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Contact information for key programs and services at this installation.
Deployment can be a challenging phase of the military lifecycle, but it’s important to know that you don’t have to go through it alone. The military provides a variety of resources and support programs — ranging from educational briefings to morale calls — for your loved ones, children and service members to ease the stress of deployment. Military members may be assigned to a specific installation but support may come from local communities, Yellow Ribbon events or the installation itself.
If you are making a permanent change of station and arriving to a command or unit that is currently deployed, you will, upon arrival to Yokosuka, report to the temporary personnel unit as mentioned in the check-in procedures section.
Fleet and Family Service Center offers programs and services to heighten the awareness of service members and their families to the roller coaster of emotions. Deployment readiness is a priority for commands, service members and their families. Major changes in one's life, such as deployment, can cause an individual to feel that events are out of his/her control. The more information one has and the more planning that is done before deployment occurs, the more in control one is likely to feel.
Deployment Readiness Briefs
The FFSC deployment specialist offers monthly deployment classes and when requested by a command, offers Deployment Readiness Briefs to single sailors, single and married parents and married sailors to assist them in preparing for deployment. The FFSC doesn’t stop there; they continue to offer ongoing support to families while the service member is deployed. Contact your command for more information or call the FFSC to sign up for one of the monthly classes.
Deployment services are educational and support programs that assist family members and deploying commands to successfully manage the separation/reunion cycles associated with military duty. In order to reduce personal and family emergencies, stress of separation and to assist active-duty service members and families in preparing for deployment, services are provided before, during and after deployments. Deployment services are tailored to meet the needs of individual commands and include collaboration with command leadership, ombudsmen and family readiness groups.
The Return and Reunion Program
R&R began in the spring of 1980 in response to the carrier Nimitz requesting assistance for sailors after an exceptionally long deployment. A team of educators, chaplains and clinical counselors from Norfolk, Virginia, boarded the ship at its last liberty port to prepare the crew for return to the states. In the late 1980s, the program was adopted in San Diego, California, as part of the Western Pacific experience and earned its credibility in 1991 with service members returning from Desert Storm. The purpose of R&R training is to help service members returning from deployment garner the skills necessary to ease their returning home adjustment after extended absences from family and friends. R&R is offered to commands who have been deployed from homeport for 90 or more days. Please contact the R&R coordinator for more information.
Services for Spouses and Children of Deployed
FFSC offers briefs about children and deployment. These are available on request for commands or base groups. In addition to the deployment specialist, there are several organizations that offer services for spouses and children of deployed service members.
FFSC offers a Japanese Spouse Support Group class. Its purpose is to assist the Department of Defense’s Japanese national spouses to understand and learn regulations, customs and lifestyles related to the U.S. military.
Family Readiness Groups (FRG), formerly family support or spouse support groups, are command-sponsored organizations that consist of volunteers such as spouses of service members. The purpose of an FRG is to plan and conduct social, informational and morale-building activities to enhance family readiness and enable the Navy family to meet the challenges of the military lifestyle. FFSC offers training for FRG leadership.
Navy Family Ombudsmen
Navy family ombudsmen are communications links, information and referral resources, and advocates for command family members. Appointed by the commanding officer, command ombudsmen are volunteers and spouses of service members within the command. As an official command representative, the ombudsman is a point of contact for all family members connected to the command, including spouses, parents and extended family members.
Please contact FFSC for information on deployment programs, command ombudsman and FRG contacts in Building 3365, by phone at DSN 315-243-3372 or internationally at 011-81-46-816-3372, by email FFSCinfo@us.navy.mil or visit Yokosuka FFSC Facebook page.