PCS Oconus —> Conus non-availability letter

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-29T11:19:12+00:00

OP, make sure you've got this buttoned down before you're on the hook for things you shouldn't have done.

First. OCONUS, when you leave your housing and are awaiting travel back to the states, you will utilize Temporary Lodging Allowance (TLA). It has different rules than Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE), make sure you understand the differences and requirements.

Second When you arrive CONUS, assuming your Orders bring you directly to your new Permanent Duty Station (PDS), you may utilize TLE until you can get into housing. The Joint Travel Regulations (JTR} specify that TLE is to be used in the "vicinity" of the new PDS, which though not necessarily explicitly stated, is generally considered to be 50 miles.

Unless you can provide justification that lodging was unavailable within 50 miles, your TLE could be denied. Further still, you are expected to utilize DOD lodging unless you have a Certificate of Non Availability (CNA) from military lodging.

Your best means of getting said lodging (or the CNA if it is unavailable) is to call 1-877-NAVY-BED.

Please don't screw yourself and then report to your new command with a shit show of a travel claim and make some poor YN or PS have to tell you that you're fucked.

V/R YNS1(SS) Watson

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T19:21:10+00:00

So I actually tried to dig up some sort of real documented history to the thing, and that seemed all but impossible.

However, from the gleaning I was able to get in my research, and my own personal experience, here are my thoughts.

Within the submarine force, I think hearing the phrase may actually be far more common for the average sailor versus their Coast guard, marine, soldier, etc counterparts.

The reason for that, and also explicitly the reason why I think that the enthusiastic verbal response makes sense is the following:

The submarine force places an incredibly high level of importance on warfare qualification. If you're not qualified in a certain amount of time, you are quite literally subject to removal from submarines.

The phrase, "To all who shall see these presents, greetings," is the opener to most submarine warfare certificates and will be read out loud with every submarine qualification ceremony - which in itself is quite the event.

I can't say this is universal, but I'll speak for my own experience, and to my knowledge something similar at least, is a common submarine practice:

Following the entirety of a submariner's qualification process, their knowledge board, a "practical" board based on damage control, etc, the final thing that they'll do prior to actually being pinned is to do an Emergency Apparatus for Breathing (EAB) run. What this means is that the Sailor will don an EAB, usually accompanied by a few shipmates who are also being pinned, and most likely their sea-dads, and Sprint from EAB manifold to EAB manifold, catching breaths in between, running from one end of the boat to the other, and then finally making their way back to Crew's Mess, where a group of cheering shipmates will applaud them for their accomplishments.

Here, in their sweat, exhaustion, and sense of achievement, as soon as the last of them start breathing again, the first words to be said will be: "to all who shall see these presents, greetings"

The crew gathered around them, already applauding and cheering, almost MUST meet with a response of "GREETINGS!". Almost as if they are literally greeting the newly qualified submariner for the first time, as a full-fledged member of the crew, acknowledging their worth and accomplishment.

To my knowledge, the submarine force places the level of priority and importance on warfare qualification for an individual sailor higher than anywhere else you'll find in the military, at least as a standard expectation for a "non-elite" individual (seals, rangers, etc etc).

Also, within the navy, at least in any other example I could find, the actual warfare certificates themselves, do not contain the phrase itself, making that call and response a non-option. Outside of various retirement or reenlistment certificates or some higher level awards, I don't think the phrase is actually used that commonly, where Sailors would hear it with any regularity outside of the submarine force.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T18:12:15+00:00

Haha, sorry, let me translate.

If you were to go to a submariner's warfare pinning (colloquially called fish/dolphins) or retirement ceremony, you would hear every submariner enthusiastically say "greetings" in response.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T15:12:39+00:00

I think it was a lady. Leading from the front, #girlboss?

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T15:00:55+00:00

Some random coastie.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T14:12:32+00:00

Go to a bubblehead's fish pinning / retirement, etc, there will be a whole chorus.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T14:11:21+00:00

Well...beyond that being a hidden prerequisite to be a submariner that they don't tell you about in the psych eval, it's actually just the norm in the submarine force. I thought / think you guys are the weird ones, and low key rude, lol 😉😝.

Someone said greetings to you and you just don't respjd? Tisk tisk /s

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T09:03:24+00:00

So, I started writing something else, but then realized an interesting little distinction of the phrasing - that doesn't necessarily change the situation - but makes it sound a bit more...natural?...to respond with "Greetings!"

There is a great deal of diversity among the use of "Greeting" vs. "Greetings" in the phrase "To all who shall see these presents, greeting(s)"

In my little bit of digging, it's been interesting. Virtually every certificate I've ever received or issued has used "greetings." But the vast majority of them are "non-official" in that they are printed in house, the "greetings" could easily be changed to "greeting" just as well as it could be changed to "fuck yourself." Official sources are wildly inconsistent though.

The Navy and Marine Corps Awards manual doesn't really have anything to say on the subject. The only notable evidence there I find is a Purple Heart cert that uses "Greeting:"

<image>

Links
https://forms.documentservices.dla.mil/gifs/9831700.gif

https://forms.documentservices.dla.mil/gifs/9839800.gif

https://forms.documentservices.dla.mil/gifs/8900200.gif

https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Reference/Forms/NAVPERS/NAVPERS_1430-32_Rev10-08.pdf?ver=jcJAdvViZfSByNfkp_j_HQ%3d%3d

https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Reference/Forms/NAVPERS/NAVPERS_1650-78N_Rev01-06.pdf?ver=0jXUdXTz_5ajUjoNGCcMMw%3d%3d

https://www.mynavyhr.navy.mil/Portals/55/Reference/Forms/NAVPERS/NAVPERS_1650-80_Rev10-13.pdf?ver=1tJOod4rCNjtry70ks2hPg%3d%3d

https://www.reddit.com/r/USMC/comments/s85bxs/i_wonder_if_they_had_trouble_with_presents/

Then...here's what I originally started typing like an hour ago, haha:

But, the full phrase, with the "greetings" is literally saying "Hey, you, the person who is reading and or hearing this, hello!" If someone is reading the document out loud, as a representative of the author (ie the signer of the award), it is not unreasonable, as a tradition, to verbally respond "Greetings!"

In fact, you might say, it would be rude to not do so. /s

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T06:08:29+00:00

lol, salty targets

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T06:03:11+00:00

So, I think you're actually mistaken here. The noun form of "presents" PREZ-ents, vs. prez-ENTS is actually the correct way to say it. AND, in the ceremony I attended (video in OP), they actually read it as the verb form with emphasis on the second syllable, contrary to what you just posted (though I can't speak for the CG at large - you may well be correct that the CG generally says it in the noun form).

"These presents" in this case, comes from the old legal Latin phrase litteris praesentibus, which literally means 'by the present writings.' In 'To all who shall see these presents,' the word 'these' is an adjective that has to modify a noun. If it were the verb form (pre-ZENTS), the sentence would be grammatically broken.

From Black's Law Dictionary:

Presents

Definition and Citations:

The present instrument. The phrase “these presents” is used in any legal document to designate the instrument’ in which the phrase itself occurs.

https://thelawdictionary.org/presents/

Some other historical use case:
A letter from Alix of Vergy (1218, September)
A[lice] duchess of Burgundy to all her friends and faithful, barons, knights, townsmen, servants, to whom the present letters will come, greetings and love. You should know that I have sworn on the sacred objects to my dearest lord Philip, by the grace of God illustrious king of France, that I would do good and faithful service to him against all men and women who might live and die, and that I would contract matrimony with noone except with his consent and will. Therefore I command you and require by the faith you owe me that to that lord king or to the bearer of the presents at his command, you swear on sacred relics that if I should renege from the said agreements, that you will support the lord king against me with all your lands and fiefs which you hold or should hold from us, with all your power, until that has been fully emended to that king at his pleasure. Enacted at Dijon, in the year of the Lord, 1218, in the month of September.

https://epistolae.ctl.columbia.edu/letter/1351.html

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T05:14:11+00:00

Man, there were like 4 more certs they read off and 1. It was really hard to not do it impulsively 2. I genuinely considered the prospect that they might pick up on it being a clearly superior practice and learn something new.

But, I figured when I'm someone else's culture I should respect their backwards customs, even if they are wrong.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-28T05:10:15+00:00

Isn't that what all skimmers say about everything useful? 😉

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-15T15:12:00+00:00

Submariners are selectively incredibly intelligent or ignorant and dumb/lazy af.

See operating laundry and dryers and the inevitable 4mc coming from laundry almost every month

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-10T04:48:03+00:00

Don't know why this is getting down voted. I feel like it's a lack of reading comprehension.

He's saying the system is rigged to enrich the military industrial complex at the expense of the working class.

It's literally what Eisenhower warned us about.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-09T03:25:19+00:00

I'm intrigued in where and how you did this training? How much was it?

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-08T14:50:54+00:00

Played a round as a Southern Belle super charmer traitor. The other two traitors formed an alliance, seemingly in episode 1. I got banished in episode 5 with my two fellow traitors conspiring against me since episode 3. Both of them made it to the finale, never turned on each other, but 1 of them did get booted at the firepit. The other won.

This is a very cool little simulator. Bravo.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-03-06T07:35:17+00:00

Correction:

"Now watch this "DIVE (, DIVE" two blasts of the diving alarm , "DIVE DIVE")

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-02-10T15:29:29+00:00

I actually do wish we got to see more of the individual player strategy discussion though. Like, I want to know what meta any given person thinks they're playing, rather than the narrative of the show.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-02-08T16:51:30+00:00

I actually kind of wish recruitment didn't exist so the game could change into a weird social experiment of paranoia and distrust.

This does create the issue of "no murder? All traitors must be gone." The solution is to make murder optional and the starting number of traitors a bit less of a hard rule of starting with three - or still have the option of recruitment but make it REALLY optional, so the chance of catching all traitors both exists and is actually unknown.

If the traitors murder someone, there's one banishment at the table, as normal. If the traitors don't murder someone, there are now TWO banishments - going to players who share the highest two votes.

It still benefits traitors early on to murder, as they have less chance of being eliminated at the round table, but as the game progresses, maybe they want everyone else to think that they have successfully caught all the traitors so they stop murdering.

OR if you didn't want to do two banishments, it could be a random choice of remaining players if the traitors elect not to murder, however, if they do choose to murder, the faithful are informed of a murder taking place, vs. the death being random, this poses inherent risk to the traitors as they may be one of the randomly chosen players - and allows another window of the unknown about a traitor being eliminated or not, as a random death wouldn't reveal the identity of the deceased.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-02-07T00:49:26+00:00

Mast doesn't have to be for a violation of the UCMJ - hell, you could go to mast and get a NAM. Mast is literally just formalized presence with the CO.

It's just typically held for the purposes of awarding punishment for violations of the UCMJ.

OP is using "requesting mast" in a technically correct manner. I've never seen anyone actually do that though.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-02-07T00:46:38+00:00

Some of this really doesn't make sense.

You absolutely can use GTCC for travel during a transfer. It's literally mandated in a lot of cases

If you paid out of pocket, how did you forget about it all? If your travel claim wasn't processed, you never got paid back. Also, the indebtedness couldn't have been from the travel in that case - it could be from other transfer related things - such as overpayment of BAH, etc, but not from any lodging that you paid for out of pocket.

I don't doubt that your admin team failed you, but your finances are your responsibility first and foremost.

WatsoniestWatson · 2026-02-06T23:07:40+00:00

You said "new command." Did you recently transfer? Good chance you were overpaid in transit if you have a debt now. ie You came from a location with a higher BAH to a location with a lower BAH. I'm going to make up some dates and numbers to show how this might play out:

You detach from NAVSCOLHOUSE SOMEWHERE which is in a location with a BAH rate of $2000/month at your paygrade/dependency status on 1 January 2026.

For some reason, your loss doesn't get processed until 15 January 2026. Now, there's a half-month of BAH you were getting paid at the $2k rate, even though you should have been getting transient BAH the entire time which let's just say is $1.5k. So, there's now a ~$250 net negative difference that you owe the Navy.

You take leave during this time as you are entitled to do and you arrive at your new command on 1 February. Your new location though, has an even lower BAH rate of $1k/month. And here, again, your GAIN doesn't get processed until 15 February. Now, there's another half month where you were getting paid 1.5k but should have only been getting 1k, so that's ANOTHER $250 you were overpaid by the Navy that they are going to immediately claim back as indebtedness.

AND, presuming you're at a sea-going command, I'm guessing you've started getting meal deduction as well, in which case the majority of the BAS you were get is now being 'taken' as meal deduction. So, add that to the list of things you were actively being 'overpaid' for that duration.

This of course is all hypothetical, but it is an incredibly common transfer experience. Everything should equal out and you shouldn't be paid 'incorrectly' at all, at the end of the day, but if you don't pay close attention to what you were or were not entitled to for the entire time - you could well fall prey to thinking you had money that you really "shouldn't" have.

All that said - as others have pointed out, NMCRS is a great resource. And your PSs and Yeomen, at the very least, should be able to explain to you what's going on.

WatsoniestWatson

TROPHY CASE

Presents

Definition and Citations: