movin along...

depending how long it takes to box stuff up and whatever, this may be my last day on the internet for a lil while. Should anyone need me for anything, give my cell a call.

I confirmed with my CSM and Station Cdr; I am headin to Lufkin. I will be inprocessing in Houston before rollin to duty assignment. That means Colleen is headin your way, John. Not so sure about Belen yet. that gutless heap.

Again, yall be safe and I'll see yall here whenever I get internet access.

Have a safe trip... This will give me time to catch up and pass you on post count

have a safe move, we'll miss you around here, and you'll prob miss my branding. so by the time you come back ill be a man! haha

Stay safe Rich, and hope to hear from you soon!

Stay safe ,dont forget about us now.

Good luck with the move.

update: yep, I am currently in Houston for the night (thanks for the sofa-crash, John. I appreciate the free place to sleep). I am trying to buy a 2,000 sqft house on a 1/2 acre lot for 180,000 USD. The deal's lookin good so far. The wife and kids are doing great, albeit as ready as I am to finally be in our own place and not in with my father-in-law and step-mother-in-law. Dont get me wrong, I couldnt be more pleased with their tolerance and hospitality, but theres that feelin of inadequacy that Im having a hard time shaking.

Met my Station Commander and a couple of my co-workers already. Seems like a good bunch of folks to be working for. The area seems to be very friendly and accepting. We'll see how that perception of mine holds up. I sure hope it holds. I really do.

I thought the 'Bird was gutless before, boy she sure dont like high-humidity, sea-level hills, thats for sure. Texas's Hill Country has made the car pretty much an expensive paper weight. I have a BUNCH of work to do just to make her streetable.

But, point is: me and my family are all alive and well and trying to get through this transition as best as we can.

BTW: my internet access is still not available, so yall are better off tryin to get ahold of me is still my cell. John certainly has that number.

Thanks for the update. Here's hopin all goes well with the house.

Thanks, Bob. Lookin forward to being a regular around here again.

I'm glad things seem to be going well, even if you are backpacking around. I hope your deal goes through, then you'll have a nice place to call home (and somewhere to slap the bird around with a big wrench).

Im happy to hear that its all working out for you. Good luck with everything!

You know I'll be moving to Fort Worth in about 12-14 months from now. Once I'm settled in we'll be able to do a GP meet at my place and caravan to TMS for laps for charity. If they keep doing it.

how come there cant be any meets up in the northern states ... something closer to me

Most clubgp meets are northern. I was beginning to wonder where the heck Rick has been.
Welcome back!

Glad to see everything is going good for you! I got some things to catch up with ya about. I'll leave you a PM

Just checked the BAH for the area. 897 USD. House payments are expected at 1400 USD. That would mean Id hafta come outta my pocket ATLEAST 500 USD EVERY MONTH just for mortgage. Im gonna hafta talk to the bank and see about either backing out, or see other options for reducing payments by at least 200 USD. Oh damn.

Otherwise, all else is well. Hope all is well on your side of the screen.

HUH?

The DOD gives extra money for housing called BAH Basic Allowance for Housing. How much you get depends on where you live. The higher the cost of living the higher the allowance. For instance here in Atlanta the rate for an E6 is 1300 a month.

RCs area he only rates 897 a month and his house payment is looking to be 1400.

When people play the game right you can get your house payment real close to if not under the BAH and in essance the Govt. pays for your house lol.

So he gets that amount besides what he makes from the military, salary?

edit: Just read his now with your explaination, and I figured it out, out of pocket $500.
Well damn, that is what most Americans doing, out of pocket, full mortgage!

What size house are you getting for $1400/month?
I've got an 1800sq/ft 4 BR house and I'm only paying $1200/month, and that's in Austin.
For $1400/month in Lufkin, I would imagine that's a pretty good sized house.

Sounds better then it is.

Me for example E6 over 16 years base salary is $3,197 a month
Not much is it?

But when you add in
$294 for BAS (food money because I have dependants and am not privey to free food at the chow hall)
$1300 because I live out in town and not in base housing (if I lived on base I wouldn't get any of the 1300)(BAH varies by location and paygrade)
And because I have a dangerous job and have done it for the last 16 years I get
$400 a month for flight pay.

Those that are assigned to ships and deploy get sea pay based on their pay grade. Those assigned to carriers and work the flight deck get hazardous duty pay.

Divers get dive pay, sub guys get sub pay.
Jobs that are hard to fill also get an incentive pay. When I was a Loadmaster I recieved an extra $75 a month for that Flight engineers recieved $150.

So ah Herc, why don't you have more mods then with that loot!!!??

Cause I have a wife three kids and a niece living under my roof

...and if he didnt have the wife and three kids he wouldnt get paid as much money either.

Sounds like TMS next year is gonna be a big one.

That extra 1300 just happens to match my rent. I coulda found an apartment or smaller place or alot farther out and kept the rent under $1000 but I'm not livin in the hood, I need a garage and what I wouldn't spend in rent I'd spend in gas. Then you add $700 for food a month, car payment, bike payment, insurance on 4 vehicles, cable, phones, utilities it doesn't go very far.

The house I just backed out of was 2056 sqft, .53 ac, 3 bd/2ba, 2 car garage, 20x33 workshop with central heat/ac. 180k.

We're now better educated and are looking for a house that will be as close to 2000sqft as possible with 3 bd/2 ba, fenced backyard, and a neighborhood thats safe and clean. All that for a max of 130k.

BTW: Recruiters get about 450 USD/mo to deal with all the headaches and stress that is Recruiting Command.

E-5/10 yrs: roughly 2600/mo. BAS: 267. And Im due to get picked up for E-6. I'm number 7 out of the US Army's eligibles in my MOS. Just a matter of time. OH! and 100% of tuition is covered, I have 73k USD for school after I get out, and all the retirement bennies that Im eligible for should I decide to retire. hmmm-mmmm

Good luck on your house hunting.

10 years in? Sheash you'd have to have one heck of a job offer not to stick it out another 10. I'll be 38 when I'm eligable to retire. Can you imagine collecting a retirement check and still working full-time toboot? Granted it's not much but it is a house payment plus the medical...

by the time this current contract runs out, I'll have 14 TIS. It'd be insane for me not to get free medical for me and my wife for life. And the pension check. And access to all posts. Which means access to the Auto Crafts Center. Oh, yeah. Im not thrilled with the idea, but it is the only course of action that makes any sense at all. Eh, oh well. I'm gonna be 38 by retirement time as well. I joined 9 days after H/S graduation.

thats the way to do it , my dads cuz did it that way now he is mid 40's gets a check every month and works the clocks for NHRA drag strips in TX

I gotta see how the DEP plays out for me. I know they dropped it for pay purposes but if it counts as reserve time I maybe able to retire 11 months early.

The only thing DEP counts for is the MSO. Ya know, that required 8 years total obligation to the military? That 11 months counts towards your IRR time. Now that you passed 8 years TIS, DEP really dont help you much. The best people to talk to about that is the retention/transition assistance folks.

Ok, boys and girls. We're finally in a rental double-wide in Lufkin. It's ok. For now. Still yet to get internet at the house. Oh well. Still have plans to be rid of the Bird and buy a G8 GT. After we have a good idea what finances are looking like.

I'm pretty sure I hate the Army side of recruiting. The command puts so much un-needed stress on it's recruiters, it's unreal. Then putting up with the "I know I'm fully qualified for Service, but I think I'm too good to even sit down with you to hear my options..." Oh, and getting cussed out by parents. And getting hung up on. It's best explained like this: As soon as I identify myself as an Army Recruiter, it's suddenly ok to treat me as sub-human. Case in point? ok, here it is: I was in uniform doing a little bit grocery shopping before going home for dinner. A little old biddy saw me and asked if I'm home from the war. I said sorta. She cocked her head to the side and smiled and asked how so. I explained that I've been home for a few years now, then said I'm here in Lufkin as an Army Recruiter. Her smile faded into disgust and she looked down and away. She said "well, never mind. I thought I'd thank you for your service and welcome you home. But, never mind." Thanks. A bunch.

The wife and kids are still doing well. My girl still aint potty trained, but she is making improvements. My Lil Homie is still bein a 18 mo-old. Just like he should be. As I said in another post, we no longer have our dog. We gave that mutt up back in New Mexico. Long story.

Mike, John: Thanks SOOOO very much for helping keep me up all those nights driving home. You cant imagine how many times yall saved my life out there.

Tim: Thank you once again for all the input on suspension that one evening. That made up my mind for what to buy. Also: I apologize over and over again for that one phone call about a week or two ago. This job has caused me to lose track of time and time passage. I called your phone, realized what time it was and hung up. Just as your wife had answered. Then I called back to apologize to her and got voicemail. I started to leave an apology message, when John had called me back in the middle of my message. Short story long, I am VERY sorry about that mess, Tim and Mrs. T-Bat.

Hope to try and make up some of my lost post count. I sure miss hanging out around here. Sure hope all is well out there on that side of the phone line.

Nice to see you have a roof over your head. I can't believe the nerve of that gal.

I guess she doesn't realize that if enough people don't enlist that her son/grandson could end up going unwilling via draft.

Next time I'd ask em would you like me to ask people if they'd like to join or pack yer bags your goin to war?

Yah we were missing one of the Red car team members!!
That sounds terrible you have to go through this bs while at such places at the grocery store. You could of told the lady a lie, damn if you were being honest.
I get called out all the time for being 6'6", and I can't stand to bs with people. I feel for you since you are wearing the Uniform.

wow! i cant beieve the nerve of some people to come up to you wanting to thank you for your time spent over seas and then just because your a recruiter and you came back a little bit ago her thanks no longer means anything special...thats messed up!

How sick is that. I might hang up on you (to me you're like a telemarketer, I'm not interested), but what that woman did is way out of line. Anyone in the military deserves respect, at least on par with normal people. Then again, I have no issues with people going into the military to fight. If they want to do it, its their choice.

Due to politics, recruiting is a thankless job. Good luck with it and remember to equivocate.

Dude, that's crap! WTF is wrong with people? Why does recruiting make you scum? That makes no sense to me.

Know that we here at GP.net thank you for your service.

Good Luck to you and the house. To the situation with the little ole biddy. I was in the Army for four years and it is job just like anything else. I have the upmost respect to anyone who puts his life on hold for millions of people to protect their freedom. Keep your head up Rich I got nothin but love for you with I was still in it.