Grrr...

I am going to apologize ahead of time. I'm frustrated...well, angry, to be honest. Let me tell you why.

My wife and I got married 11 months ago. In that 11 months, she spent all of January in Egypt, and between April and now, she has been in Mississippi, and I've been...in Texas and Georgia.

So, the Air Force has this policy - at least on paper, they have this policy - of being the best military branch for keeping families together, especially families with both of the people in the military (it's called "mil to mil"). It's this wonderful concept called "Joint Spouse". What Joint Spouse means is that if there is a mil to mil marriage the Air Force will do everything in it's power to keep the two married people stationed together. There's even paperwork we fill out to let the Air Force know that it is our preference to be stationed together no matter what.

So, the flip side of this, and the caveat is that the "needs of the Air Force" always come first. Meaning, if the two people in the marriage have different jobs within the Air Force (or even if they have the same job) but there isn't a spot for both of them to be together at an Air Force base, then they won't be stationed together. Meaning, they like to tell us that they will try to put us together, but they don't really have to if they don't want to.

But, it is actually in the Air Force's best interests to put a married couple together, because then there is this thing that the Air Force is required to pay us - it's called Family Separation Pay (FSP). FSP isn't a whole lot - like $200-$250 or so but you realize when you're in the military that if it were but $0.01, the military would do everything they can to not pay you. But, I am sure you can imagine that $250 is a big chunk of change to be paying to the hundreds, or thousands of separated couples in the military (mind you, the military is required to pay FSP to every married couple even if one of the couple is a civilian). So, you can imagine that stationing mil to mil couples together is in their best interest.

So, Nicole and I have been recieving FSP since May of this year. And, common sense would say that the purpose of FSP is to cover the increased living/communications expenses involved in not being stationed together - higher phone bills, help you save up for plane tickets if need be, etc. So, just to make sure, when I arrived on station to my current duty station, I asked my finance department just to make sure that Nicole and I would continue to recieve FSP. Well, I was told that unless we are physically stationed together at the same base then we qualify for FSP and that cannot be considered a joint spouse assignment. 

Well, Nicole just recieved her orders to Shaw AFB, SC, which is about 2 hours away from where I work. In order for her and me to live together and be able to afford it, we had to find an apartment as close to the middle of each of our duty stations as possible. So, we live an hour and fifteen minutes away from my work and fourty-five minutes away from hers. We are not stationed together at the same place, but her orders say that this is a joint spouse assignment. How rediculous is that!

What do the people who are in charge of our orders and finance do all day? If I decided to rant about how finance has screwed up my and most of my peers' finance, that would take another 2 blog entries, so I won't, but these people are NOT on the ball. They mess things up that should never have been touched, and now...now they are going to try and tell us that we aren't entitled separation pay? How do they justify that? 

I can hear them say, "Well, it's considered a joint spouse assignment because you are stationed within 2 hours of each other."

So, are you gonna try and tell me that because we are within two hours of each other, we don't have increased expenses so that we can live together? I still have to fill up my gas tank every other day...not every week, not every other week, but every other day. Before gas prices started to drop that equated to about $1,200/mo in gas. And right now it equates to about $500/mo. Not to mention the increased frequency of oil changes and vehicle maintinance. Not only the financial aspect, but how about time lost? That is about 3 hours that I spend just driving every work day. 

I am starting to try and get into the habit of annotating my schedule on Micorsoft Outlook Calendar, and I was looking at one 24 hour period (from midnight to midnight) on a day that I work, and here it is broken down into how many hours I do what:

• Work: 9 hours
  
• Driving home: 1 hour 15 min
• Sleep: 8 hours
• Getting up, feeding the fish, eating breakfast, making myself lunch and dinner for work, check email, bills, etc., get dressed and ready for work: 1 hour 30 min
• Drive to work: 1 hour 15 min
• Work: 3 hours

So, if we add this all up, it means I have 1.5 hours of free time every day (and this schedule doesn't necessarily take into account if I have to do PT or have any extra duties at work). And they are going to try to tell me that we don't deserve FSP? What that says to me is that because we are within two hours of each other, our expenses shouldn't increase. We should be able to live as comfortably as a married couple who live and work in the same place as each other.

I imagine the conversations that I'll never have with the finance people about things like this. But, this is on top of a financial problem that the finance department compounds. When I got here, they stopped giving me money for buying food that every military member is entitled (it's called BAS - Basic Allowance for Sustinance). And now, they aren't giving me the sign on bonus I was promised as an incentive to join the military to begin with. 

Basically the message they are sending to me is, "We don't care about the sacrifices you make to make sure our men and women on the ground are safe." Or, "We don't respect

 you." You see, to me it is a matter of respect and principle. Out of respect for my country, the military (my employer), and myself, I show up to work every day on time. I have also, out of respect for my contract with the military, followed through with all of the requirements set before me, as outlined in my military contract, in order to recieve my sign-on bonus. So, why don't they have enough respect for me to pay me on time? I have been qualified to recieve my bonus since August 11, 2008 when I graduated my technical training. It is now November 21, 2008 and they have still not paid me. And now, they are trying to disqualify my wife and I from FSP. 

How would the AF feel if I just said, "Hey, you know what? It's not in my best interests to show up for work today. My wife needs my help with some things around the house. I'll be there tomorrow," and then just not show up tomorrow, and not even let them know I wasn't coming in. A) They'd be pissed I called in for no "good" reason to begin with, and B) If I didn't show up the second day with no phone call at all, I would be listed as Absent Without Leave (AWOL) and I might even be arrested for it, or demoted, put on extra duty, and maybe even forced to live in the barracks on post away from my family. Needless to say, there would be repurcussions. But, who holds the Air Force accountable for doing the exact same thing to us?

They told me that I would have my bonus within sixty days of arrival on station, and that my wife and I would recieve FSP even after we move in together because we are stationed separately. But, did I recieve my bonus on the sixty day mark? No. Did I receive a phone call telling me that I wouldn't have my bonus or why? No.

So, I called them on day sixty-two or so, and they said that they made note on my account that I haven't received it (mind you, other people who arrived on station weeks after me already received their's) and that I would have it fifteen days later. Well, I can count to fifteen. I may not be a genius, but I can count to fifteen, and was that money in my account? No. When I called them back, and asked them about it, what was their response? "Oh it just hasn't been approved yet" Well, no duh. I can see that. It isn't in my account and therefore must not have been approved yet. I got no further explanation, no estimate of when it would be done, only the assurance of the person I was talking to that she emailed the people who are supposed to approve these things.

These people are retards. And I mean that in the most litteral way - slow. I am so sick and tired of dealing with this kind of laziness, selfishness, and all-around stupidity. I mean, how am I supposed to have pride in my work, and "workplace spirit" if you will, if my workplace and employer has no respect for me or the circumstances that I'm in as a result of my employment for them. How am I expected to continue to fulfill my end of the contract if they won't fulfill their end? 

Okay...I'm done...I want so bad to say F the Air Force (meaning "Forget the AF," of course). But, what kind of integrity would that show? How would that make me the "bigger person" in this situation? It wouldn't. But, sometimes being the bigger person doesn't get you the results you want. But, integrity is integrity. We have integrity, not because the other guy has integrity, but because it's right. So, what is the right way to handle this? Well...the right thing to do is to keep showing up for work, keep doing the best job I can, and keep calling those sons of behauches until they put the money in my account they owe me, and get our paycheck information correct.

If you look at the AF Core values above: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence in all we do - I have no doubt that I believe in and live the core values of the AF more than the AF does. These people are hypocrites. Whatever...I'm done venting for this moment. But, I will never be done with believing that people ought to be treated with mutual respect by their employers, and by each other. 

Grrr...