Duty Station: Okinawa, Japan

[JWG]

I'm with 9th ESB, 3rd MLG. I've heard we are in fact deployable to Afghanistan as well as Thailand, Korea, MEU's, etc. I'm excited, although heard mixed things, but I think I'll enjoy it. It's what you make of it for every duty station I guess.

I hear alot of SCUBA Diving, and I'm sure there are lots of cool places to tour, namely Iwo Jima. Not getting my hopes up for a Gold Pass for liberty as a PFC though, I've heard it's near impossible right now?

I have been looking into what to expect for Okinawa (Camp Hansen specifically) and so far a rough summary of what I've been told thus far is:

1. Wait to buy laptop when you get on base, it's cheaper.
2. Buy a Magic Jack at home before departing (get local area code) and use in Japan. Free calls from home (since it's local #) and can call US/Canada free for $20/year.
3. Internet is provided on base by Mediatti and it costs roughly $30-50/month. Not sure about getting a TV and cable and how much that will cost and if it's worth it?
4. Barracks are two-man rooms, sharing a head with another room (4 Marines sharing a single head). (?)


Heard negative and positive things about this duty station. Would love to get a variety of opinions and knowledge about it from those who have experience there. Tips, warnings, etc all appreciated and welcomed.


Sincerely,

JWG

[BGW]

As long as your an E-3 or below you will not receive a gold card, does not matter how long you been here either. So as a glorious red card holder your curfew will be midnight, meaning you better damn sure your logged back in before midnight.

Its suppose to be cheaper on base because they do not tax anything you buy, maybe that’s why people tell you to buy on base.

As for calling back home there are several ways of doing it, you can buy a phone out here with a plan that allows you to call back to the states for free. I use Skype and that costs me like 2 cents per a minute.

Mediatti provides internet and they also provide cable. Konnect is also another internet provider but they only provide internet.

As for rooms it depends on barracks that you live in, usually it consist of a small room with two people living in it, and you share a bathroom with another room that also contains two people living in it. Or you might get a barracks that has community heads and the rooms would either have two or three people living in them at a time.

Your experience here on Oki depends on yourself, if you like to go to the bars every weekend and bar hop or do any other kind of partying then you should have no problems fitting in, since most people do this. If you want to do more interesting things it might be a little difficult. Primary reason is because of the cost for transportation. Taxis or what we call honchos, there pretty damn expensive so going out in a group of four to divide up the pay is what most people do.

I probably can go on and on but I am sure there are others that would be more then willing to type up their experiences here as well.

[JRHD72]

AHHH. 2 men to a room. WTF happen to quonset huts n open squad bays? As for callin home they didn't have a string to reach that far!

[Wood5831]

I always heard when you go to Oki you will be either a PT stud or a drinker. Man that was the truth. I loved Oki, but that was also 15 years ago.

[mr1913978]

i was there from 62-63 and we used the ham radio to reach the states

[Garyius]

The island itself is very nice, great weather. 80% of the locals are jerks, 20% will meet you more than halfway if you learn 20 words.

I was there before the card liberty BS, so I had a junker car as a lance coolie. Diving, the beach, the historical sights, all were a bunch of fun.

[CplMotivate]

Stay away from hookers. And buy-me-drinky girls. And Japanese baby mamas.

[thewookie]

I always heard when you go to Oki you will be either a PT stud or a drinker. Man that was the truth. I loved Oki, but that was also 15 years ago.

In my day there were three options, you hit two of them -- be a drunk, a PT stud, or a religious nut.

Or you could be all three...

My first pump I was a drunk that did a lot of diving on the side, my second pump I was a PT stud and an occasional drunk diver.

[CplMotivate]

Stay away from hookers. And buy-me-drinky girls. And Japanese baby mamas.

And Yakuza even though you are a rootin tootin PFC and you have the almighty art of MCMAP mastered.

[jowimc90]

Boy times have changed,what the hell is this gold card BS about. We used to go out almost every night and as long as you were in formation at 07:30 every morning nobody said anything.

[thewookie]

We had libo cards in the Philippines, but not in Oki. Times a changing.

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/al...&pictureid=237

[mr1913978]

we had cinderella liberty

[JWG]

Thank you all for the input and experiences. I've hard the PT Stud, Drinker, or Religious Nut from a retired Master Gunnery Sergeant that drives the local base bus. Very professional Marine, gave me a lot of good advice as well.

Looking forward to my first duty station and making the best of it, as in any situation.


Semper Fi.

[Big Jim]

Boy times have changed,what the hell is this gold card BS about. We used to go out almost every night and as long as you were in formation at 07:30 every morning nobody said anything.

I know...I remember....!! Things sure have changed....i was there in the late 80's.....cable tv and/or laptops weren't even in existence much less the internet...!! LOL....I do remember your ration card for those hurricane parties where we pushed our walllockers up against the windows and went and emptied the paskage store of beer and booze and just had a blast....while we had to weat hlemets and flak jackets to the chow hall for our own protection...LOL

[martinj]

It sucks here, waters great but other than that it sucks, but there is a great jungle to play around in.