I'm currently deployed, in the boat to where I want to get out due to terrible leadership, but my past leadership have told me not to base my career off those leaders. I've been getting a feeling in the back of my mind that this is the life for me, and I have to keep soldiers safe, also from having previous leaders telling me the Army needs a leader like me and the soldiers I'm deployed with, they have told me I'm the only NCO that they think should reenlist because I know my ****, and talking it over with the wife, I we have decided that I'm going to reenlist, but I want something for my first reenlist. Since the wife left all her friends, family, and work to be with me and move across country, I told her she gets to pick where she wants us to try and move to next. Of course she picked places closer to our home state California. I'm putting a recruiting packet and if I get selected I'll reenlist for that, but if I don't get selected we have picked these places in order from want to go to don't care, close enough.

1. Ft. Lewis
2. Ft. Huachuca
3. Ft. Carson
4. Ft. Irwin
5. Hawaii

I've been told Lewis sucks, but wife has been to Washington because she has family up there and she said there's some cool camping areas. I've heard Huachuca is the size of COSCOM side (small) of Bragg, but like an hour from Mexico. Carson, I hear is awesome for outdoors people, and I'd like to start hiking/camping. Irwin, I just heard it sucks. Hawaii, I heard they deploy as much as Bragg does.

Another issue that I forgot to mention to the wife is if I PCS, I lose my dwell time, so I have a chance of deploying in a few month after PCSing, which I don't mind.

Don't get me wrong, I'd get out and be a contractor in a heart beat, but all I hear in the media is the unemployment rate is terrible, and I can't go no more than a year after getting out jobless. If I find a contracting job that can guarantee me a spot once I get out, I'm taking it.

 

From what I've learned from the military as long as you are stateside and nobody is shooting at you, you are at a good base. Even if the base sucks normally there is stuff to do in surrounding area that makes up for the crap assignment.

 

From what I learned from the military is deploying is money and Bragg is the universe of the Army.

 

I tried getting to Fort Lewis for the first four years I was in the Army and it just didn't happen, I did get to do PLDC there and it was pretty nice for the month I was there. I'm originally from Portland, Oregon so that's what the drive was behind that and I was already used to the rain nine months out of the year.

I was stationed at Fort Irwin/NTC after my first deployment in '03 for just shy of three years. It wasn't bad for me because I was single, but looking back now I wouldn't want to live there with my wife and kids because it's so far from civilization. I was in the support squadron for the 11th ACR while I was there so I was pretty much working or on call any time there was a unit there for training. Dealing with the rotational units constantly sucked, couldn't get anything at the stores because they were allowed to leave the RUBA and the garrison command wouldn't do anything about it because it brought in so much revenue. One of the positive sides to it was, we were halfway between Vegas and L.A. about two and a half to three hours each way, so FRG/MWR/BOSS put on some nice events. Got to see the taping of Deal or No Deal, Best Damn Sports Show and Leno. It was about 45 minutes to the nearest town which was kind of a dump anyway. The auto craft center wasn't to bad but the most I did there was stereo work in the summer. They have also put up a lot of new housing on post since I left but you don't get that much in COLA to compensate for travel if you decide to live off post, I don't remember what the price of gas was when I was there for training last year but I want to say it was over five bucks.

When I asked about Huachuca when I tried to re-up in '05 I think it was, I was pretty much told I had to know someone that was or had to be kissing *** to the right people to get it.

My brother in law just left Hawaii after being there for a couple years, is family seemed to enjoy it but he flies Kiowas so I'm sure he doesn't put up with the same crap that we do as NCOs. Other than that I've heard that after a while the confinement of the islands can start to get to you, and the cost of living is pretty expensive.

Keep in mind that government contractor jobs are being considered for cut backs, that's what I was looking to do when I got out also. Just make sure you get what you want out of them and that its in writing when you sign. I know most of the 91 series are being forced to reclass to re-enlist so that might be something you could consider too. As far as dwell time I think its 90 days but they're also talking about shortening the deployments to nine months and increasing dwell time, just saw a memo today about it with Secretary of the Army's letter head on it.

Hope this helps. I've been stationed at Hood, Sill, Irwin and in Korea twice (not in that order and a few years at each minus Korea,) any questions you think I can answer shoot a PM.

 

Ft Huachuca is in a military-friendly town, as is Ft. Carson. Both offer great access to wilderness activities, but Colorado has 4 seasons. Sierra Vista is a fairly small town with a lot of retirees living there, but it's only an hour from Tucson. Colorado Springs is pretty big, and is the most right-wing place I've ever been in my life. Yes, Huachuca is very close access to Mexico and if you go west a bit then down, you get to Rocky Point, which is a nice place to vacation.

Ft Irwin is the end of the world. I've been TDY there several times as an ALO with the Army.

I think you've got to like rain if you go to Ft Lewis. Hawaii is expensive, but still...

 

If you want California, what about Fort Hunter Liggett?

 

I like my little Dover.

Adrianspeeder

 

I've been to Ft. Huachuca in July and it is probably one of the hottest places in America.
My kid has about the most plum Navy job you can get-Camp David he'll be there about 18 more months then its back to another ship.. I think with the military its just important to excel at a personal level and the rest will take care of itself. if you advance through the rates quickly they are more inclined to give you the plum gig. Thats what happened with my kid. he started out on an old rust bucket 3rd oldest active navy ship. blew through the ranks...

 

Never heard of the place.

Wife want's Lewis first, and if we can't get that then Carson. We want to do outdoor stuff such as camping/hiking on days off or what not. How much does it actually rain at Lewis, because I'm looking at buying a motorcycle when I get back, wouldn't want it to go to a waste.

 

You might want to look into it.

http://www.liggett.army.mil/sites/local/home.asp

 

I doubt I'd be able to get that place. Don't see any MP units there.

 

I did 20 years in the Army and just retired a couple of years ago. My final duty station was Fort Lewis and I liked it so much I stayed here after I retired. I enjoy the weather here as it doesn't go to extremes as some places do. We get our fair share of rain but, I consider that a small price to pay for the lack of snow and extreme weather.

I live near Fort Lewis now and 2 hrs. West will put you in the Pacific Ocean and 2 hrs. East will put you skiing in the mountains or admiring the beauty of the Mt. Rainier National Park up close and personal. A few hours to my NE is the Olympic National Park. SE is the Gifford Pinchot National Forest (directly below Mt. Rainier). Directly connected to the Gifford Pinchot NF is the Mt. Hood National Forest. Directly North of Mt. Rainier is the Wanatchee National Forest. The landscape is lush, green, and beautiful.

As you can see from above, there is plenty of land available if you are the outdoorsy type. Seattle is a very diverse city and hosts all of the usual pro sports teams. Bodies of water are everywhere. Ft. Lewis has recently joined forces with its neighbor, McChord Air Force Base, and is growing rapidly.
The Army wants Joint Base Lewis McChord to be the military's West coast power projection platform so I think this area will continue to do well for quite some time. With that said, there are many high optempo units on this post as well. There are a few MP units on post; my last unit was MP/CID. I'm not an MP or a CID agent so I can't tell you anything about the inner workings of any of the MP units on post.

Recruiting? Ugh. I never had the desire to be a recruiter and never met anyone that enjoyed their time on Recruiting Duty. Instead, if you are looking for a challenge...might I suggest Drill Sergeant Duty? Seriously, I was a Drill Sergeant at a straight basic unit (no AIT) and I can honestly say it was one of the most rewarding positions I ever held. Also, as a DS, you'll have daily interactions with your privates and are constantly teaching them new tasks. It's a good way to stay proficient on your basic soldiering skills (that you are sure to need when you deploy after your special duty is over) which you are very likely to forget after 3 or more years as a recruiter. Then, when you get off RecYou can't get that as a recruiter. As a recruiter, you just have the pleasure of dealing with all the Sh*tbags off the street. A duty station for a recruiter is usually quite different from a regular duty station in that your recruiting stations are quite often detached from any military installation. Your recruiting station might be located in Detroit, LA, Chicago, BFE, etc......anywhere! This means you must deal with the lack of military services on your own. Now, this isn't always a bad deal but, when you deploy, it will be a major pain in the *** for your spouse and only add to her frustration.

As for the rest of your duty station choices, I have never personally been to any of them but I can tell you what 20 years of talking with soldiers has told me about these places. Keep in mind these are very basic answers as I've never been to any of them before (as previously stated).


2. Ft. Huachuca - kind of a middle-of-the-road duty station, not a lot of specific complaints on anything.

3. Ft. Carson - general consensus was that it was not liked.

4. Ft. Irwin - strong hatred for this place! Two main complaints were its remoteness and the HEAT. Never met anyone that said they would like to come back to Ft. Irwin.

5. Hawaii - the only complaint I ever hear is about the high cost of living. Other than that, everyone I've ever talked to said they absolutely loved it.

Good Luck with your military career!

 

Awesome, the wife and I have narrowed it down to Ft. Lewis and if we can't get it, then Ft. Carson. Any more replies are welcomed, being deployed makes it hard to contact the retention lady. The only issue I have is the other team leaders that are with me have the attitude of "**** the army", "I hate the army, I'm just doing my time and getting out" and it rubs off on me sometimes as well as having this bad leadership, but the Army hasn't ever done anything to me, gave me airborne school, air assault, E-5 pretty fast, my second deployment, I've never been ****ted on really.

 

You're going to have those moments though, I've had my share, its human to have ****ty days and not enjoy every day. Life in the constant rotation of train for deployment, deploy, re-integrate and repeat is easy compared to what I remember of Garrison life I'd take constant deployments any day if the family was ok with it.

You asked in another thread why I was getting out, all the old school guys around here are predicting that the Army is going to go back to the way it was before all the deployments. I came in right at the end of that and from what I remember it was nothing like it is now. It was either field problems, inspections, platoon services or red cycle taskings. Things on the MP side of the house might be different than a mechanic in an artillery battery or signal company. Personally I don't feel like that's the Army I want to go back to and my family doesn't want the constant deployments.

From the sounds of things you've got some of those toxic guys around you that they were talking about in the Army Times. A lot of good NCOs are getting out and have gotten out recently. You might as well stay in and try to make a difference while you still enjoy it.

Just my take on it, I'm not leaving the Army on a bad note, like you said the Army's given me a lot and every time I re-enlisted I got what I wanted before I did it.

 

I agree, most of my days in the Army has always been motivated and just roll with the bad ****, but constantly hearing negativity of my peers is wearing me down to a point where I'm just sick of hearing it.

The way the Army is now I don't even like it. I like it back when I was a joe getting smoked every day for no reason. Not only did it build up my PT score, but it also kept me disciplined to the point where I wouldn't talk to any NCO except giving the greeting of the day, unless it was my team leader of course. Now, you smoke a joe that NCO gets into trouble, joes can walk all over NCO's, we lost our back bone and it's due to leadership we will never see.

As of right now, Lewis is what we want. I've decided if I reenlist, I'll do 3 years, 4 if I have to, and if it goes to crap, I'll either get out or drop an officer packet.