nursemel09

Carolinapooh: Thank you soooo much for all your advice and guidance on COT! After reading this post, I feel better prepared to start this amazing new chapter in life. Your advice has been invaluable to this non-prior during this process of "Crossing into the Blue".

I do not know if they have changed it but NTP is for nurses with less then one of year of experience. I have been nursing (acute care cardiac-tele)since June so I was given the choice of going in March with NTP or waiting and going as fully qualified in June. Three extra months of a residency...no brainer for me.

Paperwork? as in real paper? I must refresh my documentation skills! I am spoiled by a computer program and charting by exception now.

The paperwork I signed when I commissioned was in regards to Tricare and my offical pay offer letter. There was nothing in there about the loan repayment. Congrats on commissioning tommorrow!

Carolinapooh, Thanks so much for all your posts! You have been of soooo much help to me as I try to navigate through all this stuff! I think I read the one about the pay about 4 times.

Thanks for the info! My orders give me 7 days to make it from COT to Travis. I know my husband will not be able to move to Travis with me since I will be on TDY. I was wondering though if he would be able to stay with me on base for a time frame of a few weeks maybe a month or if I would have to secure other lodging for him. Any suggestions?

I do not think that they will be able to retrieve from storage without a person (power of attorney) there to release it. They should be able to pick the household goods up before you leave for COT though. They will hold the items in california until you arrive and find housing. Once you get your official orders, contact the local TMO to set up pick up. Your recruiter should be able to give you the number to contact. TMO should be able to answer your other questions. Here is one website I found with a little information: http://www.militaryhomesforsale.com/military_pcs.html

Thanks! We were super blessed. Someone was watching out for us! Keeping my fingers crossed that you will hear something soon!

Once you commission and get your official orders, you are immediately eligible for the military to come and move your belongings even if you will be TDY enroute. I am going to do a partial DITY and only worry about the small fragile and irreplaceable goods. It is also going to save us a couple of thousand dollars in storage and moving costs from TN to NV. Also, I just contacted Sallie Mae about my student loans. They can do a military deferment since you will be active duty. You simply fill out a form and fax it back to them with a copy of your orders. You can specify how long you want the deferment for. Hope this helps!

SeekirRN, Just curious...where are you doing your NTP at? I am going to be doing NTP at Travis. Good luck getting everything together! My husband and I are packing furiously so we can close on our house on 2/24. LOL...so much to do and so little time. See you in March!

Just recieved my OFFICIAL orders today! It was so cool to see something addressed to me as 2nd Lt. Simpson! Quick question though...do they require that you live onbase in TLF during the NTP program or can you secure offbase housing? I would like for my husband to join me but I do not think that he can stay on base with me since I will be TDY enroute to Nellis. Thanks!

I got my second choice: 1)Eglin 2)Nellis 3)Andrews 4)Peterson

I have been looking at www.militarybyowner.com since I cannot log into AHRN.com without a military email. You can look by base and proximity. I have found some really reasonably priced rental homes near my gaining base that are also owned by military members.

Palakikko, In an effort to buy my boots and hopefully uniforms before COT, I am going with my recruiter the next time he takes some hopefuls to their chief nurse interviews. You might want to see if your recruiter would be willing to take you on base with him/her the next time he goes, my recruiter was more then willing but I had to ask. Just a suggestion...

Looking forward to meeting everyone in March! Two months and counting...

Yay! So excited to hear from everyone going in march. Congrats on finally getting the word!

They try to have NTP and your first base the same. I also tried to request bases that included NTP to increase the chance of NTP and first station being the same. However, it depends on where the NTP slots are available at the time of COT graduation. For example, I do have a spouse but my NTP is at Travis and first station at Nellis. This is because Nellis did not have any NTP slots at the time I would be going.

Carolinapooh, Thank you so much for all your awesome information! You have truly been a "mindsaver"...lol. We have some military friends that have had some not so good experiences with relocation and were thinking about doing a "dity" move. Any comment on that?

I have been wondering the exact same things! I am pretty sure the NTP is you following a preceptor one on one. My recruiter gave me the impression that we will rotate through different area similar to a residency program. Could be wrong though... Looking forward to getting my official orders so I can figure all the living arrangements out as well. My NTP base is different from my permanent station and they are both out west (I'm in TN). Trying to figure out all the logistics is a nightmare!

My recruiter did not mention anything about an extra stipend for being a nurse. That would be awesome though! I know you get extra for having a specialty certification like cardiac or ccrn but I dont' know how much that is.

Just found out that I will be going to the March 09 COT! I will be going to Travis for NTP then stationed at Nellis! My husband and I are both very excited! Is one else going to COT in March?

I started the process before I graduated this past May. I will still go in as a "new nurse" with the NTP but will have the added experience of 7 months on my own. It is always better to start the process early!

Good luck in the process! If this is something that you want to make happen, keep pursing it. I started all my paperwork in April for the November boards. It is a long and sometimes frustrating process. Starting the process now for FY11 boards just gives you more time to make sure that everything is in and all the hickups are taken care of early!

I also interviewed at Scott but Col. Farley was brand new. I think he had only been on the base a week or so. I interviewed with Lt. Col Juliette Robinson who is over the Aeromedical evac operation. They are not a part of the base officially but the hq is located there. It was awesome. The first five maybe ten minutes were a general discussion about me, my qualifications, my specialty interest (cardiac-tele). She made sure that I understood the mission statement, core values, etc and asked if I felt okay carrying a weapon if I were to be deployed. She also explained how to move rank and grow professionally in the AF. The rest of the interview was spent on the flight line watching an aeromedical evac operation. I was able to tour plane they use to transport soldiers, speak with the flight crew, see a C-130 tanker plane and watch the transfer of wounded warriors from Andrews to planes going closer to home. It was awesome. I didn't know if it was an interview or a field trip some of the time. lol.

Congratulations!