When you retire, you have one year to execute your household-goods move under your retirement orders. Unlike PCS or ETS orders, where the government pays only up to your "Home of Record's" distance, you get to move anywhere in the country you choose as your "Home of Selection."

What happens if you retire but do not make your move within the usual 12-month period? If you visit most Personal Property/Household Goods Offices, they will tell you -- if you ask them -- that they will extend your move authorization for an additional year. You must usually give them a reason, such as you or a family member need to finish an educational program or that there was some other personal or family hardship that made moving impractical. The real problem is when the Personal Property Office will not give you a one-year extension or you want more time. From personal experience over the past year, I learned that the one-year move period can be extended in some worthy cases to at least three years. Each person's case is different, so there is no guarantee.

When I retired in 1999 and decided to stay where I was, for personal and professional reasons, relocation was out of the question when I subsequently needed to move to Virginia in 2003. A local Personal Property Office told me there was nothing they could do for me. But being a former JAG officer taught me that 'no' was a relative term. I found out that if I could get the Board for Correction of Naval Records (BCNR) to direct the Navy to extend my currently expired retirement move, they would make it happen. (Note: All branches of service have their own service specific Boards for Correction. Please consider any reference below to BCNR to apply to them as well.)

That same day, I went to the BCNR Web site (www.hq.navy.mil/bcnr) and got the required DD Form 149 for the BCNR application and filing information. All services use the same form and the form has all the service branches' mailing addresses on it. I typed it up that same day and faxed it to BCNR. A mere 13 days later, BCNR issued me a 100 percent favorable decision. They apparently do this fairly regularly, which is why it went through so quickly. I was able to use the decision not only to get my household goods moved at government expense, but payment for the three separate cars that I, my wife, and daughter drove to Virginia over the next few months.

If you decide to have your retirement move extended, here are ways to be successful:

• When filling out the DD Form 149, explain your case in detail.
• List "extenuating circumstances" for you and your family -- like education, illness, job search, deaths, accidents, or other decisions.
• Explain also what has made it more practical or valuable for you to move now or in the near future.
• Include a copy of your retirement orders and your DD 214.
• Specify that you wish to extend household goods shipment and all related travel costs for the family's drive to your new home.
• Remember mileage and per diem for you and family members.
• Submit multiple travel claims for each family member.

If this applies to you, delaying further may not be in your best interest. BCNR panels are composed of different members and you do have to provide extenuating reasons why you did not move in the first year. However, if you have not moved and had some logical reason for not doing so, but now want to move, you at least should try the BCNR.

Lastly, if you have moved on your own because your one-year retirement move has expired, you too should file a BCNR petition. You have nothing to lose and several thousand dollars of possible gain. I say this because subsequent paperwork that I received from the DFAS indicated that if I had already moved on my own, they would reimburse my moving costs up to what the government would have paid to do it.