Nancy Avila, a representative with Navy One Source, visited Sasebo Naval Base last week to remind personnel about the services offered by the Web site. She met with a group at the Hario Housing Village on Thursday night to outline the free service. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan — A representative from Navy One Source visited here last week as part of the Internet site’s promise to find answers to virtually any question an overseas servicemember, spouse, dependent or Department of Defense civilian might pose.
During the week, Nancy Avila met with small groups around the base explaining how the Navy One Source site is intended to augment many of the services already offered at an installation.
“We don’t exist in order to take the place of Fleet and Family Support Centers, but we can offer additional information in many of the same areas FFSC addresses,” she said Thursday night to a small group assembled to hear her presentation at the Hario Housing Village.
Navy One Source is designed to provide referrals and information as “an additional resource to complement other military support systems for families and individuals” seeking location-specific and other types of information, said Jerry Havens, Sasebo’s Fleet and Family Support Center community services chief.
The experts working for Navy One Source, Avila said, all have master’s degrees in their field of expertise.
All the services have access to their own version of One Source, operated by Ceridian LifeWorks Services, part of Minneapolis-based Ceridian Corporation. The Navy One Source arm of the operation began in early 2004.
Eventually, Avila said, the services will merge and become Military One Source.
“If they can’t provide an immediate answer or solution, they promise to research the answer and respond within three days,” she said. And if you don’t have Internet access, they accept phone calls, including collect.
“If you call, they guarantee a human being will answer the telephone. No voice-mail system or anything like that is used,” Havens said.
The One Source service was inaugurated in the Pacific at Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station in December 2002.
Informational materials about Navy One Source indicate that most questions from users center on “everyday issues” such as location-specific information, followed by military life, parenting, education, finances and legal topics.
Navy One Source is freely available overseas, Avila said, to active-duty personnel and their dependents, reservists and civilian workers.
Navy One Source is located at www.navyonesource.com. In the username field type “Navy,” and in the password field type the generic password “sailor.” The U.S. telephone numbers: 800-540-4123, or collect at 484-530-5914.
Those logging on for the first time will be asked for identification and guided through creating their own accounts and passwords.
