Questions about Kadena

Arriving Mar 08 to Kadena. How is the SNCO housing? Availability of cars? Duration of DODDS school? Thanks 4 your help

hi

This forum is for mostly civilians,so maybe better for you to find U.S.Military official web page or Military family forum to get more military oriented FAQs.
Are you going to live and drive a car out side of the base? There are some regulations applies to both civilians and U.S.military people outside of the base.

you don't say what service you are, but:
www.kadena.af.mil
there are marine websites and a navy one as well. Just do a google search.
usually, the bases have a website, often there are support groups on yahoo, even blogs from people stationed there. Try a google search on the base name before you try tourist sites. Oh, and military onesource has some kind of base information clearinghouse.

My son has been stationed at Kadena for the past two years and we visited him last December.

As far as base housing goes, I would say it looks typical military. Not particularly beautiful, but functional and typhoon-proof. And the A/C works. Off-base housing is plentiful and runs the gamut from seedy to extremely nice.

There is a lemon lot on base where you can buy used cars from departing/departed servicemen (and servicewomen). The cars are usually older model cars (early to mid-90s) but seem rather dependable as they require the same inspections that the Japanese government require.

As a previous poster noted, you can get more details by visiting the Kadena website and clicking on "Newcomers" or contact your sponsor.

Have fun!!

for us Marines, getting a car depends on rank. u mentioned snco housing so you'd prolly rate a car as soon as you got here (especially if your married). we had to go through a one day class to qualify for a sofa (japanese) license. as far as getting a car, with the high changeover rates (less than 3 years) it is pretty easy to find a car for cheap (1500-3000$). sorry i can't tell you about housing since i'm not a snco but all the housing on kadena looks great compared to what we live in. ours are fairly similar to what we had in the states so i can't imagine it being much different from what you are accustomed to.