Army Driving >350 miles to BOLC - allowed?

[HooahHoo]

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Hello, I will be attending BOLC this summer. I've read that those travelling more than 350 miles to get to San Antonio must fly. I go to school about 500 miles away, and would like to drive if possible at all. What would happen if I didn't book my flight at all and instead showed up in a car? I would be okay with not getting reimbursed, but am concerned about getting into trouble.

A follow up to the first question - how crucial is it to have a car? A classmate who went last year said that it makes your life a lot easier. Is that true from your experience?

Thanks and hope to see at least a couple of you this summer.

 

[USArmyHPSP]

First - You will be in violation of your orders and could find yourself in trouble under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, or you scholarship benefits (tuition, stipend, books and equipment) can be suspended or you can lose the scholarship altogether.

Second - You will not be reimbursed. Not only for your travel, but for other incurred expenses like meals on weekends.

Third - transportation to and from where you need to be is supplied by the Army. Transportation on weekends when you are free can be either a taxi, or you can rent a car at your own expense, or you can pile in with someone who drove.

Last and most importantly - Be careful what you post on social media - you never know who is reading this... Most are not as anonymous as they would like to think.

 

[backrow]

A little bit harsh of a response there.

A better answer would have been: talk to the travel office and see if they can work something out. The mileage rules are usually for cost containment and many times one can be allowed to drive if they talk to the travel folks while understanding they may only get reimbursed for the lesser cost option or possibly not reimbursed for the transportation portion.

 

[sonofva]

I feel like we had some people drive from farther than 350 miles. They didn't get in trouble. They only got reimbursed for 350!miles tho

 

[HighPriest]

I drove way over 350 miles to get to BOLC, and I car pooled. It would certainly be safer to talk to your transpo office if you're worried aobut losing your scholarship. The issue is that the Army LOVES to waste money, and so they will do whatever they can to waste as much money as possible, even if that means scheduling you a flight that has three layovers and takes 12 hours to get you somewhere that you could drive in 4. Sometimes self-advocacy and logic wins out, but often it cowers to the rage of Army foolishness.

It reminds me of a story:

Back when the Army had enough money to care whether or not its providers were able to get CME, I went to a course at Mayo in Rochester, MN. My itinerary was to fly into Minneapolis, have a 4 hour layover, and then fly into Rochester. The bill was $1700, round trip. I had no rental car when I got to Rochester, and the hotel was miles away from the course location, so my co-resident and I were to taxi it every day. However, it only takes 1.5 hours to drive from Minneapolis to Rochester, the ticket to Minneapolis (round trip) was $450, there was a shuttle bus to Rochester for $35 from Minneapolis (because it's Mayo for ^%cks sake), and a rental car was still dramatically less expensive than that since round trip from Minneapolis - Rochester.
So we took the shuttle. We rented a car on our own dime. We saved the Army a couple grand (between the two of us). Nowadays, I'd love to be booted for something like that, but I think a letter from a concerned soldier to his congressman about how he or she was punished under UCMJ for trying to save the taxpayer money would go over well.

 

[USArmyHPSP]

A little bit harsh of a response there.

A better answer would have been: talk to the travel office and see if they can work something out. The mileage rules are usually for cost containment and many times one can be allowed to drive if they talk to the travel folks while understanding they may only get reimbursed for the lesser cost option or possibly not reimbursed for the transportation portion.

With all respect. The travel office cannot assist with this. All ADT orders are issued with two days of travel. One day there and one day back. The JTR states that the travel distance allowed is 450 miles per day (it used to be 350). The HPSP office hasn't upedated it's policy to relflect the JTR. The Director Medical Education is changing and may allow the change next FY. Also, because the HPSP students are not using DTS, they must turn in the old form DD 1352-2. If the travel office finds error with any part of the 1351-2 they deny the entire reimbursement.

I feel like we had some people drive from farther than 350 miles. They didn't get in trouble. They only got reimbursed for 350!miles tho

While there have been some that did not follow their orders in the past they did not get paid for milage. They got paid for the constructive cost of the plane ticket. Meaning that if they could have flown for $175.00 that was all they were allowed for reimbursement. The big thing with that was that back then, the Human Resouce Command was willing to ammend the order to reflect allowance for that. HRC will no longer ammend orders for those who simply do not follow them.

 

[HooahHoo]

Thank you all for your replies. I did not realize that driving would hold up the entire reimbursement process and result in more serious consequences. I will definitely keep my current travel arrangement and fly.