MSC Going from 4/1 to 4/2 Rotation & Virtual Pool

Don’t know if they still do it but they used to be able to be turned off and on as needed. A bunch of guys in my reserve unit had them and the center would turn them on at the start of their orders and off after so the card could not be used outside of the actual travel.

In the MSC scenario I assume they would only be active from home to ship and ship to home.

There’s different types of cards. Sounds like that is one where the unit/.gov’t gets billed. I’d be certain MSC is going to use they type that I have, it doesn’t get turned on and off, but you get the bill directly and have to pay it on time. You then seek reimbursement from the gov’t for authorized expenses. If it wasn’t authorized, no reimbursement, but you still have to pay the bill.

For the record and anyone curious: The way it “works” is CIVMARs are supposed to use it for all expenses related to official travel. While it can be used for any legitimate expense (training is mandatory before the card is issued), best practice seems to be to just use it for major reimbursable items that won’t be covered by the flat per diem payment (rental car, large taxi bill, lodging). Once your orders are complete, you submit a travel claim and should elect at the top of the form to have X number of dollars paid to your travel card to cover the balance on the card.

This can be trying because travel claims can take a long time to process. If there are issues with your travel claim, you can’t be 100% certain you’ll be properly notified. Additionally, if MSC Travel doesn’t agree with your travel claim the payment to the card can be screwed up and you may have a partial balance left, which you’d have to personally pay.

What they don’t outright tell you is MSC Travel also has access and the travel writer uses your personal GTCC to book your flight. This does alleviate issues (which are frequent) with using MSC’s centrally billed account.

The MSC Travel process is really screwed up. There are some good folks and some bad ones. CIVMARs are not trusted to handle DTS, so things are submitted to travel, who re-writes and submits on the CIVMAR’s behalf. I don’t think most CIVMARs even know that.

If MSC is on path to implement the virtual pool, to help make it work they will have eliminate the professional pool rats. One way is suspend the SFL. This may spin up the “Good Old Boys” clubs out there but so what. If personel are waiting for a job, and relief request are pending send them out. Ensure all CIVMARS in the “pool” are ready for detailing. This means MMC, medical issues (P.E. and medications) training, etc up to date. If not in compliance pay stops. Might be a good idea for the force to stop being spoon fed.

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Prior to my working for MSC, the rotation was 12/1 It was 6/1 when I worked there but reliefs were hard to come by. Just before I retired they started paying for late relief. My relief was a few months late so I made a few extra bucks. One problem with MSC is that the Navy runs it and theirs is a different system and different attitude. (When I was second mate, I sprained my wrist and only had the use of one hand. I tried to get a NFFD and was told by a CDR at MSCFE that there was no reason I couldn’t navigate with one hand.)

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Pretty ironic response from a CDR, considering the navee guys can get lifetime “disability payments” for even minor (or faked) injuries. I knew a guy was getting $2500 a month for his disability–whilst he was sailing as a cadet and getting free GI Bill tuition for 4 years as a bubblehead.