In The Navy: Obtaining ID Cards

I was super excited to be with Andy when he swore into the Navy on May 29th.

I listened carefully to each word of his oath and I sat patiently with him while he filled out gobs of paperwork.

I made sure to write down his rank exactly as it’s captured on all of the important documentation and I took notes about the things he needed to do throughout the next four years before officially becoming an officer.

Sounds like I did everything, right?

Well no, I didn’t.

I somehow figured that we’d be getting some kind of US Navy 101 packet in the mail containing directions for everything we needed to know…

Getting ID cards

Enrolling in Tricare (medical insurance)

Etc, etc, etc.

Nope.  So far there has been no welcome package and since we’re coming up on six weeks since he swore in, I’ve started to get a little antsy.

Now don’t get me wrong.  No one told me we’d get everything handed to us on a silver platter or anything.  I suppose a package could still come in the mail, but since my health benefits expired at the end of last month, I’m pretty darn anxious to get our new medical insurance sorted out.

Andy passed along a few names and numbers to me and I started making calls the other day…

At first I felt pretty silly because I’m so new to being a military spouse that I don’t know all of the lingo.  It’s really helpful to know the basic jargon when you dial into a military main number because that auto attendant requires a glossary of terms!

Is Andy active duty?  What is a sponsor?  What does DEERS stand for?  Have we gotten our orders?

Basically, Andy will be an Officer when he graduates medical school and completes five weeks of Officer Training in Rhode Island.  Until then, he’s ranked as an Enlisted person and his primary duty is successful completion of medical school to fulfill his Collegiate scholarship obligation.

That’s pretty much all I know.

And?

It wasn’t really enough to get things rolling.

Thankfully one of the women I spoke to was very friendly and although she gave me the wrong website to visit for Tricare enrollment, I think she’ll be a handy person to contact WHEN I encounter questions along the way.

I’ll spare you the play-by-play of all the phone calls I made the other day, but the bottom line is this:

We need to start by obtaining our Navy ID cards.

In order to get those, we have to visit the ID Card Office nearest us during business hours and we need to bring the following:

• 2 forms of official government identification EACH (ie drivers license and social security card)
• our marriage certificate
• Andy’s enlistment contract

I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll fill out some paperwork, get pictures taken (I assume they include a photo!) and then walk out of there holding our cards.

Dear Lord, please let them make the cards onsite!

Once I have my ID card in hand, I’ll feel better equipped to handle the insurance stuff.  Although one look at the enrollment forms had me wanting to crawl under my bed to hide out.

Official forms always freak me out.  I’m a smart gal but they always make me feel dumb.

Fortunately if I screw them up I’m sure they’ll get caught up in processing and someone will have to explain what I did wrong.

Now that I’m 12 weeks pregnant, I really want to make an appointment with my midwife so I’m really really really hoping this process all goes smoothly and I can get in to see her in the next couple of weeks!

We’re off to the ID card office tomorrow afternoon.  Grace and I are picking Andy up from school and then having a family date night after the card stuff is taken care of.

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Any experienced Navy wives out there who have tips for me should feel free to comment or hit me up on Twitter!  I’m open to as much education as I can get my hands on.