A new website for finding rentals near military bases worldwide went live for service members late last month. Homes.mil is meant as a DoD-sanctioned replacement for AHRN.com, with which the DoD…, 1. The site is really bare-bones., side-by-side Unlike AHRN.com, which contains bonus information for house-hunters like BAH data, rent averages and saved searches, Homes.mil does none of that stuff. For now all you'll get from this…, 2. Creating a log-in was really painful., log-in Instead of letting you use your DS-login, which is used for a myriad of other DoD sites including Military OneSource and accessing Tricare information, this site requires you to create a new…, 3. There still isn't a way to look at housing that is actually on the base., housing-office This site seems like a great opportunity for the DoD to seamlessly integrate off-base housing options and on-base ones. You could search for listings in the community or click over to…,  4. But I did like that the housing office is "approving" listings., It's really easy to get ripped-off with housing, especially if you are renting without actually visiting. And then there are those scammers who steal photos from other listings and then list the…, 5. All in all this is a nice resource, but not as nice as it could., If you use this site to find housing, let us know how it goes!

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When I first read about this new DEERS/Tricare web resource, I was  beyond skeptical. In general these things never work for me like they are supposed to, require complicated new and unique …, Ease of logging in., I didn’t have to create any sort of new password or dig up any crazy, long forgotten log-in info. To get on you simply need to enter your DFAS myPay log-in, DOD Self-Service or DS…, Access to information., Since we were farmed out to civilian doctors after moving to our current duty station, I am constantly (and I really mean constantly) forgetting the names of the doctors to which we are assigned. It’…, Access to Tricare/DEERS., One of those sites I’ve always had trouble remembering log-in information for is the site that lets me mess with our primary care manager information. Since I’m apparently incapable of doing anything…, My only complaint:, I couldn’t find any way to view pending referral requests. Since I got a roto-call Sunday telling me I have a pending referral (which I was previously unaware of) I thought it would be super handy to…

I don’t recommend resources to military families without trying them myself first. So a few weeks ago I sat down to log onto ArmyFit and take the new GAT 2.0 (Global Assessment Tool).  According to…, I will not sugarcoat it – I found ArmyFit frustrating!, ARMYFIT First, registering on ArmyFit felt like I was logging into the Ft. Knox depository. Even with the increased attention on cyber security, the requirement for 14 characters, two uppercase, two…, Immediate response from administrators., I was completely surprised to receive not one, but two responses the next morning from the administrators of the program. Over the next few days, I was cc’d on several emails from people, who were…, Good to assess the big picture., I’m confident that the GAT 2.0 would have helped me identify more serious issues as well and sent me in the right direction to get the help I needed. Taking time to sit down and reflect on my…, Editor's note:  There are so many government, nonprofit and local resources for military families.  We welcome your reviews on how they work.  Please get in touch with us at the CONTACT button above.