Why do so many people get married right after boot camp?

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by bs13690

You don't get extra money, IMO. They simply pay you what they are taking out for living in the barracks and eating at the chow hall.

You get The Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH) at the married rate. Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS/Sep Rations), which all do not get...

[chucksnee]

Originally Posted by bs13690

You don't get extra money, IMO. They simply pay you what they are taking out for living in the barracks and eating at the chow hall.

Ha, I love this argument....your not getting it, because they are taking it from you, until you get married...then they give it back.....

To funny!!!

[Skydive Outlaw]

http://support.militaryfamily.org/si...df?docID=12501

Survivor benefits

Including:

Death Gratuity ($100,000)

Service Members Group Life Insurance ($400,000) / heavily subsidized with tax dollars.

Military Health Care Benefits (including dental)

Survivor Benefit Plan (equal to 55% of what the member's retirement pay would have been had he/she been retired at 100% disability)

Survivor's and Dependants Educational Assistance Program (up to 45 months of educational benefits)

VA Home Loan Guarantee Program

Federal Employment Preference - "Spouses of decease military personnel are entitled to a preference when applying for federal civilian jobs."

State, Local and Other Benefits (see link)

And a bunch of other stuff too.


$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $

[cab591]

Flying to AIT right now... A friend of mine in my platoon got married on Thursday, on Family Day.

I guess mostly it's just love. They would've gotten married, and now have the finances to afford a wedding. The extra BAH (and separation pay, if applicable) can be a factor, too.

[Army_Guy]

Reasons I've seen:

BAH-basic allowance housing. In the Army, if you are not married or do not have children, you do not receive BAH until you reach the rank of E6 or higher. Receiving BAH gets you out of the barracks. What a lot of soldiers will do is get a cheap apartment and pocket the difference thinking that they made some money. What they don't realize is that you have to furnish the apartment, your commute time/distance has gone up and you're paying utilities now. You don't pay for those things in the barracks. They come furnished, you don't pay water/electricity (you do pay for cable/internet, though).

BAS-basic allowance subsistence. It's for food. If you live in the barracks, you get a meal card and do not pay out of pocket. If you receive BAS, you receive a monthly allowance for food, I think enlisted is about $330 a month while commissioned is about $230 a month.

And then there are arranged marriages where the soldier marries and agrees to split the money from the BAH/BAS with the "spouse."

Being deployed is hard on a military family. Had a soldier whose wife was cheating on him and got pregnant by someone else. He wanted to make it work, the Platoon Sergeant and myself spoke with him and asked him what's going to happen when he deploys again or goes to the field for a month? He had no answer.

With cutbacks happening now and more looming in the future, I could see the DoD looking further into BAH and BAS.

And some do get married due to emotions. You have youngsters who have never been away from home much and them leaving for a few months is hard for them. I didn't marry my GF after Basic/OCS nor after deployment. I'm back home and we are planning on getting married next year.

Only thing you can really do is talk to your soldiers about the pro's and con's. They're grown and will make their choices, good or bad.