will my family be taken care of?
 

i am planning on enlisting 18x. my only issue is my family being taken care of. i hate to make it about money but will i make enough that my wife and son will live comfortably? at the moment my wife's job has the medical benefits, and when i leave for training she will have to watch our son full time, losing her benefits. at what point would my medical kick in? and when does pay start?

im sure it was rough at first but for those with family's how is everything working out for you guys?

thanks

Well, no one but you and your family is going to be able to say how they can handle it.

You will be making enough to survive though. Your benefits will start immediately, and you will get your family enrolled in DEERS and all of that when you go to basic. You will get BAH right away based on the current location of your home.

I have a family(wife and child) and we get along just fine on an E-4 pay with BAH, my wife works also which helps supplement a good amount.

After you get through selection you will be able to take permissive TDY and move your family out to the Bragg area if you like, or they can stay where they are at if your wife has a career or something going on. Either way you will get BAH and if you are a geographic bachelor you will get a barracks room too.

Good luck not getting flamed.

Do they flame you for getting a barracks room, now? :D

thanks for the info, helped alot.

Flamed? Flamed? We don't do no stinking flaming here!

Spot corrections? Yes!

Flaming? No! (Nlow, if someone were to post some fashion pictures, or something reallly out there, like that, there might be some minor flaming! :D)

To the OP... if you have family and friends where you wife and child will be while you are in training, now might be a good time to get a support web started. It will come in handy throughout your military career. Good luck.

all of our family is out here ( southern california) along with a house we own in full, no payment other than utilities. my wife would like to stay in CA with family and our home but i know there arnt any SF bases in CA. geo bachelor was in mind but just see mixed answers on whether the army still supports it. plus that would leave no time at all to be with my family. trying to figure out a way to avoid leaving family and home but its not looking likely.

Speaking of "Spot Corrections"-

This is a "Professional" site. NOT Twitter, NOT Facebook, and not a "texting arena".

Failures in attention to detail and showing a good first impression are immediate laser designators for trouble. Often they are "telling" as to what your future holds with regard to being successful in Special Operations.

So-
Utilize the "Shift" key on your keyboard. Utilization of punctuation, i.e. COMMAs, is also appropriate here.


To your questions...
Your pay will begin when you sign in to Basic Combat Training. Since you are married, you will get "extra". Your family's health care benefits will begin about 30 days after their enrollment into DEERS for everything other than Emergency Care.

Google: "Basic Pay Tables, Armed Forces, 2012" and you will see what money you will be making; dependent on what rank you enter the service. You can then begin your planning / budgeting in order to give yourself the increased chance of not having to worry about your spouse and the household money during your time in initial training.

Good luck-

I apologies. I am watching my 1 year old son today, so anything i do has to be quick. Typing isn't a strong point for me to begin with. As far as professionalism, i have neither a Facebook or twitter, and found that comment a little condescending. I didn't mean you, or any other member, any disrespect by my lack of correct punctuation. However, I thank you for pointing it out. I'll take a little more time when typing.

Thank you for the information, it is greatly appreciated. I have looked at the pay tables, but thought it beneficial to ask the soldiers directly, as I trust the input of the soldiers in this MOS more than web pages or my own internet search capabilities. When my son goes to bed, I'll take a little more time to search around. Thanks again.

I don't care if you found it condescending or not. You typing in all lower case is annoying as hell. Using your son as an EXCUSE for your shortcomings is even MORE annoying and completely irrelevant to YOUR actions. :mad:

Simply take the instructional advice you were provided, comply with it (or not - your choice) and move on to your next task...which should be reading the information, provided for your benefit, on this site.

Wow, its a good thing you made that bold and put a cute little angry face or I'd never know you were bitter about me pointing out what bothered me about your post after you pointed out what bothered you about mine. I took your criticism and changed what i was doing. There was nothing constructive about the comment I pointed out. It was completely unnecessary to the point you were trying to make. And i don't USE my son for SHIT! (insert cute angry face here) I was explaining it was my haste that caused me to ignore my errors. Something I thanked you for, then thanked you for the instructional advice.

Now that you have successfully asserted your dominance i would like to get back on topic and receive more instructional advice. ( Or not, your choice..)

You should be assisted shortly...:munchin

ETA:
-My "Dominance" (on this particular resource) was already well established by the trials which allow me the privilege to be a part of this particular website.

-You have indeed NOT corrected your previous mistakes - or if you feel you have we revert back to the attention to detail comment which I mentioned previously

-You did, in fact, use your son as an excuse for your actions in that the reason you gave for your type style was because you "were watching your son and whatever you did you had to do quickly"; although I see now that you have conveniently edited that part out.

You will fail should you ever attempt Special Forces training.

.... Appreciate it

You were given advice
 

You were given advice is just about every post in this thread.

Nobody is going to hold your hand through the long process you will be attempting. You will pass or fail on your own actions - or lack of actions.

Other than the benefits all soldiers of your rank are given you'll get little else.

Your family's support? If not near your home station they'll get little in the way of support and will have to fend for themselves with help from family. They'll have to make sure their medical provider will take Tri Care.

If near your home station they will get out of the Family Support Organization what they put in. They don't get known and nobody will know them.

My opinion? I don't think your family group will make it to graduation.

I have been very thankful for the information given including yours. I will look into Tri Care. I understand its not going to be easy and don't expect anyone to hold my hand. I am only trying to be at the starting line with as much information as possible. Not sure what you mean about my family group not making it to graduation, but I have a very supportive wife that is willing to relocate if necessary. We were only exploring the the options, if any, of staying near home.

Thank you for the information.

Young man

I would advise you to take about 10 steps back and take a deep breath. You have come here asking questions and QP's have given some answers and made observations and you then come back like some immature kid on twitter. Stop and remember where you are right now this is our house and you are a guest. When and if you graduate you than then have a little leeway. You have not even got a contract yet and the way you are interacting with proven Soldier's form SGM's to LTC's that took their time to respond I would say you are off to a really bad track in the possible future endeavors in the Army.

This is not the connected world that many kids live in and if you wish to succeed in the military or possibly in Special Forces you will need to change and adapt to the military way. Life is hard and if these comments hurt you are in for a world of hurt. If you can not adapt and take criticism you will fail.

Have you gotten those tattoo's off yet?

Point well taken. My feelings weren't hurt, I unnecessarily pointed out a comment I found presumptuous. I rather dislike sites like facebook and twitter, and defended myself when I should have kept my mouth shut. The comment about me using my son angered me but I should have just let it go.

I'm starting the tattoo removal, but it is expensive and takes time. They aren't anything offensive but they are on my throat, chin and hands. I didn't think ahead, I was 18.

I did not edit anything out what I said is still there.

I did not mean my son makes me type like shit. I meant the fact that I rush what I'm doing makes me type like shit. But an excuse none the less, I was typing like shit.

I will not fail, and i will bust my ass to prove that comment wrong.

My humble advice
 

Eagle5US is always right.

In my heart of hearts, I believe SF is a calling.

I've always believed that if I worked hard and stayed on the "SF" path, it would all work out, and it did. SF was something I did and didn't worry about the details.

Your post sounds like an "if and only if" statement. Ex. I will go SF if and only if everything falls into place. It doesn't work that way. There are no guarantees that any of it will work out. If you go into SF with conditions for success, you will fail. That is just the way it is. No way around it.

Just my $0.02,
sf

Most likely:
 

If you make it into the Army and through, basic, AIT, Airborne, SFAS, SFQC and on to an ODA; "Your wife will have probably moved on, and you may be paying alimony, however, you will be paying child support...."

How's that for an honest answer?:munchin

Stay safe.

This is what I want. Nothing else I've done in the past has changed the fact that I see or hear about a soldier wounded or killed and I'm ashamed of myself for doing nothing about it. My days are one constant reminder after another I strayed from my path and made some bad decisions. And now I'm going to do something about it. I'm only trying to think of my family as well. I'll do what it takes, but that doesn't mean I can't try to keep my family grounded in the process. I realize I've already dug myself a pretty deep hole here and have only myself to thank, but I will not fail. Thank you everyone for the advice, and sorry to anyone I offended.

Sucks.. But appreciated

Sly see the "sticky" at the top of this forum, the one that you failed to read? This is what it says:


This is a forum where civilians can "ask" the Special Forces soldiers past and present "Special Forces" related questions.

Those questions are then answered by Special Forces soldiers, period.

Questions asked by the general public should NOT be answered by the "general" public.

If you do not have the title of "Quiet Professional" you may ask a question, but leave the "answers" to the QP's.

FSFO:

You need to read more and post less. To that end, you can start with "A Message to Garcia."

DO NOT post again for the next 30 days. Use that time to develop some Situational Awareness.

This thread is closed.....

Crip

The first thing you need to learn is how to use the Search button before starting new threads.

Second, you should acquire the skill of realizing that you are in a hole, and are holding a shovel.

Next, I recommend that you read "A Message to Garcia" before posting further.

Finally, this is our board and our rules. Success here is not a guarantee of success in SF, but demonstrated lack of rapport building skills is what we call an indicator and it will likely occur again in your career. If you persist in arguing with the QPs and staff, your time here will be short.

Frankly, the lack of judgment thing that you experienced with the tattoos may not have fully reconciled itself yet. I concur with the other QPs about the odds of you making it to graduation.

Since you are not an SF anything yet, what would you like for a new user ID?

TR