Has anyone shipped their car overseas?

Twice in fact. It's easy. He'll drop it off at the shipper and pick it up at the installations pick up place. He will walk in and register it just like he does here and drive away.

Part of his in processing will be to sit for his German driving certificate. He is not allowed to drive without it. That's what the shuttle and taxis are for in the mean time. Is it a pain in the butt? Yep, every time. But it is short lived. Tell him to download the test before he goes and start studying. It is not hard but you have to know the new signs and how to proceed in a round-about. He will not have a German license - but a US certificate to drive. He still needs his states license. Make sure it is renewed or you live in a state where that isn't necessary for active duty.

Insurance, is the same. He'll call and let them know he is now in Germany. They will push his insurance card which he will need to pick up his car. He can put it in a "hold" sort of status while on the boat and try to save some money but he should talk that through with his insurer (and hopefully he has USAA - they are awesome in Germany as they have a local number and everything!)

So will he not have transportation- yep. Will he survive? Yep. Do we all go through this when we get there? Yep. If he can get his license and his car isn't there yet, he can rent a car. All bases's have shuttles and since you say AF that really narrows where he is going. I guarantee the busses are there. It is a short lived thing. He should also have a sponsor. Will he live on base? Even easier- he doesn't have far to go. If he wants to get out, research the train and either walk or take a cab to the depot.

My first time in Germany... we landed at Thanksgiving. We were immediately invited to a dinner and asked me to bring cranberries because I could just get the can. LOL! Sure... so I figured out how to ride the bus to buy cranberries but first I stopped to get pillows. I'm in the commissary carrying pillows and crying because I was exhausted, they were out of cranberries and I had no idea where I even lived (seriously- couldn't pronounce the street). A woman stopped and helped me. She ended up driving me home bless her heart as she was well aware of where I lived... sigh. Hilarious now, not so funny then. The second time I was a pro.

The contracted shipper of POV for DoD has been in the news as being a lousy shipper. The consequences of going with the lowest bidder.
Getting a German license will be part of his inprocessing.
We shipped a car to the middle east when we moved there. The bribes required to get it released were crazy.

Others have addressed the getting the car there and the licence details - we didn't deal with that as there was no point bringing a car from Australia, and our licence process was a simple exchange.

As for this:

In a nutshell - yes. We drive all over Europe, and have driven through multiple countries in one day - I think our 'record' is 5! At times, it is even hard to tell when you are crossing a border! Most of the time, you don't need a passport to cross borders, but it is useful to carry it as ID just in case. This has become more of an issue since the refugee crisis of the past few years, but we still haven't had to show one. We do drive a German registered car - it might be different with a car with a different registration.

We were in South Korean from 2001-03, so time and county may change things.

But I can remember it being one of the easier tasks of the move. We got international driver's licenses from AAA as recommended, but I'm not sure that was even necessary then, much less now. I didn't drive off base much--I couldn't read the street signs and the streets were incredibly narrow and confusing. But that was Seoul, not Germany... At least they use the same alphabet as we do!

Your DS will need to take the vehicle to a port. I think DH went to St Louis, so there is one in the middle of the country. We did it about 6 weeks before we left, as some friends had a car they lent us for that time. We sold my car about a week before we left and shared the one vehicle for a time, too. It must have been a pain, but I don't remember too much, so it must have been pretty low on the list of issues for me!

It it expensive to rent a car--we did that for a week when we got back and then the in laws brought their extra car down for us. We were in Vegas and it was just too spread out for the expense of taxis. DH bought a car about a week later, so that took care of that problem.

One thing to consider is buying a vehicle over there and selling it before moving back to the states. We bought DH a motor scooter (weren't allowed 2 cars if living on base per the SOFA agreement), but a lot of bachelors bought what we called hoop-dees. We lived on base and put 5 miles a day max on the car, so they get passed down over and over through the years. There must be a similar system in Germany. Or that is where BMWs are made...

My parents shipped our cars to England when we lived there, and then when we moved to Germany, we took them over on the ferry. I got my first ever driver's license in Germany. Much harder exam and driving exam than my girls ever did in the U.S. But I am thankful that's where I learned to drive. It will be different for him because he already has a driver's license from the U.S. But everyone has shared that it won't be bad for him. And we used to drive from Germany to our favorite French restaurant all of the time. Piece of cake. Where will he be stationed?

We did it when I was in the Army many, many years ago. The biggest PITA was getting the car clean and inspected before it could be put on the ship. We did insurance through Geico and as long as we were military we didn't have to get another license...but, this was years ago and rules may have changed.

Ours was real simple when we shipped it to Iceland when XH was stationed there.
And we did not have to take any tests for driving. Maybe that is where he needs to go! LOL

Good luck to him, the good thing is that this is not the first time military has brought a vehicle to Germany, so I am sure there are a lot of resources on how to proceed.

when i was stationed in germany we sure did have to get a USAREUR license to drive offpost

I think you have to have bought the car a certain amount of time before coming home in order to not pay taxes. Many car companies give nice discounts to military. We planned on it but spent our money traveling and the time to not pay taxes within-- came up fast. We were there 4 years.