Housing questions at a few OCONUS sites

[sukhakuli]

We need to put our 6 choices in to the detailer for our PCS this summer. We're hoping to go overseas this time. Our overseas choices are:

Yokosuka
Okinawa
Sigonella
GITMO (not sure if this is accompanied or not, my husband is a Pediatrician, so they must have kids there )

I don't know if it's appropriate to put my husband's rank in, but we'll need officer housing. I always have a hard time finding info on officer housing for PCS's.

Any other info on those sites is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Hisgirl]

http://www.passthechopsticks.blogspot.com/ This is a good friend of mine, she lives in Yokosuka and her DH is a naval officer, so she's well versed on officer housing. Send her a message thru her blog and I'm sure she'll answer!

Susan

[sukhakuli]

Thanks! I'm checking out her blog, and after the weekend is over I'll drop her a line. It looks like she is having fun there.

[JK]

IMO, We've been in Germany and Japan, DH is a Naval Officer. GITMO is unaccompanied as far as I know. The other locations all have officer housing that is not that different from Enlisted housing. Some variation does occur as to size (but all are still smaller than you may be used to). Officer housing isn't necessarily newer, either, it depends on when they were built or rehabbed by residential area. Whatever they have for enlisted housing in those areas will be very similar to officer housing. Living off base may be an alternative at those locations which may or may not provide you with more space, but has pros and cons living on the economy.

[Elizabeth]

All housing is the same in Sig. People can live of base now as well.

[sukhakuli]

Originally Posted by Elizabeth All housing is the same in Sig. People can live of base now as well.

When did they allow off base housing? I think the websites still say you have to live on base. That could be fun. What is the housing like? How long is the commute to the hospital (where dh is working).

We have 3 kids, but I'm confused about how many bedrooms we qualify for because of the ages and sexes of our kids. I think we get a three bedroom. We have a 7 year old girl, a 4 year old boy, and an 18 mo old girl right now.

I'm confused about all the housing being he same as well, because when I look up various places, they will say things like "For E-4 to E-9" or something. That means that we can't live there, right?

We have to turn our list in this week, and so far our top choices are Sigonella, Okinawa, San Diego, and we're not sure where to go from there. I have heard the commute is about about an hour in Yokosuka, and dh works a lot of hours, like 60-80 a week typically depending on patient needs, so an extra hour each way is not doable for us. We're considering Pensacola. Dh wants to work in a large hospital and not a community size hospital. He is doing that now and hates it. However, oddly enough, he likes the idea of being the only Pediatrician, like at Sigonella. But he doesn't want to work at Bremerton, Oak Harbor, 29 Palms, or Lejuene (our other choices). That narrows it down a bit. We have to choose 6 places.

Our move this summer is a bit more complicated than usual. Dh has applied for a fellowship, and we're still waiting to hear from the Navy if he gets it. We'll hear around Christmas. If the Navy approves his training, then we will be going to DC or San Antonio, and all of this list stuff is a moot point. But we have to cover our bases. If he doesn't get it this time, then he will apply again. They won't allow him to go until he has been at his next place for at least 24 months. We have the option of staying where we are, but the pollution is literally making everyone sick, so we need to leave.

We're hoping to go overseas, I think it will be very beneficial for the kids, and I think they are at the right age. Once dh completes his fellowship, working overseas in the Navy will not be an option for us anymore. We will be stuck with only DC, Portsmouth, or San Diego, and will stay at one of those for the rest of his career. So it's a bit of a now or never kind of thing, you know?

Thanks everyone for all of the help!

[UtaCO]

They usually try to "separate" housing areas/blocks by rank. For example, we are going to Germany, and the housing is exactly the same for everybody, but they might separate ares by rank. Some apartment complexes are lower enlisted, some senior enlisted, some officer, some field grade. But the same exact outlay/floorplan for everybody.

[amber2261]

for okinawa id suggest okinawahai.com its a very very very informational website.

[sukhakuli]

Originally Posted by UtaCO They usually try to "separate" housing areas/blocks by rank. For example, we are going to Germany, and the housing is exactly the same for everybody, but they might separate ares by rank. Some apartment complexes are lower enlisted, some senior enlisted, some officer, some field grade. But the same exact outlay/floorplan for everybody.

Then maybe they should just say E-whatever and up? But it's not like the military is a model of efficiency. I find the whole housing and rank thing to be incredibly frustrating. Like when we moved to San Diego the wait for E housing was 6-8 months. The wait for O housing was 3 YEARS. We had 2 year orders, so what is even the point?

We put our final list in yesterday. I hope we did the right thing, although the whole thing is probably a moot point since I'm sure dh will get his fellowship, and then we can only go to San Antonio or Washington DC. This is just covering our bases. The selfish part of me hopes he doesn't get his fellowship so we can go overseas. Once he finishes his fellowship, we're stuck in the States because the Navy doesn't have any NICU's overseas.
1 Sig
2 Oki
3 San Diego
4 Yoko
5 Bremerton
6 Pensacola


Now we just wait. We'll hear about the fellowship in December.

[Hisgirl]

Good luck!!

We are in Hawaii and Tripler has a NICU but unfortunately it's a AMC (Army) so I don't think there are any Navy peds there.