Never ship your personal good in the military

[SSgtKaniggit]

As the title states... My stuff was picked up in june to "meet" me in korea... its september and its barely made it from mountain home, Idaho to Travis AFB, Ca. At that pace, i could have walked there and back by now... and yet, i still have to wait for it to come overseas.. its a good thing i didnt put stuff in there i needed by now... OH wait, i did because they said it would be here when i got here!

[davedove]

And you believed them???!!!!

Never, ever, have them ship anything that you will need if you can help it.

Remember, the military is part of the government bureaucracy. Nothing is ever shipped until the weight of the required paperwork exceeds the weight of the items to be shipped. (I know, I've worked for them as either military or civilian for almost 25 years.)

[SSgtKaniggit]

i figured even if they gave it to a kid on a bike two months would be fine and dandy... bleh, i wish i could have helped it, but i was at my limit on my personal bags that came with me

[Detroitpete]

SSGT,

I hear ya! But as a lowly SWCC E6 I rarely had the opportunity to have any personal gear shipped to me. Ahhh, back then we had to carry it or leave it ;)

Hope it all works out soon for you--and more importantly, THANK YOU for your service, brother!

[SSgtKaniggit]

6/10/2010 Picked up at residence
8/6/2010 Estimated Arrival Date at US Port via Estes Express Lines
8/31/2010 At US Port/Estimated Departure 9/14/2010

look at those numbers! its moving super fast!

[Dale Seago]

Fast indeed -- why at this rate it may even arrive before you PCS again!!

[Inchessi]

My unit had sent a lot of souvenirs SAM. We would place bets on:
1. Which package arrived first.
2. Which package arrived in best/worst shape.
3. How long for each package.

If memory serves, and it usually doesn't, I shipped a king size mink blanket and a leather bomber jacket I purchased in Pohang, and the blanket won.

[berserkbishop]

I know the feeling. I have the never let the Navy move my stuff for me. Always a dity move, but then again I have never been stationed overseas. I know you have to have it shipped, but the nice lady from "travel" did tell us that it would take many months if we did have anything moved and that we should always take anything we need with us. I think they give us 400 pounds per dependent or something like that (no kids or wife so I didnt really pay attention at the briefs). Do they give you a weight allowance on things that you can take (cost paid by Uncel Sam) while you wait for your things to arrive?

[zjrog]

I had my stuff shipped most transfers. And the only time I ever had any issues, I had stuff stolen from a shipment from Hawaii back to the mainland... And I was NICE to those guys...

[Whidbey78]

I moved 4 times in the Navy, not counting RTC and NATTC Pensacola. Never lost any personal items and never had to wait more than six days for it to catch up with me. On the other hand I never had my personals shipped overseas.

This reminds me of an irony I had to deal with stateside and at Al Asad Iraq when deployed...we sent most of our aircraft parts to Saudi Arabia by FedEx or other courier and had it trucked to the airfield from there usually by the Army. The irony was that it took days to get it from Saudi to Iraq but Washington to Saudi took about 48 hours.