To Captain Herbert E. Marks, July 17, 1963:

Reference is made to your letter of April 15, 1963, with enclosures, requesting reconsideration of your claim for basic allowance for quarters as a single officer without dependents for the period January 9 to February 11, 1961, while serving on temporary duty at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. You have modified the claim to cover only the period commencing from date of entry upon active duty, January 8, 1961, to date of successful completion of your medical examination, January 18, 1961.

Our file shows that you were called to active duty for 36 months under Special Orders No. A-7568 of Headquarters, Air Reserve Records Center (CONAC), dated December 8, 1960, and assigned to Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, South Carolina, for active duty as a first lieutenant, JAGD, with 4 weeks' temporary duty en route at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, effective January 6, 1961. Those orders were amended on January 23, 1961, by Special Orders No. MA-12, Headquarters, Lackland Military Training Center (ATC), to show effective date of duty as January 8, 1961. The file further shows that you occupied Government quarters while at Lackland Air Force Base and that effective February 18, 1961, you were assigned Government quarters at the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base by verbal orders of that date confirmed by Special Orders No. AC-20 of that base, dated February 21, 1961.

Since you believed that the denial of the basic allowance for quarters during the period of your temporary duty assignment at Lackland Air Force Base was contrary to your interpretation of 37 U.S.C. 252 and 320, you presented claim for the basic allowance for quarters in letters of July 26 and November 8, 1962. Our Claims Division disallowed that claim on the ground that the quarters assigned to you were deemed to have been appropriate and adequate within the purview of 37 U.S.C. 252(b), which provided that except as otherwise provided by law, no basic allowance for quarters shall accrue to members of the uniformed services assigned to Government quarters or housing facilities under the jurisdiction of the uniformed services, appropriate to their rank, grade, or rating and adequate for themselves and dependents, if with dependents. It was also pointed out in the disallowance certificate that there are for application in your case the provisions of 37 U.S.C. 320, which barred payment of the basic allowance for quarters for any period after June 29, 1950, to any member of the uniformed services without dependents "while such member is in a travel *** status between permanent duty stations including time granted as delay en route or proceed time." You have furnished this Office with a copy of Standard Form 88 "Report of Medical Examination," dated January 18, 1961, and

invited our attention to items 6 and 17 appearing under the general instructions of Special Orders No. A-7568, to support your contention that a permanent change of station could not be effected until January 18, 1961, date of approval of your medical examination, and, therefore, termination of "permanent civilian housing" prior to that date would not be practicable or wise. Items 6 and 17 stipulate that retention of an individual on active military service is subject to successful completion of medical examination and that transportation of dependents and shipment of household goods are not authorized until receipt of certificate of satisfactory completion of physical examination.

Paragraph 3003-la, Joint Travel Regulations, defines the term "permanent change of station" and reads in pertinent part as follows:

The term "permanent change of station", unless otherwise qualified, means the transfer or assignment of a member of the uniformed services from one permanent station to another. This includes the change from home or from the place from which ordered to active duty, to first station upon appointment, call to active duty, enlistment, or induction, ***. [Italics supplied.]

Paragraph 3050-2, Joint Travel Regulations, defines the term "travel status" and reads in pertinent part as follows:

Conditions under which travel status exists. "Travel status", whether travel is performed by land, air, or sea (except as a member of the ship's complement), will commence with departure from permanent duty station or ship, and will include any of the following conditions:

1. Temporary duty or temporary additional duty: Travel in connection with necessary temporary duty or temporary additional duty, including time spent at a temporary duty station or a temporary additional duty station, without regard to whether duty is required to be performed while traveling, and without regard to the length of time away from the permanent duty station; [Italics supplied.]

Under the above-quoted provisions of the Joint Travel Regulations, it is clear that during the period commencing from the day you departed from your home to proceed to Lackland Air Force Base for temporary duty and terminating on the day of your arrival at the permanent duty station, Myrtle Beach Air Force Base, you were in a travel status incident to a permanent change of station. Cf. Califano v. United States, 145 Ct. Cl. 245, 248 (1959). It is equally clear that the fact that you performed temporary duty at Lackland Air Force Base for a period of over 4 weeks could not serve to change that status. Since the provisions of 37 U.S.C. 320 specifically prohibit the payment of a basic allowance for quarters to an officer without dependents while such officer is in a travel status between permanent duty stations, those provisions must be given effect in your case, regardless of whether or not you maintained "permanent civilian housing" until the date of the successful completion of your physical examination. The purpose of that provision of law, as manifest by its legislative history, is to prevent payment of double allowances for quarters during periods of travel where the travel allowance (mileage or per diem)

includes an allowance for quarters. See, in this connection, paragraph 20318 of Change 1, dated July 1, 1960, Air Force Manual 177-105, which provides in part that a member without dependents is not entitled to the basic allowance for quarters while in a travel status including delay en route between permanent duty stations.

The disallowance of your claim by our Claims Division was proper and is sustained.

[B-151257]

Transportation-Dependents-Military Personnel-Permanent v. Temporary Changes of Station

A determination of the effective date of a permanent change of station for travel and transportation allowances for Navy members assigned to a shore-based mobile unit when the entire movement of the unit is not made simultaneously is dependent upon the actual location of the member's basic duty assignment rather than upon the location of the military unit or to the administrative announcement of the effective date of the change; therefore, the effective date of a station change for a member of such a shore-based mobile unit is the date on which the member is required to commence travel to the new station for the purpose of remaining at and performing his normal duties at the new station, and it is immaterial whether travel is performed before or after the announced effective date of the change.

To the Secretary of the Navy, July 22, 1963:

Reference is made to letter dated March 28, 1963, from the Under Secretary of the Navy requesting our decision as to travel entitlements of Navy military personnel in connection with changes of permanent duty stations of mobile units. It is stated that the difficulty in this area stems from certain decisions of this Office pertaining to the effective date of such changes. The movement of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four from Jacksonville, Florida, to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, is cited to illustrate the problem.

The permanent change of station of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four from Jacksonville to Roosevelt Roads was announced by the Chief of Naval Operations on July 16, 1960, to be effective August 15, 1960. On August 3, 1960, the Commander Naval Air Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, issued COMNAVAIRLANT STAFF NOTICE 3110 directing that the movement of the mobile unit be completed when necessary facilities were ready at Roosevelt Roads. The notice further directed that prior to August 15, 1960, an initial increment of two aircraft with crews and support personnel should move to Roosevelt Roads, rotating to Jacksonville as necessary for maintenance, and that the personnel would be on permanent change of duty orders. The Under Secretary states that the movement of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four to Roosevelt Roads was not completed until November 14, 1960, although the bulk of the squadron personnel arrived between August 15 and 29, 1960. He explains that the

permanent change of station of a mobile air unit is usually accomplished over a period of several weeks and that, while to the extent possible members of the unit together with supplies are transported in planes of the unit, it is not possible to transport all members in the unit's planes and those who are not so transported are furnished individual travel orders.

It is reported that the two aircraft which were directed to move prior to August 15, the announced date of the station change, proceeded to Roosevelt Roads on August 4, 1960—presumably under permanent change of station orders as directed in the above-mentioned notice and that later the members of those crews received temporary additional duty orders to Jacksonville. It is further reported that under the temporary additional duty orders, per diem was paid to the members concerned for the time at Jacksonville on the basis of decision dated April 15, 1959, 38 Comp. Gen. 697, and that our Office issued notices of exception to such payments, citing decision of January 10, 1961, B-144372. The Under Secretary cites as typical of the notices of exception, the exception issued in connection with the payment of per diem to Lieutenant Commander Thomas N. Thompson, USN. This notice of exception reads in material part as follows:

The permanent station of Airborne Early Warning Squadron FOUR was changed from Jacksonville to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, effective August 15, 1960, however, the physical movement of the squadron's main body was not accomplished until Nov. 1960. Thus, Jacksonville remained the permanent station of the member (for per diem purposes) until he reported to Roosevelt Roads on Oct. 3, 1960, for duty. *** B-144372 of Jan. 10, 1961; 4201-4 JTR.

The decision of April 15, 1959, cited by the Under Secretary as authority for the per diem payments considered the permanent change of station of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Eleven from Patuxent River, Maryland, to Argentia, Newfoundland. A Chief of Naval Operations dispatch dated April 29, 1958, announced the change effective August 1, 1958. Orders had previously been issued directing the members of the squadron to proceed on or about May 1, 1958, to Argentia for temporary additional duty for a period of approximately 3 months. Since the date of the change of station announced in the dispatch of April 29, 1958, and the date of the completion of the temporary duty assignment at Argentia were the same, it was held that on April 30, 1958, the date of receipt of the dispatch of April 29, Argentia became the permanent station of the members of the squadron for travel allowance purposes. This conclusion was based on the established rule (paragraphs 4209 and 4258 of the Joint Travel Regulations) that when a member is directed to report for permanent duty at a station following completion of temporary duty assignment at the same place under circumstances not contemplating a return to the

old duty station, that station then becomes, his designated place of duty and his permanent station.

On the basis that the two aircraft and crews of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four which traveled to Roosevelt Roads prior to the announced date of squadron's permanent change of station to that point had notice of the change when the travel was performed, the decision of April 15, 1959, as the Under Secretary states, appears to lend support to the view that Roosevelt Roads became the permanent station of the members of those crews on August 4, 1960, for travel allowance purposes. However, the directive governing the movement of Airborne Early Warning Squadron Four plainly contemplated a return to the old duty station by these aircraft and crews for the performance of duty. Hence, the members' basic duty assignments at the old station were not in fact changed and the rule on which the Argentia decision was based is not for application.

The decision of January 10, 1961, B-144372, involved the permanent change of station of Naval Guided Missile Unit No. 51 from Yorktown, Virginia, to Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico. In that case orders had been issued announcing the station change effective July 1, 1958. The unit, however, did not move until on or about September 5, 1958, and it was held that effective date of the change for travel allowance purposes was the date on which the unit actually moved. Here again the basis for the decision was the view that the change of station was not effective for travel allowance purposes until the basic duty assignment of the members was in fact changed. In the course of the decision we remarked that the unit appeared to be essentially a shore-based organization and we believed its relocation should be viewed as analogous to the relocation of an Army unit, generally effective for purposes of travel of dependents and household effects at the time of the transfer of the unit personnel, rather than analogous to the change in home yard or home port of a vessel for such purposes. This comment, however, did not enlarge the scope of, or detract from, the rule mentioned above but had reference to what appeared to be a view in that case that dependent travel and transportation entitlement of members in these shore-based mobile unit permanent station changes accrued on the basis that the change was tantamount to the change in home yard or home port of a vessel. See the explanation in decision of September 18, 1962, B-149637, 42 Comp. Gen. 167, on this point.

In decision of February 16, 1961, B-144933, pertaining to the announced permanent change of station of Utility Squadron Two from Quonset Point, Rhode Island, to Oceana, Virginia, also referred to in the Under Secretary's letter, we held that the change of station was not effective for travel allowance purposes until the unit actually moved. As in the two decisions explained above, this conclusion was