I have not, all my life in Texas, 3 yrs in Dallas, rest in or near Houston

Yes, while in the USMC. Spent time in Okinawa, South Korea, mainland Japan and a few other places.

Have spent some time in foreign lands. Some was fun, mostly it wasn't.

I was stationed in Japan on my 1st ship in the Navy. I liked the Philippines and Thailand better.

Only as a child Guam for 2 years, England for 4...........

Thirteen years England, three years Ghana.

Two years in Isfahan, Iran as a wee lad. '76-'78.

Okinawa while serving time

Okinawa, South Korea, even Oahu was full of asians and locals that hated military especially if you had a local girl.

Does a couple trips across the river to El Papagayo's count?

I was stationed in Germany (3yrs) and Korea (1 yr).

Been deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Have spent time courtesy of the USG in: Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Thailand, Japan, Armenia, Turkey, and Australia for exercises and/or collections.

Have lived in Taipei, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia. Have been in 51 different countries. (International sales for 40 years)

1963 to 1966.... Eynesbury, Huntingdonshire England...age 11 to 14.

dad was stationed at RAF Alconbury...

I have.

I was born and raised in Louisiana…..that’s close to being in a “foreign land”! 🤔😂 memtb

3 yrs Italy, 1yr Korea, several "stans", Balkans, west Africa, South West Asia etc.

If Hawaii counts, 3 years and Japan 2 1/2 years, Bahrain 7 1/2 months.

3 yrs in India

My wife grew up in Japan where her parents were missionaries.
I have spent 6 weeks in Japan with her. Japan sucks...especially the Tokyo subway.

UAE for over 6 months. We all lived in a yellow f*ck'n tent.

I guess I still do.....

Three years and eleven days, courtesy of the US Air Force. One year in the Republic of South Vietnam and the rest in merry ole' England. England was an extended honeymoon for my new bride and I. We were married between my Vietnam and England assignment. We were in England from '69 until '71. This was when England was still English and I have very fond memories of our time there.

A bit over ten years spread over Canada, UAE, Qatar, Kazakhstan (on and off shore), Australia and South Korea.

Hahaha!


Yep.

US Army~Berlin, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Panama

Civilian life ~ no

Only foreign country that I've live in as a civilian was California but that isn't overseas.....

Two years 2000-2002 in the Netherlands on a contract for a tech firm. Was between marriages at the time. Brought my car with me.Traveled extensively in my free time...wherever the KLM weekend "cheap seats" were going. Loved working and living with the Dutch!

I've lived both under, and over the seas.. (Submarines)...

Spent 3 years in Hawaii, 3 years in Japan, a year on Diego Garcia and 8 months in the UAE when I was in the USN. Visited a total of 51 countries but most of that was 6 or 7 days in one place and then moving on. But the 4 I mentioned were long term stays.

35 years worth chasing the drill bit.

Stationed in the Philippines three years, stayed one more when I got out of the Navy.

Stationed in Iceland for many months in the U.S. Navy. MTG

Alaska is considered an overseas assignment 😁. Anyhow 26 months total for Iraq, 1yr in Afghanistan, 10 months in Kuwait, 1 year South Korea (this was a fun assignment) I go back back again as a tourist with the wife. But if one wants a fun vacation look at going to South Korea it’s fun and relatively cheap. Majority South Koreans love Americans and are very interested in our culture.

6 years for work.

Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand.

One year in England taking a software company international.

One of the best years of my life.

2 1/2 years in Germany while assigned to 11th Armored Cav.

Better question might be who lived over seas on their own dime and not under orders.

Why?

Me now I stayed in Alaska. Lol no really Alaska is considered an overseas assignment. But far as voluntarily moving to a different country? Hell no I cant take any of my firearms. I guess you can hunt to a certain extent. But not like here in this great country. People who move to foreign countries, voluntarily blows my mind. Work, I understand but just because no thanks.

Military and Civilian employment.
Been all over this rock.

Fuuuuk the rest of this rock is how I feel...

Been to, seen, and done enough schit to know Viva Clarksvegas and the USA is the place to be.
Being in other country's whether modern or primatoid 3rd world schit holes 125 yr out of the Stone age.
Well...
It gives ya appreciation for this nation...

DGAF about travel, vacations, or wanderlust stoopid schit.
Outta my system.
Last time stepping off a plane in Nashvegas after leaving the Black sea and Romainia and knowing I was retiring for good at 52 in 2015 after my little 7 yrs working in the Goat fuuuk civilian world.


Priceless.....
Absoufuuukingloutly priceless...

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Then you met Slumlord...

As a truck driver I lived in NJ, NYC, LA, Chitcago for several years, in one day.
Too many times!😁



Redneck,
Stupid question time.
How often, and for how long, does a sub go into a foreign port?
Or do they mostly just hit American bases?

Kid brother from another mother....
👍🏻

9.5 years in Saudi Arabia from April 2010 to August 2019. Wanted to stay till retirement but cooperate office saw it a little different and I came back home a few years early.

I've lived in Germany, Belgium. South Korea, Puerto Rico, and spents weeks and/or months in 6 other countries. Jagerschnitzel was delicious in the smaller German towns..

Germany. Holland, Germany again, the Sahara, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia. All interesting but Germany was the best; alas, all on orders

Nope never

Just too clever

One of my favorite pieces of Music. Isfahan by AL Di Meola.

I was grooving on his music as a teen in the 70s.

I have.

Germany 3yrs 86-90

England, '75 to '78. Back when the British understood what the U.S. did for them in WWII. VIA orders, I volunteered to go...

Japan for 8 years and Germany for 2 years. Just found my Jagdschein (German hunting license) in my armchair. Brought back some good memories. Many other places for shorter stays. Some pleasant, some not so much. I'm home now.

Except, maybe, for a trip to Namibia this July...

To justify his life choices.

3 1/2 years on Okinowa with a few months TYD to the PI for Cope Thunders and Guam.

Spearfishing 3-5 times a week is not all bad.

Lived in Germany for a little over 3 years.

It was a hoot going to all of the historic places there and in Italy and Austria.

Me, if that really matters.

The Marine Corps sent me a lot of places. Those don’t count for me. Lived in Sweden for 3 years and Abu Dhabi for 4 post service in contract aviation work. To me, it is a much different and raw experience when you don’t have a base or the USG support to live off and you have to navigate it all by yourself with minimal company support.

Nope but spent about two years out of country

3 years. 64-67 France, Germany, and England. USAF

Not far overseas but wife and I did live in an outer island in the Bahamas for a year teaching at a boarding school.

I lived in London for a year.

I've never even been out of the southeastern USA.

Your lucky

I "lived'' in South Vietnam for 13 months.

Same here. Jan '67-Feb '68. 9th Division air-mobile 105 Howitzers.

Don’t you mean TDY..

Spent a good deal of time with an eye on the horizon. PSA ruined that.

worked in Northern Russia 95&96 then went to Sakhalin island for 04-06.

Just a different perspective.

Choosing to move you and yours and live somewhere vs being told to. No offense intended towards servicemen implied or overt.

For example, for all the guys here that were stationed overseas, would you have gone to that same place and lived there if it was for a different career and you had a choice, or would you have chosen a different country?

Not Redneck, but I was a submariner too. It mainly depends on the boat SSN vs SSBN, I was on SSBN’s so mainly American ports. I did go to Gibraltar, Barbatos, Canada and the Bahamas though.

Thanks LBP!

Was curious. With the level of security around them I wondered.

Would Attack Subs go to more ports, or less?

Hey, sounds like the Peace Corps 🙂

Germany 3 years

Korea while marching in the Legions.

I see. Then if it had been my choice, Italy and Korea yes.

I will say that being sent other places did open my eyes to areas I wouldn't even think about otherwise.

Most of the "upper stans" are shockingly beautiful and the country folk friendly to a fault. Like many places they are openly curious about you and where you're from and basically demand to feed you.

As to the "raw experience" I agree. I did a lot of that with just one other team mate and we were on our own. The only other Americans in country being embassy staff who wanted little to do with us. Had some great experiences for sure.

Generally two armed topside watches in port. Attack boats definitely get more port calls than boomers.

It's hard for people to understand the difference, sometimes, between LIVING in a foreign country and VISITING a foreign country.

Living on base in a foreign country makes it very difficult to have anything but a visitor's experience. Going to a foreign country, finding your own place to live, a job, a social circle, a financial life, obtaining all the licenses, permits and authorizations for daily life, learning enough of the language to court a young lady......that creates an entirely different experience.

My friends that are prior service who were stationed overseas say the same thing. Different animal.

The reason I worded my post the way I did I had a recent conversation on my mind. There is a guy I work with that was getting his balls busted (in a friendly manner) for living his whole life in Cali, born and raised in LA suburb and professional life in San Diego. He’s in his late 50s now, been in MT for 2 years and is an expert in all things Montana lol. He trots out the line “I lived here back in the late 80s”. When I told him no you didn’t, you were stationed at the AF base in Great Falls for a couple years, you didn’t move here he got as bitchy as some of the guys here do. I was differentiating between the 2 is all.

While I see where you're coming from, not all experiences are the same. Being married we didn't live on base, had to pay rent and for utilities, pay licensing fees and insurance for a vehicle, did 75% of our shopping in the community, our daughter was born with a health issue that required a few trips to a children's hospital in London so we had some experience with British Healthcare system. About the only time I hit the chowhall was when I was pulling alert duty...

I lived in Egypt for a year after I graduated from high school. I attended the American University in Cairo while I was there. It was quite interesting.

Since then I've traveled a good deal. I've been to about 60 different countries and have visited all the continents except for Antarctica. There are lots of interesting places to see.

I deployed to Bosnia, Iraq, and Spain while military and then worked a year in Kabul, So I guess so. According to several businesses, Alaska is overseas, as they will not ship here and then you ask why and they say they will not ship outside of the US. I can’t tell you how many companies have told Alaska is not in the US.

Absolutely agree, but even your experience is a step, or two, removed from "going native", if you will.

I would agree to an extent. I know lots of people that have to live on the economy/ off base while “stationed” overseas. All of the ones I know that lived off base liked their experiences a lot better than those that lived on base. I can also say that while a contractor I was not on a US base, but that of Turkey as they ran it. Also while in Bosnia, I spent time on other bases ran by counties other than the US. Yes, they were still guarded bases, but a totally different experience for sure.

Born in Frankfurt a few months after the wall went up in Berlin. Dad finished his tour there and we went back again (this time to Heidelberg) from about '69 to '72. Fast forward to 1999, I took a billet as a 3MC on the USS Emory S Land, the sub tender there in LaMaddalena for three years. Oh, and a few months in Guam back in '96. Lived in those places, traveled to a bunch more!

Germany, england as a military brat.
Been to Spain, Poland, holland, france, greece, Italy, Okinawa, japan, Iceland, many others over that way from early 60s to 80s.

Spent a lot of time overseas in Asia but didn't live there

Everyone can agree having some level of support from Uncle Sam makes living overseas easier.

That was not the OPs question.

I know I had much more than a "visitor's experience" and knew dive spots on Okinawa better than most any native Okinowan.

That's mainly because the native Okinowans didn't do much diving, especially at the Southern and Northern end of the island.

Being able to buy diesel for the Land Cruiser, flat bed, and boat at the Kadena Marine at 1/3 of the off base price was a real advantage in exploring the island.

Add in $1.00 air fills for 63's, 80's and mil AL 83's.

More than a few times we headed to Hedo Point with 50 filled 80's in the flat bed and 50 gallons of diesel and met the boat for a long weekend of spearing fish.

We always turned a profit selling the fish on the local markets.

That USA support enhanced the experience for me.

Easier, yes, but that’s not the same as “living” there. Sounds like you visited an awful lot of beaches there. Is that something the locals do?

Did you do things with your local friends? Did you play in a sports league with them? Go to restaurants with locals? Shop at their stores? Did your kids attend school with them? Did you work with them? Did you speak their language, read their books, watch their movies? Go to their doctors and hospitals? Attend the neighborhood meetings? Plant a garden with local vegetables? Join a book club? Garden club? Any social group?

When I lived over seas yes to all of the above. Helped I spoke the local languages. I chose to live outside the embassy grounds and military bases.

Why live overseas when you live in a sheltered US compound?

How much Japanese do you know? Speak, read and write it?

lol

Man, I have been all over the place. Sometimes for a couple days to 1 yr. I mean every schitthole there is. They did let me set idle in Rota, Spain for 3 years. I plucked up and asked my Master Chief if I could go to shore duty. He laughed and sent me to Spain. I thought it was alright and really thought I was getting a break until I had to start rotating out of Croatia and then Kosovo. It was then I knew that I been had. Croatia was hell in those days. People getting sniped whilst retrieving water from a broken pipe that was just barely trickling out. After they sent the men to water and they got shot, they sent some old women thinking they wouldn't get hammered. They did. Then they tried sending the kids....