CAN I TAKE MY FAMILY TO KEY WEST AND HAVE THE NAVY PAY FOR IT? 2/2016

My squadron seems to always manage to have a Detachment (DET) go to Naval Air Station Key West in February. I went on that DET in 2015 and of course had great weather. Conveniently the weather in Virginia Beach was very cold and even had several days of snow, even right on the beach at Dam Neck. My family,,,, well at least my kids thought it was great to play in the snow,,,, for the first hour. After the novelty wore off they weren't as happy with it. It also wasn't very good snow and since the daytime temp got a little above freezing during the day the snow turned to ice the next day and playing in it was pointless. I on the other hand was rubbing it in by taking selfies of me eating ice-cream in shorts while walking around the island of Key West. Next of course comes the "I wish we could have gone with you", which then brought the thought of "Well, you probably could have. We own an RV after all".


This year when the planning came up again for the Key West DET for February it was going to be three weeks long. The squadron sets up transportation there and back and books us all rooms on the base, but the rooms that are on base we still have to pay for with a credit card, even though we will get paid back later when we file our travel claims. The transportation is by military air lift so is not actually paid for on an individual basis. I looked into the campground that is on the military base in Key West and found that it actually cost less to stay there than it would for me to stay in the military lodging/barracks. I talked with my admin department and asked that if I were to stay in the campground if they would still reimburse me for the cost to stay there. Seeing as it was cheaper and still a Navy facility they didn't see a problem with that. They did say that they couldn't pay for my transportation there as that would have already been covered by the air lift, and that I also couldn't recoup the difference in lodging costs, but since I figured out that the money I would save by not paying to camp at Dam Neck for a month would be close to the same as it cost in gas to get down there and back, I would actually come out about even. Other than having to take a few days of leave for driving time it would all work out. I didn't even have to tow a car down there as the squadron offers rental cars that I would be able to borrow once in a while and the campground was actually on the way to work that the rest of my squadron mates would be taking so I could be picked up and dropped off on the way. The Island isn't very large so a set of bicycles is even enough in a pinch for sight seeing.


The Family was extremely excited for the opportunity to get on the road and to go see something else other than Virginia Beach. The fact that it was in the typically coldest winter month was even a bonus. We would be gone for a full month. The time it took to get there, plus the three week DET, and the time it would take to get back. Schedules got adjusted but very little planning was actually needed. The RV was basically ready to go, and all we did was park the cars in safe places on the base and loaded up the bikes on the bike rack on the back. I would have to work on Night Check (my normal shift anyways), but that would give be some daytime hours to be with the family. I would also get weekends off while we were there.