Preparing for Your Deployment

Life in uniform is about being deployment ready. You may be duty-ready, but don’t overlook preparations needed for your family on the home front. Service members are strongly encouraged to work with immediate and extended family members to address financial, legal and household matters to ensure home is secure while they are away.

Find out more about what happens during the predeployment phase for service members and their families.

Take the following steps to help you and your family get organized for deployment.

Exactly how service members prepare for their upcoming deployment depends on their specific orders to mobilize. Some deployments include an 18-month “cruise” on military ships performing routine patrols. Other service members may land at a forward operating base, or FOB, in combat zones. Others may deploy to duty stations with restaurants and shops you’d recognize back home.

No matter the deployment, service members undergo specialized training, briefings, medical evaluations and counseling.

Learn more about predeployment preparations.

Getting your legal affairs in order before deploying can reduce some of your anxiousness and worry, giving you more confidence while away.

It’s recommended service members grant a limited power of attorney to a trusted family member or friend. This ensures someone on the home front has the legal authority to address necessary legal or economic issues, such as loan payments or vehicle transactions, that may come up while you’re away.

Service members are also encouraged to draft or update a will.

During your deployment, you may be eligible for military pay entitlements, such as a family separation allowance or combat pay. This is an ideal time to save money, pay off debt or tidy up your finances. Meeting with a personal finance specialist can be a great way to ensure you understand your entitlements and benefits and get the most out of your money to meet your financial goals.

• Defense Finance and Accounting Service – Special and Incentive Pays

Service members should ensure that their DD Form 93, or Record of Emergency Data, and life insurance coverage are current.

To learn more, view the e-tutorial “Completing the DD93.”

Service members receive automatic life insurance coverage of $500,000 upon enlistment. Through SGLI’s Online Enrollment System, or SOES, service members can:

• Review, increase or decrease their SGLI coverage
• Add a beneficiary or edit the beneficiary’s information
• View, print or download their SGLI coverage certificate

The Military Family and Readiness System provides a wide variety of deployment support for service members and families, from predeployment briefings to family readiness group meetings and more.

Before you deploy, make a plan for how you can get in touch with family back home, especially if this is your first deployment. Just like basic training, you will be busy and may not have the time or opportunity to respond immediately. It could take several weeks before you’re able to contact home. Once you do, you will be able to give your family an idea of how frequently you can communicate and by what means.

The military is full of changes. You can be gearing up for a deployment and then get orders that your mission is canceled or postponed. That’s why contingency planning is part of deployment planning.

If you have questions or need help finding information, Military OneSource Call Center consultants are available 24/7/365 to connect you with the answers and resources you need.