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DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 07:18 PM
I have finally received medical clearance for entrance to the USAF :banger and I need to find out about some difference base locations as I have to put in my preferences soon. I would be much obliged if you could lend me any knowledge you have of the following bases.

Boston
Shaw (Columbia, SC)
San Antonio (Randolph or Lackland)
USAFA
Nellis (Vegas baby!)

What I want to find out is the following: How big are the health care facilities (huge medical center? small outpatient clinic?)? Good base housing? General quality of living?

Or really anything else you have to offer, or if a base that is great to be at is not on my list, please let me know.

thanks in advance!
-Tim

kelmac07
02-11-2010, 07:32 PM
Congrats Tim!! :tu Retired Army 1SG here...but Langley AFB in Hampton, Va is nice. :D

DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 07:41 PM
Congrats Tim!! :tu Retired Army 1SG here...but Langley AFB in Hampton, Va is nice. :D

oooh yeah! I forgot to list that one.

kelmac07
02-11-2010, 07:48 PM
What I want to find out is the following: How big are the health care facilities (huge medical center? small outpatient clinic?)? Good base housing? General quality of living?

Tim..

Nice new hospital...and Portsmouth Naval Hospital (the Walter Reed of the south) is 35 minutes away.

Beautiful base housing.

Quality of life??? Come on...it's the Air Force. Their quality of life is far better than the other services.

DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 09:03 PM
Tim..

Nice new hospital...and Portsmouth Naval Hospital (the Walter Reed of the south) is 35 minutes away.

Beautiful base housing.

Quality of life??? Come on...it's the Air Force. Their quality of life is far better than the other services.

hmm.. you talk a nice game good sir, I will make sure Langley is in the top 5 fo sho :ss

Darrell
02-11-2010, 10:01 PM
Boston

Probably a Guard/Reserve base. Their is no base for Active Duty in Boston. Sorry!

Shaw (Columbia, SC)

Everyone I know who was stationed at Shaw loved it.

San Antonio (Randolph or Lackland)

I love San Antonio and both of those bases are legit. The base housing is pretty nice on Randolph.

USAFA

Colorado Springs, BABY! What more can you say?

Nellis (Vegas baby!)

Eh, Nellis is OK. It gets old pretty quick.

DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 11:22 PM
thanks for the input Darrell, yeah, I rechecked my pharmacist duty station list, Boston isn't on it. San Antonio is close to family, but not too close, AFA would obviously be awesome, and SC seems like it'd be fun for a spell

MedicCook
02-11-2010, 11:26 PM
Congrats Tim. :tu

I have been to Randolph as a civilian contractor and that is a beautiful base.

DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 11:32 PM
I should note that I still have to submit a few more forms and have my application put before the Selection Committee, but the biggest hurdle has been cleared, I'm reasonably confident the rest will work out.

tobii3
02-11-2010, 11:32 PM
cough....

Pope AFB.....

cough......

When you're ready to quit dilly-dallying around, look into working with the PJ's or CCT's.

Then get your a$$ into JSOC.

Anything less would be....uncivilized

:ss

DrDubzz
02-11-2010, 11:33 PM
I had considered Pope, what would set it apart?

also, I dunno what all that other business means, but I'll be a pharmacist, so I don't know if they would apply anyway

Partagaspete
02-12-2010, 07:56 PM
cough....

Pope AFB.....

cough......

When you're ready to quit dilly-dallying around, look into working with the PJ's or CCT's.

Then get your a$$ into JSOC.

Anything less would be....uncivilized

:ss

They call it no hope pope for a reason. LOL. Shaw is a much better choice IMHO.

In all seriousness I would HIGHLY suggest Germany!!! Take i from a guy that was in Europe or almost 13 years. Get over there and tour the hell outta europe and you will be richly rewarded. ahhh the memories.

DrDubzz
02-12-2010, 09:04 PM
I definitely want to do some time overseas, but the initial tour has to be lower 48

Whynot
02-13-2010, 05:15 PM
Why does the initial have to be 48? Is that a AFSC thing? I know plenty of folks that did first tour overseas. Shaw is great if you love the outdoors. When I left in 06 base housing still sucked and alot of it was being torn down. Sumter county is no gem. But Myrtle Beach, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Savanah are all relatively close. Columbia is pretty decent as well.

DrDubzz
02-13-2010, 07:52 PM
I'm not entirely sure, but the list I have for initial tours, for health care professionals, are all lower 48. That's ok though, my wife and I are planning on children in the next few years so we'd like to be somewhat close to family

I've been talking to some people and I've decided my top two will likely be AFA and Lackland, but I still need a few more to round out the list.

Savvy
02-14-2010, 05:17 AM
Somehow missed this thread for the past couple days, so let me say congrats Tim. Hope everything else works out now that you've gotten past the medical clearance.

As far as bases, I don't have a whole lot of experience, I'd say try to get overseas, but seeing as your first tour will be in the CONUS, I really don't have much input (I was only CONUS for BMT and Tech School). Looking forward to seeing where you end up though.

Veritas
02-16-2010, 09:26 AM
Congratulations, Tim.

Of the bases you listed, I only have limited experience with Lackland and the AFA. The facilities at both are decent. Peterson is also in Colorado Springs, so you may want to add that to the list for consideration.

It is my opinion that Colorado Springs has more to offer than San Antonio. Regardless of the amenities on base, you will spend most of your time in the local community. Do a little research into the towns in addition to the bases. Are you an outdoors guy? If so, the comparison just became a lot easier.

DrDubzz
02-16-2010, 03:56 PM
yeah... I'm somewhat outdoorsy, but I'm pretty familiar with both cities, they're quite different for sure.

SA offers closer proximity to family, bigger city stuff (although Denver has that too), it's close to Austin so UT games would be easy to make, plenty of good mexican food, and my children can be born in Texas :ss

CS is naturally prettier, more pleasant weather for outdoor activities, Denver is only an hour away so I could get Avalanche season tickets.

I'd be happy in either place, but I'm more curious what I would be doing as a pharmacist in those places. I had forgotten about Peterson being in CS. Is it nice? big/small? etc

billybarue
02-16-2010, 10:51 PM
Darrell mentioned no AD base up in Boston, but he forgot about Hanscom.

In my view it all depends on what you want to do. When I was young it was all about the mission and I told every Ops Officer I had to "give me 5 minutes to cash a check and buy a tooth brush and I'll go anywhere you want me to." So it didn't much matter where I was stationed, I was TDY (temporary duty) 250 days of the year.

When i got shackled with staff jobs it was nice to be at Scott AFB outside of St Louis. I love the midwest and it is right next to St Louis, or a 5 hour drive to Chicago for the long weekends. Loved my time at USAFA, Colorado is fantastic.

Never stationed at the following but in the states I spent a lot of time at, and enjoyed, McChord near Seattle: Elmendorf outside of Anchorage: Travis 1.5 hours outside of San Fran: Langley down near VA Beach; and loads of time in and around DC - Andrews, Bolling, Pentagon, and many Air Force Offices at Ft Belvoir. Eglin and/or Hurlburt down in Ft Walton Beach, FL.

In hindsight I always wanted, and wish I had gotten, a long overseas assignment. preferences would be Ramstein (Germany), Aviano (Italy), Souda Bay (Crete) - Navy Base but there are some AF billets, Mildenhall (England) - I spent a whole lot of time here. Moron (Spain) - I spent a good bit of time here as well. It is a shadow of what it was, but I believe there are still a few (very few) permanent party positions. Incirlick (Turkey) - loved it there. Yokota (Japan) - lots of time spent here as well, and loved it.

I would say try to get overseas if you get the chance. But it sounds like your AFSC will limit you on your first tour, but I would try to get overseas when you can - great opportunity many civilians will never have the chance to take advantage of.

FWIW

Darrell
02-16-2010, 11:09 PM
Darrell mentioned no AD base up in Boston, but he forgot about Hanscom.

In my view it all depends on what you want to do. When I was young it was all about the mission and I told every Ops Officer I had to "give me 5 minutes to cash a check and buy a tooth brush and I'll go anywhere you want me to." So it didn't much matter where I was stationed, I was TDY (temporary duty) 250 days of the year.

When i got shackled with staff jobs it was nice to be at Scott AFB outside of St Louis. I love the midwest and it is right next to St Louis, or a 5 hour drive to Chicago for the long weekends. Loved my time at USAFA, Colorado is fantastic.

Never stationed at the following but in the states I spent a lot of time at, and enjoyed, McChord near Seattle: Elmendorf outside of Anchorage: Travis 1.5 hours outside of San Fran: Langley down near VA Beach; and loads of time in and around DC - Andrews, Bolling, Pentagon, and many Air Force Offices at Ft Belvoir. Eglin and/or Hurlburt down in Ft Walton Beach, FL.

In hindsight I always wanted, and wish I had gotten, a long overseas assignment. preferences would be Ramstein (Germany), Aviano (Italy), Souda Bay (Crete) - Navy Base but there are some AF billets, Mildenhall (England) - I spent a whole lot of time here. Moron (Spain) - I spent a good bit of time here as well. It is a shadow of what it was, but I believe there are still a few (very few) permanent party positions. Incirlick (Turkey) - loved it there. Yokota (Japan) - lots of time spent here as well, and loved it.

I would say try to get overseas if you get the chance. But it sounds like your AFSC will limit you on your first tour, but I would try to get overseas when you can - great opportunity many civilians will never have the chance to take advantage of.

FWIW

Why did I think Hanscom was closed?

T.G
02-17-2010, 12:06 AM
Why did I think Hanscom was closed?

Is this multiple choice?

OLS
03-26-2010, 11:47 AM
WHAT? You didn't list Seymour Johnson on your preference list?
Are you trying out for Cretin of the quarter?
Haha. I got a kick out of your list, cause it is the first one I saw that didn't
have a bunch of European bases on it. I guess the fascination with overseas
duty has waned since the 80s. Of course, if you do more than 4 years you
will do some time overseas regardless. And I am not kidding about Seymour.
I loved it. halfway to the mountains, halfway to the beach. And NC is a fine
state. I like the SC idea, too. Forget HI, forget LV. Most of all, good luck.
The USAF is a fine organization.

And yes, Ramstein is AWESOME, babay. Was TDY there for 6 weeks. Gained
about 18 lbs. embarassing.

OLS
03-26-2010, 12:26 PM
Ditto on the overseas deployments. For many Americans this will be your only trip to a foreign country.
You will have money in your pocket, a place to stay and maybe free weekends. You will never get a
better opportunity to see the world and collect crap. Walking up to a cigar store with Habanos is not
so bad either. But if you are in long enough you will go somewhere outside the US, as I said.
But increasingly, airmen are TDY to countries, getting much of the benefit of overseas time without
actually being stationed there. So either way you should see something sometime.

DrDubzz
03-29-2010, 08:18 PM
I definitely want to do some time overseas, but the initial tour has to be lower 48


or overseas would be on my list

also, I've been to about 12 countries outside of the US, so while I appreciate travel, the air force isn't my only ticket to other places.

But realistically, I don't know if the AF is going to happen. Every time I submit "final" paperwork there is an additional delay, and then another and another. My final paperwork should have been submitted 2 weeks ago, now it'll be no sooner than later this week. I graduate in 7 weeks and I need a job ASAP


So we'll see. I want to serve, but if the whole job is anything like the recruitment process then no thanks, f'n ridiculous

ashtonlady
03-29-2010, 09:29 PM
Anyone that has been in the millitary knows the saying, Hurry up and wait.

DrDubzz
03-29-2010, 10:39 PM
Anyone that has been in the millitary knows the saying, Hurry up and wait.

:) I have heard this quite a bit lately, however, if I have to wait too much longer this will not be an option. I literally cannot afford to miss the June COT and if this paperwork takes too long I will have to find a civilian job. If that's the case I'm finding somewhere to settle.

I figure it all happens for a reason, maybe the military and I weren't meant to be despite my best efforts

DrDubzz
04-03-2010, 06:13 PM
I had an encouraging meeting with my recruiter this past week, my final stuff is submitted and I should know in the next 2-3 weeks what the plan is

DrDubzz
04-15-2010, 02:32 PM
I've been selected, and assigned to Randolph AFB

I'm excited, except that the first open COT date now is not until January...

who's been to Randolph before?

The Poet
04-15-2010, 02:52 PM
who's been to Randolph before?

Not me. But my brother The Bird (ret.) ended his 26 years there, and liked San Antonio so much he still lives there, as does both of his married girls. Of course, it helps that his backyard is a golf course. :r

Savvy
04-15-2010, 03:59 PM
Congrats on getting selected Tim. I'm sure being done with all the paperwork and everything to just get selected is a nice feeling. I've not personally been to Randolph, but San Antonio's a great city. Hope you like it, and welcome to the AF.

Partagaspete
04-17-2010, 07:55 AM
Congrats and welcomt to Big Blue! Sounds lime you will be rolling in as I am rolling out...

Thank you for your commitment to serve your country and fellow man.

T

DrDubzz
04-20-2010, 07:21 PM
thanks! and thank you for your time as well

I'm pretty excited to finally know where I'll be for the next while

ScottieM
04-20-2010, 07:34 PM
Congrats to You!! Glad you decided to stick with it. I'm sure Randolph will be an Awesome Place to be Stationed.

One thing I regret is not going overseas much when I was Active Duty. I requested to be state side initially and missed out on Europe unless you count Thule AB Greenland.:D

Good Luck to You!

billybarue
04-22-2010, 10:08 AM
Very good base - nice town.

for pilots Randolph means one and only one thing - PIT (Pilot Instructor Training). If you are going to be a Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) instructor than you have to go through PIT. Lots of flying activity but mainly in the trainers - not the heavies, fighters, or bombers.

AFPC (Air Force Personnel Center) is there so you can work your follow on assignment while you are there.

Headquarters for Air Education and Training Command (AETC) which is a four-star Major Command.

Important base with lots of activity and visibility. It is one of the oldest bases we have. Some very old buildings that are maintained well and look amazing. I am sure some of them may be on architectural historic lists somewhere.

The "Auger Inn" is the bar in the basement at the O-club and on Friday nights it used to be a hell of a good time. Lots of pilots fly in from around the country for it when they are enroute on a training mission somewhere. Tends to attract the local girls (Auger Doggers) - which can be fun :dr

Believe it or not, my Dad has a building dedicated to him on that base :tu

Congrats - hope you enjoy your first assignment and glad it worked out.

Heartkill
05-14-2010, 05:52 PM
I know I'm late to the party, but just wanted to welcome you to the AF. You'll like Randolph, as you know San Antonio has plenty to do and see and there are lots of great spots to visit in an hour or two drive. Check out Padre Island! As for me, my first duty station was Minot, ND and honestly it's all what you make of it. I just recently PCS'd down here to Robins and so far so good. Keep us updated and if you have any questions, feel free to shoot me a message.

papichulo
05-19-2010, 09:49 PM
Congrats on getting in and being stationed at RAFB. I am an E9 and I am currently assigned to Lackland; however, I am often at RAFB. I am currently TDY longterm (18 months and counting) to Kirtland (Albuquerque, NM). I have been stationed in order: Holloman (Alamogordo, NM)-great base that took me TDY to 13 countries in Central and South America; Pamerola AB, which is now Soto Cano (Honduras-remote tour); two tours at Murted AB (Turkey-remote tour); Davis-Monthan (Tucson, AZ); Shaw (South Carolina); back to Davis-Monthan; Kirtland; Pentagon; Lackland. I have been deployed and or performed duties in 3 or 4 dozen countries. My dream base is Aviano AB, Italy. I have close to six years to go. We will see. You will be fine and along the way you meet many BOTLs both in and out of the military. You have made a wise decision to serve our great country and I salute you :salute: Just my two cents.

DrDubzz
01-15-2011, 10:06 PM
I have an another question now. I'm headed to COT on March 6 at Maxwell AFB. Any tips? It's only 4 weeks and relative to other OTS scenarios it's fairly watered down, but still probably more rigid/strict than anything else I've ever done. Any and all advice is welcome.

TIA

Knip23
01-15-2011, 10:19 PM
O no no no, the hell with the states shoot for.

Okniawa Japan. ( AWSOME Station was there for 9 years.)
Guam ( 2 years Awsome)

if i was in the AF thats where i would shoot for.

Knip.

DrDubzz
01-15-2011, 10:43 PM
well I'm definitely at Randolph for the first tour, but after that who knows

Partagaspete
01-16-2011, 06:59 AM
well I'm definitely at Randolph for the first tour, but after that who knows

All I can recommend is get over to Europe as soon as you can. there is soooo much to see and do. I was there for 14 years and still did not get to do or see half of what I wanted to.

DrDubzz
03-02-2011, 10:07 PM
just wanted to post an update, I'm headed to Commissioned Officer Training on Monday, looking forward to it. There's a lot to get gone between now and then so get done it must.

Visited Randolph a couple weeks ago and really liked it, the medical facilities were very nice. I'll, primarily, be at the BX pharmacy so it'll be just like my civilian job but without most of the sucky parts (like 3rd party insurances).

Fordman4ever
05-25-2011, 05:39 PM
congrats on becoming an Officer. Don't underestimate the knowledge and wisdom of your senior enlisted.

hammondc
05-25-2011, 05:54 PM
Hey man...when you get settled in, let me know. I'll join you for a smoke or 2. I used to live near lackland (I am not/ have not been military though). I live north of SA now.

Fordman4ever
05-26-2011, 09:47 PM
I might be down there some time this year. I'll let y'all know. we should HERF it up.

hammondc
05-27-2011, 06:35 AM
I might be down there some time this year. I'll let y'all know. we should HERF it up.

Yes, this!

DrDubzz
06-11-2011, 09:01 PM
hey, sounds good

I'm up in Schertz, free most evenings and weekends

DrDubzz
06-11-2011, 09:02 PM
congrats on becoming an Officer. Don't underestimate the knowledge and wisdom of your senior enlisted.

my TSgts are my best resource (as are the retired guys working GS positions)

:tu