Military screwed up orders; now what?

My husband and I have been married over two years prior to military and he has been given a 3 year station, but I’m not on his orders! Our PCS was also messed up. We only got paid for the weight of the stuff in the truck and nothing else. We also didn’t get travel pay, none of the gas, or the truck cost. And on top of all that he had only 10 days to find a house, get all of our stuff in a rental truck, move us both to his new station, and report to in processing. Is there anything I can do to get all of this or even just a few things fixed?

Oh man! I am so sorry to hear all of that! The short and easy answer is he needs to get an amendment to his orders; otherwise he will only be paid as a single soldier PCSing. However, it appears that his PCS claim has already been finalized, in which case you will not like my answer.

There is something that concerns me though. If you were enrolled in DEERS, which should have been done upon him entering the military, you should have been on his orders unless it was an unaccompanied tour (i.e. overseas). I would suggest you immediately verify that you are indeed enrolled in DEERS; glitches in the system that cause dependents to be dis-enrolled are not unheard of.

As for your other questions regarding travel pay, I can only assume you did a DITY a.k.a PPM move. In that case, you should have been paid mileage, per-diem, rental truck reimbursement, gas reimbursement for the rental truck, weight, and DLA.

In order to be reimbursed, your spouse would need to turn in the receipts for those items upon submitting the PPM claim. If he did not turn in receipts, you will not be reimbursed. To receive DLA, he must have requested it prior to PCS. It is not something that is automatically given or something you can request after the PCS has taken place.

Now, if the PCS is over and you have already been paid for it, there is nothing that can be done except learn from it and move on. I am sure that isn’t what you want to hear, but you will do a lot of it being a new military spouse.

As for the time off for a PCS, ten days of permissive TDY is standard plus travel time as determined by the military (depends on mileage from old station to new station).

Honestly, this is more than enough time to get moved and unloaded. If he, or you, wishes for him to have additional time off, he will need to request leave.

I wish you the best of luck and remember before the next PCS to check his orders and make sure dependents are authorized so you do not run into this situation again. Also, don’t forget to browse the PCS section of my website and download free pcs binder templates; it will make your PCS a lot smoother!