PCSing - So you made it to your duty station!

You will be given the telephone number of the transportation office (TMO) at your new duty station. Your Marine should contact the office as soon as possible, and provide them with a phone number where the member or designated representative may be reached.

Arrange for phone, gas, and electricity to be connected.

Check the pilot lights on the stove, water heater, incinerator and furnace.

If you are moving to a new state, register your car and get a new driver's license as soon as possible.

Register your children in school.

You will need to visit the DEERS/TriCare office to resister at your local medical center, or depending on new duty station, possibly change TriCare reagons.

Before the moving van arrives, clean the hard-to-reach places in your new residence.

When the movers arrive, check their inventory against the one you made prior to departure -- they should match.

Know in advance where to place each piece of furniture. The mover is required to place each piece only one time.
At time of delivery, you are entitled to the reassembly of all items that were disassembled by the carrier.

In addition, you are entitled to have everything unpacked, with packing materials removed from the residence, unless you specifically waive this service.

If you discover that you are missing some items or items have been damaged in transit, you must list these items on your DD Form 1840. You should ensure that three legible copies of this form are received. This is not a claim, only a record of loss or damage. Any additional loss or damage discovered after the carrier has completed delivery should be noted on the reverse side of DD Form 1840, which is DD Form 1840R.

Well we made it!

Well we made it to Norfolk this afternoon and checked into housing... We weren't supposed to move into the house till tomorrow morning but we talked them into lettin us pick up the keys today... It's kinda dirty and not quite what we expected... But here's a few pics!

PCSing - The Big DAy (part 2)

The movers must seal everything in crates before they leave your house. Do not let them take un-crated boxes and tell you they will crate them at the warehouse! You should witness them seal the crates, and the seal numbers go on the paperwork.

Trust me, I learned this the hard way. On our last PCS move the movers told us they were just stacking everything in the truck since they weren't being put into storage they wouldn't need to be crated. Well as everyone should know, "things come up" and we ended up not having a house as soon as we should have at our new duty station and out household goods ended up needing to be stored for a month. Well let me tell you it was a HUGE shock when I received my furniture in PIECES!!! And not because they broke them accidentally... But because they took it upon themselves to TAKE THEM APART! And I'm not talkin $50 Wal-Mart furniture... My pooooooor Antique Hawaiian bamboo desk, my dining room taable and livingroom coffee and end tables that I didn't even know came apart!

Just trust me here, it's a lot easer to just make sure they crate them.

PCSing - The Big Day (part 1)

Have your own inventory of all your items, and list the serial numbers for those things that have them. Take pictures of all of your belongings. If it's electronic, show that it works... Take a video of your washer and dryer working to prove it IS infact in working condition since they won't check that when they come to pack. If you have to file a claim and you have a picture, you are much more likely to get replacement value instead of depreciation value. For items that are high value but you would not have receipts for (such as wedding china), you may also submit a letter from a third party (such as a friend or relative) certifying that these items were in your possession and they saw them in your house. The reason for this is because boxes will not be labeled “12 place settings of Noritake china, Gold Ring Pattern with 5 piece serving set”. They are more likely to be labeled “China”.

The packers will note the condition of items on their inventory; for instance, if the couch is worn, or a dresser is scratched. I honest to God think it is just standard to list "scratched, soiled, dinted" on all sides... Seriously, check the invintory list, they don't just list it as ""scratched" they list a code next to it... Probably to confuse you. Really, it would be in your best interest to go through and question every code before you sign that paper and have them correct it. If you have problems with this, or concerns about how the packers are noting the condition of many of your household items, call the Traffic Management Office and ask them to send an inspector out. This is probably the #1 problem servicemembers have with packers.

PCSing - The Movers

I love this comic!

Trust me, put the items you DON’T want packed in a empty closet marked “DO NOT PACK”, or lock them in your car.

Packers will pack anything not nailed down. If you don’t want the trash in your trash can shipped to your new base, be sure to empty it before the packers come! Put the pet’s food and water bowls aside or they’ll get packed, too. Some of the active duty member’s records must be hand-carried. And if you got a newcomer’s welcome package about your new base from your sponsor don’t let the packers box that up, either. The info in that package will come in handy as soon as you arrive at your new base!