In decades past, the U.S. military discouraged family members from joining loved ones on "unaccompanied" yearlong tours to places like South Korea, Okinawa, Guam and more remote tours in "Cold War" Europe.

"Noncommand sponsored" dependents who traveled to these assignments often were seen as a distraction and strain on support services.

Some got the cold shoulder from commands and saw only limited access to medical care, base shopping or other amenities.

Today, the signals sent to noncommand sponsored dependents are more positive, though still mixed.

The warmest change perhaps is in South Korea, where Army Gen. B.B. Bell runs three major commands including the 30,000-member U.S. Forces Korea. Force strength will fall to 25,000 as American bases are consolidated in a few southern locations.

Like his predecessor, retired Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, Bell is doing what he can to make both command and noncommand sponsored families feel welcome, said Col. (Dr.) James Gregory Jolissaint, commander of the 18th Medical Command and the 121st General Hospital in Yongsan, Korea.

The inventory of Army housing dictates how many families receive command sponsored status, Jolissaint said in an interview.

The number today is about 1,500, he said. Yet several thousand more noncommand-sponsored families are also are living in Korea.

"In olden days, if you weren't command-sponsored, you couldn't get a ration card," said Jolissaint. "You couldn't access other services on post. Now we are treating these folks as if they are command-sponsored. They get their ID cards. They can come on post. They can use the PX (post exchange). They can use the commissary. They have access to all services. They just can't get housing on post, and there's the Tricare Prime issue."

In April last year, William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, clarified in a memo to the services that department policy bans enrollment of non-command-sponsored dependents in Tricare Prime health insurance programs overseas.

Citing "differing interpretations'' that exist across overseas regions, Winkenwerder wrote that, except in few select circumstances, only active-duty family members who are "command-sponsored," as defined by travel orders, "shall be eligible" for Tricare Overseas Program Prime or the Tricare Global Remote Overseas program.

Some commands overseas howled in protest. The policy would disrupt medical benefits to many families, they said, though Winkenwerder noted that these families would remain eligible for Tricare Standard, the military's fee-for-service insurance; for Tricare Plus, which offers discounts for using network physicians; and for space-available care on base.

Two months later, Winkenwerder agreed to delay the policy crackdown until Oct. 1, 2005, and to allow a "grandfather" clause. Noncommand-sponsored families who enrolled in TOP or TGRO before Oct. 1 can stay enrolled until members complete current overseas assignments.