Living with husband during A-School?

Question

my husband graduates bootcamp in 2 weeks and is getting sent to pensacola, FL for his "A-School". i was just wondering, during A-school, do they allow them to live off base? do they have to wait a certain amount of days/weeks before they are allowed off base? if he has school mon-fri, during the first few weeks if he cannot come off base those days, can he come off base for the weekends? any advice given will help me right now!! im open to anything!! thanks guys & ladies!!

also.. any advice/suggestions for being a military wife are helpful! thanks!

Answer 1

I did it in A-school at Little Creek back "in the old days" -- after a certain phase of training I was allowed to bring my wife and to live off base. It was a BIG mistake from my perspective but nobody could convince me at the time.

As an E3, our place was pretty cheap, and I mean really cheap and by my standards now "nasty". I was away at school almost all of the time and when I was home I was studying or exhausted. It was a major stress on both our relationship and my training.

I suggest against it even if they allow it. Even if his training there is 6-months (mine was); it'd be best to just learn now how to be a military wife separated from the husband for a little while. It won't be the last time. ☺

Visit when you can - but let him concentrate on his schooling.

Answer 2

They may give him some leave in between the schools, or possibly on a weekend during, but if I were you I would hold off and let him focus on his school and not distract him unless/until he invites you to come see him.

The schools can be pretty intense, and the instructors or the other guys may give him a hard time about it, even if you and he think he can handle it.

Send him care packages and notes, and wait to make plans to go see him until you hear from him that it is really ok.

My husband is career military (though I didn't know him way back when in boot camp). Sometimes when he goes away to schools he invites me to come with him, and sometimes he needs the time to himself to study and focus--it depends on the school and how hard it is.
My son also went through boot camp and A school with Army National Guard a couple of years ago. From what he told me, the A school was as bad or worse than the boot camp (it could have been that particular instructor or that branch?) and he wouldn't have been allowed off base much if at all, even had he been married.

Once you find out what his orders are and where he will be stationed after A school, you can make plans for a big reunion and for housing with him there. Once you get to that base, go see the Family Readiness or Family Support Group and get resources from them. This website may also be helpful for you.

Hang in there--and God bless you and your husband for your sacrifices and service to our country!

Answer 3

Unless his A school is 26 weeks or longer, you will not be allowed to move there with him.

Generally, no your husband will not be allowed off base at all, during the first Three weeks of A school.

Starting the 2nd 3 weeks, he will be allowed off base liberty on weekends, but will have a curfew of 10 pm that he has to be back on base.

Starting the 3rd 3 weeks, your husband will be allowed over night liberty off base.

Generally, no your husband can not live off base during A School, but for longer A schools, after the 12th week, your husband could apply to live off base if married and his spouse was living in the area.

But that is not guarenteed, it will have to be approved by his commander and based on his military and academic record.

Answer 4

there are two bases as I remember at pensacola, the air field and corey station. I was at corey station,

he can live off post, but getting housing is iffy at best. depends on the housing deal, and with gate security and such, he best never be late.

when I was in school, it was from 8 to 4:30 every day, weekends were ours unless we were on duty or a super. Being a super is worse than having duty.

I can tell you there is no problem with you being there, and there is no problem with you hanging out with him on base waiting to find out if he had duty if he is a super.

make the best of it,

most bases have family support organizations (it is required by regulation though some bases are outside the family support network hense not all do) and if you tag up with them they can offer you all kinds of side trips and things to help keep your marriage strong.

men are very prone to be solitude in their work. if he is an OS, CT, or some of the other specialty schools, you need to really not nag him about what he is learning. He can't tell you and will go to prison if he does, it aint worth it.

being a good wife is hard, be faithful, and that is 99% of the fight. I have (had the best girlfriend in the world) for 12 years, she was never unfaithful but she got tired of me being gone for he last 7 years mostly and left me. funny, i'm doing no more deployments now, but she is gone

Answer 5

When my husband went through the nuclear A-school 15 or so years ago it was one of the few that was long enough to be accompanied. I've got to say I'm glad I went with him as his total time at the 2 schools he had to complete was just over a year. But there is a lot of studying that you can't get in the way of. At the end of DH's school things got so intense that he moved into the BEQ so that he could get in all the study he needed to. If you do get to move with him be prepared to be flexible and encourage him to do the work well. That can make the difference between him making it or not.

Most of the wives who were there were really supportive. But a couple weren't and you could really tell that in their sailor's attitude. Don't go if you're going to have a hard time letting him put in long hours.

And consider it a lot before you go if the orders are unaccompanied. That can make it a lot harder on him. We had a couple of guys who found girlfriends during school and moved off base with them even though they weren't authorized to. As long as they kept up their rooms as if they were still there and made it in on time every time they needed to check in nobody cared. But run out of gas once or sleep through an alarm and they were in Trouble.

Answer 6

CTx or one of the Aviation A schools? different Commands, different rules. You can expect he will NOT be given permission to reside off base if the orders are unaccompanied. and not before the right phase, which is typically 30 days or more. Weekends he will not have overnight Liberty until like Phase 4 or 5, before that, he must be back in the barracks by curfew.

If he is CTx, NONE of his school books and materials can leave the building, so he will be putting in many hours after class studying.

Answer 7

it depends on how long his school is. mine's was there for 6 months but only went to school for 4 months but he did say that some sailors were able to brown bag it. that means their spouses lived off base. i'll ask him and get back to you

p.s. i have talked to him about it. and mind you, it has been a little while ago so you should give him a chance to find out what's going on with the current command climate, but what i can tell you, however, there are huge strings attached. first off, that move is on you, the military does not pay for it. second, you know how you get bah for where you are in the country? well you get the bah rate for pensacola b/c he has to get permission for you guys to move off base. plus off base housing is expensive and there are alot of rules. not to mention he has to study and has homework everyday. it may not be worth it to go because you may be unwillingly be a distraction even when you don't mean to be. better just stay put until you move your first duty station.

Answer 8

My best advice is to wait until he gets his first duty station to catch with him. Unless the Navy has gotten soft since I was in he is going to be pretty busy during A-School with the home work. They push a collage education into you in about 20 weeks. Many years ago when I was in the Navy, 1960, we had Cinderella liberty every night. A whole weekend liberty once a month. I know the Navy has changed now but I am sure he will have a lot of work to do to make it through
A-School.
As I said I know the Navy has changed, when I did boot camp we had to wash our own clothes every night, now they have a laundry to do it for them. They are spending more time on training, so I am guessing A-School will be more intense, depending on the rate. The Navy training is is not easy. I did 19 weeks of electronics training and was talking to guys that had two years of electrical engineering collage and they did not know anything.
The best thing to do is have your Hubie get the answers about his A-School in FL. Personally I think you should stay out of Florida. My ship was home ported in Mayport. It is hot and humid in the summer with big bugs, and northern Florida can get cold in the winter. I don't know where you are from but pray for a home port like San Diego or Pearl Harbor. I don't know his rate but most people in the Navy end up on a ship.

Answer 9

Unless his A school is incredibly long, like at DLI-FLC, then no, he won't be authorized to live out of the barracks. He will be able to leave the base after a certain amount of time.. it used to be 2 weeks. During school he'll probably having regular working hours and be able to leave on weekends and such, unless he has duty.