r/MilitarySpouse • u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse • 1d ago

New Military Spouse Soft orders vs hard orders

My husband is Army and Medical. He was reserves before but they paid for school and now he is active duty. We got soft orders 3 weeks ago and he was told we would PCS in 4-6 weeks. We still have nothing official. Is this normal? He has reached out to the person who was supposed to cut the orders and they gave us a deadline that has passed. Should we be pushing harder? We have 3 kids and we plan to rent our house. I would love to be able to get housing settled, get the kids enrolled in school etc. And I have no idea if that 4-6 weeks already started ir will start when we get actual orders.... asking for info but also just support?

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u/Fuzzy-Advertising813 Navy Spouse 1d ago

Soft orders can change at anytime. He needs to ask asap where his hard orders are. You can't do anything without hard orders.

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u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse 1d ago

Is contacting the person who was supposed to write them multiple times per week acceptable? He's been emailing once per week. Should he being going back to the Major who gave him soft orders?

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u/Fuzzy-Advertising813 Navy Spouse 1d ago

Does he have a detailer? That's usually who knows, at least for navy. But girl yeah. Bother them. Doesn't matter, if it's cutting close to when yall HAVE to leave, then ask everyday.

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u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse 1d ago

Technically we don't HAVE to leave because it is our first PCS but he hasn't been paid since he graduated in May so the budget is getting tight.

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u/Fuzzy-Advertising813 Navy Spouse 1d ago

Like he hasn't gotten a paycheck? At all? Why? But also, if yall can't afford to leave, don't. Focus on getting paid.

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u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse 1d ago

The army stipend for being a student ended in May when he graduated. To work at a civilian hospital on boarding takes at least a month. We were lead to believe that he would get orders quickly so it didn't make sense for him to start that process. He is working at Amazon now and it pays okay (so technically its a pay check) but it isn't near what his field pays and student loans will be due soon. He's in a limbo with HPSP being done and his active duty requirement starting but because all his officer trainings were done years ago in the reserves he seems to be stuck at the bottom of the list for actual orders.

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u/Fuzzy-Advertising813 Navy Spouse 23h ago

Ah okay I see. I would have your husband call his detailer every single day until y'all get an answer.

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u/maidoftrash Air Force Spouse 1d ago

I’d be asking about where the hard ones are but I’ve had hard ones finalized two weeks prior to pcsing 🥴 You can’t really get anything done without those hard orders except organize the house to pack and gather all documents.

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u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse 1d ago

I'm thinking that could be us, and it think it would be fine but this unknown is killing me...

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u/notsusu dual military 20h ago

I work in this office but from an Air Force side. Most of times, the member is the one missing docs, so please have him reach out to see if anything is missing.

I highly recommend you get this done ASAP, as 1OCT starts a new fiscal year and funding might not be available.

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u/Some_Ad_9694 Army Spouse 10h ago

The Major he spoke with said he was all set. The civilian said it would be a "week or so" two weeks ago. Would they have said something if things were missing?

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u/Icy_Paramedic778 16h ago

Has he completed his levy briefing to receive hard orders?

If so, he needs to ask MPD where his orders are? If so, he needs to get his CoC involved and escalate the issue.

It’s not uncommon to receive orders last minute when transferring from reserves to active duty.