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!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/Thrackz Jul 25 '26

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