[Request for Advance Decision on Claim for Travel and Transportation Expenses]

An advance decision was requested as to the entitlement of a Marine Corps member to travel allowances. The marine was transferred from an unrestricted duty station in North Carolina to a restricted duty station in Okinawa, Japan. He moved his dependents from North Carolina to his home of record in Dallas, Texas. Later, two of his dependents joined him at personal expense in Okinawa. At the instruction of travel personnel in Okinawa, the marine did not designate Dallas as his dependents' residence and thus did not request dependent travel at Government expense from North Carolina to Texas. Instead, he filed a claim for and received dependent travel allowances from his old duty station in North Carolina to Seattle, Washington, his dependents' point of debarkation to Okinawa. When the marine was notified of a permanent change of station to Hawaii, his dependents returned to Dallas. Before the marine returned to Dallas, he requested and received a travel advance for his trip there. The family remained in Dallas for a month before moving to Hawaii. The Marine Corps Finance Center contended that the marine was not entitled to travel expenses for his return to Dallas because it was no longer his bona fide residence, as two of his dependents had resided with him in Okinawa. GAO determined that the marine should have received travel allowances for his dependents' trip from his old duty station in North Carolina to his home in Dallas and from Dallas to his new duty station in Hawaii. GAO also found that the marine should receive travel allowances for his own travel from Okinawa to Dallas and on to his new duty station.