Fleet Activities Yokosuka NMCRS Moves to New Location

Photo By Tetsuya Morita | YOKOSUKA, Japan (July 29, 2020) －Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka Navy Marine Corps Relief Society held a ribbon-cutting which featured colorful kusudamas (Japanese ‘medicine balls’) at a ceremony to commemorate their relocation to the Personnel Support Detachment building on the base. For 75 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th fleet's forward-deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families. (U.S. Navy photo by Tetsuya Morita)  

JAPAN

07.29.2020

Story by Ryo Isobe 

Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka

YOKOSUKA, Japan (July 29, 2020) － The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) office on Commander, Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY), held a ribbon-cutting ceremony at their newly relocated office, July 29.

NMCRS can now be found on the second floor of the Personnel Support Detachment (PSD) building on Clement Boulevard after being relocated from the base’s Community Readiness Center.

“It’s bright, light and more professional and protects our clients’ confidentiality,” said Adrienne Howard, the director of the Yokosuka NMCRS. “The physical location of this building being with PSD, Community Bank and SATO travel, services that members utilize a lot of times right after they finished with us. We expect higher traffic just because we tend to serve service members more predominantly than family members.”

NMCRS has been offering education and financial assistance to Sailors and Marines and their family members to help in times of financial need. To that end, the society offers Quick Assist Loans (QAL) and several budget counseling programs such as newly born baby budgets, emergency travel assistance and disaster relief.

“This brings services of NMCRS in this facility to co-locate with PSD and other finance services that Sailors can use,” said Capt. Rich Jarrett, CFAY’s commanding officer. “It also achieves a long time goal to reallocate spaces and expand school programs.”

"The relocation of the NMCRS to the PSD building not only improves customer service by being collocated with other personnel service providers,” added Cmdr. Benjamin Waite, CFAY’S public works officer. “It allows for the relocation of other operations within CFAY to be relocated so Kinnick High School will no longer need to operate out of Building H12, freeing up that building to be used for Child and Youth Programs as it was originally intended."

However, the move presented the challenge of continuing to serve service members and their families and relocating their office at the same time.

"It is never easy to move to a different location, especially when your needs are being met in the building you are in,” Waite stated. “Adrienne and her entire team has gone the extra mile to support the CFAY Public Works Department every step of the way."

NMCRS Yokosuka also has a thrift shop where they sell donated goods, such as uniforms, clothes and household items gently used and kept in good conditions, for reasonable and affordable prices so that customers can spend less money and utilize their budget more economically.

Due to spread of COVID-19, operations of the shop was partially limited according to the changing situations. As of July 29, they've accepted a reduced number of patrons utilizing social distancing.

For 75 years, CFAY has provided, maintained, and operated base facilities and services in support of the U.S. 7th Fleet's forward-deployed naval forces, tenant commands, and thousands of military and civilian personnel and their families.

• Date Taken: 07.29.2020
• Date Posted: 07.29.2020 19:56
• Story ID: 374851
• Location: JP