Financial Perks of a Deployment (Might as Well Look on the Bright Side)

The Hubs’ deployment is imminent, though he won’t let me discuss details here (“OPSEC, people!”) (his words, not mine) and so far I think I am successfully in denial of the emotional aspect of him leaving.

However. The financial aspect is a different story! There are financial perks to a deployment, and I am hoping to optimize those to their fullest: I am bound and determined to get rid of this debt while he’s away and to be well into funding our emergency fund so we can be ready to move on to the next step…

NO, we are not done with debt, nor with this blog! Whew, right? (Humor me.) So stay tuned.

$DEPLOYMENT BENEFITS$

These benefits do not kick in until 30 days after his departure, but they will include…

1. Family Separation Allowance (FSA): $250/month
2. Hazardous Duty Pay (HDP) $100/month
3. Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) (referred to as FLIP): $200?

He hasn’t been able to secure a definitive figure on that last one yet.

The Hubs was quite excited to secure a language-designated deployment billet. See, we used to get the FLPP as a matter of course: once upon a time, The Hubs was enlisted as a military linguist, and even after he became an officer so long as he kept his testing updated and scored high enough he still qualified for the pay.

Until 2005 (?), that is. The military (or at least the Air Force?) changed its policy that only airmen (everyone in the Air Force is called an “Airman”, regardless of rank) whose specialties are language-designated qualified for the bonus. Language billets are extremely rare for officers. So there went that couple $100 every month. And there went any incentive for anyone besides a linguist to maintain language qualification… Despite the fact that the Air Force wants 10% of its officers to be language-qualified!

But I digress.

LOTS OF COOL NEW STUFF

The immediate financial perk of this deployment is sitting in our basement as we speak. (The train’s not included.)

The Hubs went through and mentally tallied the approximate value of this pile had he bought it himself off the shelf. He estimates  (at least) some $1200-worth of uniform stuff that he was given as a matter of course because of this deployment.

The real kicker? The Air Force has been transitioning to a new uniform for a couple of years now. The Hubs has resisted stocking up on the new uniform due to its cost. (Only enlisted ranks receive a clothing allowance.) However, in 2011, everyone will be required to wear only the new uniform.

The Hubs just got  four complete uniforms for free. Plus a complete cold-weather issue. Even the alterations were included — that’s about a $100 right there. He’s actually heard of guys volunteering for a deployment just for this one reason alone! (I hope their wives were okay with that;)

I really shouldn’t make it sound like these guys get all this stuff for free. Like it’s some perk that’s completely unnecessary. Of course they’ve earned this, and then some. And I am so thankful that my husband will be relatively safe in the job he is going to serve in and that he will only be gone for a few months rather than one year or more that other services deploy on a regular basis.

No, “just” a few months is not easy for the family left behind, either. But I’d be foolish if I didn’t look around and thank my lucky stars that it isn’t more.

***

I just want to thank you all for participating in my informal survey on your heating cost! From your responses I think I’ve concluded that our situation is about as normal as any, and a bit better than many. I found it amusing, too, that other husbands balked at lowering the thermostat;)

Related posts:

1. Financial Perks of a Deployment: An Update
2. A Full Circle
3. Pins and Promotions and Pay Raises, oh my.
4. Deployment Cravings
5. Congratulations on your promotion! Just not yet.

Tagged as: deployment, Income, Military Living