Ok, this is a topic that I am qualified to answer.
I served on Lincoln, then went over to Precom the Reagan. I have since put my package in for the Bush Precom. Just waiting on orders at this point.
I posted the message here 'bout halfway down:
http://www.nukeworker.com/forum/index.php/topic,5702.0.htmlHere goes.
First, the inservice date is set around the time of crew habitability. To give you an idea of what time frame that might be, consider this timeframe from Reagan.
August 2000 : initial manning...first nukes report.
March 2001: Christening
May 2001: Reactor Dept move aboard ship.
September 2001: Shift work begins.
October 2002: Crew move aboard (messing onboard, etc).
Nov 2002: RSE (certifies Reactor Dept)
May 2003: First underway (sea trials).
July 2003: Commissioning
Keep in mind we were *delayed*
You can count on inservice to be a few months before commissioning, after the sea trials.
The 24 month OBLISERV is standard for precom, but it was not enforced on Reagan. Some are pointing to the failure to enforce the OBLISERV as the cause of several problems that have occurred since. My detailer says that the OBLISERV is going to be strictly enforced on Bush.
As far as sea pay goes, I did not receive sea pay until crew moveaboard, and I came from a sea command. However, I did receive COMRATS, so it pretty much equalled out. However, my sea counter kept rolling. The duty counts as sea time for rotational purposes.