In 1983 I began a tour of duty as Executive Officer (XO) and second in command of Naval Station Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The command consisted of about 600 sailors, 500 civil service civilians, and 400 non-appropriated fund employees. The last group operated clubs and recreation activities.The others operated all of the functions of a busy port: tugboats, pilots, water transportation, enlisted and officers’ quarters, etc. – everything needed to house, feed, train, and entertain tens of thousands of sailors and to accommodate dozens of ships and shore commands.
We had a Family Services Center whose mission was to provide a wide variety of counseling programs, training classes and support services to Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard personnel, retirees, and family members. Sailors living in Hawaii experienced great difficulty coping with the high cost of living in Hawaii, especially if they were lower ranked sailors who were married.
Problems for these lowest ranked sailors were compounded by the fact that they were at the time not entitled to housing and living allowances. They were expected to be single, living in barracks. Unfortunately, many did marry and did bring wives to Hawaii, forcing families into sometimes desperate circumstances.
For this reason, the Family Services Center employed a budget counselor to advise the sailors on methods of living within their means. The counselor assisted them in applying for food stamps, welfare, and other benefits. Spouses were assisted in finding jobs. General information on where to shop and what to purchase to stay within family budgets was offered. In order to reach a larger population of enlisted people, the budget counselor was tasked with writing a weekly column in "Hawaii Navy News" (HNN), a newspaper with a circulation of about 18,000 readers, on how to economize with daily living expenses.
The budget counselor was the wife of a Navy captain, and her newspaper columns began drifting off course, becoming more like "Hints from Heloise" for senior officers' wives. It was my unfortunate duty to get her back on track.
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