Can a CSM prohibit a SGT from establishing joint domicile?

A CSM cannot prohibit your having a Joint Domicile. Only the Commander can, and if the orders are published by HRC (which most orders like that are), and neither you or your husband have an MOS critical to the command, it should be no problem to grant you joint domicile. There are circumstances that can affect living together, but "Because I said so" is not one of them. Go to your local Inspector General office and outline your problem to them. They are the ones who can fix this, and if they cannot, they will at least find out why the local commander is violating DA orders.

A Flat refusal by any CSM is not the end. Only the Commander can definitively state Yea or Nay. Many variables (data) missing here. Husband, Army or Air Force? Critical MOS? Etc.....!? I would press through both Chains of Command, be prepared to address with IG. Something does not smell right here.

SSG Kristell Lee The short answer is that, yes, personnel can be required to live separately even if on joint domicile orders, based on the needs of the command. I am certainly not saying that I agree with what is happening to you and your husband, but, it is authorized and quite common in Korea, at least when I was the Military Police brigade commander there.

Soldiers assigned to certain areas (primarily in the 2ID forward areas) are required to live on post (no family housing), even if their family members are in Korea. The joint domicile put you both in Korea, not necessarily the same installation or unit. Many officers and NCOs, for example, lived at Camp Red Cloud in the 2ID area, while their family members lived in Yongsan (Seoul), to include general officers, brigade commanders, CSMs, etc.

I always tried my best to accommodate joint military couples to get them as close to each other as possible. Typically, only one was assigned to my unit and I found that I was more willing to accommodate it than many other commanders. It was easier to do if there were no kids in the mix (due to schools, etc.) and it was not always possible to get them on the same installation.

I would have a problem, as a commander, having one of my NCOs residing 50 miles away from the unit/installation he/she was assigned to, especially in Korea.

Seems to me that your best bet is to get your commander/CSM involved to see if they can assist you by talking to your husband's unit commander/CSM. In addition, your husband should be doing the same thing with his chain of command. Unless one or both of you are in very specialized MOS' with very limited slots in specific locations, I can't imagine something cannot be worked out to get you two closer together, even if it means reassigning one of you to a different unit.

Good luck...

AR 614-30, Overseas Service, para 4-4 (joint domicile of married Army couples), and AR 614-200, Enlisted Assignments and Utilization Management, Section IV (Married Army Couples Program), Para 5-20 through 5-22, cover your assignment criteria and process; make sure you are familiar with these regulations when you go talk to people about this issue so you are on firm ground when discussing what "should" or "shouldn't" be happening. There are a couple of points about the regulations that lead to confusion. The regulations state that the Army will attempt to station married couples to the same geographic area when possible. Some leaders stop reading there, and state that the Army got you to the same area, and that is as far as the MACP gets you. They also will stress that the Army only states they will ATTEMPT that. However, the regulations further state that the purpose is (as you pointed out) to establish a joint domicile - to live together. And while the Married Army Couples PROGRAM (MACP) attempts to get couples to the same area even if they can't establish a joint domicile (plenty of Soldiers with Ft Hood/Ft Sam Houston marriages attest to that), when a Joint Domicile JD) assignment IS established, it is done for the express purpose of the couple creating a joint domicile (again, living together.) For this purpose, the regulation defines the distance and time requirements (50 miles or one hour commute). For your situation, it is important to note that prior to issuing JD orders, HRC determined you were eligible for those orders using the criteria of AR 614-200, para 5-22j. One of the criteria is that the gaining command determined a common household could be established (see AR 614-200, para 5-22j(2).)

In other words, your unit and your husband's unit told HRC that they could accommodate the two of you living together prior to the orders being issued. Realistically, the personnel section of the highest level headquarters on peninsula for your units probably made that determination and forwarded the information through 8th Army, but someone in the chain of command signed off on that. If they did not agree that those determinations could be made without the CSM's input, the authority to do so shouldn't have been delegated. In any case, that criteria was able to be met - and communicated to HRC, resulting in the two of you being issued JD orders (with accompanied tour lengths.) If that hadn't been the case you would have been given the option of making other arrangements for the tour (one of you going unaccompanied for a year, or leaving your child with relatives and both of you going unaccompanied for a year) since you wouldn't be living together anyway. Their assurances resulted in your decision to take an accompanied tour with your husband also taking an accompanied tour, meaning two years overseas, and now you are told you will not live together for two years.

So go see your chain of command, who have been supportive, and enlist your CSM to help you with this. If he or she cannot work with your husband's unit to fix this, at least your CSM will know why you have to go to the IG, so it won't be a surprise (CSMs HATE those kinds of surprises.) But go to the IG if you must. Although the needs of the Army will come first (if it is absolutely necessary for mission accomplishment, this may not be able to be fixed, but if that is the case your husband is one very important young SGT), your assignment instructions should be honored. By the way, did he go to where he was intended? Or were you both sent to the reception station first and then your husband was sent to his unit (in which case he may have been diverted to a unit other than his intended assignment, which should be an easier fix)?

By the way, if you are in the Army and your husband is in the Air Force, there is no program for the services to work together, at this time. Dual-service couples must work this out assignment-by-assignment and there are no regulations or rules. Hopefully, though, someone would have explained this to you by now and you would have included this relevant information in your question.

Best of luck.

Negative, talk with a commisioned field grade Officer. CSM being the senior NCO of the unit, has no legal say so. Being an E-5, by going above the CSMs head, may not bode well for you. However, in the grand scheme of things, you may accomplish your family goal. Korea has always been a delicate area as far as families PCSing there....Good luck!

they are not honoring what joint domicile is, which is when married couples wish to establish a common household.
if his MOS is available on OSAN then his command should be able to move him there.
Try to see if he can request permissive intratheater reassignment for the purpose of establishing a joint domicile, as per his orders say. Anything is possible if you talk to the right people. Unless his command has given him solid concrete reasons why this cannot happen, then I think its laziness and incompetence on their end. They should do all that they can to take care of the Soldiers. I would get this moving ASAP. He needs to do a lot of the leg work if no one over there is helping him out. Which is finding out the policies and procedures for getting him transferred closer to you or to get his unit to honor his PCS orders to include establishing a common household.

I am not sure how the Army works. But I would suspect that if it is on approved orders than in theory the answer should be no. I would go and top cover above the E-9. Typically these decisions can only be reversed by the commanding officer. In which case they will have to amend orders. My understanding if it is a joint tour than it should be honored. I have the feeling that his CSM is assuming authority he does not have. But I will concede to your Army counterparts. Orders are orders and last I checked it takes an officer with G series authority to reverse or modify them.

Anyone notice that this was posted a year and a half ago? What was the final outcome?

The short simple answer is no! A CSM is not a commander, therefore he has no command authority. The more complex answer is that the CSM is the Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Commander. Therefore the CSM and Commander have a talk about your husband's mission and needs of the Army and needs of the soldier and soldier's family. The Commander gives command approval to CSM's mission assessment of what the unit needs your husband to do and CSM passes that on to your husband without ever mentioning that CSM has been given command approval from Commander, because that is the CSM's duty. If you press this issue you will enrage the chain of command of your husband's unit and they will make his life hell for the time he has to spend in Korea. If you feel you are alone, don't , as many soldiers go through this same ordeal, I was promised a Command Sponsered slot in 2 ID as a SGM that the unit reneged on once I reported to the unit. I reported without my wife and children as school was not out yet. Another soldier reported in the same month with his unauthorized spouse and they gave my slot to him to keep him from having to send his wife back to the states. Shit happens sometimes, especially in 2 ID when the spouse is in Eighth US Army or elsewhere. If you want to end your husband's career by pressing the envelope you can talk to the Inspector General or do a Congressional Inquiry. Just be very aware of the possible consequences.

STRAIGHT FOOLISHNESS...