Aloha,
I'm 30 days out from my unaccompanied short tour at Yongsan and am cuirous about the SEQ. I'm an Air Force E-7 and my sponsor has indicated I might be living on post depending on availablity. My questions are:
- Anyone know the current occupancy rate of the SEQ? Anyone have recent experience with moving off post vs. barracks?
- How much does cable and internet cost in the barracks?
- How are the barracks equiped? Kitchen? Private bath? etc...
- Where are they located? (I'll be working on the USFK intel watch, near the Trent Gym.)

Mahalo!
Brian

Live off post if you can... do ANYTHING possible to live off post in fact! You have soooooooooooo much more freedom and your standard of living will be LIGHT YEARS better.

In fact, I would even recommend my realtor as she was very helpful to me. If you want her name, let me know... I don't want to push her on you if you were planning to go another route, but I have the info if you want it.

My goal has always been to live off post. My sponsor has an apartment in Itaewon that I was going to rent (he leaves the same time I'm getting there). However, I need to plan on the unfortunate possiblity of having to live on post.
I'm trying to figure out a budget for the on-post possibility (so I can see how much $$$ I'll be losing....).

There are almost always more people who prefer to live on-base than there are available quarters, so you shouldn't have any problems getting approval to live off-base.

To get an official answer, you should call the housing office to see what they say:

hours: Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri 0800-1600; Thu 1230-1600

email: areaiisahousing@korea.army.mil

phone:
Commercial: 011-822-7918-3211
DSN: 315-738-3211

You'll never lose money, on-post or off post. Your a senior NCO so you will get full COLA at the single rate, $450+ a month (on or off post) Also If your married you'll be getting $250 for seperation pay and lets not forget the hazard duty pay, I believe Youngsan gets $100 a month. So you'll be making money not losing.

If the SEQ is anything like it is here at USAG Humphreys I would live on post. They are 900SQ FT APT's fully furnished.

__________________
CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

Chucksnee, I knew about the family sep, but I thought living on post meant partial COLA (currently $158, according to http://perdiem.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem/ocform.html). Also, the hazard duty pay is news to me. A quick Google search came up with:
"7. Hardship Duty Pay (HDP-L) - Effective 1 January 2001, Phase II HDP-L replaced Phase I HDP-L formerly known as Foreign Duty Pay (FDP). Phase II HDP-L is payable to both officers and enlisted soldiers. Currently, the rates for HDP-L are $150.00 a month for service members assigned to Area I and $50.00 a month for those assigned to Areas II-IV. This entitlement is authorized by finance during inprocessing." (http://175fincom.korea.army.mil/OVERVIEW.HTM)

Thanks for the reply!
Oh, as a Florida native.... kewl t-shirt.

I'm pretty sure that as senior enlisted you will get full cola at a single rate. When I lived in the barracks as an E-6 and on seperate rations, I recieved COLA at a full rate for a single person. Let me ask a few other people who are single and living in the SEQ.

I believe the reason was becasue I was on seperate rations. As a senior enlisted, you recieve seperate rations "just because"? I'll ask and get back with you.

Have you seen this. http://175fmc.korea.army.mil/Yourpay07.pdf

This should help you.

__________________
CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey