Always Check Your Page 2 Carefully

[firehawkordy]

All members in the US Armed Forces should be real careful about what goes into your 201File/Page 2. I say this for a reason, this happened to me, the Navy had listed my daughter as my spouse.

 

Why?, you ask did I not catch it? Simple I was never married to her mother or anyone else for that matter so I always skipped over the spousal information when I would do an update. As long as my kid was listed, was beneficiary, and I got BAQ for her I was happy.

 

Heres how I found out, the kid just turned 18 and is still in school but does a lot of traveling with her friends, I figured that she should get a dependents ID card so if she needed gas or food or a "safe haven' until I or one of her Navy "uncles or aunts" could bail her out. While filling out the paperwork I was asked to confirm an ID for Dependent/Spouse, I said no, just dependent, I was never married. At that point I was informed that somehow my kid got listed as "spouse". Well it took a trip to the Legal Office at NAS Lemore, a couple of forms and an affidavit to correct an 18 year old error.

 

While I could have blown a gasket all I could do was come up with jokes and smart remarks over the whole deal. The Sailors and Civil workers at NAS Lemore PSD and Legal Dept were very professional and helpful and made sure that my DEERS Information was corrected quickly. The funniest part was that I got this piece of news on the anniversary of my real marriage.

 

The lesson is this, even though you are single, when they ask you to check your page 2 for accuracy, go over EVERY line of entered material, it'll save maybe not you but your wife or kids a lot of embarrassment in the future.

Edited October 30, 2008 by firehawkordy