Housing with Follow On Orders

[Whitingorbust]

Me, the wife, and the kid are getting ready to make the move down to Pensacola here in November. I already have follow-on orders to Whiting, and have been debating whether or not to split the distance or do two moves. At the moment my orders have me in NASP for four months, so I am leaning towards doing two moves so I can be close to base. My question is can I break my lease for the move to NASW if my follow on orders were cut prior to signing the lease and would this also rate me a full PCS move to whiting?

 

[BourneID]

The distance is enough to break the lease, however, it won't rate you a PCS from NASC to TW-5. We decided to live in between when we moved down, it was a good idea at the time, wife was working in Gulf Breeze, however when she decided it was time to be a stay at home mom, the drive to early morning events/ sims sucked, and wished I lived in Milton. It depends on what your wife likes, if she works, and its not going to be in Milton, make her happy, and share the drive with her, if she doesn't work, but likes having the Mall, restaraunts, parks, etc... nearby, drive the distance. If she just likes to please you, live in Milton, and suck it up while you are ding A pool, IFS, and API.

 

[Whitingorbust]

Thanks for the response, I was thinking about living on base at Whiting if the housing is decent enough on base.

 

[PropAddict]

I lived about 2 miles from P'cola, figuring on a long wait in A Pool, and then 6 weeks of API. Seven weeks later, I packed all my junk in a U haul and moved to Milton. I lived even closer to base than base housing.

It was great because I never had longer than a five minute drive at either place and I banked a lot of BAH living off base, in Milton.

The only downsides were: one shitty weekend moving my stuff, $150 for a U haul, and I lived in Milton. I actually liked Milton, but it was a drive to get to P'cola so if you know you'll be heading that way a lot, it's something of a raw deal.

 

[UserName]

I was in your same situation just about a year ago. I am just finishing Primary at Whiting now.

I ended up living off base in Milton and I am very happy with the way it turned out.

My wife and I had lived together before getting here so we had way too much ish to try to move without the govt paying movers.

I decided to live closer to Whiting than Pensacola. API is not too bad when it comes to getting into a time crunch but Primary can get pretty busy at times, especially in the middle of RI sims when you get double pumped. Plus you will be in Primary for a longer time than API. If you are going to try to find a place and settle in I would say to try to live closer to Whiting.

There isn't really any "on-base" housing at Whiting. Whiting Pines is the PPV housing that is about 7 or 8 miles down the road. I knew people that lived there and they were happy too. Its nice cause you don't have to worry about bad landlords and you get to live across the street from alot of people you will be going through primary with. The places there are alright. Theres definitely no frills and maybe a little smaller than what you would find out on town but pretty good for govt housing.

It takes some time to sift through the rentals in Milton and Pace to find the good ones mixed in with some of the nasty run down places. But like I said before you get a little more space for your money and a little more privacy and separation from seeing the same people all the time. It was worth it for me because I ended up breaking about even (after including utilities) with the people who gave their whole BAH to Whiting Pines.

I guess there is alot left up to personal preference but hopefully this gives you a better idea.

 

[Whitingorbust]

The reason I was thinking of checking out Whiting Pines was mainly for my wife being able to have friends close by in the same situation, especially on the long days in primary when I am not around much. We're going to take a vacation/house-hunting trip down to Pensacola in October and we'll probably check them out then. What's the drive like from Milton to NASP? Some friends told me it 45 minutes but Google maps says something like 75.

 

[NozeMan]

My wife and I lived in the pines during Advanced. It was awesome for us to live around other families in the same situation. Made a ton of great friends there and had some great times. It'll be a hike to Pcola, but it's worth it to be close to Whiting for Primary/Advanced.

 

[UserName]

The reason I was thinking of checking out Whiting Pines was mainly for my wife being able to have friends close by in the same situation, especially on the long days in primary when I am not around much.

Thats definitely a good point. My wife did say that it took a little more effort to meet and get together with the other girls.

. What's the drive like from Milton to NASP? Some friends told me it 45 minutes but Google maps says something like 75.

I'd say 45 minutes is closer to the truth.

Google always says to take HWY 90 all the way and that is stupid. Its faster to take avalon down to I-10 and go that way. It only save a minute according to goolgle but thats wrong. I dont know how they calculate etheir time. Maybe grandma driving at 50mph down the HWY

 

[Random Task]

I live close to the pines off base, 10 min to NASWF and 45 min door to door for API. I had to drive a total of 3 weeks plus the 6 weeks of API to NASP, granted that is on the shorter side of time at NASP but as you can see 9 weeks vs the nominal 26ish weeks of primary, Milton was a good decision for me.

If you talk to the IFS office and explain that your family lives in Milton you can request to do IFS in milton which cuts out about 3-5 weeks worth of driving far. On that note I would recommend living in Milton. I would rather have a shorter drive when flying. Just my 2-cents

Also I-10 is the way to go. Not once did I ever hit traffic. Lights on 90 can change drive times by as much as 20 min...damn lights

 

[Friend]

When my ex-husband was going through, we lived in Whiting Pines and both drove to NASP every day for work. It wasn't a fun drive but I loved my job and I loved living in WP, I was around lots of other spouses and able to walk to the spouse club events.

 

[Whitingorbust]

Thanks for all the advice, one of the main reasons I was planning on not living near Whiting during API was the long wait in A-pool. Is it possible to work out a deal where you can get stashed at Whiting Field during the wait so I am not driving every morning to muster and just turning around and driving home?

 

[Random Task]

Is it possible to work out a deal where you can get stashed at Whiting Field during the wait so I am not driving every morning to muster and just turning around and driving home?

Is it possible? Yes. but it really depends on availabilty / luck

 

[spitfiremkxiv]

We got a stipulation in our first rental contract saying that we'd be able to break the lease for a PCS over 35 miles, just to make sure we'd be clear once we got orders to Whiting. The property manager wanted the business so she had no problem agreeing to it. This was Key Concepts Realty on Perdido Key, they were easy to work with throughout and refunded our whole deposit at the end of the three months that we were there. We had to cover the expense of the move to Milton.

There was recently a thread on this topic if you're looking for some more info. It sounds like you're on the right track though, good luck with your decision.

 

[Whitingorbust]

Sounds good, I'll keep in mind Key Concepts Reality when I head down there to look for a place. Thanks again

 

[BourneID]

We got a stipulation in our first rental contract saying that we'd be able to break the lease for a PCS over 35 miles, just to make sure we'd be clear once we got orders to Whiting. The property manager wanted the business so she had no problem agreeing to it. This was Key Concepts Realty on Perdido Key, they were easy to work with throughout and refunded our whole deposit at the end of the three months that we were there. We had to cover the expense of the move to Milton.

There was recently a thread on this topic if you're looking for some more info. It sounds like you're on the right track though, good luck with your decision.

Looking at what he wrote here, he didn't have follow ons to Whiting, but was expecting them, if you already have orders to Whiting prior to signing a ease, that could create some tension when trying to break the lease.