Needing Guidance.

[Weezy]

Good evening,

For some of you may know that I received accompanied orders to Okinawa for my first duty station and apparently that's very rare, my delima is my sponsor who's a Sgt just said " I would highly suggest that you have at least $6000 saved up before you get out here, do your taxes if you need extra money. I went through more than that my first month out here between the hotel, cars for me and my wife and rent/deposit on housing. You will have to pay for the hotel when you check out, depending on how long you stay there until you get housing, I was there for almost 2 weeks and it was like $900, but you get reimbursed once you do your travel claim so it all works out, you just need the money ahead of time."


We didn't know we was going overseas to Oki until a few days ago. Im being detached from my unit on the 6th and not sure when my port call is. This week will be getting the port call taken care of, area clearance and overseas screening.

The thing is I don't have access to $6k, I can't get a loan or a co-signer, my vehicle isn't worth the collateral amount for them to finance. I know the relief society isn't going to loan out a 6 thousand dollar loan. Parents are strapped for cash. Where can I go? Even if I sold my vehicle I would be upside down with that. Now my dad said you could ask for an advancement which I haven't heard of but is that even possible?



Semper Fi,
LCpl Randle

[FaDeD]

When you get to oki talk to your sgt about getting adnvanced bah, I did it when I hot the fleet. They gave me 6 months worth of bah up front through ipac and I payed it back over a 12 month period.

[Weezy]

Good to go sounds like the route I'll be taking, thanks Cpl.

[FaDeD]

A lot of people don't know about it. If you have tohit up ipac and get the paperwork then take it to your command. Your company commander has to approve it, you'll problably get a financial worksheet done on you to make sure you canafford it. Good luck. Hard getting anything done these days

[MOS4429]

Good evening,

For some of you may know that I received accompanied orders to Okinawa for my first duty station and apparently that's very rare, my delima is my sponsor who's a Sgt just said " I would highly suggest that you have at least $6000 saved up before you get out here, do your taxes if you need extra money. I went through more than that my first month out here between the hotel, cars for me and my wife and rent/deposit on housing. You will have to pay for the hotel when you check out, depending on how long you stay there until you get housing, I was there for almost 2 weeks and it was like $900, but you get reimbursed once you do your travel claim so it all works out, you just need the money ahead of time."


We didn't know we was going overseas to Oki until a few days ago. Im being detached from my unit on the 6th and not sure when my port call is. This week will be getting the port call taken care of, area clearance and overseas screening.

The thing is I don't have access to $6k, I can't get a loan or a co-signer, my vehicle isn't worth the collateral amount for them to finance. I know the relief society isn't going to loan out a 6 thousand dollar loan. Parents are strapped for cash. Where can I go? Even if I sold my vehicle I would be upside down with that. Now my dad said you could ask for an advancement which I haven't heard of but is that even possible?



Semper Fi,
LCpl Randle

Don't stay in a hotel in the community. Instead, check out temporary lodging facilities on the different camps. Here is a link: http://www.mccsokinawa.com/lodging/reservation/index.asp?lodge=12


This contains information about this method of lodging and contacts, and the menu on the left lists the different places you can stay. When my wife came over for 3 weeks, we stayed in temporary housing on Kadena Air Force Base and also beach cottages, and I think that was on Schwab, but not positive. The Kadena link is: http://kadenaforcesupport.com/lodging.html

Some of these places, though, can still run you 30, 40 or more a night, and a family unit 100 plus, but in town, you will be looking at 100 a night for a room and 300 for a family.

This link will give you some of the NECESSARY info you are asking: http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcbjapan/Pages/Living/Housing.aspx

Also try this one has important information you need to know: http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcbjapan/Pages/newcomers/lodging.aspx
It contains good info on the temporary lodging situation you will be in.

Things may have changed and the names of offices have changed, too, but when I was in, you would even request advance pay. It had a limitation to it, but that was done through disbursing, and like I say, I don't even know if it is called disbursing anymore.

The more you contact people, express your situation and the urgency behind it, my experience was that they will do the most they can to help you out.

[Beltayn]

As stated above, getting advance-pay and advance-BAH is a good way to go to cover these kind of things.

Don't get extravagant. And run major decisions by the next higher person in your chain of command once you get there, since they'll have dealt with your situation before and will be able to give you good guidance on what to do/where to go.

[SBYates]

It might be better for you to stay on base, in that case your sponsor should be able to get you on the base houseing list in advance of your arrival.

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