Tuesday, March 15, 2011

OCONUS milspouses

I'm begging each and every one of you to learn from what we are going through here in Japan.

When you move over seas, your spouse is "required" to fill out a NEO (I think it stands for Non-Combatant Evacuation Orders) packet containing all the forms that would be required for you to evacuate the country you are living in should anything happen.  I knew NOTHING about this packet until my neighbor mentioned it to me yesterday.  When I asked my husband about it he said he'd get the forms for me.  When I asked him why he didn't take care of this when we first got here his response was "I didn't feel like dealing with it".  Really honey?  Thanks, I appreciate that!  Had something more serious happened while he was TDY, my butt could have been stuck here because he "didn't feel like dealing with it".

I understand that most of you probably have spouses that would take care of something like that but PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE double check...right now!  

When we 1st moved here, we never could have imagined that we'd be living through the worst earthquake in Japan's history but we are and I'll admit we were not prepared.

I hope some of you can learn from our mistakes.

PS, WE ARE NOT BEING EVACUATED, THIS IS JUST PRECAUTIONARY!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

No, my husband is THE SAME WAY! Two deployments: the first one he had to mail me my POA because he waited too long. The second one, I got it THE DAY BEFORE THEY LEFT! That was only because I rode him like a pony for a week- always on his back asking him about it! Thank you for sharing this with us so we all know. I have a feeling most husbands are just like ours!

Nancy said...

I had mine partially filled out. I sat down to do it right away when we got here- but jet lag and confusion took over and I didn't finish! I admit yesterday I sat down and made sure it was COMPLETE! Last year at the ombudsman symposium at the New Sanno- the guy from Yokosuka that is in charge of NEOs, showed us the nifty machine they use to scan passports and how they track everyone once they send them on their way. It is quite impressive and it sounds like they do their best to take good care of everyone. Of course, when I got back home- I STILL didn't sit down to finish my paperwork!
I hope others can learn from our mistakes!