Bringing Your Pets to Sigonella

Believe it or not, you can bring your animals with you on the MAC flight to Italy. Most times they will have to go in the cargo area, but rest assured the area is pressurized and temperature controlled just like the cabin so your pet will be comfortable on their long journey. It is important to purchase a large hard shelled carrier if you don't already have one, one for each pet traveling. Right now there is a limit of two animals per family. We brought our two cats with us and I purchased two large hard shell carriers from the NEX for about $39.00 a piece, way cheaper than you would find at a pet store where they run for about $120 or more a piece. These carriers are specially designed for transporting your pet safely and within regulations. I highly recommend getting a carrier big enough for your pet to stretch out and lay down in, and especially one in which they can turn around comfortably. No one wants to be cooped up in a space they can't move around in for 7 hours or more, neither does your pet. We lined our carriers with plush towels before putting our animals in so that they would have a soft surface to lay on. Of course, our cats were abnormally well behaved and did not go to the bathroom the whole trip. You might not be so lucky, so lining your carriers with an absorbent pad and bringing extra with you may be a good idea. I saw several traveler's doing this.

There is an excess baggage fee for taking your animals on the flight. We paid about $90 a cat, but it is definitely worth it having your furry friends with you in a strange new place. If your pet is over 100 pounds, unfortunately, you can't take it with you on the MAC flight. So plan ahead to find a friend or family member or a new home to care for any pets you can't take with you ahead of time. Be sure to inform your personnel department, who schedules your flight to Italy, that you will be traveling with a pet or pets. Dogs and cats are the only animals permitted to travel and space is limited and must be reserved ahead of time with your flight. If flying commercially, it's important to contact the airline on which you'll be traveling to Italy for its specific requirements for pet travel. Call ahead to avoid unexpected surprises.

There is no quarantine period in Italy so you can retrieve your pets as soon as you get off the plane here in Sicily. You will also be permitted to see them and play with them when you land in route in Rota, Spain for about an hour or so. At this point you can change their carrier liners or towels and give them water and food if you choose. For you dog owners, this is a good potty break point.

The vaccinations you are required to have before your animals travel to Italy can be given to your animals at the Vet located on base. Even if you take your animals to a civilian Vet, I highly recommend going on base for their overseas needs because the civilian vets do not have up to date information on requirements, the proper forms, and often they do not know what you need and what you don't need. It will take away a lot of your frustration if you just go on base. TRUST ME! You have to have your rabies vaccines up to date but they must have been administered no more than 12 months before travel and no less than 30 days before travel. Plan accordingly.

Also, you will need a certificate of flight ready status on each animal (health certificate) and a final screening before flight. I highly recommend scheduling one appointment within the last ten days before you fly to get both taken care of at the same time. We didn't know this ahead of time and ended up having to take the cats back twice right before we left. This proved a highly stressful situation that you'll want to avoid. The vet on post will have all the necessary forms that you will need for your trip. The health certificate is good for only 30 days from the date of examination and must be certified by an official veterinary service. Make several copies of this form when complete. One should be taped to the outside of the travel kennel, another taped well inside the kennel, and a third kept with the animal's health record.

The Vet here on base is pretty good. We have taken both our pets there and the Vet is very friendly and good with the animals. For those who own dogs, Leishmaniasis, a parasite which can be deadly to animals, does exist in Sicily. It only affects dogs, not cats. Special collars are available at the Vet's office to prevent infection. Do not let your dogs run outside until you've purchased one of these. If your dog contracts this parasite they will not be able to return with you to the states upon the conclusion of your tour. For cat owners, there is an airborne virus here that can be contracted by your cats if they come face to face with another outdoor cat here that already has this respiratory condition. I highly recommend paying the money for the additional shot if your cats are outdoor animals, or even if they aren't, even though it is not required. Once you are here the shot is not available as it has not been approved for use in the European Union yet. If your cats contract the virus they will not be able to go home with you when you go back to the states. This virus does not affect dogs.

All pets have to be registered with the veterinary clinic within five days of their arrival. You just have to bring their files to the Vet clinic and fill out some forms. For any further information contact the Veterinary Clinic at (DSN) 314-624-4258 or comm: 011-39-095-56-4258.

The Relocation Process: Coming to Sigonella

There is so much you have to do when relocating overseas that often times it can seem extremely overwhelming. In reality it isn't so bad if you take it one step at a time. The first thing I would do to ease the process is apply for your travel passport, yes this is for service members, too. Even though, technically, service members can travel on NATO orders with their Military ID; the less you use your Military ID when traveling the better. So make sure everyone in the family has a travel passport. The process can take anywhere from 3 months to 8 months depending on the number of applications being processed at any given time. So plan ahead. Also, for family members traveling with their service members, you have to have a travel passport before you can apply for your Visa; and you have to have a Visa to live here in Italy. On that note, you can't apply for your Visa until you are in the three month window before you are scheduled to arrive in Italy. So don't try to jump the gun on this one; you'll only be turned away. In the meantime, while you are waiting for your travel passport to come back, there are other matters to attend to.

The first is to determine what items you want to take with you and what items you intend to sell or place in storage statistics before you leave. Keep in mind that whatever you ship has to go in your home. There are no storage facilities available here like there are in America. Right now, whether you are married and have no children or you are married and you do have children, you are going to be living in Military Housing. Lucky for you, because Military Housing provides an easier transition for most people. I will get more into housing in the next post. For now, just know that you can use your American Appliances in housing without adapters or transformers. :o) I do recommend buying between 7 to 10 three plug (three prong) adapters for your outlets though, because you have both European and American outlets in your home and you will find that you wish the European outlets weren't there and there were more American ones. I didn't know this before we got here so I ended up have to order them off E-bay. What a pain that was! Now, if you are single or coming here unaccompanied then you will start off in the Barracks. After you settle in you will have time to find a place of your own out in the economy and the housing office can help you with that. Just keep in mind that none of your American appliances will work without a transformer and they can be kind of pricey. So, buy some before you leave the states where you have more options. Some people decide to just remain in the Barracks, but that is up to you and how comfortable you are with living off the base.

Next is your medical screening. This is really important to get done early for everyone in the family. Mostly because it has to have time to go up your chain of command and be signed off on before you can leave; and we all know how long that can take. Get your appointments as soon as possible. Now we ran into a little trouble with our process because we didn't even get this information until my husband was in danger of losing his orders. That is why I'm letting you know what is coming and what you have to do. Appointments need to be made at Medical and Dental for "Overseas" screenings. Don't forget to take your medical files with you! You will need to go by the immunization office, too, to update everyone's vaccinations. This needs to be done at least 3 months before you leave to be safe. Ladies, they will give you a pregnancy test as well. Dental just does a brief exam to determine whether or not you have any serious problems that may prevent you from staying over here for the duration of your tour. The dental care here is limited due to the fact that the clinic treats all service members and dependents. They only do one cleaning a year so that they can get everyone in. Not to worry...Just make sure you have developed good dental hygiene habits before your journey here.

For those of you who have pets, the next post is for you!

The Job Search: Available Positions at Sigonella

For the spouses that are faithfully following their service members to Sigonella and want to continue working, there are three websites which you may find useful. Each of these websites lists the jobs vacancies that the base is currently looking to fill, and it is kept fairly up to date. There is a website for the Human Resources Office for GS positions on base, a site for NEX positions (our retail store on base), and a site for MWR positions (our Recreation Department). There links are as follows:




http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/








http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/nex/















http://www.sicily.navy.mil/cgi-bin/positions/mwr/position.cgi

Unfortunately it is practically impossible to get a job here until you actually arrive on base. But you can get a jump on the competition but updating your resume so that it is ready when you arrive here. When you do arrive you will need the following information to include in your application packet. Click on each link to get the details.

Instructions (http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/usainst.doc)
OF-612 Application Form (http://www.opm.gov/forms/word/of612.doc)
Typing Requirement (http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/typing.doc)
Example Resume (http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/usaex.doc)
Overseas Residency Questionnaire (http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/usaquest.doc)
Family Member/Military Spouse Supplement (http://www.sicily.navy.mil/positions/hro/usafamily.doc)

Another good idea is to register on the Navy's Human Resources site in order to keep yourself marketable. Their website is https://chart.donhr.navy.mil/index.asp.

The Signature: Sigonella's Local Newspaper

The Signature is our local newspaper here in Sigonella. It is full of information, everything from local stories about events on base to a section on cultural events taking place in various cities on the island. There is a section on local events, the local movie schedule, and a Classified section where people can sell their cars or other household items that they may not want to take with then from the island when they PCS. It comes out once a week on Fridays and you can pick it up on base, but if you wait till Saturday you'll find one on your doorstep when you get up in the morning. If you are more technology savvy then you can also view the newspaper online, although the format is really screwed up and you can't see all the pictures, the website link is http://www.sicily.navy.mil/signature/.

Trinacria: The Symbol of Sicily

The original Greek name for the island of Sicily was Trinacria (Tre-three, Nacria-promontory) meaning the land of the three promontories. The island had already acquired this name and was referred to as such in Ulysses Travels.From Homeric times, Sicily was characterized by its triangular shape. These angles are considered to be Capo Peloro at Messina in the northeast, Cape Correnti in the southeast, and Capo Lillibeo at Marsala on the west coast.In the symbol's centers is the head of a Gorgon. In Greek mythology, the Gorgon represented three monstrous females with huge teeth, brazen claws, snakes for hair; the sight of whom turned beholders into stone. Medusa was the best known of the three mythological Gorgon, who personified the terrors of the sea.The Trinacria is represented as a Medusa-like woman with three legs in a running position. The three legs point in the direction of Sicily's three angles, since the island is said to "rest on three legs." The three-legged symbol was undoubtedly derived from the ancient Greeks in the eighth century B.C. when they colonized the island. Legend says that when Perseus, the son of Jupiter, approached Medusa while she slept, and taking care not to look at her, cut off her head and gave it to Minerva, who fixed it in the middle of her Aegis: the shield or breast plate of Jupiter made by Vulcan on the island of Lemnon (one of the Aolian isles). It became the characteristic attribute of Minerva, and the symbol of the island of Sicily.

NAS SIGONELLA

My husband and I moved to Sigonella only a few months ago on May 1st of 2006. It was a bumpy ride and a tough transition, but here we are! When we received orders here I began looking around, trying to gather information on our new home so that we could be as prepared as possible. I went to the bases website www.sicily.navy.mil and read the welcome packet first. But I found that while some of the information was useful, a lot of it was not up to date or accurate to today. I decided that once we got here and settled down that I was going to gather as much information as possible to help other people moving here. I wish that there was something like this when we were relocating. So, here goes nothing. I am going to try to put as much information as possible on here for you about the area, places to go, things to see, trips to take, the schools, etc. If there is anything you want to know please ask and I'll see what I can do about getting the information for you to make your move as easy on you as possible.