Who pays for transportation to Airborne School?

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bringbacknelsoncruz

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Hi,

I am trying to figure out flights for both Christmas school vacation and airborne school. My son will be going to airborne school in January, leaving from our home in California (his school Christmas vacation will be cut short a week plus he misses his first two weeks of classes) to fly to Georgia and then going back to college in Texas.

So the legs of his trips are Texas to California (our dime of course), California to Georgia and then Georgia to Texas (school).

Does the Army pay for any of the legs of this trip? My son believes they do not.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
My experience with Airborne School is 40 years out of date, but suggest your son check with his cadre. Airborne School at Fort Benning is a three week TDY (Temporary Duty Assignment). I'm assuming that ROTC students would need TDY orders to go and return. Expect those orders would cover travel from the current place of duty (ROTC unit) to Fort Benning and return. Generally, with Army travel orders, you get paid up to the amount for the most economical route and mode of transportation. If you take leave en route, that's on your own dime, but you get paid as of you traveled directly from one duty station to the next. Again, check with the ROTC cadre. They might want him to report back to his college if they are making arrangements for group travel.
 
It’s common to blend personal travel with funded duty travel in the military. As noted above, the military will pay a set rate for travel with their contract airlines. It’s usually a matter of producing airline receipts for the entire trip during the travel claim process, and the govt reimburses up to what they would have spent on a straight out and back trip. That said, I don’t know how AROTC travel regs work in this specific case, and I am using a basic assumption here.

This will not be a surprise question to the unit. It will be an instructive exercise for your cadet in managing his own travel and asking questions (respectfully, always!) of admin personnel. It’s a skill much used in military life. This helps him become a better leader, so he can advise his soldiers there are ways to do this. His soldiers will not be in his same pay category by a long shot, and they deserve to know how the system works so they don’t spend any more of their own money than they have to.

Without sending your cadet to the hefty JTR (Joint Travel Regs), here’s a handy primer.

 
Specific to your situation, as he is on orders I would definitely confirm but believe his travel from home to GA will be covered, and then IDK if they will pay for him to go directly to school, or would only pay for him to return home. I treble the recommendation to confirm these details at the unit level. Please let the board know what you find as others I'm sure would find this info helpful/ informative.

OP, just adding additional details next - just extras/ don't apply to Army but may help others. The Navy ROTC program has been very strict with only covering travel from one's home to events - school, NSI, etc. This summer, a number of NSI-II participants unsuccessfully tried to blend travel from NSI directly to school, or NSI-II to vacation to school, and were given swift (buzzer sound) declines in getting reimbursement. In fairness, the paperwork was very specific to say what would and would not be covered in that case. But what was thought of as flexible simply was not.

Good luck.
 
the thing to teach him is to not assume anything. Assumptions cause problems....he needs to take ownership to work with cadre on the situation.

First he needs to do prep work...he can look at the cost of the travel from Benning to home in California vs Benning to Texas. Then he should talk to Cadre on what he wants to do and supply the cost differences as support on why the govt should pay for the leg to Texas....of course the govt has their own costing system but directionally it should be consistent. He'll find out who communicate that to and the appropriate staff person.....they will tell him what can be done via official orders. Since his duty station is his school, I can see the Army (assuming) covering the two latter legs.

The other thing with assumptions is if the numbers make sense but he is told can't do it by a staff member, to do some research in the trav regs...the gov't will usually always take lowest cost option. He needs to tread lightly, but sometimes staff/cadre don't know what they are talking about....what helps is to have numbers and then "seek to understand" if what he wants to do saves the gov't money and he is told no....sometimes it is specifically called out as a no no.

At the end of the day, an officer who makes assumptions when you can easily look things up is the one who makes mistakes throughout their career.
 
When DS was in school and went to air assault over summer break his schools HR person handled everything and he had his tickets and travel plans in hand maybe a week before he departed. They clarified with him ahead of time where he would be flying from and returning to. It was all paid for as he was on orders as stated above.

Since he is flying directly back to school from airborne this should be known by the HR person and he will more than likely be flown to the nearest airport to the school and arrangements made to pick him up. A quick check with the HR department and all his questions will be answered.
 
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