Military Wives

My fiance is going into the military this January. We are hoping to be stationed at the Yokota Air Base when he is done with training. I was just wondering, do any of you have experience as a military wife (preferably air force)? What does your typical day consist of? How often do you get to see your husband? If there is anything else you can think of, let me know. I want to know what to expect in the future.

I hope you going to check this again. I'm from japan, husband in military. You really need to be careful. I see a lot of military guys messing with japanese girl whatever even guys marry, and i see a lot of people gettig divorece too. So This is No.1 trouble. But you'll a lot of fun at over there too.

I wouldn't read too much into Yuki's anecdote. My son is in the Air Force stationed at Kadena in Okinawa. He was married before PCSing to Kadena three years ago. He works pretty much normal working hours 8:00 to 5:00 and usually comes home for lunch. He's home for dinner almost every day and has weekends off. My daughter-in-law was working for a time on base but hasn't been for the past 6 months. She spends most of her time taking care of their pets and spending time with some of her friends she met on base. So, in other words, the military (especially the Air Force) is pretty much like civilian life except if he gets deployed. He was deployed to Iraq for 4 months and she stayed in Okinawa. She had great help from her friends and there are support groups on base for spouses of deployed personnel.

If you have any more detailed questions, I can try my best to answer them for you.

If you don't have a job or kids, you'll have a ton of free time doing whatever you like. You won't have any "duties" you have to do as a military wife, if that's what you're thinking.

How often you see your husband depends on the job he has. If he works on the flightline, he probably won't be working a 8-5 schedule with weekends off. I used to work a 13-hours a day schedule and rotate from night-shift to day-shift every 3 months. I also had no lunch breaks. I hope your husband is more lucky.

I'm not a wife mostly as I amd a guy lol but having been in the Air Force depending on where you live on base or off will be the biggest factor. The AF is the branch most like a normal job mine was telephone systems so i worked 7:30 to 4:30 and outside exercises or some odd small changes those where my work hours with monday to friday as my work week never weekends again unless there was an exercise most of the time I would go home and have lunch with my wife or take a nap most days at lunch. but some jobs like security forces or some on the flightline can be a challenge with hours. So in the end it comes down to how much time he wants to spend with you and what his job allows.

Be sure to have your husband check into whether he will have enough rank (seniority) for the Air Force to sponsor dependant(s) during an overseas assignment. If the dependant (wife and/or children) is not sponsored, it can be pretty difficult - one thing is that your husband will not get as much money (housing allowance, etc.) to pay living expenses. Be SURE he checks into all details of this situation BEFORE you make ANY plans to go to Japan.

Japan is a wonderful place to live and explore, but please be aware it is also expensive. I spent two years in the Yokohama area as a Navy wife (husband was an E-6) and was also a Navy Family Ombudsman. I witnessed some young couples have a very tough time, as the military didn't pay the wife's transportation to or from Japan, nor did the military member get the extra money to pay living expenses because of his low rank (new or fairly short time in the military). Hope this doesn't discourage you, but PLEASE make sure you get all the details!!

I guess it's different in the Navy but in the Air Force anyone with any rank can bring their spouse to Japan, with transportation and housing paid. I spent several years in Japan in the AF and I never heard of anyone being denied that privilege.

And the pay isn't all that bad, especially for a 18 year old straight out of high school. Even an E1 will make more money than the typical English teacher. But, of course, you'll have some people who have poor money management skills and live way beyond their means.