Kara is ready to work.

Her Navy husband is on assignment to an unaccompanied tour in Nevada. She moved to Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico to be closer to her family in his absence.

Now, she is ready to fill his time away with a job of her own. When she visited the hiring office on base though, she was told that she was unable to use spouse hiring preference to apply for a clerical or administrative job there.

The reason: her husband’s orders are not for Kirtland Air Force Base. But she’s not allowed to accompany him to his assigned duty station and therefore unable to find work at his assigned base. The Navy wife seems to be stuck in a no-win situation.

We’ve asked the Department of Defense for clarification on both the military spouse preference program and Kara’s dilemma. Here is their answer:

The Military Spouse Preference Program offers employment preference in DOD civilian personnel positions to military spouses who meet specific criteria.

 The requirements include that the spouse must accompany their sponsor on a PCS move to an active-duty assignment, must be married before the PCS occurs, must apply for a job within commuting distance of the sponsor’s new duty station and must rank among the “best qualified” candidates for that job.

Kara was unable to move with her husband to his new duty station due to the type of PCS orders he was given. Also, Kirtland AFB is far from his new job in Nevada meaning she is not within commuting distance.

She hoped there would be a waiver for this situation. DOD officials said, unfortunately, there is not.

The only waiver is given when there is no federal agency in the spouse’s geographic area where the military member transferred to, said Kathleen Ryder, chief of the civilian personnel section, 377^thForce Support Squadron at Kirtland AFB.

Unfortunately for Kara, Ryder said the waiver does not apply in her case because she is not authorized to accompany her military member to the far-flung location.

Hopefully Kara will find employment soon even without the spouse preference rating.

Have a question about military education and hiring policies? We can help you find the answer. Email us at info@salutetospouses.com

Is your military spouse preparing to leave the rank behind and join the civilian job force? My husband only has a handful of years left until that transition to retirement and I am dreading it. I’m unsure of how our benefits might change, namely medical coverage. I fear losing that steady paycheck. And let’s be honest, tax free combat pay covered a lot of bills.

If your husband is anything like mine, he probably hasn’t brought much information home from his pre-retirement briefings, or even began looking seriously at some of the issues. I, on the other hand, need info!  

The Department of Defense launched a web site specifically to help your family make the transition: www.turbotap.org. The website is billed as a resource for military members entering the civilian job force. However, as a spouse without a military record of my own, I found the site just as helpful.

Sure there’s military-geared career advice but there’s also a treasure trove of information regarding benefits, disability compensation, insurance and VA home loans. There are checklists of items that need done before retirement day and after.

And just as my husband’s last day in uniform is approaching, I’m certain I will probably be bringing most of these important items to his attention, rather than the opposite. This is going to be a good site to keep handy.

For the first time ever, service members may transfer their unused GI Bill benefits to their family members. Though there are very specific eligibility requirements, the actual transfer process is easy.

Army wife Lynda Hilliard, of Fort Bragg, N.C., said she completed the process online in about 30 seconds.

“It was really easy,” she said.

Hilliard’s husband will retire in less than three years and she said she wanted to finish the transfer before they became embroiled in retirement planning and inadvertently forget to transfer the credit. One of the criteria for transferring benefits is that it must be done before the service member retires.

To determine if your dependents are eligible to receive transferred benefits, go to https://www.dmdc.osd.mil/TEB/consent?continueToUrl=%2FTEB%2F. Only service members can access this website.

For complete details about eligibility and more links to begin the process, please visit http://www.gibill.va.gov/post-911/post-911-gi-bill-summary/transfer-of-benefits.html

Do you have a specific question about current events, education benefits, spouse careers, online education or anything military related? Let us help you find the answers. Email Allison at allison@salutetospouses.com . Please explain what information you are searching for and we will ask our experts and post the answers in this column.