Latest 15 of 19 Total Comments Show All

• 

  Taka313 at 07:39 PM JST - 3rd April

  Ruger, I completely agree with you regarding the overseas screening process and the continuous overseas tour policy. Another benefit to allowing people to homestead is that it saves the government a lot of money in PCS moves. I think I would add lowered recruitment standards and pressure on recruiters to make quota to the list however.

  The problem is, whenever something eminently logical like that gets brought up, it's shot down because of funding. "The money just isn't there" (anyone else heard that one before?).

  Well, the GAO recently released a report on the pentagon finding that 95 major systems have exceeded their original budgets by a total of $295 billion, bringing their total cost to $1.6 trillion, and are delivered almost two years late on average. In addition, none of the systems that the GAO looked at had met all of the standards for best management practices during their development stages.

  Well...I'll bet with $295 billion, you and I could cobble together an effective overseas screening program.

  Taka

• 

  SuperLib at 09:01 PM JST - 3rd April

  If the Navy can create a screening process to filter out people who will commit murder or rape in the future then I'm all for it.

• 

  Sarge at 09:29 PM JST - 3rd April

  Ruger - "let a Sailor, as long as there's a valid billet, stay in Japan as long as he or she desires"

  By golly, sailors will serve where Uncle Sam needs them!

  Taka13+300 - "I'll bet with $295 billion, you and I could cobble together an effective overseas screening program"

  Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I'll bet you guys would just blow the $295 billion.

• 

  Sarge at 09:53 PM JST - 3rd April

  SuperLib - I hear the Navy is going to set up a "Minority Report" system which will stop crimes before they happen! You know, the crimes that would be committed by all the poor-quality young sailors who are currently slipping through the overseas screening process that Taka313 and Ruger are talking about.

• 

  Ruger at 10:28 PM JST - 3rd April

  Sarge

  By golly, sailors will serve where Uncle Sam needs them!<

  In days past you were correct, however in days past billets were "created" by Detailers to put their buddies where they wanted to go, that was what I meant by a "valid billet". The Navy no longer issues orders, they issue invitations. it's gotten so bad it's almost like Ebay. Because of the COT Policy the majority of the senior enlisted leadership on board the ships here are not here because they want to be, they are here for the extra money. Career Sailors can actually negotiate the amount of Area Incentive Pay (AIP) they can get to go to Japan, and the amount can go up to $1500 a month depending on enlisted pay grade, if they don't get what they want they negotiate for some where else or stay where they're at albeit a different duty station. I've personally known several outstanding Sailors who were offered a valid billet on sea duty here in Japan which was a priority fill and forced to go back to the States in a low priority billet just because they'd spent 5 years in Japan. There are shore commands in Yokosuka that are only 60% manned because of this BS. Out of my 40 odd years since I first came to Japan as a young Sailor, this is the highest crime rate by Sailors I've witnessed, granted in the good old days of the Honch a lot was over looked, but with the exception of the Vernon County Sailor who murdered a JN Policeman in 1961 and the Parsons Sailor who torture murdered a girl in 1975 there were very few SOFA on JN crimes, it was SOFA on SOFA. I'll grant you, Sailors will serve where Uncle Sam needs them, if they can't negotiate a better deal, and there lies one of the problems, career Sailors that don't want to be in Japan and not properly working with their troops to help them adapt to a country as great as Japan is.

• 

  Sarge at 11:07 PM JST - 3rd April

  Ruger - Thanks for the info.

  It always pained me to see fellow servicemembers misbehaving and causing trouble with locals, even though they were a small minority. They caused locals to distrust all of us.

• 

  SuperLib at 12:19 AM JST - 4th April

  "SuperLib - I hear the Navy is going to set up a "Minority Report" system which will stop crimes before they happen! You know, the crimes that would be committed by all the poor-quality young sailors who are currently slipping through the overseas screening process that Taka313 and Ruger are talking about."

  Heh, I actually thought about referencing Minority Report but decided to write something else instead.

  But on the plus side, once the US is able to eliminate all future crime from it's armed forces, perhaps they can try their techniques on retired mechanics who were born in Pittsburgh on an odd numbered day. Then, we can branch it out from there.

• 

  mcnatts at 02:52 AM JST - 4th April

  You know...I worry that these incidents will only grow - not just with the Navy, but w/all of the armed services. Reason being - service tours in Iraq. If a soldier has lived through one (most likely 3 or more) tours there...they are gonna have issues with a psych eval. It's not even really their faults - most of them are getting close to retirement and don't want to loose the time.

  This just proves to me that I was right to lose faith with the brass and get out when I did...across the line, the military is stretching the soldiers too thin, loosening the requirements and standards on those they accept. The end result? The world perception of all of us drops and those of us that enjoy living overseas have to continually prove that WE aren't like that person...

• 

  japanmanj at 05:23 AM JST - 4th April

  So now CNJF is calling this a period of heightened sensitivity. They have taken a trip back to 1920 and re-instated the prohibition of alcohol. They have once again placed a restriction on SOFA personnel, simply to hide on base and in thier homes. CNFJ you are a hypocrit. Why are you still allowing the Cherry Blossom Festival/Open Base to continue this weekend during a time of heightened sensitivity. If you want to show how sensitive and sincere you are why not give all the proceeds from the day to the victim's family. Why not show a real jesture of sensitivity and not charge guests for the thousands of pizzas and tons of chicken you plan to sell to them, not to mention beer sales. Come on if you were really sensitive you would have placed a ban on the sales of any DVD movies rated PG and above and stopped thier showing at base theaters. You would have banned violent video games from being sold in the NEX and played in the base video arcades. You would have limited the base TV feeds to show only righteous moral and religous related content on its schedule. We now know if you can attack alcohol sales so easily you can do the same for tobacco products. No mre excuses CNFJ. Please create a society of fun loving god fearing people for us. I want you to do all the thinking for me so I have no responsibilty for my actions as a person.

• 

  outhousejt at 05:59 AM JST - 4th April

  Out of my 40 odd years since I first came to Japan as a young Sailor

  My hats off to you. 40 years ago. Thats 1968. Thats when everyone was being a hippie and eating LSD for breakfast and the whole thing with Vietnam and a strong dollar to the yen. I wish I was living in the 60,70s. I have this opinion that it was probably better back then. Granted 80s, 90s was OK too but now the world is in bad shape.

• 

  VOR at 06:55 AM JST - 4th April

  I think the Japanese are getting tired of symbolic gestures. I would venture to guess the troops are pretty sick of it as well.

  Career's are on the line. This is just another stunt by the top brass to show their superiors they are in command.

  They have to do something, so they do anything not really paying attention to the resentment it causes amongst the rank and file.

• 

  Taka313 at 08:30 AM JST - 4th April

  superlib, Allow me to explain to you and the other person here who has never served in the military how the overseas screening process has failed and why people who have ACTUALLY served in the military know that the process needs to be fixed.

  In 1992, a Sailor was brutally murdered in Sasebo by another Sailor because the victim was gay and hit on the assailant. The assailant went to the same "A" school I did, and I know several people who knew the assailant. Most people characterized him as extremely homophobic, to the point of creepy. Proper overseas screening would have prevented him from coming to Japan and committing a murder in a park bathroom in City of Sasebo. Another example: A student from the same class as me was allowed to take leave back to her home (which was almost never allowed) during our 3 month school because she was suffering from depression because of acute home-sickness. After graduation, she was sent to Guam where she attempted suicide. Proper overseas screening would have prevented that her from being sent to Guam. What you and the other people here who have never served in the military fail to realize is that even though that one case was blue on blue, it deeply affected our relationship with Japan and both cases caused those commands to lose a body (one forever). Also, when a command loses a body like that, it's called an unplanned loss and you don't receive a replacement until that persons scheduled rotation date, meaning you have to accomplish the same mission with less people, which raises stress, which can and sometimes does lead to acts of stupidity. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least 2 other cases I know of personally where a proper overseas screening would have saved the Navy from suffering a black eye overseas, and I'd wager that anyone who actually did serve overseas in the military could add to the list, but I think you get the point. So, I hope that you have a better understanding of what those of us, who know what the hell we are talking about, are saying when we say that the overseas screening needs to be fixed. No, we won't be able to read mind like you so flippantly joked about, but it will aid in having our best Sailors in positions to be ambassadors and examples of proper behavior, it will keep the stress level down, aid readiness and save the military money. Now I suppose you will tell me that is a bad thing.

  Taka

• 

  NotJohnWayne at 09:47 AM JST - 4th April

  I didn't know the Navy actually had a screening process for overseas assignments. No such process for the Air Force. If you are filling a special billet you have to be accepted, but for the average Airman, there is no screening process.

  While I'm all for letting service members serve in place for as long as they want on a personal level, proffesionally I feel it breeds complacency... Continuity is great, but when the same person has been doing the same job for too long, especially those of a lower rank/rate/grade, most tend to start cutting corners, paying less attention to detail, and their performance suffers. Not in all cases, but too often to be acceptable. Might work great in the civilian sector, but for military personnel, where discipline and standards are as important as job performance, it usually doesn't work.

  JMHO...

• 

  Elram at 12:48 PM JST - 4th April

  I agree with Taka and others who have stated the problem with Overseas Screenings. It is getting more frequent to have people over here that really shouldn't. It's not the only problem, but it's part of it.

  Recruitment quality is getting lower. In the 13 years I have been in I have noticed a drastic reduction in the quality of Sailors that are coming in. If you ask these kids about things like Boot Camp, they laugh... it's a joke. "A" and "C" schools, which used to serve as a filter have become funnels. Most "A" schools are self-paced computer courses. Self paced insofar as they are allowed (and encouraged) to complete these schools quickly... not slowly. The nice thing about long schools enabled those prone to get into trouble to get caught early; and because of how strict the rules were, the gradual relaxing to "C" School was seen as a privilege, rather than a right. By the time the student arrived on his/her command, they had learned to respect what they had, as they were privileges that could be revoked. Now? Everything's a right. Blue cards are expected after a short time onboard.

  COT has also hurt our manning. Quality folks that respected the community stayed. they didn't get complacent, if anything they were more in-line with the arduous optempo out here. There was no adjustment to be made.

  Finally, the restrictions have hurt us. I know this might sound off the wall, but it has. When I came here the first time in '97 as an E3 I had no restrictions at all. I could crawl through the honch or crash in front of the subway at Roppongi if I wanted. People wanted to come over here because it was a "work hard, play hard" philosophy. Liberty ports were great and without restriction. Now, people will do anything to prevent coming over here. Why would I, as a 32-year-old father want to be stationed in a place where I have more restrictions than I did as a teenager; not to mention that optempo has, if anything, increased.

  What needs to be done?

  1) Return discipline to Boot Camp. There is no reason why an E3 should think they can decide whether or not they want to do something. It needs to be ingrained in their skulls that they do what they are told... period. If they don't want to get with the program you boot them with an OTH. But you do it without penalizing the recruiter; after all, they can't stop all the knuckleheads from coming in.

  2) Rigorous screenings. It will hurt manning initially, but over time the quality will return.

  3) Get rid of COT. Let the folks that want to be here stay. It saves money and results in more people that respect the area and the people.

  4) After the above is in place, relax the conditions. Make sure folks understand that it's a privilege to serve overseas.

  5) COs need to be quicker to give Sailors the boot back to the States. If the kid's a substandard performer, or prone to cause trouble, get him out before he does something major.

  These things won't completely eliminate liberty incidents, but will get them down to an absolute bare minimum.

• 

  Alphaape at 05:11 PM JST - 4th April

  The COT process (according to the party line) was started to get "new blood" rotated over to Japan. They were seeing that people were spending 20 and 30 year careers over here, and not having served in any duty back in CONUS. So that wanted to make sure that there was a relative "flushing of the talent" so that we would not develop into a "Far East Navy" "Pineapple Navy (Hawaii); West Coast Navy (San Diego) and East Coast Navy (Norfolk).

  Like many of the posters comments, the end reuslt of this was making people come here who sometimes don't want to come here, and forcing people to move who want to stay. A sailor can do a 20 year career in San Diego or Norfolk easily going from ship to shore to ship. It used to be that one could do the same in Yokosuka (they might would have had to move to Sasebo or Misawa for a few years but still got to stay in Japan).

  As far as overseas screening, yes you can weed out the really bad ones, but you never will be able to catch them all. A sailor could pass the screening very well (financial, mental stability, etc) and then one day make a simple mistake (drunk too much one night and made the wrong pass at the wrong woman at the wrong time) or any other one in a million chances to screw up. I am not saying that this is an excuse, but it can happen to the best of us.

Register or login to add a comment!