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Dream Duty stations or Highway to Hell?


The Few

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Hello my fellow brother's and sisters of the military, or Civilian counter Partners!

 

Love to hear some stories about your "BEST" duty station assignments, or the absolutely WORST!!

 

I will have to say I cant just list one for my best or worst...

 

Mind you, the locations listed below had VERY beautiful landscape.. But the bases themselves as far as the base operations and family accommodations, were either very good, or Very bad!!!

 

BEST:

Camp Lejeune N.C,

Okinawa, Japan

Camp Pendelton, Ca

 

WORST:

Iwakuni, Japan

Waldbrol, Germany

Aviano Italy

 

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I had 5 overseas assignments and 3 stateside assignments. 4 out of the 5 overseas assignments were back to back. First 3 were great, the 4th really sucked and enjoyed number 5.

 

The Greats Were:

 

SHAPE, Belgium

Tehran, Iran

Kabul, Afghanistan

St Louis, MO

Sinop, Turkey

The Pentagon

 

Those that sucked:

Ft Knox, KY

Algiers, Algeria

 

Dennis

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I had one 7 year overseas assignment, and have been stationed at the AF Academy once, Lackland AFB three times counting basic, and Barksdale AFB three times counting my reserve assignment during my college break in service.

 

I was assigned to Shepherd AFB for 4 months of my 1 year MLT (Medical Lab tech School,) and Keesler AFB for the last six months of MLT Tech School.

 

Best were all but the tech school year when I was driving home weekends 5- 7 hours Friday night, and returning Sunday evening. And my two permanent party assignments to Lackluster AFB, TX.

Keesler was great for the fishing and food.

 

Best from in descending order are

1. AF Academy - Go Falcons!

2. Spangdahlem AB Germany.

3. Barksdale AFB, LA three times.

 

Worst,

Shepherd AFB, TX

 

Of course there were better and worse times at each base depending on the commander and missions.

 

As a child my dad was assigned to Lowery in Denver CO, Wheeling West Virginia, and Steubenville OH. And he got out and we went to Bogota Colombia South America. Can't say much about those as I was under six for them.

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I had 4 overseas assignments and only one stateside assignment aside from schools. The schools were one year long so I guess you could almost count them as stateside which I will for this.

 

Best:

Edzell, Scotland

Monterey, California (3 times)

Rota, Spain (2 times)

San Miguel, Philippines

 

Worst:

Lincoln, NE (recruiting)

 

I would note that my time in San Miguel and Rota also included a lot of TDY "haze gray underway" time, 8 different ships, which afforded a lot opportunity to see a lot of Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Italy, Israel, Greece, Sardinia, and Balearic Islands. As a family were able to visit Germany, Portugal, England and Wales.

 

All in all I (we) enjoyed all our time, even Lincoln (aside from the duty). Only reason I pushed Rota and San Miguel down was due to the family separation.

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Chalkie

 

Did you become a Cornhusker Fan while you were in Lincoln? We grew up about 65 miles SW of Lincoln.

 

Dennis

 

Well, no. With the wife and I being alumni of KU and K-State, respectively that wasn't going to happen. ;) But game days were great for shopping downtown, never an issue with parking and you practically had the stores to yourself. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Duty stations:

 

New London, CT Diesel Sub, SS, on the river

Bainbridge MD for the summer. WWII barracks

Ballston Spa, NY for the winter. Dungarees aren't good for cold temps.

New London, CT Two Missle Subs, SSBN, out of Holy Loch, Scotland

Pearl Harbor, HI One SSN and then an SSBN.

Idaho Falls, ID Instructor duty

Norfolk, VA Fast Combat Support Ship, AOE. Mostly in the Med

 

None really bad. New London because I met my wife there, more than 52 years ago. Some better than others.

Idaho for the West and the mountains. Jackson Hole was about 3 hours away.

Pearl for the tropics and the beaches.

In the Med I got to visit ports that we had cruised by on the subs.

 

Bill

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Best assignment Heidelburg and Mannheim Germany.

 

Worst: C Battery 3rd Battalion 71st ADA Air Defense Artillery (Nike Hercules) Big nuclear weapons, all gone now.

I can confirm that. I spent three years at the 3/71 Direct Support Platoon from 66 to 69. Charlie battery was essentially on the top of a mountain so there wasn't any place to go, but those guys generally worked 24 on/24 off so there wasn't much time to go anywhere, anyhow. Most of our batteries only had two crews, so if someone was sick or on leave, the guy on the other crew had to double.

 

Just to adjust the level of difficulty, while I was there we had the absolute best and worst battalion commanders I ever served under.

 

Are you aware that there is a 3/71 FB page?

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I spent a majority of my time in all three Marine Divisions deployed. I liked the one year tour at Guantamo Bay during 1986. I was fortunate to have a corner room overlooking the bay. Tarpon fishing was great fun, but sweated my butt-off realing them bad boys in (good workout).

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I can confirm that. I spent three years at the 3/71 Direct Support Platoon from 66 to 69. Charlie battery was essentially on the top of a mountain so there wasn't any place to go, but those guys generally worked 24 on/24 off so there wasn't much time to go anywhere, anyhow. Most of our batteries only had two crews, so if someone was sick or on leave, the guy on the other crew had to double.

 

Just to adjust the level of difficulty, while I was there we had the absolute best and worst battalion commanders I ever served under.

 

Are you aware that there is a 3/71 FB page?

Hey John, I was there 76-77 and it was no bett4er than when you were there. We worked 24 on 24 off for 8 months, then we got more MP's in, so we worked for 24 on 24 off then an 8 hour day for 4 months. The town was called Hardheim, Germany, but was referred to has Hard time. Yes, I am aware of the 3/71st FB page, there is one for each battery also.

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I spent a majority of my time in all three Marine Divisions deployed. I liked the one year tour at Guantamo Bay during 1986. I was fortunate to have a corner room overlooking the bay. Tarpon fishing was great fun, but sweated my butt-off realing them bad boys in (good workout).

I loved Gitmo. Mainly since I was a diver. Rode on several ships out of Gitmo for training engineers. Was not stationed there though.

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