Quote:
Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b
Also Separate Rats (Separate Ration Allowance) so you can afford to not eat in the Mess Hall. The BAH and Separate Rats in Hawaii are gigantic due to the costs of off-base housing, and lots of personnel live off-base since the housing areas of bases aren't that big. You can also get TLA (Temporary Living Allowance) while you're waiting to get into base housing, and TDY (Temporary Duty Allowance), even if you aren't living off base -- I got TDY when I was on funeral detail, since we were in and out of hotels, and I got TDY in jump school, even though I was in training barracks.
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Separate Rats doesn't change based on location though. For Os it doesn't even change with paygrade, I'm not sure about Es but I don't think it does for them either. In Hawaii, BAH and COLA skyrocket. As an O2E I was netting more than $10,000 a month while deployed and almost as much after redeployment.
The other pays, TLA, TDY, TLE, Clothing Allowance, Family Separation, Hazardous Duty, etc., are available only under certain conditions and are not a regular occurrence. Technically clothing allowance is, but it's only once a year. TDY is a whole separate animal altogether. I didn't go to Jump School on TDY so I got nothing. I didn't get my first TDY until I went to Ranger School. Then you have Permissive TDY which you don't get paid for, it's just free leave to find a house at a new duty station basically.
There are so many rules and conditions put on the special pays that it's barely worth the hassle anymore. But, extra pay you're entitled to is extra pay that you're entitled to.