Easier for military spouses to be co-located under new Navy rules

Dual military couples are about to get a better shot at being stationed together.

That's part of the Navy's new guidelines that heighten the priority to co-locate couples where both spouses serve in the military. The Navy also hopes the move will spur the other services to provide greater flexibility to couples that serve in different military branches.



“This impacts nearly 20,000 sailors that we know of at the moment,” said Rear Adm. Ken Whitesell, head of distribution at the Navy Personnel Command. “There’s 9,000 Navy couples and about 2,000 sailors who have identified as having a spouse in another service in the system, but the number could grow.”

What you need to know:

1. New rules. Navy Personnel Command revised dual military couple detailing rules after Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus called for better flexibility for these couples in a sweeping personnel speech last May.

The new policy signed March 12 is outlined in an updated version of Military Personnel Manual article 1300-1000.

2. Highest priority. Being co-located with your spouse is now the default for dual military couples.

“It’s a change and evolution of our IT system, so we have better visibility with automatic triggers so when they’re negotiating orders that it’s mandatory that detailers talk between each other and find orders for each member in areas they can co-locate in,” Whitesell said.

As long as you're in the system as a dual Navy or military couples, your detailers will pull out all the stops to get you assigned together — unless you tell them in writing not to.

The IT system has a way to flag sailors who identify as dual military. And if for some reason your and your spouse’s detailers can't get a co-location done, it’s then automatically pushed up to the the head of detailing to review why not.

3. Raise your hand. Until now, co-location was something sailors had to apply for every time they negotiated orders.

Basically the system did not record their dual military status.

Now once you tell the Navy, the new system retains that information. Whitesell says it’s a good idea to log into your NSIPS — Navy Standard Integrated Personnel System account — and update your personal information. Under your spouse’s information is a box that asks if they are in the military. Once you check that box, that status should update throughout the Navy system.

For now, it’s a good idea to hit the system from multiple angles to ensure it’s all updated, Whitesell said. Sailors, he says should print out their information and send it to their detailer — then follow up with a phone call to make sure the flags are showing up in their record. Sailors can also log into the detailing system — CMS/ID — and update their information there too.

4. Reassignment. Whitesell stresses that a Dual military couples must be in what he calls a “legally binding relationship” with the papers to prove it, Whitesell said. The rules are the same for same-sex couples.

“This doesn’t apply to couples who are living together, but not married,” he added. “Just to be crystal clear.”

According to the policy, the Navy doesn’t have a maximum allowed distance for spouses' duty stations, but it says that “90 driving miles should be used as a guide when considering collocation requests.”

For couples not presently co-located, they can now request reassignment provided the sailor requesting co-location has completed at least one year at their current command, that a relief for them can be found and that they’re not also in under orders at training.

“Every effort will be made to achieve collocation within one year of the request; however, requirements regarding time on station, [proscribed sea tours], obligated service, retainability, recently acquired
skills, and training will all be considerations of the request,” the policy states.

5. Inter-service couples. This is the wild card in the system, but the Navy’s trying to fix it.

“Right now there is no formal agreement between the services on dual military couple assignments,” Whitesell said. “Currently, how we do it is the Navy service member submits their request for co-location and must provide a phone number or some kind of point of contact to their spouse's detailer in the other service.”

From there, he said, it’s up to the detailer to strike an agreement with their counterpart in the other service — but nothing is guaranteed.

Hopefully, he said, that will change, soon.

“We have submitted a recommendation to DoD for a policy change that would make it mandatory for the detailers to work across the services and adhere to a dual-military co-location policy similar to what the Navy has put in place for dual Navy couples,” Whitesell said.

Whitesell said he didn’t have a timeline as to when a DoD policy might happen said it was a priority to get it done.