ChristianMilitaryWives

FROM: Operation Military Kids

LES 101: What it tells you and
why you should examine it every payday

By: Claire Shackelford

When my husband first joined the military I had so many new names, acronyms, and forms thrown my way that I was sent into information overload. I had a very hard time prioritizing what item of business should be taken care of before another. Fortunately, I had a very wise and experienced Army wife who shared a sage piece of advice with me. I want to pass that along to you.

She said that as soon as the essentials were taken care of (such as making sure all of the information in DEERS is correct and housing is nailed down) to be sure to comb over my husband’s LES every single payday.

If an error is made and the military overpays your spouse, did you know they can and will take it back out of a future paycheck once the error is found? I have talked to a few wives who had not kept up with their husband’s LES and then the find out that there has been an error and the military will be taking a chunk of an upcoming paycheck. It has happened to some families, and much to their own financial chagrin.

Here are some pointers and basic information that will help you use the LES to keep yourself informed:

1. Always know your spouse’s base pay and your BAH pay. The only time this should fluctuate is during training, after a PCS (adjustments for cost of living), and other normal raises and allowances. Always investigate any unexpected increase or decrease in pay. Be sure it is not an error. If you are not sure about an increase, never spend the money. Always set it aside until you are certain. Two things to remember: 1. If the Army owes you money they will pay it back in small increments. 2. If you owe the military money they normally take it out in one huge chunk! It’s better to have that extra money sitting in savings so that when it’s time to pay the military piper you are not left flat!
2. If you are missing money on your LES report it immediately. Be sure to take the name of each person you may have to talk with, and be sure to get specific information such as when you can expect to see the money you are owed reflected on your LES.
3. Know what information is on your LES and what it tells you. Following the LE displayed below is a key to help you understand what each line means (image fromwikipedia) Continue reading beyond the picture for a detailed description of each item on the LES:

Here's a link to a large image of an LES. I had it posted here but it's messing up the format of the post. Feel free to open it in another tab for reference if needed.

(The following information was found on www.dfas.mil)
Field 1 NAME. The member’s name in last, first, middle initial format.
Field 2 SOC. SEC. NO. The member’s Social Security Number.
Field 3 GRADE (or rank). The member’s current pay grade.
Field 4 PAY DATE. The date the member entered active duty for pay purposes in
YYMMDD format. This is synonymous with the Pay Entry Base Date (PEBD).
Field 5 YRS SVC. In two digits, the actual years of creditable service.
Field 6 ETS. The Expiration Term of Service in YYMMDD format. This is synonymous with the Expiration of Active Obligated Service (EAOS).
Field 7 BRANCH. The branch of service, i.e., Navy.
Field 8 ADSN/DSSN. The Disbursing Station Symbol Number used to identify each disbursing office.
Field 9 PERIOD COVERED. This is the period covered by the individual LES. Normally it will be for one calendar month. If this is a separation LES, the separation date will appear in this field.
Field 10 ENTITLEMENTS. In columnar style the names of the entitlements and allowances being paid. Space is allocated for fifteen entitlements and/or allowances. If more than fifteen are present the overflow will be printed in the remarks block. Any retroactive entitlements and/or allowances will be added to like entitlements and/or allowances.
Field 11 DEDUCTIONS. The description of the deductions are listed in columnar style. This includes items such as taxes, SGLI, Mid-month pay and dependent dental plan. Space is allocated for fifteen deductions. If more than fifteen are present the overflow will be printed in the remarks block. Any retroactive deductions will be added to like deductions.
Field 12 ALLOTMENTS. In columnar style the type of the actual allotments being deducted. This includes discretionary and non-discretionary allotments for savings and/or checking accounts, insurance, bonds, etc. Space is allocated for fifteen allotments. If a member has more than one of the same type of allotment, the only differentiation may be that of the dollar amount.
Field 13 +AMT FWD. The amount of all unpaid pay and allowances due from the prior LES.
Field 14 + TOT ENT. The figure from Field 20 that is the total of all entitlements and/or allowances listed.
Field 15 - TOT DED. The figure from Field 21 that is the total of all deductions.
Field 16 - TOT ALMT. The figure from Field 22 that is the total of all allotments.
Field 17 = NET AMT. The dollar value of all unpaid pay and allowances, plus total entitlements and/or allowances, minus deductions and allotments due on the current LES.
Field 18 - CR FWD. The dollar value of all unpaid pay and allowances due to reflect on the next LES as the +AMT FWD.
Field 19 = EOM PAY. The actual amount of the payment to be paid to the member on payday.
Fields 20 - 22 TOTAL. The total amounts for the entitlements and/or allowances, deductions and allotments respectively.
Fields 23 through 30 contain leave information.
Fields 31 through 36 contain Federal Tax withholding information.
Fields 37 through 41 contain Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) information.
Fields 42 through 47 contain State Tax information.

Field 48 BAQ TYPE. The type of Basic Allowance for Quarters being paid.
Field 49 BAQ DEPN. A code that indicates the type of dependent.

• I - Member married to member/own right
• R - Own right
• A - Spouse
• C - Child
• W - Member married to member, child under 21
• G - Grandfathered
• D - Parent
• K - Ward of the court
• L - Parents in Law
• S - Student (age 21-22)
• T - Handicapped child over age 21

Field 50 VHA ZIP. The zip code used in the computation of Variable Housing Allowance (VHA) if entitlement exists.
Field 51 RENT AMT. The amount of rent paid for housing if applicable.
Field 52 SHARE. The number of people with which the member shares housing costs.
Field 53 STAT. The VHA status; i.e., accompanied or unaccompanied.
Field 54 JFTR. The Joint Federal Travel Regulation (JFTR) code based on the location of the member for Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) purposes.
Field 55 DEPNS. The number of dependents the member has for VHA purposes.
Field 56 2D JFTR. The JFTR code based on the location of the member’s dependents for COLA purposes.
Field 57 BAS TYPE. An alpha code that indicates the type of Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) the member is receiving, if applicable. This field will be blankfor officers.

• B - Separate Rations
• C - TDY/PCS/Proceed Time
• H - Rations-in-kind not available
• K - Rations under emergency conditions

Field 58 CHARITY YTD. The cumulative amount of charitable contributions for the
calendar year.
Field 59 TPC. This field is used by reserves.
Field 60 PACIDN. The activity Unit Identification Code (UIC)

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If you experience any problems with your LES address them immediately. Be sure to take the name of the individual you talk with. This helps if there is any conflict in information shared.

The Scent of a Godly Woman

I came across the following topic on Massachusetts General Hospital’s forums. It was well written and very helpful information for all parents, but especially children of military members as they may be more sensitive to war related news.

 

Talking with Children about Upsetting News Events

Comments from: Paula K. Rauch, MD and colleagues from the MassGeneral Hospital for Children

EXCERPT

Dr. Rauch is a child psychiatrist who leads the Marjorie E. Korff PACT (Parenting At a Challenging Time) Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. www.mghpact.org

All children are exposed to news via newspapers, radio, the Internet, and especially television. And they naturally turn to their parents with questions about what they have seen and heard. For a child whose family is impacted by the earthquake in Haiti, news about the tragedy can raise concerns about their own family’s safety. Discussing these issues poses a special challenge for parents to listen, understand, and answer their children’s questions in a manner that is both honest and reassuring. Meeting this challenge successfully strengthens your child’s inner strength, sense of security, and trust in you.

First, you know your child best. You have likely been through good time and stressful times before. How your child has reacted in the past is often a good predictor for how he or she will cope with new challenges. Think about what has been helpful for your child previously, and use these successful strategies from the past. Most children will benefit from maintaining regular routines, including daily schedules and normal expectations for schoolwork. Children will take their emotional cues from the adults in their world. If we are calm usually they will feel secure; however, it is important to talk to your child about his or her specific concerns.

Second, check in with your child. Find out what he or she has been hearing, seeing and thinking about a new event or whether it has not yet come to his or her attention. Questions such as, “Are kids at school talking about __________?” or, “ What have you heard about __________?” are good ways to open such a conversation. If your child is younger and is not aware of the news, you may elect to go no further with this conversation. If your child has heard about the news event, encourage him or her to tell you about what they’ve heard or what they think about what others are saying. Ask if they have any specific worries. To answer questions and allay fears, it is important to really understand what your child is struggling with before you move to answer or reassure him.

Third, TV images can be upsetting. Turn off the TV around young children or those who may have been upset by TV news in the past. Be mindful that coverage of the same earthquake over and over again can be misinterpreted as something that is happening repeatedly. Watch television with older children so you can answer questions and be aware of their feelings. Some older children need to be reminded that the TV images can be overwhelming and that it’s OK not to watch. This is true for many adults, who may feel better listening to radio reports or reading newspaper coverage rather than watching disturbing TV images.

Fourth, make the most of family time. Spend extra time with your children. Turn off the telephone and the TV during meals so you can talk together. Often parents can identify times in the day or activities that facilitate thoughtful conversations. Sometimes, it is while driving in the car or when a child sits with a parent who is working in the kitchen. Those are great times to check in with your child and talk. CLICK TO READ MORE

I  had the pleasure of interviewing a dear friend of mine, Sue Gallogly, on our show last Friday. Sue was raised as a military dependent, and later she married and lost her husband in the Vietnam war. After becoming a Gold star wife of the Vietnam war, Sue later remarried another man in the military and now has two sons in the military who have been through several deployments. 

Even as a young child Sue was a believer in Jesus, but she also was covered over in fear, doubt and insecurities. Instead of taking her fears, doubts and insecurities to the Lord she took food and used it to comfort her and fill in the empty places.

Sue "dieted" her way to 280 pounds. At a point of desperation she reached out and found a 12-step program that helped her to deal with her addiction to food. She lost 110 pounds in 9 months and has kept it off for more than 13-years. 

Sue is willing to personally talk to any woman from CMW who fears she may have an addiction to food. For more information listen to the show ("listen" tab at the top - show is hunger and thirst for righteousness) and then email me at claire@christianmilitarywives.com  with your questions for her or indicate that you would like to talk with Sue personally.
 

FYI! From Armylive.dod I will be printing the full reoport and will write up an article about it in detail next week. 

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Impact of Multiple Deployments on Children

The new reality of repetitive deployments has led to innovative programs and policies designed to assist military children in dealing with the difficulties of deployments.  Initiatives—ranging from “flat daddies” replacing deployed soldiers at the dinner table, to senior leaders ceremoniously signing the Army Family Covenant at installations across the world, to the First Lady proposing nearly $9 billion to support military families—point to the growing concern that multiple deployments may be as stressful to Army children as they are to soldiers.  Despite the increased attention and seemingly endless resources directed at children in deployed families, however, there has been very little research examining the effects of multiple deployments on children.

In March of 2009, Leonard Wong and Stephen Gerras from the U.S. Army War College began a two-phase study to examine the effects of multiple deployments on Army adolescents.  The first phase, collected through an online survey, evaluated the perspectives of over 2,000 soldiers, 700 spouses, and 500 Army children between 11 and 17.  The second phase collected the views of over 100 Army adolescents through individual interviews at 8 Army installations throughout the U.S. 

As expected, they found that strong families—to include a non-deployed spouse who coped well with deployments—as well as ample activities such as sports to keep Army youngsters busy serve to reduce stress levels of Army adolescents during a deployment.  Surprisingly, they also found that the attitudes of Army children play a role in dealing with deployment stress and coping with a life of deployments.  Children who believed that soldiers are making a difference in the world and that the American public supported the war were significantly more likely to report that they were coping better with deployments.  The study highlights the often overlooked impact of attitudinal factors such as the influence of public opinion concerning the war and the importance—in a life marked by multiple deployments—of an adolescent’s confidence that their parent’s call to duty is worth the sacrifice.

For a free download of the full study, please visit the US Army War College Strategic Studies Institute website:http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=962. 

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This past Friday we had our first of the year radio show! We interviewed one of our own members, Jocelyn Green along with two other co-authors of the new book in the series, Stories of Faith and Courage from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

You can listen to the interview HERE, and find excerpts from the book HERE. 

The book can be found easily at Amazon.

Here is some information on the book and on each of the authors taken from Jocelyn's Faith Deployed site.

Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq/Afghanistan, part of the Battlefields & Blessings series, is a 365-day collection of inspiring stories of courage perseverance and faith-based on firsthand accounts of more than seventy who have served in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan.Through multiple, never-before-told stories, readers will uncover the personal challenges of the battlefield. You’ll hear about the experiences and perspectives of deployed soldiers; chaplains; military wives, widows, parents and siblings; organizers of humanitarian efforts; veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; missionaries to the Middle East and more.

The book was co-authored by Jocelyn Green, Jane Hampton Cook and John Croushorn, and was released by AMG Publishers in November 2009.

About the Authors:

Jocelyn Green

Jocelyn Green is an award-winning freelance writer who pens articles for dozens of magazines, including Christianity Today, Today’s Christian, Today’s Pentecostal Evangel, Baptist Bulletin, EFCA Today, InSite and more. She also writes for nonprofits, universities and corporations such as Juicy Juice, Nestle, Publix and General Mills. Wife of a former Coast Guard officer, she authored Faith Deployed: Daily Encouragement for Military Wives(Moody Publishers 2008). She also edited and contributed toStories of Faith and Courage from World War 2 by Larkin Spivey, a 2009 Military Writers Society of America Silver Medal Winner. She’s a member of the Evangelical Press Association, the Christian Authors Network and the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She and her husband have two children, a dog and a cat, and reside in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Jane Hampton Cook

Cook is the author of Stories of Faith and Courage from the Revolutionary War (2007), the second in the Battlefields & Blessings series,  and The Faith of America’s First Ladies(2006). Not long after the explosion of the World Wide Web, Cook became a pioneer in political Internet development as webmaster to President George W. Bush. She served five years, including two years as White House deputy director of Internet news services (2001-03) and three years in the Texas governor’s office (1998-01). In the White House, she redesigned whitehouse.gov and created the first stand-alone White House website for children, whitehousekids.gov. Cook directed Bush’s first expansive gubernatorial website in 1998 and designed his first presidential campaign website in 1999. She also received a history fellowship from the White House Historical Association in 2003 to conduct research on the White House and its heroic occupants. She and her husband, Dr. John Kim Cook, a U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security official, live with their two young sons in Vienna, Virginia.

John Croushorn, M.D.

Dr. John Croushorn is a residency-trained, board certified emergency medicine physician and Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Trinity Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Dr. Croushorn’s experience with emergent care extends beyond the hospital in several ways. He served as command surgeon of Task Force 185, Army Combat Aviation, in Iraq in 2004. Dr. Croushorn was active in combat operations throughout the region in the second year of Operation Iraqi Freedom as well as functioning as crew and door gunner on Blackhawk and Chinook helicopters for just over 100 combat hours. 

Dr. Croushorn currently works with several federal agency special operations teams supporting the Global War on Terrorism as well as special operations assets in the Department of Defense (DoD). He consults for the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Center of Operational Medicine and National Tactical Officers Association. He has designed products for use in tactical medicine as well as enhanced capability body armor and is involved with research at the Clinical Investigations Lab at Ft. Gordon, Georgia. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and is husband to Julie and father to Caleb and Katie. 

 

We are carefully walking our way through the book of John in BSF. Last week we studied the 9th Chapter. I love it when I study familiar passages and see things in a different way than I had in the past. I know the Spirit is at work in us and as He transforms us by the renewing of our minds, the Word's meaning grows deeper and wider. It truly is a life spring and a well that never runs dry! 

 The first six verses of Chapter 9 tell the story of the man blind from birth and who was transformed by Jesus' touch. I say transformed instead of healed because the notion of "healing" is to return one to a healthy state -- this man had never been able to see, and some theologians even believe the man may have been born with no eyes or very deformed eyes. He was not "returned" to a previous state -- he was given something he had never had before! 

 The story is quite gripping as we watch the destiny of a blind man, just doing his daily living, unfold and a miracle beyond miracles is performed. Jesus took mud He fashioned from nothing more than His own spit and the dirt at His feet.  He put the mud on the man's eyes and told him to bathe in the pool of Siloam. The man had a responsibility and had to obey a command to reap the benefit of this miracle that had been freely offered to him by Jesus. 

As I read and contemplated this story I was reminded and deeply convicted that my own faith is also a miracle. I was not merely healed from my condition. I was not "restored" to righteousness! I was dead in my sin and hopeless. Jesus performed the miracle of redemption for me on the cross. Through Him I am righteous. Through Him I have hope. Through Him I have life abundant and life everlasting! Just like the blind man, and I too have a responsibility to obey my Savior and do what He has asked me to do. 

It's not always easy though, is it? One day we feel confident and we have all the faith in the world -- or so it seems. Then on the next day we feel lost. We feel like we have nothing to offer. We are so painfully aware of our own shortcomings and deficits that we are embarrassed to even give what we have to give. We all struggle through these feelings. It's part of our human condition and struggle. We are quick to take our eyes off of our Savior and focus back on "self."

Sisters, let me remind you that in the loving hands of our Lord and Savior miracles can happen! The Lord took the most primitive materials available to Him and used them in the miracle of the man blind since birth. The mud didn't perform the miracle. The spit didn't perform the miracle. Jesus performed the miracle, and He chose to use common materials as His tools. 

I know that I often feel about as useful as mud. It brings me great comfort to remember that in Jesus' hands nothing is ordinary. In Jesus' hands what I have to offer can be used because of what He does with it, not because of what I can accomplish.  

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I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength,
But sometimes I wonder what He can do through me;
No great success to show, No glory on my own,
Yet in my weakness He is there to let me know . . .

CHORUS
His strength is perfect when our strength is gone;
He’ll carry us when we can’t carry on.
Raised in His power, the weak become strong;
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect.

We can only know
The power that He holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes;
His strength in us begins
Where ours comes to an end.
He hears our humble cry and proves again . . .

(chorus) 

His Strength is Perfect -- Steven Curtis Chapman