I am going to be deploying soon to Iraq for a year.  I have been on nearly a dozen deployments in the past, but they have been the typical USAF 90-130 days, not a full year.  This time all of my household goods will be going into storage so I can bank my BAH while I am there.  What is the best solution for this?  I looked into the PODS thing, and it looks painless but expensive, they really start shafting you after 4 months.  I haven't called all the big national moving companies yet to see how much they want to pack and store my stuff.  I have a house full of furniture, so a mini storage unit isn't practical for me.  What's the normal "best" solution for this?  I might pipe up with some more questions as the time to go gets a little closer.  
        Thanks!

Are you married? In the Army, if you are single, the Army packs up and stores all your belongings while you are on deployment. Frees up space for transient troops.

Quoted: Are you married? In the Army, if you are single, the Army packs up and stores all your belongings while you are on deployment. Frees up space for transient troops.

No, I'm single, but I have the option of either keeping my BAH the whole time, or having them store my stuff at gov't expense and losing the BAH.  My BAH here is almost $1K a month, so if I can store the stuff even at the ridiculous PODs prices (about $200 per mo) I will still make out like a bandit.  This is considered a TDY by the AF, not a PCS, otherwise I wouldn't have the choice.

I see your point about BAH. Iraq is not PCS for Army but TDY. But we get $3.50 a day for TDY. Yeah. If they let you keep receiving BAH, I would store my stuff also. I would think a reputable self storage company, along with insurance would be all you need.

Quoted: I see your point about BAH. Iraq is not PCS for Army but TDY. But we get $3.50 a day for TDY. Yeah. If they let you keep receiving BAH, I would store my stuff also. I would think a reputable self storage company, along with insurance would be all you need.

Don't you guys have a TCS (Temporary Change of Station) or something like that for one year deployments?  The guys I was in Bosnia with (1AD guys) said something about that.  I will get the whopping $3.50 for field conditions too, I can't wait for the money to roll in!  I guess I will just burn up the phones a bit to find the best price on packing/storing.  I just bought a whole house full of furniture in the last year, should have waited.

It has something to do with pay. If it were a PCS, our wives would have to move out of government housing while we were deployed. It would also screw up the normal rotation cycle as too many soldiers would have a short tour credit and not be deployable again for at least a year. I've never heard of a TCS in the Army.

Isn't a TCS the orders used for a deploying unit?  I never heard of it before until m Guard unit depoloyed and returned, then we needed our TCS orders for our DD214's.

Not sure. We did get a TDY settlement after we returned. We wouldn't have received a TDY payment if it was TCS.

Operation Joint Endeavor, the first deployment to Bosnia was 12 months (1stAD). It was a TCS and we were credited as a Short Tour. Haven't seen that with any of the 12 month deployment tours anymore.
Mike

I belive now it has something to do with where the troops are deploying from. Nothing in the regulations allows a soldier to get credit for a short tour while he is serving a long tour. An example is a soldier stationed in Germany, which is a long tour. Can't get credit for a short tour at the same time.

Quoted: I belive now it has something to do with where the troops are deploying from. Nothing in the regulations allows a soldier to get credit for a short tour while he is serving a long tour. An example is a soldier stationed in Germany, which is a long tour. Can't get credit for a short tour at the same time.

That makes perfect sense actually, no short tour and long tour credit consecutively.  What you are saying, though, is that all the Army guys who do 365+ in Iraq don't get short tour credit?  Our (USAF) regs grant short tour credit for more than 179 days consecutively outside conus (in the same location, except in the case of hostile fire/CZTE areas).  We also have some whacky provisions for a short tour for 300+ out of ~500 days or so TDY overseas.  Is it really that hard to get short tour credit in the Army?  We used to be pricks about it, i.e. send people back out of the AOR at 178 days to screw them out of the credit, but have gotten better lately.  Of course we don't have 100K people in the AOR for a year either.  I thought the TCS thing was a crappy way to treat people, and figured it had continued on beyond the Balkans operations.    

We didn't get short tour credit for Iraq but I did get combat theatre dep[loyment credit that goes on my permanent Enilsted Record Brief (ERB). And we did get $3.50 a day while we were deployed so that check was nice after we returned.

I have been sent back from a TDY move just in time to not get family separation pay. Noting like getting the big green weenie.