RV'ing at the Naval Station in Key West

djsamuel wrote:


A big thank you from a 33 year DOD (Navy) civilian - NOT A CONTRACTOR, who has spent a lot of time on Aircraft Carriers, Submarines, Destroyers, LPDs, LPHs, P-3s P-8s etc.

Sounds familiar, I know a number of sailors that spent less time at sea then I did (33 years DON). I was talking with a (retired) Master Chief I used to know (died two years ago), he came out of the air-community but had never spent a night at sea,not one. All 30 years at shore installations, not certain how he managed that, but he did.

For those wondering, the pension is 1.1% of your high 3 average salary for each creditable year of service if you retire at age 62 or older. And contrary to popular belief, we do not get housing allowances unless we are on TDY, where we get per diem. At that point, we are required to fly out and back and must stay at a hotel within per diem. and usually one chosen by the Defense Travel System. The Famcamps are not an option.

Ah DTS, one of the many things I don't miss (NMCI, Navy-ERP, etc)

You can select "find own housing", which I did whenever I was traveling to certain areas. One a couple occasions I did take the RV. That proved, interesting. But of course, netted me no more money, since the DOD pays what your housing cost is, if it's $15/day, that's all they pay, period.
We took the RV because I took time off work and did some "fun" things, which came out of my pocket.