Severe Setback

We may not be leaving on time now. I received an unexpected e-mail from my Military Personnel Flight around 3 p.m. today. It said, in short, that my DEROS (date eligible to return from overseas) was set for 15 August 2008, and that I'm only allowed to leave in my DEROS month. According to the sender, I'm not allowed to leave earlier than August 1.

Mind you, the Air Force only allows 13 travel days from Alaska to Louisiana. I think we could do the trip in that time, but we'd have to drive nonstop the whole way. Worse, we've already made the majority of our hotel reservations, spent several hundred dollars on camping equipment, arranged for our movers, and canceled our lease on our apartment. Until this point, everything's been planned with the expectation that we would leave on 22 July, and nobody's told me this was wrong until today. Unfortunately, the sender took a "there's nothing I can do" attitude when I asked if it could be changed.

I'm appealing this issue to the head personnel office to see if this can be fixed. I've also fired back a response to the original message sender with two questions. One, where in writing is the rule that I need to leave within my DEROS month? I don't doubt that it exists, but I'd like to see the source material so I can see if she's interpreting it correctly. Two, is she reading "leave within your DEROS month" too literally? Does "DEROS month" refer to that literal calendar month, or does it refer to the 30-day period around your DEROS date? What if my report date were August 2nd? Would I then only have one day to make the 5,000 mile trip from Alaska to Louisiana?

Between this incident and the tree falling on our car (which still isn't back from the shop), I'd swear the universe is trying to keep me from moving.