When my husband went on his first deployment last year I was still new to the military life. I didnt know much about anything. We were both pretty clueless. He tried to make sure that we had everything taken care of that we could think of.

We figured the main thing would be getting a power of attorney so that I would be able to do anything that needed to be done while he was gone. Getting the power of attorney eliminated a lot of extra stress for us. Another big thing we did was created a contact list and made a few copies for my husband to take with him. He will try to call home whenever he has the opportunity. If he can't reach me on my phone then I want him to try other phone numbers that I could possibly be reached at. We wouldn't want to miss out on an opportunity to speak with each other.

If I had a list of things to do then maybe things would of been easier for my husband during his final weeks at home.

Here's a list of things that I've gathered from my own experience and from speaking with others.
  • Confirm email address and contact information
  • Obtain updated copy of orders and page 2 data
  • Attend pre-deployment briefings
  • Update power of attorney
  • Make sure DOD ID's are current for all eligible family members
  • Create an emergency contact list and make sure the deploying member has a few copies of the list.(can have one in seabag, one in rack, one in pocket of uniform)
  • Create a budget for bills together
  • Locate deed and mortgage papers
  • Copies of Marriage License, Birth Certificate of deploying spouse and drivers license of deploying spouse
  • Verify current allotments
  • Get a calendar and update it together with all important events and dates. Try to make sure it's an electronic version and a hard copy version created for both of you.

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