Happy Ending

On July 10th my Marine moved to a place where the Corps felt he needed to be with out his family. :( He is not in the sandy spot.
On July 15th his check directly deposited into our account. It was double his normal pay. I did expect the check to be more than usual because he would get separation pay. However, I knew this was not right. I called him and he checked into it.

For some reason, when he moved it affected our housing pay. We live on base in military housing so we get a certain amount of housing pay on paper. On said paper it shows that the housing pay is taken right back, never to be seen by us. The benefit is never having to write a check for 'rent'. He was told that I had to handle it on this end through the housing office. No problem. Yea right!!! What I didn't know!

I talked to many people in person and on the phone. Got many conflicting answers. Wrote an e-mail explaining my frustrations, situation and purposed solution so that this didn't happen to another family. Never received a response to my e-mail.

Went to housing to write a check for housing. I was not happy about it, in fact I was livid. But Michael had a good point. They could turn me into a credit agency and ruin our hard earned credit. So I wrote the check.

Went to write another check and was told by the secretary that she couldn't take any more money from me. Interesting. I knew from this, though no one had bothered to communicate with me, that something was being done.

Oct 15th I checked to see that Micheal's pay had been deposited, no pay. Two phone calls confirmed my suspicions. The military was once again deducting our housing pay directly from our check. Yea! That's what I wanted. Course, they are back tracking all the way to July, which took the whole check and will take all of the next. The good news is this Marine Corps wife has been around the block a few times and I set all that money aside.

Today I went to the housing office to have a talk. While I was happy about the change there were a few things that still needed to be straightened out. I was well received and two people spent a good bit of time with me going over the situation. He was able to pull information that I don't have access to and see what was going on. She was able to reassure me that I would be receiving a refund check and the check I wrote, that they held, would be returned to me. They were very nice and prepared for my visit. It was a very pleasant change and experience from the way it all started.

As I started to leave I asked if there was any thing I could do to help keep this from happening again. Something that would be a positive help. The man immediately told me to make sure I tell all the young Marine wives that when they get extra pay in their checks, the Marine Corps is not giving them a gift.

That was actually good advise. If I had been new to the Corps I can see how I would have thought that pay was ours. When Michael left he told me that we would be getting extra pay because we were separated. I could see some young, newly married wife believing that that was the extra pay he mentioned. Let me tell you, it may take a while for the Corps to catch the mistake but when they do they take it all back at once.

I know of only one young lady that reads my blog, that is married to a Marine. She is a very intelligent, creative young lady, and I'm sure she would recognize right away if there was something amiss in her pay. I thought of you immediately. When your Marine goes to that sandy spot, be prepared for your pay to be all jacked up. You may have no problems, but expect it. Keep your power of attorney on your person at all times and don't let any one brush you off.

Whew! That was way more advise than I intended.

In all seriousness. If you know any one in the military that may be deploying, warn the wife that any extra money is most likely a mistake. Also, have some extra put aside, it isn't unusual for the pay to be shorted at first.

Thanks for your eyes and time. :)