Navy IA / GSA Deployments Support Group

[Brandi]

I looked around a little and didn't find a post, so I thought it would be helpful to start one.

The Navy is sending people IA left and right, and I think it's a little bit of a shock factor when your spouse gets put on a set of IA orders since they vary so much from the 'regular' ship deployments that most Navy families are accustomed to (and often come at very unexpected times, even during shore duty).

So, here is a thread of your own.... to talk about past experiences, how things work, find support, etc.

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Things you could share that might help other IA/GSA spouses would be:

How long were his orders for?

How long was he actually gone? Were there any major delays (or was he home earlier than expected)?

How much leave time did he get between/after schooling? Was he able to take R&R? If so, at what point (mid way?)?

How was communication? Please keep OPSEC in mind so don't elaborate too much, but you can say whether he was able to call or not, and whether or not he had regular access to chat/email/webcam.

Where did you find the most amount of support while he was away?

Is there anything you learned or any advice you'd like to share with other spouses who are going through this?


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I'm going to add helpful IA / GSA links also, to the resources I personally know of. Feel free to share your own, as well!

Fleet and Family Support (With a lot of useful links to handbooks and such)
https://www.nffsp.org/skins/nffsp/di...0-529d34c6aaae

Official IA Family Support Site
http://www.ia.navy.mil/index.htm

Facebook Group (good way to meet other people you can talk to for info)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/US-Nav...es/56426523395

Military.com IA Forum (very useful for reading and asking specific questions!)
http://forums.military.com/eve/forum.../4000087901001

[Brea]

Things you could share that might help other IA/GSA spouses would be: Be prepared, it probably will happen

How long were his orders for? 1 yr

How long was he actually gone? Were there any major delays (or was he home earlier than expected)? still gone

How much leave time did he get between/after schooling? Was he able to take R&R? If so, at what point (mid way?)?10 days, no date for r&r yet

Where did you find the most amount of support while he was away? friends, family..not really any from the command.

Is there anything you learned or any advice you'd like to share with other spouses who are going through this? Just to support your sailor 100%, talk about your problems at a minimum...he will be really stressed.
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[Lady T]

thank you B!

[Brandi]

Originally Posted by Lady T thank you B!

No problemo miss T... I am sure I'll eventually be here with ya, so it's going to be helpful to keep this thing ongoing. I'm actually going to go back into the first OP and add a few links I found a while back too. You probably already have them but they are mostly just informational and such.

[ImNoOliveOyl]

We haven't done one "yet"... but there is a group for IA families who live in housing out here in SD... I see info about it every month in the housing newsletter... that might help some of you who are going through it to find others in the same situation.

There's also a book available through family line for IA spouses.

[Brandi]

Updated with some links.

[mossey2000]

We've done an IA. He was able to call a good bit but it was only a 7 month IA. No leave in between and the command didn't know what to do with me.

[Onebusymommie]

We did an IA a bit ago. DH was gone for 9 months. 1 month training in another state, 2 week training in another country and then the remaining time was at his duty station.

A big thing about IA is what support does the command he is leaving have? My DH's command stepped up to the plate. They made sure that holidays, birthdays etc were covered and that I was always included on anything the command was doing because as far as they were concerned he was still apart of their command because he was going to be returning to them.

No R&R time was issued to come home. He was given the opportunity to take a weekend R&R to a different location but he declined it.

The return home was frustrating because DH got stuck due to sandstorms. It really sucked and he was not home ontime.