boat.
We can bitch all day about how it isn't 'fair' to pay more money for the same meals (served in a separate dining facility with personal waiters), or how the amount owed isn't covered by BAS on deployment, but at the end of the day we make substantial amount of tax-free money from the arrangement. If you want to fix anything, fix that an E-5 making half your pay doesn't get BAS when married w/children and attached to a ship, and doesn't get to subsidize his food bill with whatever tax-free money he saves by not eating on the boat.
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