How does moving to our first duty station work? Dream list?

2019-04-30T03:07:44-04:00

My husband will be leaving for Infantry (11x) Osut to Fort Benning, GA this week for 14 weeks and we are just trying to get a heads up in our minds how this all works.

Dream list? I read about a dream list, when is this given to the soldier? How many choices do they give you or how does the list work? Aside from I know you barely get what you choose (just hoping for possibly a German one seeing that my husband is fluent in reading, writing and speaking Dutch and English and very fluent in speaking German, will any of that help and should it be known to anyone in the Army?).

For Infantry what are for common conus bases? What are some common oconus bases?

When is the soonest we/he will know where his first duty station will be? Will he receive orders? I read a lot about Soft Orders/Hard Orders, what’s the difference?

Will he get to go home after Osut or will he be shipped from Fort Benning to the First Duty Station?

Thank you so much for any answers! Much appreciated.

Response by SGT Ej P. made Apr 30 at 2019 5:59 AM

2019-04-30T05:59:44-04:00

Nobody knows how your preferences come out because it's always where the Army needs you, if it so happened the Army needs you in one of those preferences then so be it. It's highly possible you go to somewhere not on your list. Your foreign language doesn't "count" until you've taken the Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) which goes into your official records and may or may not matter in the future or one day may or may not have an allowance for it (complicated -depending on job/demands/etc). Easy to request on the first duty station whenever it's available for testing - ask the Education Center. Infantry can go ANYWHERE because they are infantry. You normally get your orders within the last couple of months before AIT graduation. Any orders can change at any time especially orders that only take you to the Posts' reception unit (Army has Posts/Forts/Air Field not Bases unless they are "Joint Bases" meaning an Army Post and a Navy or Air Force Base have merged) then after inprocessing you'll get your actual unit orders. Some units get "pinpoint" orders where the orders will say your actual company that you're going to. You normally are allowed to use the leave (vacation days) that you've earned in the time you've been in training PLUS if you sign up for "Hometown Recruiting" you get 14 "working" leave days (or Temporary Duty - TDY) where you show up to your recruiter's office to show face or do whatever while in uniform but normally get most of the days to yourself, this time isn't counted against the days that you've earned so it's like "free" leave. If you don't sign up then the two weeks of leave will be used and then would have to start earning again (2.5 days a month). On the other hand you do have the option to go straight to your first duty station after that weekend you graduate, you then do not use any of your leave days but this normally works for single people who don't have anything or anybody to worry about. As long as all immediate dependents (spouse, kids) are on the orders then you won't have any problems bringing them with you plus moving instructions will be on the orders for household and transportation requirements...

Response by CSM Darieus ZaGara made Apr 30 at 2019 6:13 AM

2019-04-30T06:13:02-04:00

Everything you said is possible, and no one more than the other likely! The only odds are greater chance of Stateside than Europe or Hawaii. His language skills are not in play at this stage in an Infantry career. Only helpful when you live and vacation there. The Dream sheet is just that. Most service member s never experience their choice throughout. None-the-less, he should be more concerned about Soldiering then where he will do it. Good luck!

Response by MSG Frank Kapaun made Apr 30 at 2019 8:43 AM

2019-04-30T08:43:48-04:00

Your husband being fluent in German and Dutch pretty much guarantees his first duty assignment will be a 13 month unaccompanied tour in Korea. Welcome to the army.

Response by SSG Brian G. made Apr 30 at 2019 9:15 AM

2019-04-30T09:15:54-04:00

Your dream list is just that, a dream. It is where, "if you could" where would you like to be stationed. They tell you to pick three duty stations. Will you get them? Maybe. Maybe not. Duty is at the needs of the Army. I have known only a handful of people that got one of their dream list the first time out. The rest are all where the Army needs you.

Response by SFC Quinn Chastant made Apr 30 at 2019 9:35 AM

2019-04-30T09:35:25-04:00

Needs of the Army will trump the desires of the Soldier. However if he is as fluent as you seem to suggest, it would be advantageous to take the DLAB and related testing on the subject languages. Once that is confirmed officially, it can sway some posting assignments. Also involved are aspects of his initial entry contract; Did he also enlist with a 1st duty region of choice? With that said, if he selected Europe, chances are good may be posted to an Army Garrison there for a 3 year stabilized tour. Has he an Airborne option in the contract as well? Ft. Benning could be the next stop and then a tour of Italy.... For anyone of us outside HRC without access to the magic poo flinging monkey and his decision wall, we can only give you our finest of guesses towards ultimate assignment...Richardson or Greely Alaska anyone? Lay your bets before the wheel spins and the ball runs.

Response by SFC Scott Higgins made Apr 30 at 2019 11:20 AM

2019-04-30T11:20:54-04:00

Welcome to the Army, thank your husband for his service and thank you for supporting him. The "Dream Sheet" as we used to call it gives the soldier a chance to do just that Dream. The soldier has the opportunity to put down three overseas assignment choices and a CONUS (continental US) assignment. That being said, Needs of the Army outweigh anything a soldier might dream about. I had put on mine Itally, Hawaii and Alaska. (not continental US) and Kentucky as my CONUS Choice. Where was I sent? Georgia, then Germany, Then Kansas. I finally got Hawaii, but on each of those transitions, what I had put on my "Dream Sheet" changed to wherever I was being sent. You just have to be prepared for that. If your husband speaks these languages fluently, he should have enlisted for Army intelligence. Otherwise, your ability to speak or not to speak the language doesn't matter at all.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 30 at 2019 3:37 PM

2019-04-30T15:37:06-04:00

I doubt Infantry OSUT has changed much in a few years, no one I went to OSUT with or any other 11 series I met after that had any influence on where they were stationed EXCEPT for the few of us that got tricked into asking for "more information" about the Old Guard. We had our Orders before Red Phase was even finished. The majority of guys went to Stewart, Carson, Hood, and Benning. All the Airborne guys mostly went the 82nd with a handful being tossed to Alaska. <1% of guys got sent to overseas duty assignments. Now that doesn't necessarily mean you'll end up at one of those places but, it gives you an Idea of how they do things. They usually get divided up among the bigger installations and then the few lucky/unlucky ones get tossed to what's left.

Response by MAJ Ken Landgren made Apr 30 at 2019 3:50 PM

2019-04-30T15:50:39-04:00

Being infantry means he has a lot of options. However most of them are not exotic.

Response by LTC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 30 at 2019 4:54 PM

2019-04-30T16:54:54-04:00

As far as I can remember all of that was done at the Military Entry Processing Station (MEPS) before enlistment/shipping to Basic and Advanced Individual Training (AIT). Or I guess OSUT all at Ft. Benning, GA. Or maybe we filled something out right when we got to Basic or AIT possibly. It's been so long I cannot remember, LOL! Good Luck to your and your husband Arlene van D ...!

The Army will look at needs of the Army first, but I would definitely choose to put down where you want to go. Infantry can pretty much go anywhere- Alaska, Hawaii, Germany (although much fewer troops there, then when I lived there in the 90s). In my prior service life, I was an Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) Crewmember, and I put down Germany and Hawaii and I got Germany as my first duty station. My Battle Buddy didn't put anything down and he got sent to Korea!

Response by SPC Cathy Goessman made Apr 30 at 2019 9:00 PM

2019-04-30T21:00:18-04:00

I requested to go overseas or at least put down duty stations as far away from home as possible(Phoenix, AZ). The Army needed MPs at Ft. Bliss(6 hours from home) so I got sent there. Dream sheet didn't seem to have much effect on where we were sent. Flexibility is key.

Response by LTC Jason Mackay made Apr 30 at 2019 11:27 PM

2019-04-30T23:27:33-04:00

Arlene van D your husband needs to take a fluency test at his first permanent duty station to get those languages put in his record. I am unsure whether there is a proficiency pay still associated with either. They'll appear on his Enlisted Record Brief ERB, which is a one page summary of his career and qualifications. Right now it's pretty much blank. Be aware that many former colonies of the Netherlands are a far more likely destination than the Netherlands. Germany is what it is, which is a former shadow of itself compared to ten years ago. He's more likely to be deployed there than be stationed there.

I don't want to say nobody cares, but as a brand new junior soldier, they are merely plugging holes on vacancies. Once he is trained and MOS qualified and has a duty assignment under his belt, these things will matter more.

As 11X, he won't have a hard MOS until he is assigned/picks between 11B (INfantryman) and 11C (Mortars). Recruits start basic training at Benning and it flows right into Advanced Individual Training (AIT). It's all at Benning. I suspect midway into AIT he'll receive orders. If he volunteers for Airborne, that is also at Benning, and be assigned to an Airborne unit immediately following which will likely be at Ft Bragg or less likely Vincenza Italy. Bragg is the center of the Airborne Universe.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made May 1 at 2019 9:49 AM

2019-05-01T09:49:58-04:00

When I was enlisted I actually got my first duty assignment overseas from my number 1 dream list pick...sort of. As we were finishing up AIT and getting our first duty assignment orders I got congratulated on being the only one to get my first choice assigned. The orders were for Italy. Not only did I not pick Italy,I didn’t even know we had a base in Italy at the time. The clerk showed me the print out of my choices and the CONUS were correct but the overseas choices added Italy at the top (which I didn’t choose). Oh well it ended up being a great assignment and tour.