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Hello all, 1st time posting. Anyways, today my AMU ncoic called the crew chief functional and asked if the functional could help me out and get back to a 130 unit, right now i'm in a en-route unit and would love to be back in a herc squadron. It was a short conversation between the two but what he got out of it was if i "wanted" to go back to a 130 squadron, i should have Cheyenne (sp), Keesler, Peterson and Pope. because they are building up alot of the res bases. So my question to all of you is how are these bases?

My dream sheet is Peterson, Keelser, Cheyenne, Cannon and DM. I was station at DM for 4 years before my en-route tour so i just need info on the rest. I know Keesler is where the "Hurricane Hunters" are and Cannon has Talons but i guess what i'm asking for is how are those cities to live in? Any info would be great as my wife and I are already looking at houses at all 4 bases. We leave in Nov and can guess Cheyenne and Peterson will have snow by then but i dont think Cannon or Keesler get snow.

Sorry for a long post. Thanks

Joe

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I can tell you about Pope and Keesler.

Pope is located in Ft Bragg. I spent 6 years there, and there are a lot of grunts there, around 80,000 back in the 90's.

Traffic can be bad at times. I lived in College Lakes, it wasn't bad, nice and quiet. Some folks live all the way out in Hope Mills, but that makes for a long drive.

Mild winters, very hot and humid summers with little breeze.

Keesler is on the ocean, but you can't swim there in Biloxi. The water quality sucks. Very hot and humid in the summer, but you are close to other places along the coast. Destin is about 3 hours away, and New Orleans is a few hours in the other direction.

I am at Moody AFB myself. I'm surprised that wasn't a choice for you. It's OK, and I will retire here for the time being, anyway.

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Thanks for anyone who replied. Has anyone lived in Colorado Springs next to Peterson? I would like to go to Moody but not on the list lol

Thanks again

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those are all split beween AD and Guard/Reserve...seems odd they are the only choices.

Cannon...I'm stationed there now. Gunships (H's) and MC-130W Wombats, no talons...it snows, but stay away. When it snows that "when hell freezes over..." statement just happened Cannon is the base funding forgot about, knowing it would one day close...but it didn't. That said it is OK and on the up....but it will take a while to get some resemblance of being a nice base. clovis....story in itself. I hate that town and more so the born and breed locals..... it has inspired me to graduate law school, get into politics, then lobby to get that base BRAC'd once and for all. I dream mother nature will unleash her wrath on that hole....just incinerate the whole area, put it and its "proud citizens" out of existence...OK enough, it is a shithole, if you get orders there, RUN AWAY!!! There is nothing around it either, you'd be stuck in clovis or Portales....closest glimpse of civilzation beyond that is Lubbock, which BTW is like a mecca to me now.

Pope was OK. Things have changed there, it being one of those split Guard/AD deals. Not sure how much air they put in airborne anymore. I'd seen all the pics and heard the stories about the mass airdrops...looked cool. However, I think the c-17s stole that one from them. I was there 04-08....did a couple fo the green ramp large package weeks....couple of 130's moslty 17s. Even after x-training, dropping actual troopers was a rarity. Some friend still there have mixed emotions about it...working with the Guard guys that is. Won't speak for them, as I have never worked in that enviroment. North Carolina was nice....actually like that state.

never spent a whole lot of time at the others. Heard Cheyenne is pricey but beautiful. Keesler...Gulf Coast right? may not be the best place to live for a few years till this oil business gets figured out. Peterson, few TDYS around that area liked it

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Thanks for the reply TB400. A buddy looked up info on Clovis and said 1 in 450 people are sex offenders YIKES! so with that being said, i like the mission there at Cannon but living there would be a different story. Is anyone working at a AD/Guard base right now? I work at Ramstein's En-route and once in a while we get guard or res and they seem ok. a few know what they are doing...the others come for the money. I wonder how this would work out at a home station? I mean, does the guard treat the AD like shit or is it the other way around? I'm pretty much putting all my eggs into the Peterson basket but i will be happy with going back to 130's.

Any other infomation on the bases, cities, squadrons would be great. Thanks again

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Thanks for the reply TB400. A buddy looked up info on Clovis and said 1 in 450 people are sex offenders YIKES! so with that being said, i like the mission there at Cannon but living there would be a different story. Is anyone working at a AD/Guard base right now? I work at Ramstein's En-route and once in a while we get guard or res and they seem ok. a few know what they are doing...the others come for the money. I wonder how this would work out at a home station? I mean, does the guard treat the AD like shit or is it the other way around? I'm pretty much putting all my eggs into the Peterson basket but i will be happy with going back to 130's.

Any other infomation on the bases, cities, squadrons would be great. Thanks again

Do you really want to open this can of worms?

RZ Hill , More to follow!!

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I think RZhill is referring to the Guard stuff you mentioned...

few know what they're doing...some just in it for the money.....

Maybe? IDK...but I'm guessing you weren't trying to knock anyone with that...

no harm no foul...

again I've never worked with the Guard/Reserve guys in tha atmosphere, and I don't really want to speak on my old workmates behalf...but they weren't saying anything like treating each other like $h1T, more like cultural differences, for example I've seen Guard/Reserve planes with built in tool boxes, never seen one like that on a AD plane...know what I mean...

Edited by topboltsto400
taking a break from editing my term paper!!!
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i do know what you mean and i am sorry if it came off as i was knocking on the guard/res guys, i didn't mean for it to sound like that, i was just commenting on some of there experience. For all i know, C-5 guard/res guys attitude might be totally different then herc guys attitude. Anyways, i'm sorry if i rubbed anyone the wrong way.

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My experience in both the Guard and Reserve 12 years C-130, 3 years C-5, it was like night and day. The 130 guys wanted to fly and flew. In the C-5's the FE's tried to run the show. As one famous C-5 SEFE once bragged, "if it is flying I am not doing my job."

I had 17 years in when we got C-5's and I always said I would not be in the Reserves and not fly. Big mistake. The C-5 was interesting to learn how to fly, when it flew it was kind of fun to fly, but everything else about the aircraft and the mission was a pain after flying Herks.

Bob

Thinking about it, most of our Herk FE's retired and we got a lot of transfers from active duty C-5's and Associate unit C-5's and most of them brought crappy attitudes with them.

A function of the active duty C-5 world I think.

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I was in the 302nd at Peterson for 16 years, a full time ART for 13 of those years. The unit has grown from a small rag tag unit scrounging for whatever we could get, into a very well respected and great unit with very nice facilities.

The Colorado Springs area has really grown and housing is fairly expensive, although the base is putting up lots of new houses "on base".

Lots of military in that town: Ft. Carson (Army), Peterson (AF), Schriever (AF)

Cheyenne Mtn (AF) and the Air Force Academy.

I retired in 2000, so I don't know much about this AD/Reserve Units.

I still stay in touch with my buddies there, and go down and visit from time to time.

Here is a link to the 302nd website:

http://www.302aw.afrc.af.mil/

If you have any questions let me know and I'll try and answer them.

73, Rex

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Hello all, 1st time posting. Anyways, today my AMU ncoic called the crew chief functional and asked if the functional could help me out and get back to a 130 unit, right now i'm in a en-route unit and would love to be back in a herc squadron. It was a short conversation between the two but what he got out of it was if i "wanted" to go back to a 130 squadron, i should have Cheyenne (sp), Keesler, Peterson and Pope. because they are building up alot of the res bases. So my question to all of you is how are these bases?

My dream sheet is Peterson, Keelser, Cheyenne, Cannon and DM. I was station at DM for 4 years before my en-route tour so i just need info on the rest. I know Keesler is where the "Hurricane Hunters" are and Cannon has Talons but i guess what i'm asking for is how are those cities to live in? Any info would be great as my wife and I are already looking at houses at all 4 bases. We leave in Nov and can guess Cheyenne and Peterson will have snow by then but i dont think Cannon or Keesler get snow.

Sorry for a long post. Thanks

Joe

Spent some time working with both Peterson and Cheyenne. Depends on your priorities. Peterson offers more off duty but from a unit perpsective I think Chyenne is better. My 2 cents worth

Oh, and stay the hell away from Cannon.

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In the C-5's the FE's tried to run the show. As one famous C-5 SEFE once bragged, "if it is flying I am not doing my job."

Thinking about it, most of our Herk FE's retired and we got a lot of transfers from active duty C-5's and Associate unit C-5's and most of them brought crappy attitudes with them.

A function of the active duty C-5 world I think.

I don't mean to take this thread in a new direction, but I just had to comment on Bob's post.

Back in the late 1970's the USAF dropped the shredout for FE's -- we all had the same AFSC. In the 37th at Rhein Main, we started getting FE's from C-5's & C-141's. With very few exceptions, they all had that very same "crappy" attitude that Bob described. None of them had ever had an overseas assignment; in fact one had spent his entire career at Dover AFB (17 years)!

One exception was an ex-141 FE named Charlie (can't remember his last name). He fit right into the C-130 world. Sadly, he was killed on 68-10944 in a crash at Zaragoza, Spain in 1984.

Sorry for hijacking this thread, but Bob started it. That sounds like something my 5-year old grandson would say.

Don R.

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Bob & DC10FE, i can tell you for a fact that nothing has changed bout C-5 crews and there attitude. i deal with them everyday but being here at Ramstein, there "i don't want to fly" fact gets amped to the extreme, same for C-17 crews but they hardly brake hard. the only thing going for the Fred's crew are there FCC, esp. Travis FCC. C-17 FCC are garbage!!!!! Anyways, total change of pace here from the topic, herkfixer, i will be sending you a pm later with some questions from my wife about peterson. one last thing about C-5 crews and its the thing i HATE the most. Its when a plane alerts and the crew shows up to the plane and they leave there stupid bags outside next to the ladder for there whole -1 and then some. To me, as the crew chief out there it shows right off the bat they are looking to break. it takes 2 mins to get a congo line and get there bags on the plane OR when a res crew comes out to the plane and fwd kneel a plane with 200K on gas and full cargo just to put there 20 cases of beer + bags on.

Ok sorry for that last rant. promise i wont talk about T-Tails anymore. :)

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I'm at Ft Bragg now. I drive thru Pope everyday to get to work. The previous poster was correct - ton's of Army grunts here now, and with Ft McPherson in Atlanta closing and moving FORCCOM up here (think them moving the equivalent of a MAJCOM up here), 10 to 20,000 more grunts are moving up here. This will be the largest concentration of generals outside of the pentagon. They are building lots of buildings and will eventually close the portion of highway 87 (Bragg Blvd) that goes thru the middle of the base by the Stryker golf course to the general public.

Pope is slowly making the transition from active duty to reserve. Lots of the offices are blended now and in the next year or two all the active duty folks will be gone. From what I understand, 1xC-130 squadron will be a full up active duty unit under the OG - but I'm not 100% positive since I don't work or fly with those guys. I do see lots of C-17s here on Green ramp quite often.

Pope is small - no BX , clothing sales, or commissary. All that is on Bragg now (however Bragg has 2xcommissaries and 2xPX's). There is only a Shoppette, dry cleaners, and a Burger King. The golf course and driving range is closed and overran with weeds (closed UFN). Base housing is now open to the Army.

The town outside of Pope, Spring Lake is OK. Kind of run-down compared to most off base towns. Fayetteville is OK - lots of crime, lots of Army. The mall and all restaurants are packed on payday weekends.

I live about a 30 min drive north of Pope in a town called Sanford. This puts me about a 30 min drive from the base and 45 min drive from Cary and the southside of Raleigh.

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no offence hc130radio but f*** that place. i want to work on herks but not at pope lol but thanks for the infomation about pope. Sorry to hear about the 20,000 extra army coming your way. Later

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No offence to LittleJoe0962, but if you want to work on Hercs, you'll wind up working on them at Pope one way or the other -- either TDY or PCS. That's just a given in the Herc world. At least that's the way it was many, many moons ago.

(Man, I'm gettin' old -- "that's the way it was" is a phrase I say waaaay too many times.)

Don R.

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yup, if you wanna work on Hercs...you'll likely see one of the big 3 (Pope, LR, or Dyess). Hurlburt is one of those place you may get to and never leave, but with AFSOC west (cannon), that's a gamble, with a devastating outcome should you lose the bet.

Pope wasn't too bad (by my own definition) when I was there. Location is nice, NC is a nice state...Fayetteville is iffy at times, but not bad. Lot to do around there, I liked the coast, not a long drive. Mountains on the east end as well. Doesn't compare to clovis, Fayettville/Sanford being a mecca, should you put them against each other.

Air Force is Air Force...meaning knuckleheads at base X are gonna be at base Y...you'll never escape them..

Ramstein is a 130 base..don't want to stay there? I 'd sever a limb to go back....

good luck with your assignment

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Topboltsto400--It seems that you are really enjoying your time at Cannon. When I received orders there I was extremely Happy, NOT!!! I will definetly vote for you if your platform for office is to close Cannon. I have decided to end my career at Little Rock. I wish you the best of luck out there.

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Pope never liked no hope, people used to say the only good thing about PCSing to Pope was you did not have to go there TDY. I know some folks who liked it though.

Having spent time at Cannon, also TDY, If I was about to get assigned there for 4 years, I'd resign, retire, or develop fear of flying. A place with absolutely no redeeming features.

Life is too short to spend four years in Clovis. Maybe, one redeeming feature good looking girls at ENMU in Portales.

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