Article My Tours of Northern Ireland

[tosh66]

[.

Am I to understand that you guys have to pay for you own food and accommodations? How does that work? Is this only when you're deployed to certain places, or all of the time?

You pay for food and accom generally all the time unless you are in a real shithole. Someone may put me right but it's around 3 pounds a day for food and a little less for accomodation

 

[Frisco-Kid]

Well, I'm thinking this pretty much sucks . With us, it's all paid for. If you live in a barracks and have access to a mess hall, it's no charge. If you're at a place that doesn't have military accommodations, they pay you COLA [Cost Of Living Allowance]. If you're married but there is no base housing available, they pay you COLA to live off base. If I recall, single officers and senior NCOs could live off base by choice and collect COLA. Some of the guys here that stayed in longer than me, might recall how this worked and correct me.

Did you ever read my explanation of how to post a picture? Give it a shot, Bud.

 

[Eagledriver]

In Vietnam everybody in-country got paid an additional $65/mo, no matter what your MOS [job] was. Same thing for the sailors if their ship came within so many miles of shore. I'm sure it worked the same way for the fighter and bomber crews that flew sorties out of Thailand and Guam. I think Combat Pay went up to $125 for Desert Storm [Eagledriver?], and I'm guessing it's more now for Iraqi Freedom. Between Jump Pay [$55] and Combat Pay, I was making some serious money :mrgreen: as a PFC just in-country.

Am I to understand that you guys have to pay for you own food and accommodations? How does that work? Is this only when you're deployed to certain places, or all of the time?

Thanks for the answers, and I understand about the "Patrol" questions. Also, I know firsthand the therapeutic value of puting this stuff down in words, and "talking" to other people who have Been There, Done That. Thanks, my friend.

Rog on the combat pay. Also don't forget for those married- separation pay, Separate rations pay, etc. Pilots and crews get flight pay, combat pay(for combat aircrews).

 

[Eagledriver]

Well, I'm thinking this pretty much sucks :shock: . With us, it's all paid for. If you live in a barracks and have access to a mess hall, it's no charge. If you're at a place that doesn't have military accommodations, they pay you COLA [Cost Of Living Allowance]. If you're married but there is no base housing available, they pay you COLA to live off base. If I recall, single officers and senior NCOs could live off base by choice and collect COLA. Some of the guys here that stayed in longer than me, might recall how this worked and correct me.

Did you ever read my explanation of how to post a picture? Give it a shot, Bud.

Frisco, it's called basic clothing and housing allowance and it works just about how you called it except that it covers any married soldier above private, not just officers and senior NCO's. However, I'm not sure if it covered single officers and senior NCO's. You could be right about that. I've been married for 36 years so I don't know. How about it, DMZ_LT?

 

[tosh66]

Did you ever read my explanation of how to post a picture? Give it a shot, Bud.

Cheers, got it, will try it when I get more than 5 mins.

 

[DMZ-LT]

Yep , lived off post as a single officer when I came home from Bitnam and got COLA

 

[Eagledriver]

Cool. I wasn't in the Know about singles living off base being married as long as I have.

 

[Zofo]

[.

You pay for food and accom generally all the time unless you are in a real shithole. Someone may put me right but it's around 3 pounds a day for food and a little less for accomodation

Food now comes in just over three pounds now whilst accommodation is between 3-5 pounds, depending on the quality of the accommodation. Droney, do you remember Block 14 in Celle, that was grade III accommodation yet we still paid @ 2 pounds a day for the privilege!

 

[Frisco-Kid]

When you're talking food and accommodations are you talking about military facilities; a mess hall and barracks? Or, like say Ireland, would they strike a deal with a property owner for an apartment house, warehouse, or what ever? Same thing with food; would they make arrangements with a civilian facility to feed you? This whole concept of charging you room and board boggles my mind. Especially even if you're at a military installation in the U.K..

 

[Zofo]

Regarding food, the army had the ACC (Army Catering Corps) and no matter where you went, you'd find the cook or cooks with you. You pay for your meals, even when you didn't have them. I always served in barracks so always got to pay for my accommodation. However, there where occasions when the army paid us - Local Overseas Allowance covered you for food and accn at cheaper rates and also when you had to leave barracks - I did a big chemical warfare ex. in Germany on the Luneberg Heath and as I was just monitoring and recording dug in infantry for Porton Down (our chemical defence establishment) the army put me into a rather swish country hotel AND paid for the room and two meals a day (booze we paid for!).

I served with the US Army at a place called Camp Freya in the Fulda Gap and the US soldiers had a better way of arranging their food - they paid for it when they ate it - either by cash or with a chit of some sort. I always assumed that you guys did the same as us?!

 

[Frisco-Kid]

Zofo, no, not at all. Except as described about the COLA, everything was provided us. The G.I.s you described using money and chits: the one's with the chits were probably stationed there. The one's paying cash could have been TDY [temporary duty] there, and had been given a food allowance. If you remember my story about my stay in Saigon, I was put up in a transient hotel and given chits for meals.

Here in the states, a member of the armed forces could go to any military base, show his ID card to get on said base, as long as he had business there, and eat in their mess hall. If in uniform, he could walk right in and eat. If in civvies, he would show his ID card. I've done it a couple of times.

 

[drywall]

The guys who lived off post got extra pay for food they had to buy "on the economy" as they called it. Seperate rations, sep rats. If they got the sep rat pay they had to pay for their mess hall meals if I recollect right.

 

[Zofo]

Bloody 'ell, I served in the wrong mob. Our "pads" married folk had to pay rent on their married quarters and had to send the wife shopping for the groceries. Nothing so fancy as a PX (there was a huge one in Bremen which was like going to consumer heaven!!) but we had the NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air Force Institute) which was sort of ok - all our own (Brit brand name) stuff. As a singlie we also had to pay tax or equivalent to that in the UK (rates, then poll tax then council tax!) but so did the pads. Pads found in the cookhouse when not on guard or going on exercise were known as "bean stealers" - they couldn't buy a meal or anything and if caught having lunch or some other meal, they were more often than not reported, charged and fined. There were always plenty of people who would bubble them!!

 

[tosh66]

I must have wasted a few quid over the years paying for three square meals and prefering to eat elsewhere.
Rule no. 1 - If you have money, you never eat in the Cookhouse!

 

[Zofo]

That's for sure - we went to an "Indian" steak house (careful Viking!) in Celle, Germany (the Indians were what we would call "Red" our US friends would call native) and the girl who opened the door asked if we had a reservation! She couldn't understand why we pissed ourselves laughing!

 

[tosh66]

Mmmm German restaurants,- Weiner and Ziegerner Schnitzel mit Pommes!

 

[Zofo]

...oder halbhaenchen (?) mit pommes und paprika von der schnellimbiss.

 

[Drone_pilot]

war das vom City grill einfach gegenüberliegend die Stadtkirche ?

 

[tosh66]

...oder halbhaenchen (?) mit pommes und paprika von der schnellimbiss.

mit currywurst oder bratwurst und senf

 

[Bombardier]

Enjoy a Yager schnitzel myself mit pommes und mayonaise bitte