PCS: Futenma

[pterrell]

Well... Yeah... Not terribly excited. Wife is going to stay here for school. Anyone have the bright side or have lessons they learned while pcsing outside conus?

[jcourson]

Culture.
It is in Naha, so you can easily walk/bus/monorail to a lot of places.
SCUBA!
If you get command approval for a driver's license, free cars during PCS season. Otherwise, free/cheap everything else during PCS season.
SCUBA!
Politely ignore than 5-10 'protesters' that you will see outside the gate every other month, it is just a way for their town to get money from the DoD.
SCUBA!
As long as you are not the typical loud, drunk Marine, then the Okinawan people are some of the nicest people that you will ever meet. They will bend over backwards to help you out.
SCUBA!
Barracks Marines in Okinawa are far and away a closer group than you have seen anywhere else you have been.

Oh yeah, if you like the ocean, you can always give scuba diving a try. If you get bored or something.

[pterrell]

Ok so I'm going to be spending some time in the ocean haha.

So my biggest question is about my situation with my wife staying here. My MGunz said he would try and get me two years unaccompanied and then she would stay here while in school. If we do that, would I be a geo bachelor and still get BAH to pay for the house while she's here? What are the barracks like for NCOs if I do get my geo bach package approved?



Side note, how much desiccant should I pack in my gun safe before I leave? Wife doesn't shoot ever unless it's with me (her choice). I mean, seriously. Heavy grease on everything and a 5 gal bucket of silica? lol

[GunDog]

When I was in Oki, the DoD tour lengths were as follows....

--Unaccompanied: 18 months
--Accompanied: 30 months

You might want to verify this with your personnel types. If you're a geographic bachelor you'll still be entitled to your housing allowance at the with dependents rate. You will also be entitled to Family Separation Allowance (FSA). Oki also has a COLA. Service members stationed in Japan and Okinawa are also eligible for the Environmental and Morale Leave (EML) Program. What this does is entitle you to two space "A" trips per year back to CONUS or other EML destination sights in-theater, with a priority just below the emergency leave folks and ahead of all other space "A" categories; a really good deal.

Futenma is a pretty small base and the Corps is being pressured to shut it down by the locals and move either to the north end of the island or to Guam. MCB Butler/Camp Foster and Kadena Air Base are only a short distance away and have much greater liberty opportunities.

Oh yeah, get SCUBA qualified and enjoy some of the best diving in the World. You'll also need to be aware of the different hazardous marine life such as venomous sea snakes, cone shells, blue ring octopus, and stone and scorpion/lion fish.

I loved Okinawa and Japan........one of the best tours of my career.

[Ahmad]

You can hang out with some of us grunts on Schwab. Nice beach, great for diving.