Got orders to go to japan.

I just finished up MOS school as a 3531 and 3534 as my secondary. I got orders that my first duty station will be with the 3d medical battalion on Camp Hansen. The thing is I am wanting to get married very soon. My understanding is that if I do this then she will have to stay in the states for my whole time there. But the thing I'm confused about is another Marine had the same question that a Master Sergeant answered. His answer was that if he got married then after his 3 month probation period he would be allowed to bring her over. Does anybody know anything more about this subject at all?

I haven't looked into this since I first joined, but at that time it all depended on how long you were stationed there. I think it was two or three years and you could move your family...but for only a year, or two, they could not come with. Of course, hazardous duty stations are a no go (just like if you were in the State Dept.) for families...but Hansen is not one of those, to my knowledge.

You should have a 2 year tour right now, unaccompanied. You can bring her over whenever you get married, provided you extend your tour to 3 years. Now, to extend your tour, it will require permission from your command, so to answer your question, maybe. It just depends on your command.

As it stands now Devildog, you have unaccompanied orders. Had you been married before you went to school and received orders most likely you would not have been assigned to Japan. Not as a young married couple with no rank. If you already have orders, the Marine Corps is not going to bend over backwards to change them to an accompanied tour. If you get married now after school and before reporting to Japan, they ain't gonna send for your wife, I promise. Your only hope would be to get married, take her with you to Japan and suffer the consequences when you get there, meaning that they would have to "command sponsor" you. Of course that ain't gonna happen unless she already has a passport. So, you're **** out of luck. Don't get married, wait until your tour is over in Japan and hope for the best that she doesn't find a "Jody" while your gone. I was lucky enough to have had unaccompanied orders to Hawaii when I did what I did. I just went home on leave, got married, bought her a ticket to Hawaii and when we showed up, they didn't have any choice but to extend my tour and "command sponsor" us. They did not like it. I had to sign a year extension. But that was Hawaii, To go to Japan, she'd have to have a passport in order for you to do that, and they take a good amount of time, 2-3 months to get one. So, in a nutshell, it would be very foolish for you to get married, she ain't gonna be with you. Not on the Marine Corps ticket anyway. Never hurts to try though, you can petition to have your tour converted to "command sponsored", but 95% chance it ain't gonna happen. Good luck, and just hope she waits on you

At my command, they would usually let you extend, actually, but they may make you PCA to another command on Island. It just took about 6 months to process.

I got orders to japan, and me and my girlfriend stayed together for the whole time I was there, plus the 7 months it took to get there from boot. I flew her out there a couple of times. Anyways, we decided to get married when I got back, but actually got married about a year before I left. I was able to save up about 15000 from the BAH and the Sep pay. Pretty sweet. I don't know why I told you that, but, whatever.

If the Corps wanted you to have a wife, they would issue you one! Good luck!

Once you check-in at your unit in Okinawa you can go to CPAC at Hansen and request a Tour Conversion. They will only consider this option if you are married, if you go there and tell them you are wanting to get married then it won't happen. You can attempt to get a mod on your orders before you PCS to Okinawa, see if the S1 will work with you to get your orders extended to 36 months accompanied. You can also request to speak to your monitor for your MOS, being that you are new it will mostly not work out in your favor but it's worth a shot to see if your monitor will allow your orders to get modded.

Being that you are up at Hansen your base housing would either get placed at Foster or Courtney (Courtney is closer). If base housing is not available you can look for houses in Kin, Gushikawa, Ishikawa, or Hanoko.

This is not a easy process to pull off but it can be done if you have a strong SNCO helping you. If all else fails with CPAC at Hansen you can go down to IPAC at Foster which is the main office where all the SRB's are kept, etc. They will be able to do more for you but I'd still recommend CPAC first.

cubemaniac... was your wife able to come with you to Japan?