Help me with preparing to PCS

Can't help with the paperwork side but I can help with the other stuff.

Don't get rid of anything you don't want to. Don't be worried about electronics they give you a couple of transformers to convert so you can use all your american stuff. The only thing is clock sometimes don't do well in conversion and motors (like Vaccuums) "might" age quicker.

Houses vary tremendously over there so sometime your stuff might fit and sometimes it might not. The military will store some stuff for you if needed but it is not the kind of storage you can accesss.

Take photos of your stuff before being shipped so you can assess and prove damage if needed. Try to be involved in watching your packers and movers. Be nice to them.

Save ALL receipts, even the soda you buy at the airport.

And don't worry, it will all come together! :-)

@BallroomRN: I'm also on the roster for Oct 14 -Ft. Sam. But I have not received my official orders yet in the mail. It'd be great to chat with you about our upcoming OBLC- maybe we can bounce some ideas off each other? I'm a new grad RN... Best, M

Oh, I cannot resist some military moving stories...

Take pictures of electronics WORKING. When I was in the AF they once tried to tell me that I was the one who'd broken my television set (because I'd go to the trouble of shipping a broken one - it was listed on the packing list as "working" because I'd made the guy cut it on before he packed it); another time they claimed I busted all the glass in the frames of some prints I shipped AFTER they'd packed them - since the packing list at origin described them and noted "unbroken". Right - because I'd do that and because it's completely logical to say I got inside the container en route, busted the glass, and then got back out again....

When I moved from Riyadh back to the States US CUSTOMS opened up my boxes with my DVDs in them and when I received the boxes, there were DVDs MISSING...the packing boxes were stamped as having been inspected by Customs and someone had opened the DVD cases, helped themselves to the discs inside, and then left the cases in the box. It really burned me up - none of my stuff was bootleg; I'd bought it all in legitimate stores either on base at Eskan or downtown. They'd then taped the lids of the boxes over with duct tape and the DVDs were all piled up and spilling out of the box. When the boxes left Riyadh, they were properly packed and sealed with tape. NICE.

(The best part here was that several of the stolen DVDs wouldn't work in the US - they were PAL/Region 2, and a couple were SECAM/Region 3. HA!! I did get a claim for them, though it wasn't easy.)

The box with my lingerie, a few nightgowns (nothing THAT personal!), some other clothes, and some stuff from Bath and Body Works was opened and had been stamped as having been inspected by the US Department of Agriculture. I would have loved to have seen that agent's face when he opened the box...my guess is one of their fruit sniffing dogs alerted on it, because when you opened the box you could smell the BBW stuff. Too funny. I'm so reassured knowing that my underwear has been inspected by the USDA.

One time when we moved as a kid with the Navy my mother had a lockbox (a very nice, fancy ebony lockbox) that arrived with the lock pried off. Inside Mom had her Italian marble Easter eggs that Daddy had bought in Naples (fortunately none of them were missing). When my mother went down to file a claim (this was back before the moving was contracted out and the military did it directly) they claimed she pried the lock off! Mama asked him why she'd do that when she had the key - and she handed him the key across the counter. The stunned sailor processed her claim and Mama got the box fixed!

There was also the time when we moved from Hawaii to California and Daddy wanted to know what the "stink" was in the house...the movers had packed a huge bag of garbage (it was the food out of the fridge, broken stuff, and other trash) and shipped it with our stuff...it had been in storage for about three weeks before we moved on base, and it had been gone for two weeks prior to that...yum...

One time they brought the wrong container to the house and tried to claim we'd switched paperwork - don't even ask me how they thought they'd get by with that one...it took another week but Daddy got it straight.

I literally have a million of them. :) My current AD friends say things are a lot better now, and keep in mind that my dad was a twenty-five year Navy man, so those incidents were over a very long time. I only had the one problem when I was active duty and I got it resolved - but had I had a picture of the darned thing working it might have saved me a load of headache. (And the DVDs - I actually wrote a letter to US Customs telling them about that. I knew it would do me no good, I just found it disgraceful that that had happened. And I knew it happened at US Customs because of the accompanying paperwork showing the chain of custody and the change in seal numbers when Customs opened the container at the port of entry.)

You really have to have a sense of humor when you PCS. We were always told to accept that, at some point, the inevitable was going to occur, and it will always, always occur with something that really means something to you. It's part of the deal, unfortunately.

Oh - and don't ever pack jewelry. Don't trust these people with valuables like that. Take it with you - on the plane.

I only had one picture broken in 6 years of moves in Army, including a tour in Germany. But have also heard the horror stories that others have had. Like was mentioned... take pictures of everything, and do not ship anything that you can not replace.

Another note... my wife used to pack a few dishes and cooking utensils in amongst our clothes in our suitcases. We got a few strange looks when going through customs, but it is nice to have some of the basics with you while you wait for your other household goods to be delivered...and that can take a few days, to several weeks if going overseas. Use common sense when flying though... you do not want to pack cooking knives or anything like that in your bags...even if checking them