Best and worst duty stations
- Thread starter Monello
- Start date
ZARA
Registered User
*Speaking for my Beloved*
Navy 20 yrs PR
Worst - Corpus Christi TX - Reason: on a cold day you could fry an egg on the sidewalk & it rained mud.
Best - Pensacola FL - What's not to love about P-cola?!
Charleston SC. was the best base I was stationed at, the other two I worked at, but not assigned to were St. Mawgens in Cornwall and Adak AK. Navy ET.
aps45819
24/7 Single Dad
USN, 10 years, Electronics Tech
Best duty was the communications station in Hawaii. mostly a typical day job and they had a shortage of base housing. As an E5 I was able to get another E5 room mate and afford a 3 bedroom beach house on the North Shore about a mile from Waimea Bay.
Worst was a yard period in Portsmouth Naval shipyard (actually Kittery Me) in the winter
Best duty was the communications station in Hawaii. mostly a typical day job and they had a shortage of base housing. As an E5 I was able to get another E5 room mate and afford a 3 bedroom beach house on the North Shore about a mile from Waimea Bay.
Worst was a yard period in Portsmouth Naval shipyard (actually Kittery Me) in the winter
Rommey
Well-Known Member
Well, excluding Basic (Lackland, TX) and Tech School (Keesler, MS), I was only at three bases in 22 years, so my choices are rather limited.
Worst is Altus AFB, OK...more churches per capita than anywhere (my guess) and what sidewalks they did have were rolled up by 9PM.
Spent 1½ years in Rota Spain unaccompanied; I liked the place, just wish the family could have been there...
Spent the balance of career (~17 years) at Andrews. Doesn't make it the "best" just most familiar.
Worst is Altus AFB, OK...more churches per capita than anywhere (my guess) and what sidewalks they did have were rolled up by 9PM.
Spent 1½ years in Rota Spain unaccompanied; I liked the place, just wish the family could have been there...
Spent the balance of career (~17 years) at Andrews. Doesn't make it the "best" just most familiar.
USN 20yrs Navy airdale
Best: NAS Key West- Weather, things to do.
Close 2nd: NAS Brunswick, Me. Beautiful area, Rocky coast, islands a lot to see
Worst: NAS Albany, Ga; Georgia - ugh
I was a blackshoe with an aircrew NEC. I did that for 5 1/2 years. I was on the road around 10 days a month on average. We got to go to some really different places. I got to go to Agra, India and see the Taj Mahal. It was a geedunk trip for sure. One weekend we flew from Andrews to Deadhorse, Alaska doing an RON in Fairbanks, Alaska in April. It was in the 60s that day and the locals were all out in shorts and short sleeve shirts. There was still a bunch of snow on the ground.
We did a lot of NATO support. Spent a lot of time in London and Brussels. I did 2 around the world flights just before and just after the Persian Gulf war.
The crew had a lot of down time once we landed. The per diem fueled the happy hours and shopping sprees. My only regret is that I didn't have a digital camera for those trips. I'd have some amazing pictures for sure.
We did a lot of NATO support. Spent a lot of time in London and Brussels. I did 2 around the world flights just before and just after the Persian Gulf war.
The crew had a lot of down time once we landed. The per diem fueled the happy hours and shopping sprees. My only regret is that I didn't have a digital camera for those trips. I'd have some amazing pictures for sure.
edinsomd
New Member
USN, 1979-1996, Aviation ASW Operator
Not counting boot camp or deployment sites,
Norfolk, VA
Jacksonville, FL
Brunswick, ME
Patuxent River, MD
Norfolk I liked the least- "Dogs and sailors keep off the grass."
Brunswick was nice with all four seasons- June, July, August, and Winter.
I suppose Pax River is my favorite, since I'm still here!
Not counting boot camp or deployment sites,
Norfolk, VA
Jacksonville, FL
Brunswick, ME
Patuxent River, MD
Norfolk I liked the least- "Dogs and sailors keep off the grass."
Brunswick was nice with all four seasons- June, July, August, and Winter.
I suppose Pax River is my favorite, since I'm still here!
Navy wife. No areas were terrible, some of the duties were difficult. Training in Saratoga Springs, NY brought us to horse racing. Charleston, SC was beautiful but his first sub deploy resulted in a death onboard. Va Beach was good, but Portsmouth was ridiculous. Ship was in drydock and still they had 100 hour work weeks and every 3 day 8 hour on 2 off duties watching boards that weren't even connected! Stopped at 6 years and came to Maryland. Each was useful and we have no regrets. Sometimes I still miss it. I know he doesn't though.
USN, Jun 1972 - Jun 1976 (RM)
Best: NCS Asmara, Ethiopia (Jan 73 - Jul75), of all places. Terrific duty, lots of time off, motorcycles everywhere.
Even better, for a while: NavCommUnit (July 74 - July75), Asmara, Ethiopia. Left behind 12 swabbies with a Lt(jg), one army officer, and a bunch of Harris and NSA civilians. We wore civies, no haircuts, got paid per diem and great duty manning the receiver site/crypto. Until we started getting shot at by the ELF rebels and several of our civilians were killed and a few kidnapped but later returned safely.
Ho-hum but pretty good for my last 10 months in the Nav: Onboard USS Worden CG-18, home ported Yokosuka, Japan. Got my blue water legs, Shellback'd, South Pac Austrialia and Indian Ocean cruise, Ceylon, Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Pusan, and about 10 stops in the Subic Bay, P.I. Olongapo City!
Best: NCS Asmara, Ethiopia (Jan 73 - Jul75), of all places. Terrific duty, lots of time off, motorcycles everywhere.
Even better, for a while: NavCommUnit (July 74 - July75), Asmara, Ethiopia. Left behind 12 swabbies with a Lt(jg), one army officer, and a bunch of Harris and NSA civilians. We wore civies, no haircuts, got paid per diem and great duty manning the receiver site/crypto. Until we started getting shot at by the ELF rebels and several of our civilians were killed and a few kidnapped but later returned safely.
Ho-hum but pretty good for my last 10 months in the Nav: Onboard USS Worden CG-18, home ported Yokosuka, Japan. Got my blue water legs, Shellback'd, South Pac Austrialia and Indian Ocean cruise, Ceylon, Jakarta, Singapore, Hong Kong, Pusan, and about 10 stops in the Subic Bay, P.I. Olongapo City!
USN 20.5 years - Aviation Ordnanceman
NAS Cecil Field
NAS Oceana
NAS Pax River
Plus going on det's all over the country and deploying to just about every part of the world.
All of them good duty station, worst duty station, every carrier I was on while it was sitting in the Persian Gulf. Talk about being hot, the average temp on deck during the day was 125 to 130 (though we did record a 161 one day) and at night it was 95 to 100. My shop did not have A/C, just force air from the outside, in the morning there would be a thin layer of sand on everything in the shop even though we had cheese cloth covering the vent. One cruise we spent 143 days in the Gulf, the next cruise we spent a little over 90 days. I truly say that being on a ship in the Persian Gulf in the middle of August is the closest you will get to being in hell while still alive, you would sweat even while taking a shower, and there was no chilled water to be found.
NAS Cecil Field
NAS Oceana
NAS Pax River
Plus going on det's all over the country and deploying to just about every part of the world.
All of them good duty station, worst duty station, every carrier I was on while it was sitting in the Persian Gulf. Talk about being hot, the average temp on deck during the day was 125 to 130 (though we did record a 161 one day) and at night it was 95 to 100. My shop did not have A/C, just force air from the outside, in the morning there would be a thin layer of sand on everything in the shop even though we had cheese cloth covering the vent. One cruise we spent 143 days in the Gulf, the next cruise we spent a little over 90 days. I truly say that being on a ship in the Persian Gulf in the middle of August is the closest you will get to being in hell while still alive, you would sweat even while taking a shower, and there was no chilled water to be found.
I went to Olongapo on vacation in 2008. Boy has that placed changed. Mostly for the better. Magsaysay drive is all cleaned up and all the bars are gone. Who can forget their first stroll down that street right around sunset.
What a sight those three decker bars were the length of the street. Used to have a t-shirt that had them all labled. I guess it has been rebuilt since Pinatubo blew back in the early 90's..
How in the Hell did you remember her name?
BOP
Well-Known Member
Navy, aircrew, early to mid 70s. Best duty: San Diego...did 2 tours there, 1 at North Island and 1 at Imperial Beach. Did a tour at Subic, and it was great early on, but wore off after a while. Oakland was probably the worst. Oakland is a spanish word meaning "taint." Memphis was a close 2nd, but that was training, so short-term, not a 3-year tour.