Getting to the point where we are now has taken a lot of effort, time and tears to be honest. Moving here was probably the hardest thing we had to do since my husband has been in the Navy. We honestly did not know what we needed to do to get me here and had no help to turn to initially. We really felt helpless.
My husband got his orders on April 2, 2010 and we were so excited. This is where he wanted to go way back when he signed up for the Navy. After nearly two years of school he was really ready to get out into the fleet. The school house helped him with his paper work and made sure that he would be able to get out as soon as possible. I on the other hand, was left to fend for myself. A lot of times during this period I really felt like the Navy could care less about whether or not I would be going to Japan, and in reality that is probably the truth. I learned that their job isn't to get me to live with my husband but to get my husband to work for the Navy.
I knew I needed to get an overseas screening so I called my doctor and set up an appointment at the clinic. The day rolled around and guess what, I need a big packet of papers (which no one told me about) for them to fill out. I had to reschedule after I got the papers. I did as I was told and came back only to find out I would need several other medical appointments to complete that part of the paperwork and this would whittle away at the little time I had to get ready before my husband left.
Needless to say, I was extremely stressed about everything. The school house told us we would be moving in a couple of weeks and to make preparations. We told our apartment complex that we would need to move ASAP and we were going to be out on April 20. The movers were going to come on the 19th so that all was moving ahead at full steam. After all this had been put into motion, we found out that my husband would be flying out sometime in the next couple of weeks. So after the 20th we would be homeless and I still wasn't close to being ready to go. The base really was useless in helping me to get to Japan. Every time I asked for help or to point me in the right direction, they would look at me like I was crazy or act like I was the first person to ever come across that situation. Our apartment was packed up and not having a place to live until we moved to Japan, we ended up couch surfing at a couple of friends houses.
Soon enough, my husband got the call to be ready and at the airport in two hours. We were going crazy trying to get him ready in time, not to mention freaking out that we still didn't know how I was going to get to Japan. He flew out on May 5th not knowing when we would see each other again. I finally finished my overseas screening and me being as naive as I was, thought that we were all done. Soon I found out that even worse news. Since he was now in Japan and no longer attached to the base in VA, all paperwork had to be routed through them and since I was not there to do it, he had to do it during the little downtime that he had on his ship.
I decided to fly back to CA and stay with my parents as I waited. I had started to feel hopeless. He now needed to get Command Sponsorship for me which is a whole different thing than what we were working on back in VA. Since this kind of sponsorship isn't used much, most people didn't know exactly what was needed. Paperwork was mixed up and missing sometimes. Finally I was able to get some help from a cousin who is an E9 in the Marines. Man oh man, did he get things done. If it wasn't for him, I would probably still be waiting. After he talked to the people he talked to, my sponsorship was excepted and we started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Now, all we needed was to get my plane ticket. But wait, which base is going to pay for it? Dam Neck said because he wasn't attached to their base anymore that they wouldn't pay for it. Yokosuka said that they never pay for it. That argument went on for a couple of weeks until my husband and I decided to bite the bullet and pay for the ticket ourselves. It was expensive and hard to know we wouldn't be reimbursed for it, but it was worth every dollar to finally be here. On September 9th I was finally in Japan.
This was my abridged version of our story but I think you get the idea. The whole thing was awful and I really wish no one had to go through it. Sadly a lot of people will. I hope that anyone who is reading this and is going through this knows that you will get here if you keep trying. Make sure to call on every network and resource you have to get you here. You may even step on a few toes along the way, just do what you have to to get where you want to be.
If you have any questions or comments, email me at navywifeinjapan@gmail.com. Don't forget to follow this blog for quicker updates.
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