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5c) In the military, you are often far from family/friends but here, you are a 6 hour flight, minimum, to civilization.
5d) Oahu is not great for scuba. The neighbor islands are nice but again, you have a pricey flight plus pricey accommodations to experience it. We have gotten to the neighbor islands for long weekends 3 times in 3 years and that was when we squirreled away $ to do so. It's insane.
5e) There is no night life unless you are young and rich and enjoy crazy night clubs. Everyone goes to movies because there isn’t anything else!
5f) Bellows AFB (past the gate where they check ID) has the only beach where it is safe enough to go for a woman with kids and certainly the only one where you don't have as much worry about your car being broken into. However, it's on the other side of the island and with gas prices, we only get over there maybe once every few months.
As you can see, I think the negatives outweigh the positives. Between it being run down and the crime/personal safety issues, I don't think it's all it's cracked up to be. Spouses have to deal with it more than military members since we live and work (or try to) more in the location more than they do. Working on base is a sheltered kind of life by comparison, so I know a lot of couples where the spouse, fed up with the school systems and so forth, badly wants to return to the Mainland and the sailor doesn't understand what's so bad and wants to stay. This is the only place I have lived that I don't feel like I can ever call "home." It's a shame because I really looked forward to coming here but I have found that the "spirit of Aloha" is not extended to outsiders and after 3 years of trying to make it work, I can't wait to leave!
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