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I’ll absolutely send this to a Gunny tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll clear up some stuff so that you understand the process and maybe understand options.

Every enlisted member receives a housing (BAH) and food (BAS) allowance. Even kids straight out of basic training. If they are staying in barracks and eating at the chow hall, that pay is then automatically deducted back out of their check and they never see it outside of their LES statement. That process ends once they reach a certain rank, or get married.

What it sounds like here, is that your son in law still hasn’t gotten the marriage license submitted yet. If you can’t prove that you are married, they continue taking that money and you stay in barracks until you do. Once he will get his license turned in, he will get to keep the BAH and BAS and that is how they will pay for an apartment. It will probably get added to the next month’s pay, so there may be a couple week delay, but it will be there.

So, somehow, HE will get shelter. If they are still taking his money for barracks life, then he will stay in the barracks and get nothing extra. Obviously, he should do that and his wife should stay with you until the paperwork gets straight. Once they release that money in his paycheck instead of taking it back ($1869 for Camp Pendleton with dependants, according to The Google), he is responsible for using that money to find shelter. Apartment, hotel, trailer, whatever.

Now, if they are taking his money back AND not letting him stay in the barracks, then there is a serious issue that needs to be addressed by his chain of command. Immediately.

Last but not least, someone saying that “bringing it up with the Sergeant is not an option” actually made my head spin. As an NCO myself, this is quite possibly the most wrong statement I have heard in a very long time. This is pretty much the purpose of a Sergeant, and DEFINITELY the purpose of the First Sergeant. I’m not going to speculate as to what is going on here, but understand that health and welfare is the First Sergeant’s primary purpose in life. Taking care of their troops is the NCO’s primary purpose in life.

If you have any questions about this long novel I just wrote, feel free to ask. If you want to just message them to me instead, that works too.

Thanks for the info. All of these replies really have helped me understand what goes on. He is talking to housing today so that will probably be taken care of. He's waiting to submit their marriage license for housing. Like I said earlier, there was a screw up on our part that delayed it.

The reason for the Sergeant comment was that he is up for promotion and he's worried that it will affect it somehow. He's pretty much the "straight laced, do the job and then some" type of guy so I don't know how this would.