Kate Is Clueless: BAS and AIT

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A recent comment contains a question to which I don't know the answer, and I have no idea where to look for the answer.

"How does this BAS-ENL work during AIT? My son is doing the Reserves split-option, and he did Basic last summer. Over this past year, he has been drilling, and he finally paid off the debt from where they over-paid him a month after Basic was over. So... now he is in AIT, and the first LES he received has his debt balance as zero...but now, he gets another LES that has "BAS-ENL" listed as an "unpaid debt balance" of $877.98. My understanding is that the BAS-ENL is for food during AIT or something like that, but that they don't have to actually pay for their food when eating at the DFAC. How in the world does this work??"


If I couldn't look for other information, and I had to make a guess, I would suspect that he is receiving BAS each month and that the entire AIT meals deduction is showing up in one swoop.  I have no idea why they would do such a thing, but it is the least ridiculous scenario I can imagine.

However, I suspect that some of you know exactly what is happening here, and can explain it better than I can.  So, please, share your experiences and help out this service member.  And his mom.

Thanks!

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