We are going to Darmstadt, Germany for our first duty station. In other words, we are new to the Army and don't know the way of doing things yet and our first time moving is to another country. Is anybody in or has been in Darmsdadt. Can anybody give me any tips on things that need to be done that the Army does not tell people about?

I am going to Darmstadt this weekend.

Its about 20 minutes away from Frankfurt.

So consider yourself lucky.

The post is alright. Location is better. You are 20 minutes from Frankfurt & 15 from Hanau, 30 from Wiesbaden. 50 from Kaiserslautern and 55 from Ramstein & Landstuhl. 75 from Baumholder.

Umm if your on your husbands orders- then you don't need to do much.

You might want to make sure you have a KM gage thing aswell as the miles. European roads and things run completely by kms and not at all by miles.

Take a look at the army onestop website to check out your post and the housing.

Germany is pretty cool- when are you moving??

Last we heard we are supposed to report July 15 which gave us almost a month of leave before we moved, but now they are telling us we only get 14 days leave, so probably the beginning of July. We haven't received his orders on paper yet. Nobody in his platoon going oconus has. But all the stuff with medical screenings and passports and where we can ship our car from, etc. can be so overwhelming. Do I have to find housing for us or does the Army help you with that?

Since you are going oconus- you have your own inprocessing.

When you get here- it's not just your husband who will be busy.

You will be assigned a sponser. That sponser will be helping you for the first few days to get settled. He/she will be at your beck and call. So you don't need to worry about getting lost. They will drive you round etc.

First off- you will be going with your husband and you will find a sheet of things for you to do.

Some of these include housing, (you sign up)

medical & dental- where you give your past files from the drs etc. (i think you also have your medical too)

You go and talk to the FRG leader

And some other things.

Im not sure about the car- usually it will be there about a week after you get there. Dosn't really take too long.

Housing has waiting lists- but Darmstadt won't be too long of a waiting list. The base housing isn't too bad either. Pretty much the same all over Germany.

I havn't done that stuff because i haven't "officially" moved.

But you should google it and it will have more info for you.

Just be glad your near the city. Im in the middle of nowhere- and it sucks.

Now if we are on a waiting list for a house, where do we stay until we get one? Do I go through the Army to get on a waiting list. I am so new at this.

Umm well when you first get there- you will be staying at an army lodge on the base.

A couple over here just moved, they stayed at the lodge for 3 days and then they moved into their new apt!

That's baumholder though, and im pretty sure Darmstadt isn't much different.

Check out onestop army.

My computer can't even get on it for some reason so im not exactly sure on the address- but if you google

onestop army housing

You will be directed to a website that has like every single army base on it- and it will show you the housing for Darmstadt and give you more info.

And this is the installations website.

http://www.darmstadt.army.mil/sites/local/

Which will give you some info aswell.

Go to the side panel and find newcomers.

There is tons of info for ya.

Thank you so much!!!!!!

No worries!

Darmstadt was our first duty station! As Simmy said, it's in a really great location. It isn't one base, there are three little bases scattered around the city. CFK (where almost everything happens), Lincoln Village (housing) and Kelley Barracks (Commissary is here, so is motor pool. This is the base DH worked at). We lived off-post about a 10 minute walk from Kelley Barracks.

Darmstadt is very well connected to other cities via the train system. Germany is famous for its fests (as in Oktoberfest) and Darmstadt has a great one the first weekend of July called Heinerfest.

Congrats on Darmstadt, it's a great assignment :)

I LOVED Darmstadt. I miss just walking around town. They have excellent public transportation and the base is small but nice. I was so sad to hear that they're closing it down, we loved it. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

We live in Kaiserslautern, but travel to Darmstadt to visit friends who live there. They are renting a pretty nice house, so I am not sure what the housing is like. I hope you have a wonderful trip to Germany.

THANKS!!