2 year adventure (Kaneohe, Schofield Barracks: living in, commute to, area)

[jim503]

We lived in Hawaii almost 3 years, and moved to Kentucky 6 months ago and bought a house and furnished it. Then we find out my husband is being transferred back to Hawaii. So he is gone 4 days later, and I list the house and start packing. We sold it in 4 days. Absolutely amazing!! Thankfully the company paid to ship all our stuff and cars here and paid commission and all that good stuff. And we are glad to be back! Hope you enjoy it as much as we have and are.
Traffic is a bugger here! And I was born and raised in Dallas. =( Think long and hard about the locations of work and home and the commute. Took me 45 minutes yesterday to go the 1.8 miles from work to home. I will start walking next week. =)

[Gfoxx]

You may have a difficult time finding a RN job here. There is an oversupply of RNs on Oahu & few job openings. Many RNs have had to take jobs as CNAs, clerks & other non-nursing positions. Others have had to move to the mainland to get a RN job. There are several nursing schools on Oahu turning out lots of new grads plus 2 large hospitals recently closed & laid off several hundred RNs. The preference for hiring here is to hire a RN who has lived on Oahu & plans to stay here indefinitely. Nepotism rules here & getting a job is all about who you know, not what your education, experience & credentials are. Your best bet is to try to get a job with one of the local nursing staffing agencies such as Altres. Then if you work at a hospital regularly through an agency & build up a good reputation with them they may decide they want to hire you.

[Mikala43]

The family housing on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base is awesome.

You won't find anything like that for your budget outside.

[dagamore]

to the OP, you dont know if on post housing is open to GS/Contractors due to the high cost off post? I know they do that at Dugway UT, but dont know about HI.

thanks.

[LMMKAT]

I would NOT recommend living in Ewa if husband is going to Kaneohe and you couple potentially be going to Tripler. Windward side to Tripler area is easy and doable, but through in Ewa and your entire commute changes. I would suggest either Tripler area (Salt Lake area, there is Army and Navy housing there) or Kaneohe side, which is far prettier so if you can get housing there, I would do that but also know that there is a ton of Navy and Army housing near Tripler (Forest City website can tell you which navy communities, also there is Army housing on Aliamanu and some others and Army leases to other services.

[LMMKAT]

Originally Posted by dagamore

to the OP, you dont know if on post housing is open to GS/Contractors due to the high cost off post? I know they do that at Dugway UT, but dont know about HI.

thanks.

The Army housing is but the priority is so low on the list and the housing is in fairly high demand so its not likely to have anything open

[dagamore]

Originally Posted by LMMKAT

The Army housing is but the priority is so low on the list and the housing is in fairly high demand so its not likely to have anything open

thanks for the info, not what i wanted, but still info is good.

I know you said Ewe was not idea for someone working on Kaneohe, but what about on Schofield Barracks would that be work able(say under 30 minutes(20 would be better)) I know you have H1/H2 and 750 as routing options.

thanks for the help.

[LMMKAT]

Meh, I wouldn't recomend it as you would have to connect in Aiea to the H1 in order to get to the H3 and back again. But I don't usually get up to the SB area so maybe there is another option, but the H3-H1-H2 is the only one I can think of and that is...well, not a great commute. H3 is usually fine. Its the other two you have issues with.

You would be better off living in the Salt Lake/Aiea/Shafter/Red Hill/Moanualua area, to be honest. Your commute would be cut in half

[Mikala43]

Originally Posted by dagamore

thanks for the info, not what i wanted, but still info is good.

I know you said Ewe was not idea for someone working on Kaneohe, but what about on Schofield Barracks would that be work able(say under 30 minutes(20 would be better)) I know you have H1/H2 and 750 as routing options.

thanks for the help.

Absolutely not. You have to take the H2 to the H1, absolute gridlock. Once you get to the H3 you're fine.

I wasn't guaranteed to get from Mililani to Waipahu in 30 minutes in rush hour traffic.

[dagamore]

Why would one want to take the H3 from Ewa to Schofield Barracks? H3 runs east/west and that would be great if i was going to MCAS Kaneohe Bay, but Schofield Barracksd is north in about the middle of the island. I could see using H1 to H2, or 750 or 99 from the Ewa area north to Schofield Barracks, or am i reading the map wrong?

Thanks just want to make sure i am not out in left field, it would not be the first time i read a map the way i wanted it to read, and not the way it is.