Posted on Feb 19, 2015
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When I separated I chose to remain in Japan, even though I had not yet secured employment. My wife and I fell in love with this country and want to remain. I get a lot of strange looks when I tell this to other Americans after I answer "no" to the question of "is your wife Japanese?" All our children are in local schools and are doing very well... speaking Japanese fluently. (it's handy having 3 little translators where ever I go) How many other veterans have chosen to remain overseas after retirement or separation... or have returned to overseas locations afterward? How difficult is it to get a job and how good of a chance do I have of getting LQA?
Retirement
Overseas
Transition
Posted 11 y ago
Responses: 8
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After all the places I have been, I finally decided to retire in the Philippines. Love it there and was the 5 years, until my wife wanted to come to the US to get her US RN license, more money than just being a RN in PH, but now that she has that, we are getting ready to return.
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SGT Rik Thibodeau
I am envious. My wife is from there originally and we have a beach house there but these days we hardly ever get to go. I am hoping to find a position in Japan or Korea in the next year or two so we can spend more time there and eventually retire once my kids are out of the house.
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SFC Collin McMillion
Korea and Japan are both nice. Spent quite a bit of time in both places getting patched up to go back to the jungle and now just go to visit, but the Philippines is so nice and warm, laid back, cost of living is really good. Want just to get back to my house and do NOTHING!!!!!
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I got out in 04 and stayed in Europe another 10 years and would have stayed forever if I could of, but for the idiotic 5 year rule and a nightmare LQA debacle that forced me back to the US after 16 years in Europe (Italy mostly). You said you are already separated from the military so I'm assuming you have a non-DoD job, right? If so, you will not qualify for LQA unless you go back to CONUS for 2 years. Do not let anyone else tell you differently. Myself and 800 other DoD civilians in every overseas location (several people in Japan) have been fighting the government for almost two years over this. Unfortunately the government threw us all under the bus. I would save you from that nightmare - if you have any questions about LQA, I am more than happy to answer them for you offline.
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SGT Rik Thibodeau
NO, that is incorrect. Trust me on this, it is the nightmare we have been dealing with for almost two years now. You cannot have ANY intervening employment between separation and starting a GS position. We've had people who worked at the px for two weeks while waiting for their GS paperwork to be complete who later got disqualified and got told by the gov't that they owed hundreds of thousands of dollars because of this (I am not making this up, it is public record). If you'd like, I can try to put you in touch with some of our LQA audit members in Japan. They can help. Meantime, hit me up if you have any specific questions.
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SGT Rik Thibodeau
In case you haven't seen it, here is the most recent case, in Okinawa:
http://www.stripes.com/for-retired-marine-on-okinawa-lqa-benefit-turns-into-debtor-s-nightmare-1.327220
http://www.stripes.com/for-retired-marine-on-okinawa-lqa-benefit-turns-into-debtor-s-nightmare-1.327220
For retired Marine on Okinawa, LQA benefit turns into debtor’s nightmare
It had been two years since Christopher Garcia retired as a Marine gunnery sergeant and took a job in the III Marine Expeditionary Force’s disbursing office. The transition had gone so well, his office had been recognized for excellence. But, it turns out, things were too good to be true.
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SSgt Thomas L.
That's what I thought. It's funny that the actual reg doesn't specify this. It's very vague and this is apparently how they are choosing to read it. I'm glad I didn't cave yet and get a contractor job. I still have a few applications under consideration. I'll wait it down to the wire (we are applying for the 90 day extension on top of the 60 days the Japanese government gives former SOFA members to leave the country if they are unable to obtain a new SOFA status or other visa status) and see if I can land an LQA job.
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SGT Rik Thibodeau
What happened was that the DoD lost an LQA court case back in 2010 that opened themselves up to future lawsuits based on the way the regulation had been applied. They cannot by law change a regulation and apply it retroactively so what they did was change the "interpretation" of the LQA regulation and then declared that every overseas human resources office had been "misinterpreting" the regulation for over 30 years. They then ran an audit on a select group of overseas employees who were receiving LQA and used the new "interpretation" to find that about 800 (myself included) employees were found to be eligible in error. They then hit us with a bill for all past LQA received, basically throwing us all under the bus in the interest of covering themselves from future lawsuits. They thought we would just bend over and take it and they'd be free and clear but about 500 of us actively fought it all the way to Washington DC. We had several 4 star combatant commanders, congressmen, senators, even the Commander in Chief of the VFW (since we are almost all vets) stand up for us and tell the Office of the SECDEF that what they were doing was wrong and should stop immediately but unfortunately you can't fight the government. However we have put so much pressure on the OSD that they have constantly been tweaking and reinterpreting the LQA regulation to cover themselves which explains why it is so ambiguous and why they still haven't gotten their heads out of their asses.
But the upshot is that most of us have become semi-experts on the LQA regulations and have endeavored to try and help people not get burned by the bureaucratic idiots in the DoD like we did.
But the upshot is that most of us have become semi-experts on the LQA regulations and have endeavored to try and help people not get burned by the bureaucratic idiots in the DoD like we did.
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I've been in Denmark about 20yrs now. I came here on adventure and stayed. I retired from the Army Reserve in Germany. Got my own business. The way things are I don't think I could move back. I've been back a few times and feel so out of place. Got a good VN vet friend living in Portugal I visit every year. He says guys like us just make a home where ever our hat hangs.
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I knew many veterans that stayed in Korea although most were married to Koreans. They all pretty much worked for the Army in some capacity. You may want to look at usajobs.gov for civilian jobs in Japan.
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SGT James Hastings
What you say is exactly what I did. The one thing that I found was that after my son was born in Japan and became a dual national I decided to return to the US mainly for his future sake. As long as I was alive and working for the US government we had a very nice life but if I had died and he was older he would face some difficult choices if he remained there. And, transitioning into American life would, I felt, become difficult the older he became.
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I did two tours on Okinawa and my time there is among my fondest memories. I have often thought about going back there when I retire from federal service. I am interested in hearing more of your experiences or those of others who are living in the Far East.
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SSgt Thomas L.
Oh wait.. scratch that. I'm not sure if you can live 100% on retired pay.. even if you are collecting both military and federal service retirement pay. It's rather expensive here. If you don't mind learning Japanese you can live on the northern part of the island rather cheaply... but anything south of Nago is going to be pricey.
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MSgt Michael Durkee
I did a 3yr tour at Kadena Air Base, arrived with one child and by the time our tour was up we had three. I'm headed back for a TAD/TDY to Camp Hansen in April, I'm looking forward to seeing the island again - I haven't been back in 18yrs.
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SSgt Thomas L.
MSgt Michael Durkee, if you haven't been here in 18 years, you'll be shocked at how much has changed. They've been developing the land that the US Government has handed over at a furious pace. Most of Camp Lester is now businesses, and Yontan Airfield is now home to the village office, just to name a couple examples.
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GySgt Wayne A. Ekblad
I was afraid of that . . . of course, it is inevitable, isn't it? I am sure the Okinawa I remember only exists in my mind.
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I got out in '96 and stayed in Scotland. I'm still here and I don't regret a moment of it. My wife is here. My kids are here -- and so are my grandkids. I never applied for LQA as I got a job on the economy a month after I separated.
I'm now a Church of Scotland Minister, 5 years shy of retirement, and loving it.
I'm now a Church of Scotland Minister, 5 years shy of retirement, and loving it.
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I am trying my hardest to stay in an overseas command. I transfer in April, and I am almost begging my detailer to keep me overseas.
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SSgt Thomas L. Do you know that Steven Seagal was the first foreigner to operate an Aikido dojo in Japan?
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SFC (Join to see)
SSgt Thomas L. Si, senor. However, it seems like that he is the real deal on his martial art.
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