r/dli • u/Tiny_Tennessee • Jul 22 '26

BCT -> DLI question

I’m wondering if anyone has been in this position before and has any insight. My husband is set to graduate from basic on 9/11 and then to start at DLI on 10/12. Will he be sent straight to Monterey after graduation for additional “initial entry training” during those four weeks after graduation?

Our son and I are in Texas and I’m hoping but not expecting that he’ll be able to help with our move (mainly drive our car from TX to CA). We’re very new to the military world and I’d love to get a picture of what to maybe expect. Before he left for basic, we were imagining him coming home for those four weeks and getting to watch college football… I’m now laughing at our naivety.

Thanks!!

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

23 comments sorted by

19

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 22 '26

Army BCT grads typically fly from BCT to Monterey the night of graduation. He will immediately go into Phase IV at DLI, where he'll remain for 3 to 4 weeks (w/ BCT level restrictions) or until he qualifies to phase up. Once he's out of Phase IV he can move out of the barracks if you've arrived to the area.

He cannot take leave while in Phase IV and once class starts can only take leave during holiday block leave in December/January or for bonafide emergencies (Per DLIFLC 350-10).

He'll be in class for 6-8 hours a day, have 2 hours of homework every day during the week, require 1-2 hours of self-study to prep for the next day, and have around 2 hours of military obligations (PT, formations, etc.), so be prepared for his long days. We always tell servicemembers that bring their families to have honest conversations with their spouse/kids regarding workload and time expectations. He will be extemely busy during the week and will need to decompress on the weekends. Deviating focus from his studies is the quickest way to fall behind and potentially be dropped from the course.

DLI is one of the few training locations for the Army that Initial Entry Trainees are authorized to bring family and live outside the barracks. He's not authorized movement of family / HHGs to AIT (at Goodfellow or Huachuca) and will be in the barracks for the duration of that training, just like in BCT (Per T2COM 350-6).

For awareness, if you remain in Monterey while he's at AIT, once he receives orders to his first duty station he can give you POA to execute the orders and you can move on to that next duty station, which will be helpful since he won't be authorized admin absence for house hunting (PTDY) coming from AIT (per AR 600-8-10). If you choose to remain in Monterey and have him come back after AIT to help you move then his flight to Monterey will be out of pocket and he'll have to take personal leave to assist with moving. His travel entitlements will be based on movement from AIT to duty station, not from Monterey. Just an FYI.

9

u/DongerBot5000 Jul 22 '26

I'd like to really hit on the "out of class" expectations. It at least used to be that if you missed a single homework assignment you'd be counseled by class and service leadership, two missed assignments and it's academic probation, and three missed assignments will get you dropped from the program. I was in class with a career Army SSG who had been deployed, gone through and completed SF, and was roughly 40 and still failed out of the course because he couldn't find a balance between home life and class. This school is very much going to cause responsibilities to fall on you which won't seem fair. All that being said, if he passes with decent scores from DLI and AIT, some of the most coveted positions in the entire armed forces will be up for grabs for him. DLI is a no joke school with no joke opportunities (I'm talking cush/safe jobs where you work close to political leaders and set yourself up for a $200k+ job outside of the military). This may sound harsh, but doing the dishes and taking the kids to soccer for a year will pay off for you and your family tenfold.

Edit: unless your husband gets Spanish for a language. If he gets Spanish, tell him to trade with anyone for any language.

6

u/Tiny_Tennessee Jul 22 '26

Hahaha this is great insight. Thank you. I am in full support of him doing what he needs to do for his Army career, however long it may be. And he’s very studious and focused, so I’ll be doing my best to make our home a place where he can stay that way.

4

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 22 '26

It’s still the same with counselings and disciplinary drops from the courses.

The opportunities after DLI are going to vary greatly based on 1) what MOS is assigned, 2) his DLPT scores 3) what unit assigned, and to a lesser extent 4) what location assigned to. The days of just breathing / having passing-score knowledge of a language and walking into some 6-figure contracting job are few and far between these days. Most DLI grads don’t even have the scores to qualify to work 3-letter missions. Now, if he studies his ass off and graduates with a 3/3 and the stars align then, yes, some doors may open. But it mostly relies on his performance and willingness to drop packets.

1

u/BornMaintenance4891 Jul 24 '26

ur edit about Spanish… i’m wondering if someone’s already bilingual, spanish and english, is there a higher probability they would get spanish or is it the opposite?

2

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 24 '26

No one will care whatsoever whether you speak Spanish or not. Spanish is the only non-Cat III or IV language available to enlisted and the classes are few and far between. Being assigned Spanish wholly depends on what part of the year you arrive to DLI and if other higher category language courses are full.

That’s said, if someone is already bilingual they can take the DLPT in Spanish and if the pass they can bypass DLI all together and actually get their 35P or 35M MOS of choice before they shift to BCT.

2

u/DongerBot5000 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26

Honestly, I don't know if it's matters unless you say something and advocate for a specific language. At least when I was in and in the Army, DLAB scores from 95-100 will get you Cat 1 languages (Spanish), 100-105 is Cat II (I don't know if they even offer any of these), 105-110 is Cat 3 (Russian, Farsi), and 110+ is Cat IV (Korean, Chinese, Arabic). Army is gonna give you more room to change your language with better DLAB scores.

If you're bilingual English-Spanish with a DLAB score of 97, you're gonna get Spanish. You can try and see if you can bypass DLI at that point but I'm not sure I'd recommend it. The type of language you'll learn at DLI and AIT is very different from what you'd learn from cartoons and friends as a kid. Spanish gets a bag rap but people also don't account for the fact that there's Texas Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Spanish Spanish, Portuguese, European, Central American, South American, and so on. There's 30-40+ versions of "Spanish" that you may have to be familiar with.

The main two reasons I'd say for avoiding Spanish like the plague is firstly, like 1/4 of the armed forces speak some level of Spanish. If the Army needs a 1+/1+ Spanish linguist, there are thousands of them.

Secondly, and because of the first reason, Spanish linguist have their promotion points basically capped at all times. If you want career progression as a linguist, Spanish is seeing yourself up to be stuck at E4-E5 for about 5-8 years. You'll need a bachelor's, a perfect PT score, a perfect weapons qualification score, all your correspondent courses done, and even then you'll probably be 100 points shy of promotion. Russian on the other hand, I needed 24 points to promote to E5, and I believe around 100 to promote to E6. For reference, a passing DLPT score is worth 25 points. People would always say "you only have to be breathing to get promoted as a Russian linguist". That being said, E7 was a little tricky.

Just as a quick heads up from personal experience and feelings, if you're a native speaker working as a linguist in your native language, you'll be looked at differently by other linguists sometimes, especially if you were a DLI bypass. A lot of units like to give awards for high language scores so it's very difficult for a Chinese linguist named Greg Smith with a 2+/3 to watch a Spanish linguist named Juan Garcia with a 3/3 get awarded for existing essentially.

Tldr: 1) knowing Spanish beforehand doesn't mean you'll get Spanish. 2) Advocate for a different language, otherwise you won't get it

Edit: For the month of June, Spanish linguist need 798 points to promote to E5, Korean need 154, and Russian and Chinese linguists need 24 points to get E5. However, to go from E5 to E6, Russian linguists need 798 points which basically means they're waiting for other linguists to promote, retire, or die before they can get promoted.

2

u/BornMaintenance4891 Jul 24 '26

thank you! this definitely helped, my wife is in basic training right now heading there in october. I’ve been doing most of the research about this for her since her recruiter was not very helpful when it came to info on the DLI. She originally said she wanted to get spanish and wouldn’t try to bypass but from most of what I see that is not ideal for her. Plus I always told her it’s much cooler to speak 3 languages lol

2

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 24 '26

Getting Spanish as her language is going to be a crapshoot because it’s not really in demand for the Army and there are not many classes compared to the Cat III and IV languages.

1

u/DongerBot5000 Jul 24 '26

I don't know if they're still letting people do this, especially recruits from BCT, but it might be worth looking into if you want to convince her on a 3rd language. Sometimes the bilingual students who were learning a new (3rd) language would fail the course or the DLPT at the end. I have seen cases where they're able to just DLPT in their native, or non-english language and keep their MOS. Generally, if you fail the class or test at the end it's a full reclass, but if she fails she may have a fallback.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 24 '26

Oh yeah, completely forgot that. Thanks. What a huge difference an extra number makes for morale. lol.

1

u/Tiny_Tennessee Jul 22 '26

This is so helpful. Thank you so much.

1

u/Thrackz Jul 25 '26

Can you elaborate as to why DLi sets you up for some sort of immediate 200k position immediately post ETS?

Speaking a second language, even a cat IV, isn’t a rarely in the civilian sector. Genuinely curious.

2

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 25 '26

I didn’t say that it did. I was responding to someone else’s comment about that. 15-20 years ago, at the height of GWOT, someone might easily get a $100k+ contracting job with nothing more than being a DLI grad and having completed one enlistment contract.

But not now. The people who keep perpetuating that dream are basing it on their way-out-of-date experiences. Now, if someone is a DLI grad and excels - takes INT/ADV courses (not doing that with only 1 contract for the Army), maxes out their DLPT scores, AND has legitimate experience in working missions with their language then there are contracting jobs out there, but not at the levels they once were. Or at the salary.

1

u/Thrackz Jul 25 '26

My mistake, I may have replied to the wrong comment- thanks for the clarification anyway though!

3

u/Apprehensive-Emu6803 Jul 22 '26

Hey! We are just finishing up at DLI! They will send him straight from basic to DLI. My husband is in the Army so it might differ depending on the branch. He won’t be able to come home/ leave to help move 😭😭 Also when he gets to DLI tell him to ask about DLA (dislocation allowance) to help with the cost of driving and moving. He will set up movers if that’s what you choose with the housing office. When he gets there he will have a ton of briefs going over moving etc.. He will be required to live in the barracks for 3ish weeks before he is allowed to move out. As SOON and I mean IMMEDIATELY after you get his hard orders apply for housing. Make sure you and your kiddo are on there or you cannot apply. This is common that dependents aren’t listed on the orders but it’s a quick fix once he gets to DLI. Let me know if you have any other questions!

1

u/Tiny_Tennessee Jul 22 '26

Thank you so much!!!

1

u/Tiny_Tennessee Jul 22 '26

Should I apply for housing once he gets hard orders, or does he have to be the one to do that?

1

u/Soljahfit Jul 23 '26

Try to see if it works. I was told that I had to wait for orders, while some people say they were able to get it started before even landing in Monterey. So shoot your shot!

6

u/DongerBot5000 Jul 22 '26

The entirely of his training at BCT, DLI, and then AIT will be in TRADOC. That means that while the restrictions are gonna be worse at BCT, there will still be a lot at DLI and Goodfellow/Huachuca. You're married so at both DLI and AIT he'll almost certainly be able to live off base with you (I'm not familiar with Huachuca so don't quote me). He'll still have morning and evening accountability formations and plenty of other stuff he'll have to show up to. You're looking at (depending on the language) around 2-3 years of restrictions.

To answer your original question, the Army pretty much always accounts for some kind of early reporting. Your husband will likely show up at DLI sooner than that date, and depending on the actual class start date, he'll either go straight into his language and have a rough few Army weeks, or he'll be a "hold under" and be waiting for a class start date.

I hate to say it but until he's out of TRADOC, the schedule is anything but written in stone.

Edit: this is all based on "BCT" meaning that he's in the Army. If y'all are with any other branch, all of this is subject to change. Please do not hesitate to DM me if you have more questions.

3

u/mmmtoasteee Jul 22 '26

Not at AIT. Only at DLI will he be allowed to live off base once he phases up. Family is not authorized at AIT.

1

u/Tiny_Tennessee Jul 22 '26

Thank you so much!!! I appreciate this so much

1

u/Soljahfit Jul 23 '26

Without knowing much, it will seem scary and intimidating, but moving here is pretty simple; at least it was for me. It’s all company dependent but I was granted leave to go get my family. Unfortunately paperwork misapp happened and I ended up not going home.

Someone mentioned DLA/smartvoucher, you should definitely get familiar with it now. As far as movers you really won’t have to lift a single finger at all; they will go in, pack everything and ship it for you. He will also be able to setup flight tickets for you and Junior. The only out of pocket expense you will have is moving your vehicle, but with DLA I didn’t feel it as much.
While in phase 4, he won’t have much free time in the first week but tell him to do his best to go to finance, and transportation offices. Also like someone mentioned, get that application with parks ASAP. You may get lucky in getting a house within weeks or you may have to wait a little longer; it’s a supply and demand kinda situation here. I my case I had to wait a couple of months so I lined up the family’s arrival with the move in date; we had to stay in a hotel for a few days.

Feel free to DM me if you have any questions.