I am thinking of joining the military and hope someone could help me. Here is the situation. My husband is in the Army and we are stationed in Germany. We do have children which I have found out I can get a waiver for. I already have taken my asvab test and got a 84 qt. But here is my problem If I do join I learned he will lose all cola on my children and we have to get a advanced return of dependents. He would have to move in the Barriacks and my children would go to my mothers while I am in Basic and Ait. I am having a hard time understanding how the finances would work. My recruiter said we will finacially be better off but all I see is us losing income. I mean does he get bah for them and i get it without dependent rate too? Will he also lose hes dislocation allowance when he leaves here? I asked my recruiter and he said he would get back to me and let me know but I was wondering if anyone here could tell me if we would actually be losing more than receiving extra?

This is a difficult situation. You would receive more money, because there is another Federal Salary entering the household. You will lose things like Cost Of Living Allowance, because you are bringing in more money. The military will not pay a penny more than they need to. Usually, only one spouse will receive BAH, the other one receives BAH Diff. Dislocation Allowance (DLA) is only given when en route to another duty station, and it will only be given to the senior member. For policy and guidance, it all falls under the Army Couples Program.

My wife just recently joined the Air force. I am in Korea and live in barracks anyway. I lost my full BAH to house my wife but in return got partial BAH. And since she recieves a paycheck now to it kind of evens out.

BUN