Rick, Jean and our 3-year-old daughter Kandice left Honolulu in August 1974 and went to Okinawa, Japan. This was our first experience living in Japan and working for the Department of Defense School System. While in Okinawa, we added a Son Kerry (1975) and a second daughter Kristen (1980) to our Family. I taught at Kadena Middle School and Jean worked in Kadena elementary's library. Our first house was in Ojana, then we moved to Parkside housing and finally we moved to 2414 Patterson on Kadena Air Base.
In 1981 we attempted a transfer to Panama, but President Regean decided to send thousands of new troops to Germany to confront the then Soviet Union, so we ended up being sent to Germany and spent the next 21 years in Europe. Our first assignment was Baumholder High School. After 2 years at Baumholder, we were transferred to Ramstein Air Base. Jean and I both worked at Ramstein High School. All three of our children grew up in Ramstein and graduated from Ramstein High School. Kandi graduated high school in 1989, Kerry graduated high school in 1993 and Kristen graduated high school in 1999. These were very memorable years of raising a family and exploring Europe. Kandi graduated from college with degrees in Para-Legal and English; in 1999 she returned to Ramstein to work. In 2005 Kandi moved to Tucson and got a teaching certification, she is now teaching in Tucson. Kerry graduated in 1997 from Iowa State with degrees in Linguistics and Computational Science and began a career doing computer programming in Sunnyvale California where he, his wife Di and children still live. Kristen married Todd in August 2002 and graduated with degrees in Astronomy and Physics from the University of Arizona at Tucson, in 2003. She is currently working on her PhD in physics and they are living in St. Louis Mo.
In 2000, Jean was re-assigned to teach at the elementary schools in Baumholder. We found this a very unsatisfactory situation and decided to try for a transfer and in August 2002 we got our transfer and started a new assignment at Yokosuka Navy Base just south of Tokyo. Our first house was on the Japanese economy in Mubori-Kaigan, just south of the navy base. We lived off base one year and then moved on base into the Sukura Heights Tower. We are teaching at Yokosuka Middle School. It is in a new school building that opened in 2003, with about 600 students. I have been teaching Science and Jean has been teaching English. Jean's twin sister and husband are also stationed at Yokosuka.
Our transfer to Japan has made it possible for us to spend our Christmases and summers in Hawaii with Jean's parents. In 2003, we also took a spring break trip to Australia, a country I really enjoyed visiting. That summer we went to Honolulu where Kerry's family vacationed with us. Then it was on to Coupeville to visit Rick's family. From Seattle, we made a trip to Anchorage and Steward Alaska, after which we returned to Yokosuka to start another school year (2003-2004). We were back in Hawaii for Christmas break 2003. In June 2004, we were again back in Hawaii were we bought a lot in Hilo on the Big Island. In August, We had a Kartchner Family re-union at Kerry's house in San Francisco and then visited Rick's parents in Seattle. Then we headed back to Japan to start the new school year (2004-2005). I will be starting a new assignment at Yokosuka Middle School this coming school year (2004-2005), as an educational technologist and Jean will be a middle school (6,7& 8th grade) art teacher.
We spent the 2004 Thanksgiving break in Beijing China. We visited the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. See some photos of china at URL homepage.mac.com/pukarick/PhotoAlbum7.html
Christmas 2004 we spent with Jean's family in Hawaii.
April 2005 was an event filled month. Kerry & Di's daughter, Rebecca, was born on 1 April 2005. We did spring break in Honolulu and closed on buying a house in Tucson. Kandi started classes at Pima College and Kryss finished her science-teaching program at the University of Arizona. In June, a car hit Kandi and her legs were badly damaged. She is slowly recovering. We went to Tucson to get Kandi out of the hospital in August. We are now back at Yokosuka Middle School, Jean is full time art and I am the school's Educational Technologist. The Amends and Kartchners sent Columbus Day weekend in Seoul Korea. Dec 17-31, we visited my parents & sister in Florence Oregon, Kerry in California, and Frank in Hawaii.
2006 started with seeing the Emperor of Japan on the 2nd of January. Two weeks later we went to our first live Sumo event in Tokyo. Summer found us back in Hawaii visiting Jean’s Family And Rick’s family in Oregon. Then we went to the Grand Canyon with Kandi and Lisa. We had a reunion with all the kids in Tucson.
March 17th, 2007 Kryss and Todd visited us in Japan. Summer 2007 found us back in Hawaii visiting Jean’s Family. At the end of July, Rick visited his parents and Jean went to St. Saint Louis to start a major dental project for teeth replacements. We reunited in San Francisco and stayed 3 days with Kerry’s Family.
We then returned to Yokosuka to start the 2007-2008 school year. In December, Jean had her wrist operated on and was in a cast & therapy for about 3 months. In March she then joined her sister in St. Louis for the final part of her dental replacement project. In April, Kerry & Kyle came to visit us in Japan for a week. We will be moving from our Yokosuka apartment to an identical apartment at Ikego in June. On June 26th we were off to Honolulu for our annual summer visit to see Jean’s father. Then in August we visited my family in Oregon, and then went on to Tucson and San Francisco to see our children. We have returned to Japan for the 2008-2009 School year.
2009-2010 School years was very sad for us. Jean's mother died in November. Her father came to Japan and stayed with the family until Christmas break 2009. We all returned to Honolulu for Christmas. February 28th 2010 Jean's dad died. Kerry and Kandi came to the funeral. Jean and Jan spent March in Honolulu getting legal work taken care of. We returned to Honolulu in June 2010. In August we visited my family in Oregon, then spent 3 days in San Francisco with Kerry. We spent Christmas 2010 in Honolulu. 2011 found us back in Japan teaching and looking forward to spring break. In March 2011, Japan had a 9.2 earthquake followed by a Tsunami which destroyed 6 atomic reactors in northern Honshu. We spent spring break in Guam. Kerry had his 3rd child in April 2011. We sent the summer of 2011 in Honolulu, Florence Oregon, Tucson and San Francisco. In September Kandi went to Fort Campbell for a year at Deddess. In November my dad died and I went back to Florence and then on to Honolulu till the end of Christmas break. My Uncle Wade came up and visited my mother at this time. In November we also bought a lot in Kailua, that we hope to build a retirement home on. 2012 Spring break we went to Taiwan with Jan, Tom, Eileen, and Joe. Summer 2012 we were back in Hawaii were Kryss & Todd and Kerry and Family joined us. Then we spent 11 days in Oregon with Susanne, Ellen, and Holly & her family. It was then on to Tucson where Kandi had a new job at Magee Middle School and Lisa was on vacation. 10 August we arrived at Kerry's new house in Sunnyvale. 16 August we arrived back at Yokosuka to start the 2012-2013 School year.