Life on Yokota AB

I’ve been living at Yokota Air Base for the last couple weeks and I’ve written a bit about some things I’ve observed about Japan, I thought I’d write some on life on an overseas Air Force Base.

First on a lot of people’s minds when they come here is TV. Cable and Satellite is available in most locations so you can get to see most, if not all, of your favorite shows. For those of us without cable living in the quivalent of the Air Force Motel, or Visiting Officer’s Quarters, the Armed Forces Network shows a lot of TV shows a couple weeks late on several channels, but they have a news channel that airs different cable news shows and the network news.

My first duty station after basic training and technical school was Kunsan AB, in South Korea. It was 1972 and we had one channel that operated from about 8 AM to 11 PM. It was black and white and any series that you saw was one to two seasons old. The Commercials are all propaganda and I say that in the kindest possible way. They are spots about local events or base information, or about the rules and regs, local customs, or some other kind of official information.

In 1972, we had a radio station that played a variety of music along with similar info spots in place of commercials. Not much has changed. Here at Yokota, they have one radio station. I generally eat at either the enlisted club or the officer’s club. The officer’s club is a tad bit classier but both are showing their age. The food is good and better than you might expect. Today, at lunch at the enlisted club, they had an Asian buffet with several kinds of Asian dishes. Tonight, I ate at the officer’s club. They had a prime rib special for a good price (13.50). The dining hall (mess hall in the Army) looks more like a family restaurant or cafeteria. The food is OK – a little bland.

The clubs provide a wide variety of entertainment at a reduced price dues paying members. Last Saturday night they had a base wide Texas Hold’em tournament for members, the grand prize being a trip to Las Vegas. They also provide a place for more ceremonial functions such as Formal Unit Parties, promotion ceremonies and other meetings.

The Base Exchange (or BX in Air Force land) and Commissary (grocery store) provide the same stuff you’d find on a base at home.

They have chapels and some denominations have meeting places in town.

If you couldn’t see the cars on the opposite side of the street, you could almost imagine yourself at a stateside air base.

VW

Comments

[AubreyJ]

Don't work to hard my friend...
AubreyJ.........

[wordsmith]

The overseas TV network used to drive me nuts. I hated it. So bland and lifeless. So...amateurish. I missed the lively American commercials. Besides summer trips to Japan to visit relatives, I lived at Osan South Korea in the 8th grade. This was early 80's.

As a kid, I loved watching the Japanese anime. At the time, back in the 70's, the kids stateside didn't understand what it was that they were missing. Today, anime is very big and has influenced our pop culture of videogames and such.

[Violence Worker]

I was at Osan 89-90. We'll have to compare notes.

VW

[G DiRito]

I was stationed on Yokota Ab from Jan 1975 to Jan 1978. I ran computer for the 610 MASS in the air freight terminal a Burroughs 3500A. I lived in a lot house on Tachikawa until they closed Tachi in 1977 when I was provided base housing in the East area right across the street from the Hhospital. My DEROS was eight months after the move so I did not live there long. I was back in Japan on TDY in 1987 and did spend some time at Yokota but the TDY location was Misawa. I also went to Osan AB during that TDY.

Yokota underwent a major face lift when I was there. In exchange for giving back real estate on a whole lot of military installation in the Kanto/Tokyo area the Japanese build a new everything on Yokota. It went from a WWII looking base in 1975 to a modern US air base by Jan 1978.

Email me - We can chat.