Orders to Japan UNACCOMPANIED
dianadvargas
member
HI everyone,
I'm not new to the bump, but I've never posted in this board. I have 2 daughter one is almost 9yo and my younger daughter will turn 1 in 2 weeks. We are currently stationed in JAX, FL been here for 6 years. I have 2 mortages (one house in FL and another one in VA) & I work FT. DH window to pick orders closed 2m ago. We wanted to stay in Jax, FL but there were no order for his rate and for sea duty. So, he's been talking to his detailer over the phone since then.Anyways to make the story short, the detailer just called and said he need to pick from what's left for this month. Washington state, Lemore, California, or Japan. Then he said Washington is not possible because it cost the NAVY16K to move us. Lemore is a horrible place to go according to my husbands piers who have been there. So Japan is left. To what the detailer said it will be 2 years unaccompanied. I'm so upset. I've been tru 4 deployments, but having him away for 2 years, out of our life. DH's Chief advised him to pick Japan and once he gets there he can ask for command sponsorship "a request for us to go there" sth like that.
Has anybody done this? or know about this???
I appreciate your suggestions
PS: Sorry for grammar, bumping from phone.
Re: Orders to Japan UNACCOMPANIED
No experience with unaccompanied, but Lemoore isn't that bad. I would much rather be in Lemoore with a guarantee that my family would be intact than to take chances on command sponsorship when he is signing up for 2 years unaccompanied on the other side of the world. With money being an issue, they could EASILY say "no" because of the $$ to move you out there. (think about it, the detailer said "no" to Washington because of $, what makes you think you can get yourself a family OCONUS move?)
We have LOTS of friends that have lived in or are living in Lemoore. It is where all of the F-18s are on the west coast. While the area itself is rural and has downsides, you are only a few hours away from some great cities (San Fran is only 3ish hours away). Hanford seems to be where most of our friends live. It is a small town but has decent amenities.
I would reconsider CA. Just because the guys your DH works with have nothing nice to say does not mean that it is a horrible place. IME, the Navy is pretty spoiled with great locations and servicemembers can be a bit dramatic about the places that aren't coastal and highly populated.
Married 6/28/03
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CJ 05/29/2013
I have no idea if this is possible in your situation and with Japan. But I do know people who's husbands were sent to Korea unaccompanied. This is radical and completely out of pocket but I know wives who got a visa on their own and still went to Korea with their husband. It was completely paid for by themselves. The military health care facilities would still see them but they would be low on the priority list for health care and for evacuation. This is something you could look into.
Otherwise you might be out of luck if you stick with picking Japan. I wouldn't depend on him being able to get you command sponsorship later. The Army is also starting to send people to Korea for two years unaccompanied so it looks like this type of situation might be the new normal. I hope you figure out a way to make the best of the situation. Good luck!
This is a good point. Just because others don't like it doesn't mean you won't. We are in San Diego now and all of our friends talked about how great it was and how much they love it. We don't like it at all and can't wait to leave.
Thank you ladies for all your replies.
I have! But, we were supposed to be dual military (him in Japan, me in VA). When BUMED disqualified me from service, we applied for command sponsorship. Shince I was not around the base where my husband was attached, the doctors gave me the runaround for getting the overseas screening. MH's command sent him the paperwork that needed to be filled out. I sent it back and we paid my own way to Japan. Turned out that my civilian doctor's screening and signature weren't approved, so I went to his base and got the clinic to do the screening (medical and dental). It was done within a day. The difficulty that came after was because people left all the paperwork on their desks. It was a process that should have taken two weeks, but took three months instead. All we had to do was follow up and stay on top of the communication between the ship and the base PSDs. It doesn't hurt to know people, either.
Once we got command sponsorship, we were able to schedule a HHG move. I had my stuff in storage, got a POA for the local packing, and received our stuff after two months.
It is risky to come over without sponsorship because you risk not getting approved. A friend of mine didn't get approved, but I'm not sure why. While I was getting my screening done, they basically don't want people over here with chronic illnesses that they can't support medically where it will create drastic situations and there was more help at home. Also, without sponsorship, you can't legally drive in Japan (I would suggest getting an AAA international driver's license just in case) nor can you get a job on base.
One last thing, if your husband has orders and you are his spouse, the Japanese will give you a SOFA stamp to allow you to stay longer than the 90 day visa given to all other visitors of Japan.
Any other questions, please know I'm here to help, just PM me!
My hubby did a unaccompanied Oki tour a couple years ago. He was supposed to go for two years, but got a hardship tour since we were denied command sponsorship. From all accounts, it was a wonderful duty station, and the pictures were absolutely gorgeous... They deployed quite often though, so much of the time he was stationed there, he was actually in Korea, Thailand, or the Philippines.
The year separation sucked, but wasn't much longer than our standard deployments, so we managed without too much difficulty. He also got to come home on leave at Christmas time, and we took a family vacation to Disney while he was home.
Still, if we'd had the option for any CONUS duty station, we would have definitely taken that over a year long family separation. I can't imagine going through two years...