Chief Petty Officer Robert Williamson, pictured at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Thursday, has spent half his life with the U.S. Navy in Japan. But he said he agrees with a new policy restricting how many overseas tours a sailor can do, and plans to accept his next tour in the United States. (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
He’s seen Vladivostok, Tsingtao and Cairns, and drunk who knows how many shots of habusake. He’s met interesting people in all sorts of places, been married twice, divorced once and fathered four children.
Chief Petty Officer Robert Williamson has spent half his life in Japan and seen all the places Japan’s sailors get to go. He came to Yokosuka Naval Base straight out of high school in central New Jersey with little more than a seabag and ambition to see the wide world.
He liked it — “Just knowing half my buddies had never left Jersey” — and he stayed and stayed. “Every time my orders came up, I asked to stay over here, and it was always approved,” he said. He did two tours at Yokosuka’s weather station, two at Atsugi Naval Air Facility and one on the USS Blue Ridge.
But things change and Williamson, 38, knows his days in Japan are numbered. In fact, he can almost count them off as his one-year extension to remain at the base weather center clicks away, day by day. Look out, Norfolk, San Diego or Jacksonville. Williamson is almost on his way.
“I’m not even going to try to stay over here again,” he said, “when they see nothing but Japan since 1985” on any request to stay. “But I’ve kind of put myself in a hole. I’m just as Japanese as my wife. I’ll be somewhat of a foreigner.”
Williamson is just one of hundreds of sailors caught in the COT, or more precisely, the change in the Consecutive Overseas Tour policy that went into effect for Japan about a year ago. The change meant that instead of almost automatic approval of sailors’ requests for tour after tour in Japan, from ship to shore, then back to ship, approval became much less certain and dependent on several factors. And the longer sailors have been in Japan, and the more family members they have, the more likely the request will be denied and those sailors will be headed stateside.
“It’s a very emotional issue,” said Commander, Naval Forces Japan’s regional Master Chief Petty Officer Mike Driscoll, one of the people who helps decide who will go and who will stay.
Often, those who want to stay are like Williamson, with a Japanese wife and a semi-Japanese life. They’ll talk to the master chief, and make their case for staying. “They say, ‘I’m comfortable,’” Driscoll said.
His reply?
“The needs of the Navy,” he said.
Resuming rotation
According to Vice Adm. Bob Willard, Seventh Fleet commander, and Rear Adm. Rick Ruehe, Naval Forces Japan commander, and their spokesmen, the policy change is designed foremost to improve fleet readiness, to open up career-enhancing, forward-deployed spots for stateside sailors and to send experienced sailors who’ve done tours in Japan back home to share their skills with the rest of the fleet.
“You need that churn to keep fresh ideas flowing in and experience flowing out,” said Cmdr. John Wallach, CNFJ spokesman. “You’re supposed to be adaptable, deployable and flexible. What we were getting was too many people staying here, getting in … I don’t know if ‘rut’ is the right word.”
And just as coming to Japan is career-enhancing, so is leaving Japan, said Seventh Fleet Command Master Chief Ashley Smith. “One of the No. 1 priority billets is either recruiting or [being] recruit company commander in Great Lakes” in Illinois. “You can’t do that over here,” Smith said. “And if you leave somebody in Japan for 29 years,” that person “only knows what they’ve seen in Japan. And a lot of things have changed.”
Additionally, the policy is designed to ease burdens sailors with numerous dependents place on the overseas bases — small, self-contained universes with limited hospitals, grocery stores, a few schools and no larger civilian community to take up the slack. Having more than three dependents or “secondary dependents” — usually sailors’ parents — now is a big negative in a COT request. “The large families put a stress on our resources,” Driscoll said.
But skeptical sailors note that a decade ago, staying in Japan was portrayed as a good thing. It saved the Navy millions of dollars in moving costs and provided continuity in job postings in which few sailors in the States seemed interested. It was called “homesteading” and the Navy supported it for some of the same reasons now being cited for stopping it.
In a 1996 Navy press release, career counselors, or detailers, were to “encourage and support reassignment in the same geographic area, to the maximum extent possible.” The rationale was “to improve quality of life, enhance readiness and save permanent change-of-station dollars.”
And the COT policy applies only to Japan. Sailors in Norfolk, Va., or San Diego may stay there perhaps their entire careers.
Still, more than two-thirds of COT requests have been approved. From Oct. 2002 through Sept. 2003, 809 sailors in Japan requested COTs; 538 were approved, according to the Naval Forces Japan statistics.
Of the 271 disapproved, the reasons were:
• 143: Too many tours in Japan.• 46: Excessive dependents.• 29: Poor performance.• 29: Commander recommended denial.
Nine more were disapproved without a reason given and 15 were disapproved after being sent to the Naval Personnel Command in Washington, D.C.
So far in fiscal ’04, 307 have been requested and 229 approved.
“Each one is decided on an individual basis,” said Jon Nylander, a CNFJ spokesman “If someone is here for 25 years, with 600 dependents, who does an outstanding job, his may be approved.”
Homesteading benefits
Besides family considerations — a Japanese wife or staying closer to relatives in the Philippines — among the biggest reasons sailors want COTs is the extra money — sometimes almost a doubled paycheck — the cost-of-living-allowance provides.
“I have one sister at home — she doesn’t have anything,” said Lynn Becadeso, a Seaside waitress from the Philippines married to a chief petty officer whose tour doesn’t end until 2006. “I’m helping my nieces and nephews, sending them money for college. I told my sister, ‘As long as I’m here I can help you.’”
But more important, Becadeso said, was her feeling of safety and insulation in Japan, especially for her children.
“We’re here. We’re settled,” she said. “Why do they want to get people from the U.S. to come here? My husband said they’re trying to give a chance to other people. But the thing is, they’re short-handed because nobody wants to come here.”
Authorities insist they won’t deny a COT request if it would result in an unfilled job. So sailors with in-demand specialties more likely will have their requests approved. And part of the idea, Driscoll said, is to send enough sailors who like Japan back to the United States to describe its advantages, so more sailors there want to come. “Because sailors are staying here, they’re not sharing these great things about Japan,” he said.
But because the Naval Personnel Bureau is not yet forcing unwilling sailors to come to Japan, gaps eventually could occur, although officials say they haven’t so far. And it’s unclear if experienced sailors, unhappy to have their COTs denied, will leave the Navy at the next opportunity or if they’ll do poorly in the United States.
“It’s going to take over another year to find out anything,” Smith said. “What are the results of the people coming over here, what are the results of people going over there? You’re not going to see it right away, and go, ‘Wow! It’s all great!’”
Williamson and his wife are planning for their move. He said he agrees with the COT policy, despite the stress of such change. “I am set in my ways in certain things,” he said.
And, as it turns out, he won’t have to be an ocean away from his three children, who live with his Japanese ex-wife and her second husband.
His former wife’s husband is also a Yokosuka sailor, originally from Maryland, and has orders to return to the United States sometime this year. “When all is said and done, they’ll be back in the States,” Williamson said, “and I’ll be back in the States.”
Chief Petty Officer Robert Williamson, pictured at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Thursday, has spent half his life with the U.S. Navy in Japan. But he said he agrees with a new policy restricting how many overseas tours a sailor can do, and plans to accept his next tour in the United States. (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
Lynn Becadeso has been in Japan with her husband, Adrian, a chief petty officer, and their two sons since 1998. She said she hopes to stay in Japan for as long as possible, partly because the overseas tour provides extra money she can send to her sister in the Philippines, and partly because "You don't have to worry about your kids if they come home late." (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
Kristi Hawthorn and her daughters, from left, Dakota and Leigh Ann,were bound for Alabama on Friday morning at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan. After three years in Japan, Hawthorn was happy to be heading home. (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
Commander Naval Forces Japan's regional Master Chief Petty Officer Mike Driscoll tells sailors reluctant to leave Japan that the "needs of the Navy" come first. His favorite duty station was Key West, Fla., where he plans to retire. (Nancy Montgomery / Stars and Stripes)
