Moving to P'Cola

[mjmiller05]

I'm a SNA reporting for API on 5 Aug.

Can someone verify some gouge for me...?

If I show up at the P'Cola BOQ and it's full (which I understand it always is), does the Navy give me something like 10 days Per Diem and lodging in order to find an apartment? Or, are they currently putting us up somewhere else on base like the BEQ?

Along that line, if anyone has a house or an apartment in P'Cola or Milton and needs another roommate starting in August, let me know.

 

[Squid]

1) on your travel claim, you can claim 10 days TLE, temporary lodging expenses. This is for like when you can't move in right away, etc. Save your receipts, and make sure it shows a ZERO balance. (it's just hotel reimbursement, no per diem)

2) have a friend with a 3/2 house (good for roomate) with 2 car garage out of the back gate @ NASP. If interested, shoot me an email and I'll passs you his info.

 

[FlyinDevil]

I'm also instructed to report on 5 AUG...looking for a place to stay down there during API...either a roommate or a single apt. I prefer to live in a house though.

 

[Chubby]

Gov't housing for API studs is the combined Q on Corry Station. You won't be able to check into the Q onboard NASP as an API stud but you can at Corry Station. Now take that with a grain of salt, because its pretty hit or miss whether or not they will have space available at the Corry Q. I.E.- You pretty much have to check in when someone checks out. Hope that helps.

 

[arbor]

Obv. I'm new at this, but does calling the Housing office / BOQ prior to going down do anything for me?

 

[zippy]

Probably not. They will most likely tell you to Call the BEQ at Corry... at least thats what they were doing a while back. The BEQ might tell you if they have rooms available. If you don't want to live in the Q, Id suggest rental hunting, now if you going to arrive soon. Those arriving in august could probably start looking/calling in mid june and july.

 

[FlyinDevil]

From what I've heard from the people already down there, don't choose to live on the BOQs. If all you want to do is study, be isolated, and have little to no comraderie with fellow SNAs, then choose to live in a BOQ. That's what I just heard.

 

[trvsmrtn]

The Q rooms are nice. They're suites with a living room and a kitchenette. You also live next to the galley where you pay about $8 a day for meals, and you can request PMR which is $22 a day to pay for food. Don't worry about being isolated because it's not like everyone in your class lives in one house and you'll live alone in the Q. You'll have a study group and whoever has the most room or no kids will host the group and you'll go there to study regardless of where you live. You can get cable and high speed internet on the little 19" tv for about $60 a month from Mediacom. Because you're an officer, you won't be hassled by the staff about room inspections or cleanliness or any of that other crap. You'll also make plenty of friends in the Q as you're all stumbling back to your rooms after a long night of drinking.

 

[snizo]

not sure i had ever heard someone put in a plug in support of living in a Q...
i stayed in the Q ... for about a week while i found something else to live in (well - different base, but same quality of Q). I never felt 'at home' since I was living in a hotel.

Do yourself a favor - get an apt or a house. You're an officer and aren't hurting for money. If you want to live by yourself - live in an apartment. You can afford it, you get more space, you use your own stuff, and you dont get busted for going 3 miles over the speed limit on your way out for the night...

You can go ahead and make your 'house hunting' BOQ reservation early, btw, if you want to make sure you get a place to live while you find something else.

 

[ocjams]

I'm an SNA and I'm reporting 1 July. Not to mention the fact that I'm angry that the Navy won't move my stuff from my current duty station (ROTC unit) I've pretty much accepted the terrible fact that SNA's are highly encouraged to live in the Q at Corry. I dont know what the rooms are like, but I've been told by PSD that if rooms aren't available at Corry, we can get a room at a local hotel, not to exceed the amount of our lodging per diem. This basically means a cheap motel for about $60/day. To me, that's not good news, so staying in the Q, commuting for 3 minutes, and having a bar downstairs seems like the best option. Also, when I called Corry, they said that you cannot reserve rooms, you will be assigned a room if available upon checking in to API at the Quarterdeck. I've got my fingers crossed. By the way...if anyone's reporting July 1, send me a PM....I wanna see who else is gonna be checking in at the same time. Just curious. Oh yeah...one last thing...are we still shooting for that 42.5.

 

[zippy]

I totally agree with Snizo on the living in the Q v. out in town thing... I know several people who moved out of the Q as soon as they could, and actually made/saved some money by living with someone else in an apt/house.

ocjams, you can get a non availablility stamp from the Q and get BAH and then find a place out in town. Not sure what the deal is about Perdiem while here, ive heard conflicting stories and I don't actually know anyone whose gotten it. Oh btw, when I got down here they told us we couldn't fill out a travel claim until we got to our first real duty station.

Everyone at the different PSDs seem to have different stories, and all seem equally unhelpful...

If your anything but an '04 SNA then the 42.5 NSS cutoff does not apply to you.

 

[arbor]

Only other thing in my mind is, say I get sent somewhere else like Corpus for Primary, is it really worth getting an apt. just for those 6 weeks (and obviously the time spent waiting in the pool before and after API)?

 

[lthackston]

Well, you might be hard pressed to find any place that will let you sign a three month lease without charging extra money. Although, if you make sure they honor the military clause, then you can just get a year lease and break it as soon as you get your orders. So, as long as you don't mind the paperwork involved with renting an apartment then you should stay in an apartment. You can either have all your stuff crammed into a Q room or pay for storage if you have furniture, or you can get an apartment and have more room.

 

[trvsmrtn]

I'm not saying don't get an apartment or rent a room, I'm just saying that if you decide to live in the Q, it's not as bad as many claim and there is still money to be made living there. If you're married and going geo-bach, or you plan to go to Corpus or (God forbid) Vance or Moody, then living in the Q is an okay option as opposed to messing with leases and looking for roommates.

 

[zippy]

If you are comming down in August, chances are you're going to be here for a few months, most likely more- especially if you have to do IFS down here. Im pretty sure that it is Florida state law that a military clause must be honored (I think you have to PCS beyond 35 miles to qualify to break the lease).