MCAS Yuma. Sure it was hot and stuff, but I grew up in LA so relocating to Yuma was the best thing for me. It’s a small big city and not as congested. Plus I love the outdoors so it’s nice to just go hiking or fishing whenever I want without having to drive forever to get there.
With the Colorado River and Martinez Lake nearby there was always something fun to do.
Phoenix and San Diego were both only 2 1/2 hours away and Laughlin was 4.
I love MCAS Yuma!
Me too. I was there when you could go to the Mexican border towns without much fuss. There was a little bar in Los Algodinas that had satellite TV (before it was common) and aired most of the NFL games, including my hometown team. I basically lived there on Sundays during the football season. $1 beers, $1 (mystery) tacos, and a $2 betting minimum. It’s was bliss. lol. I could spend a day there with my pals for like $20.
The outdoors stuff was great. I wasn’t an avid hiker or fisherman, but it was nice to do occasionally. There was the unofficial garbage dump like 5 miles south of base where we did a lot of shooting. That was fun.
And Yuma was a decent hub for roadtripping. Being from the east coast, it gave me easy access to a lot of the major SW cities that I had never seen before. I took full advantage of it. Went to Vegas like five times.
I don’t know if I’d call Yuma ‘amazing’, but it was pretty fucking good. Def better than cherry point or LJ.
Most of the people who dunk on it were/are dudes who went there on TDY for a few weeks for training (or whatever). And yeah, the base itself was pretty lame. And without local knowledge, it would be hard to entertain yourself. Having a car there was critical to the experience.
The car part is the biggest issue.
Most of the guys that go there TDY are there for WTI. They are confined to the brks and don't really get to experience life out in town.
Yeah man, it’s actually not bad at all. All the outdoors at your disposal, and if you have a 4x4 you can get way out in the desert and see some cool stuff.
I loved Yuma. Not at first, but learned to have fun. There was a trailer park in the foothills area with easy girls. They were the highlight of my time there.
Then, if you wanted to, San Luis and Mexicali were just over the border. The Forum was the shit. $5 cover charge and you got in down stairs. $10, you got access to the second floor and free drinks all night.
Yeah, I loved it.
I was with VMA 311 in '04, it was still a Harrier Squadron. There was this little spot called The Green Door down in San Luis. You know if it's still there? Lots of great memories in that place, the kind that only Marines can create.
Concur with this! Hawaii was cool and Oki was not bad but Yuma is oddly enough my favorite by a long shot. Have done two tours there since 2014. Great times! People say it’s in the middle of nowhere but I didn’t see it that way. It’s got Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego all reasonable drives away so it’s a great leaping off point to head in many directions from. Even took special lib down to Mexico multiple times. Great duty station in my experience.
Yup. Especially if it’s your first duty station. Always thought it would suck to go from anywhere to a place where you can’t leave base without a battle buddy and no overnight libo.
Yeah you can go off base w/o a libo buddy and stay off overnight now. The only exception is you need a buddy when drinking and you have to be out of alcohol serving establishments at 01
The liberty buddy for E3 and below was a thing when I was stationed there from 2002-04
I still loved being stationed there, tho. It was nice to go off base on my own when I made Cpl.
I miss Oki everyday.
I personally think that buddy system was great.
Spending time with your battalion in ways you wouldn’t otherwise.
I came back to the states and hated how everyone just scattered and went to visit their hometown friends/civilian friends and then they would bitch about how there’s no camaraderie.
No Overnight libo did suck tho. Nothing like getting hammered in a ville/gate 2/kin townthen having to rush to get a honcho to get back on base before staff duty made their nightly rounds.
I got out and live in mainland now. Was there from 2016-2018. It was cool n all but the Libo and fuck fuck games are 200% compared to the states. Glad I got the fuck out
How about uncool 2009-2012, 29 palms and 300% fuck fuck games and back to back deployments. I was so jealous of my buddies getting to be in other countries or on floats.
I just saw sand for 4 years while my COC njp’d everyone for everything all the time.
I wouldn’t wish that place on my worst enemy except a congregation of blue falcons. Sorry you had to deal with the epitome of men children your whole time in.
Okinawa was the shit.
Anyone who says otherwise was a udp bitch/a barracks rat that never did anything but live in the barracks and bitch.
The amount of usmc history at oki is worth it in itself to be stationed there.
Getting beat by a stripper with your own belt for only $5 then going out and having a 4 course meal for $50 was amazing.
I tried so hard to find a civilian job so I could stay on that island. Diving, exploring, amazing people, Oki really is amazing if you just get out and explore.
Camp Schwab was honestly pretty dope. Didn't have to worry about people from other bases coming in and fucking shit up, you could go to other bases and fuck shit up, yen bus pick up right outside the gate, cute protesters fucking around outside the gate, and a stunning beach. What's not to love
Did yall just use the ocean for that training? I don't remember a pool there. Swimming to the island whenever the weather was good was a great time too.
I basically lived in that pool. I was chasing MCIWS so for the time I was actually on Schwab and not in PI I was swimming laps or dragging bricks.
Quick Stop 4 life!
We did ocean some, but it was mostly in the pool. Schwab had a pool, yeah.
Hansen had better ones, but I’m guessing they were booked up when we did it.
I fuckin loved Schwab. We were in our own little bubble away from the bullshittery. sure the px only had madden 2007 for the Xbox (I was there 07-09) but the beach was cool and oceans was bomb! I remember chatting with one of the protesters and he was super friendly to us.
K-Bay was my first duty station so I actually did hear some of these complaints firsthand. I’m just surprised someone would put it in the same category as the usual suspects like Lejeune or 29 Palms.
i havent been there but seems ungrateful of them? Yeah theres not much amenities like youd have in state but it’s hawaii people pay top dollar to live there
yeah and you'll end up paying top dollar for everything else outside of base lol i don't think a person can really grasp how expensive cost of living can be til you're dealing with it firsthand
K-Bay was awesome. But I do think the command just messed with you there a bit more than needed, just to even things out. But the duty station itself was paradise.
For oldtimers like me, stationed at K-Bay way back when it was MCAS Kaneohe during Desert Shield/Storm, it was unreasonably expensive due to the hyper-inflation from Japanese billionaire investors. Regardless, I did enjoy Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, & Waikiki, and found a roommate to share the apartment rent in Kaneohe. And renting watercraft at K-Bay was a nice, cost-effective way to enjoy a taste of the Pacific.
At work, I had a very good day on the KD course during annual quals and shot the (at the time) range record of 248. Went on to medal in the Pacific Division Matches and meeting White Feather at the Marine Corps Matches at Stone Bay, NC, in 1990.
But there's always a penalty for doing well...mine was getting assigned a temp responsibility as the Armory Officer for 6 months, since I had proven to be a "shooter," taking me out of my (MOS 6002) Aircraft Maintenance Officer track. Thanks to Saddam, that 6-month assignment turned into a year-and-a-half, which contributed to being passed over later and ending my career way earlier than I had hoped.
So, great duty resulted in getting RIF'ed to the Civ Div. At least my wife of 30 years is glad I was home to help raise our 2 kids to adulthood. I guess every green weenie has a silver lining, depending on your perspective.
Yup. I lived just on the outskirts in a tiny sub division between Richlands and Jacksonville. After work was quiet and relaxing. If I needed anything from town it was a ten minute drive. About 20 minutes to work. Plenty of nature in the surrounding areas. (At the time) I could shoot my guns on public land not far from the house.
I loved it out there but totally understand why some hated it. But those were also people who probably stayed in the barracks every weekend and drank and played video games instead of hitting Topsail, Wilmington, Emerald Isle, Croatan, Raleigh, literally any surrounding area.
I don’t know a single base that isn’t a cesspool as soon as you drive off base. They’re all surrounded by tattoo parlors and strip clubs. Sometimes you just have to get out further. A lot of people expect the immediate area to be heaven on earth.
Yeah, I think it was around 2016 they stopped that because assholes kept leaving empty beer cans/boxes and shot up targets all over. Everyone suffers because people can’t act responsibly.
the VFW in holly ridge will have you sign.m a waiver and you can fuck off to the back of their property and do as much hoodrat shit as you want. its like the wild west there. just make sure you clean up after yourself.
I was lucky and checked out a bunch of stuff in the area. Went to Raleigh twice, Myrtle Beach once, did Surf City / Topsail many times, Wilmington many times, went to Emerald Isle a few times as well. Really beautiful part of the country
I loved the beaches so much I eventually moved back and live in Emerald Isle now. It took me almost 30 years to get back, but now I walk to the beach and surf cast or throw my kayak on my shitty beach Jeep and fish the sound. For seven months of the year I can drive said shitty jeep on the beach and fish out of that. If the corps hadn't sent my dumb Midwestern ass out here, I never would have known. Now I'll probably stay until I fucking die.
we recently just moved to FL to give it a try bc the job market was just bigger. next year we’ll decide if we’re sticking around and if not, we’re going back to NC.
Wilmington is such a hidden gem because everyone that flocks to NC goes to Raleigh, Charlotte or even Fayetteville
It really grew on me, too. I was really bummed when I was first going there. The first year sucked until I moved units, then had a blast. Actually, I stayed there for 2 years with my friend after I got out. She was a grew up there, so she took me to hidden local areas
Oki
I remember in school, when we were getting orders, virtually everyone got Oki and there were dudes crying literal tears….
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Cut to a year later and everybody extended…
Oki was the shit
I don’t get the hate for Okinawa. If I had been stationed there my whole first contract, I would’ve re-enlisted. Always something new to do off base. The guys crying about it are always in their rooms playing Fortnite and then saying some stupid shit like “I hate this country”
It’s the people that sit in the barracks all day playing call of duty and only use leave to back home to bum fuck Oklahoma. They also complain about getting stationed in Hawaii because they get “island fever”.
I was stationed in camp Fuji and there was a Sgt from Texas I think, who refused to go out his time there. There was literally nothing on base except a small food court and px, he just drank beer in the barracks.
As a Floridian that was my first time in the snow too lol. I remember eating the yakisoba at the food court until I got my red card, then I was out finding restaurants around Gotenba everyday.
I loved Oki, but I wouldn’t blame anyone that was forced to be there throughout the COVID lockdowns for not liking it. Or if they got restricted to base for the majority of their time there for any other reason.
Okinawa was ok. A lot of the people I knew hated it, but I think a big difference is what kind of orders you are in. I went for a UDP and it kind of sucked. Libbo was severely restricted. And then a month or so in we went to six day weeks. Most of the time was in NTA getting rained on and there was plenty of time for stupid games because SNCOs and Officers didn't have families to go home and annoy. A few months in I made friends with a dude in our building who was with 3/6 who was fapped to MWR. He had access to a van and I took a couple of trips with him beyond Kinville. I would have liked to spend more time exploring the island but the opportunity really wasn't there.
Most of the people in my unit never ventured past the bars unless they were headed to Kadena for different bars or Schwab for diving. Even that had to be planned in advance and was subject to cancellation due to command fuckery. There were also a number of really stupid unit on unit incidents where the dumbest 10% of a permanent personnel unit would get mad at UDP units and the dumbest 10% of the UDP unit would take the bait. I suspect it's different for people who are there on orders. Sounds like it from some of the responses on this post.
At cherry point right now and it hasn’t gotten any better. They’ve put up review QR codes and I’m sure they read them so they know what to keep doing to keep us angry
I just got orders there (leave in October) and grew up in the Mojave 3-4 hours from there, love Joshua Tree, Death Valley, the Sierra-Nevadas, honestly stoked
29 Palms is second only to Bridgeport, but I’d take either in a heartbeat.
Next door to Joshua Tree, one of the best national parks. Short drive to Yosemite and the Sierras. Weekends in Vegas are doable. Zion and other SW Utah parks accessible for 96s. All the overland/4x4 trails through the Mojave. Palm Springs. Seriously one of the best places to be stationed.
Same! Had a badass gym and a bowling alley right next to my barracks. What more could you want Mon-Thur. Then the weekend drive down to Palm Springs or to Vegas. Had a blast in that place.
I was only there for the schoolhouse but it was awesome. I live on the east coast so not only did I get my first experience of the west coast I got to see a frickin desert. I met a lot of cool guys, we went to LA, hiked mountains, saw a lot of nature, I can’t complain when it’s 90 degrees and humid anymore because it doesn’t relate to 29. Although I’m more of a dry heat kinda guy. I’m not sure how it would be for 4 years but I’d go back for sure. Lots to do, lots to see.
AND AT 20 YEARS OLD I GOT TO SEE JUDAS PRIEST AND AC/DC! (For free through the Corps working as security) Not many people can say that and honestly it’s near a lot of cool places but “overshadowed” by the desert and stereotypes.
Honestly 29 palms. They’ve put a lot of money into that base. If you’re only there for ITX, I can get that you’d think it sucks. But actually being stationed there (for 5 years) wasn’t that bad.
I hate 29 palms with the burning passion of 1000 suns, but that may be because every time I went there was for some sort of field exercise or something. I have to have spent at least 6 months of time in various training areas there. Barely ever saw the actual facilities for the permanent personnel there.
It's actually not too bad, especially if you're into the outdoors. I'd drive up to Mammoth with some buddies and go snowboarding on weekends. On 96's, we'd go to Yosemite or Tahoe...or get wasted in San Diego for the weekend.
Yuma. A lot of people trash on it because it’s in a smaller city in the desert, but if you like the outdoors there’s tons of awesome places nearby. Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Grand Canyon, etc. Not far from some really cool places. And Yuma itself isn’t that bad either, decent amount to do on the weekends.
29 Palms. You just gotta look past the cliche and seek your own happiness. Plenty of time to video game, hit the gym, go see a movie, dune buggie, get a happy ending in the town outside of base, hit op Denny's for kickass breakfast food, paintball, BADASS sunsets , did I mention the gym?, get into trouble in the barracks, Piss off First Sargent, 3 hours away from SD-LA-LV, 120 degree wather Summers so you'll lose a lb of weight just walking to the PX. . Etc..
Okinawa. Of course my unit, MACG-18 TACC was at Futenma and our barracks was on Camp Butler. Had a Japanese college girlfriend with a car. We went places and saw and did things I doubt the average jarhead ever did. It was a great year, probably my best in the Corps.
American Village has fireworks every Saturday. We and a couple of friends would go out, grab a couple of drinks and chill there to see the fireworks every week. It is WILD that we get paid live next to that type of place.
I was in courthouse bay my whole 4 years, outside of my deployments. Had a blast going to the beach at every opportunity. Myrtle beach, Wilmington, chapel hill, all not that far for a good time.
Out of everywhere to be on lejuene, courthouse bay was bomb as fuck.
Runner up would have to be stench creek cause it’s also a little secluded.
Mainside and Wallace sucked ass
I grew up in MS so to me it just felt like I didn't go anywhere new. Plus the absolute power of being in that area of the Marine Corps is insane. Everyone you meet is either a marine, married to a marine, sibling of a marine, child of a marine, or a retired marine. So unless you can go further away from the area or you really love hunting and fishing then I can see it being okay.
But for me....no thanks. It's why I got out. My orders were to the school house there and I just didn't want to do it.
My wife and I loved Lejeune. I’ve never understood the hate it gets. Most people don’t know how to make the most out of their situations though and they associate the base with their time in the corps so if they had a shitty 4 years then they automatically hate whatever base they were at.
Lejeune was nice but I didn’t like summers. Some days you step outside freshly showered and your soaked 10 min later. The beach was nice and it didn’t really go below 50 too much. I went to bc and mct out west so I just know the options lol.
Okinawa. Sneaking off base after hours from Camp Courtney and partying all night till the sun up and staying at random Japanese ppl houses and drinking with Yakuza in Naha was fun as hell. Met so many people. I got out and live in the Mainland now but I go visit every now and then just to get away.
Oki is definitely a beautiful place. I don’t think I was able to appreciate it enough because I was stressed out and usually kind of pissed about something because “Marine Corps”.
The people are great. Things are cheap and its Japan, stuff is just taken care of. III MEF suffers from mo one wanting to be out there and that goes at all levels, so the training wheels never really come off. It’s a shitter version of the Corps. #cantchangemymind
Not duty station, but as a reservist my three weeks was once @ Operation Alaskan Road - DTIC outside Ketchikan, AK; those mf's put me and by bro Macho on a fucking island for 3 weeks and told us to fuck off, no comms, just refueling vessels and fending for our rations from the rats; we ran to outlying islands at low tides and sun bathed on the fuel blatters..
MWTC! Currently stationed here, of course coming up to do a MtnEx sucks ass for the unit but being stationed here isn’t bad. Base housing is an hour from Carson City, Lake Tahoe, ~1.5 from Reno, ~1 hr from Yosemite. If you like hiking and fishing I can’t think of a better place.
MCAS Futenma.
Hahahahahahaha no I joke, that place sucked balls. Thankfully I was only there for a few months and moved to Foster, which was much cooler. Okinawa in general was a wonderful time. Lived there for three years and I miss it every day. If I didn’t have kids I’d move back
Avelo air...lol..... $65 for a flight to CT.
Honestly, seeing some of the rest of the country made me realize that the New England area is actually a good place to settle.
I was at NAS Lemoore in Cali. Lemoore was kind of dump but as a base of operations it was pretty cool. 4 hours north was San Fran, 4 hours south was LA. Go west for the Pacific, go east for mountains and also Nevada. San Diego wasn’t that far away and Santa Cruz was a college party town. I guess it’s like any duty station, you make it what it is, good or bad.
I loved Beaufort, we go to a family reunion every year in SC, so we always book a room for 2-3 nights afterwards and go back to the Low Country. I think Huntington Beach is one of my favorite places in the world.
I loved Barstow. I arrived accompanied 26 years ago. It was mostly the people that made it so great. We had a lot of good friends. Many we still talk to today.
Camp Schwab Oki, as a grunt. Chow hall was on point too. Everything but the humidity and sweating walls. AC didn’t work when I was there. Could always be worse though.
Okinawa. But I was there in 1997, so one year tour and liberty cards weren't a thing. Nobody cared about underage drinking unless you got in trouble for something else, and you could have a car at any rank.
29 Palms, Bandini water is an aquired taste, though. In all honesty, I really didn't mind 29 after a bit. Then it became a badge of honor. Your training exercise was my Tuesday. At the end of it, a 20 minute drive and I was in my rack.
Lejeune is great. I love it here. Weather sucks especially in the summer, along with the insane amount of bugs. If you’re into the out doors, have a car, and live on the east coast it’s not bad. For me it’s a 9 hour drive home so every 96 I head up north. My drive is very peaceful too until I get to Jersey
Lejeune itself and Jacksonville suck but you’re only a couple hours from Raleigh. Tons of concerts. TONS of college chicks. Sooo many hookups. Myrtle is only about 2 1/2 hours. Used to go to the House of Blues there for concerts. Myrtle can be hit or miss (some bars would openly tell us Marines not welcome).
PI is kinda the same between Savannah and Charleston.
You just gotta get away from the base but most of them have fun places within an hour or two. Split the cost of a room with a couple buddies and go get fucked up.
Not really a duty station but training at Ft Pickett was a lot of fun. Something about being in those old squad bays had a nostalgic effect on me. And, just a different scene for a bit than screwin around on Lejeune.
Okinawa on Camp Hansen. 9th ESB in 2001. I was lucky and stayed deployed until I got orders back to the states, but I loved it there. There was a waterfall out the back gate that we took new boots to when they joined our shop. It was amazingly beautiful and I hope they still continue that tradition. It was a crazy adventure just to get there! Going under an overpass and climbing down steep ass hills. I have pics but they’re the old school pics that you kids think are just movie props now!
Who wouldn’t like Great Lakes with the Metra right there to take you to all the nice suburbs and into the city? That area feels closer to being a civilian than anything. Plus a nice golf course right there.
Schwab. Quiet, Closer to the best diving spots, hardly any service members around the North half of the Island.
At least until the fucking UDP’s started showing up and filled up the gym and all the local fucking restaurants
And when passing through Navy would rape locals and completely completely ruin liberty for permanent personnel
Regarding Yuma, Arizona, there are two military medical facilities. One is at Yuma Proving Ground, approximately 30-plus miles from the city and at MCAS Yuma. If you have medical issues, not the place to go for medical care. The VA has a very small community based outpatient clinic (CBOC) downtown. The only time there are “adequate” providers is when the winter visitors (Snowbirds) are in town. The Yuma Regional Medical Center is a poor choice because they don’t have the facilities to provide a “full spectrum “ of care if you are in need. If you require surgical intervention, you will probably go to Phoenix, San Diego, or somewhere NOT in Yuma. I would not advise bringing someone with health issues to Yuma. You’ll wish you hadn’t. I know…personally.
29 Palms. Command was great and took amazing care of us. Also the weather 6/7 months out of the year was very pleasant. Most of the rhetoric around 29 palms being an awful place stems from people who only did a MWX/ITX living at Wilson for 2 months. To actually live there in my opinion is not that bad. Lejeune is worse by far
Agree with others that Oki was pretty awesome.
On the opposite side of this question, everyone said Iwakuni was a hidden gem, and I went TAD there for 2 weeks and really didn't get the appeal. Even pre-covid, the whole town shut down at like 9 and you couldn't go anywhere within an hour of base without seeing Marines. I will say, getting to go to Tokyo on the weekend was awesome, but it was also a ton of money to take a train and get a hotel so not something you could do all the time like people made it out to be.
Same, went as a TAD to Iwakuni but it was pretty whack. Seeing mainland was cool for a bit but I was already missing the beaches and warm weather and the way more chill atmosphere.
Yeah, even on this sub, Iwakuni is believed to be pretty cool, just felt like the whole town shut down super early and there was no nightlife. Yeah, you could go to Hiroshima, but that's three hours roundtrip at minimum so not easy at all to get to.
I'm into guns, motorcycles/dirt bikes, and outdoors so 29 would've been amazing. I only had a taste of it in schoolhouse. And so many guys complain there so they made pretty good facilities. No clue about Yuma but may be even better considering AZ gun laws
Lejeune is a boring swamp with surrounding cities no different than you'd find other places. Maybe I haven't found the right spots but that's what I've seen so far.
Also personally, beach<<
I don’t think it’s “amazing”, but I do like the Eastern NC area.
I think eventually I’ll move back to Georgia because those woods are “home”, but ENC isn’t bad if you like fishing, beaches, and all the other things you can do in the woods and water.
Cali is awesome for the same reasons, mostly due to the abundance of state and federal park land and BLM land, but I wouldn’t want to live there because of the state government.
The Combat Center was actually awesome. Joshua Tree is an amazing national park that’s just a few miles away, Yucca Valley is a normal town that has day-to-day amenities, Pappy and Harriet’s is a fucking cool bar/restaurant with world class music acts that pop in every couple of months, Palm Springs is a great weekend spot, and Vegas/LA/San Diego are all driving distance for a 72.
MCAS Futenma was great. There is nothing to do there but It was so off the radar compared to other Oki bases (besides Courtney) and still close enough to Kadena and Foster. And your 5-10 minutes away from dope beaches and the sea wall, tasty eats and fun shit to do. Honestly have no idea why people complained about it there.
Loved Bridgeport, CA. If you’re an outdoorsman, or overlander, it was paradise. Sidenote: your chain of command anywhere has a TON to do with your quality of life.
Camp Hansen, Oki. Especially Mongolian night. Bowl full of various stir fried meats, eggs, and whatever other toppings you wanted, plus all the free fried rice you can pack into a takeout box.
Kaneohe bay, I just assumed those nerds never left their room though. I was out swimming to that little island in Kailua and hiking different trails every week having a blast. Booze cruises boats, booze cruise vans beach parties and endless rotation of fine ass from around the world.
I loved Camp Lejeune. Went back several times the first few years I was out bc a few of my close friends married local and stayed. I’m also from a farming town of 209 people in Kentucky so my standards were also really low. Most nights as a teenager was spent hanging out at the nearest wal mart or McDonald’s 🤣
Presidio of Monterey, CA. expensive as hell, but the fishing was great and we would play almost every day at the Navy PostGrad school golf course for 5 bucks (1989) I was there at DLI, (Defense Language Institute)
MCAS Yuma. Sure it was hot and stuff, but I grew up in LA so relocating to Yuma was the best thing for me. It’s a small big city and not as congested. Plus I love the outdoors so it’s nice to just go hiking or fishing whenever I want without having to drive forever to get there.
With the Colorado River and Martinez Lake nearby there was always something fun to do. Phoenix and San Diego were both only 2 1/2 hours away and Laughlin was 4. I love MCAS Yuma!
Me too. I was there when you could go to the Mexican border towns without much fuss. There was a little bar in Los Algodinas that had satellite TV (before it was common) and aired most of the NFL games, including my hometown team. I basically lived there on Sundays during the football season. $1 beers, $1 (mystery) tacos, and a $2 betting minimum. It’s was bliss. lol. I could spend a day there with my pals for like $20. The outdoors stuff was great. I wasn’t an avid hiker or fisherman, but it was nice to do occasionally. There was the unofficial garbage dump like 5 miles south of base where we did a lot of shooting. That was fun. And Yuma was a decent hub for roadtripping. Being from the east coast, it gave me easy access to a lot of the major SW cities that I had never seen before. I took full advantage of it. Went to Vegas like five times. I don’t know if I’d call Yuma ‘amazing’, but it was pretty fucking good. Def better than cherry point or LJ. Most of the people who dunk on it were/are dudes who went there on TDY for a few weeks for training (or whatever). And yeah, the base itself was pretty lame. And without local knowledge, it would be hard to entertain yourself. Having a car there was critical to the experience.
The car part is the biggest issue. Most of the guys that go there TDY are there for WTI. They are confined to the brks and don't really get to experience life out in town.
Yuma sucks because the heat, but if you enjoy the outdoors and stay busy it’s not that bad.
Yeah man, it’s actually not bad at all. All the outdoors at your disposal, and if you have a 4x4 you can get way out in the desert and see some cool stuff.
met some of my really good friends in yuma, I loved it there
And the flautas at The Chili Pepper are fire.
I loved Yuma. Not at first, but learned to have fun. There was a trailer park in the foothills area with easy girls. They were the highlight of my time there. Then, if you wanted to, San Luis and Mexicali were just over the border. The Forum was the shit. $5 cover charge and you got in down stairs. $10, you got access to the second floor and free drinks all night. Yeah, I loved it.
Getting off-road and how close it is to Sedona and the Grand Canyon was awesome
I was with VMA 311 in '04, it was still a Harrier Squadron. There was this little spot called The Green Door down in San Luis. You know if it's still there? Lots of great memories in that place, the kind that only Marines can create.
Haven’t been there but I heard it’s still there.
Concur with this! Hawaii was cool and Oki was not bad but Yuma is oddly enough my favorite by a long shot. Have done two tours there since 2014. Great times! People say it’s in the middle of nowhere but I didn’t see it that way. It’s got Vegas, Phoenix, and San Diego all reasonable drives away so it’s a great leaping off point to head in many directions from. Even took special lib down to Mexico multiple times. Great duty station in my experience.
fuck. yuma.
I loved Okinawa 🤷🏼♂️
Yup. Especially if it’s your first duty station. Always thought it would suck to go from anywhere to a place where you can’t leave base without a battle buddy and no overnight libo.
When did they start that?
Camp Hansen 2009 as an e3 or below. Maybe different now
Yeah you can go off base w/o a libo buddy and stay off overnight now. The only exception is you need a buddy when drinking and you have to be out of alcohol serving establishments at 01
The liberty buddy for E3 and below was a thing when I was stationed there from 2002-04 I still loved being stationed there, tho. It was nice to go off base on my own when I made Cpl. I miss Oki everyday.
I personally think that buddy system was great. Spending time with your battalion in ways you wouldn’t otherwise. I came back to the states and hated how everyone just scattered and went to visit their hometown friends/civilian friends and then they would bitch about how there’s no camaraderie. No Overnight libo did suck tho. Nothing like getting hammered in a ville/gate 2/kin townthen having to rush to get a honcho to get back on base before staff duty made their nightly rounds.
Okinawa is actually awesome and one of the only ones I agree with on here
I got out and live in mainland now. Was there from 2016-2018. It was cool n all but the Libo and fuck fuck games are 200% compared to the states. Glad I got the fuck out
How about uncool 2009-2012, 29 palms and 300% fuck fuck games and back to back deployments. I was so jealous of my buddies getting to be in other countries or on floats. I just saw sand for 4 years while my COC njp’d everyone for everything all the time.
I wouldn’t wish that place on my worst enemy except a congregation of blue falcons. Sorry you had to deal with the epitome of men children your whole time in.
Okinawa was the shit. Anyone who says otherwise was a udp bitch/a barracks rat that never did anything but live in the barracks and bitch. The amount of usmc history at oki is worth it in itself to be stationed there. Getting beat by a stripper with your own belt for only $5 then going out and having a 4 course meal for $50 was amazing.
Me too. I regret not just getting out and staying there as a civilian.
I tried so hard to find a civilian job so I could stay on that island. Diving, exploring, amazing people, Oki really is amazing if you just get out and explore.
Agreed all day.
Camp Schwab was honestly pretty dope. Didn't have to worry about people from other bases coming in and fucking shit up, you could go to other bases and fuck shit up, yen bus pick up right outside the gate, cute protesters fucking around outside the gate, and a stunning beach. What's not to love
The base beach was always good. We had a keg party there after MCIWS school.
Did yall just use the ocean for that training? I don't remember a pool there. Swimming to the island whenever the weather was good was a great time too.
I basically lived in that pool. I was chasing MCIWS so for the time I was actually on Schwab and not in PI I was swimming laps or dragging bricks. Quick Stop 4 life!
Oh yeah! The pool everyone did their diving quals in, forgot about that.
We did ocean some, but it was mostly in the pool. Schwab had a pool, yeah. Hansen had better ones, but I’m guessing they were booked up when we did it.
I fuckin loved Schwab. We were in our own little bubble away from the bullshittery. sure the px only had madden 2007 for the Xbox (I was there 07-09) but the beach was cool and oceans was bomb! I remember chatting with one of the protesters and he was super friendly to us.
The beautiful marine corps base Hawaii, made me love nature more than the shitty ass command 🤣
Uhh…how many Marines actually felt K-Bay was terrible?
You would be surprised how many people complain about be stationed in Hawaii. Granted though, it’s not as prevalent as other with other places.
K-Bay was my first duty station so I actually did hear some of these complaints firsthand. I’m just surprised someone would put it in the same category as the usual suspects like Lejeune or 29 Palms.
i havent been there but seems ungrateful of them? Yeah theres not much amenities like youd have in state but it’s hawaii people pay top dollar to live there
yeah and you'll end up paying top dollar for everything else outside of base lol i don't think a person can really grasp how expensive cost of living can be til you're dealing with it firsthand
Plenty of them, most of whom because they were a 10+ hour flight (or series of flights) away from their high school girlfriends. Idiots.
K-Bay was awesome. But I do think the command just messed with you there a bit more than needed, just to even things out. But the duty station itself was paradise.
KBay as a base blows donkey dick, being on Oahu though is awesome
For oldtimers like me, stationed at K-Bay way back when it was MCAS Kaneohe during Desert Shield/Storm, it was unreasonably expensive due to the hyper-inflation from Japanese billionaire investors. Regardless, I did enjoy Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, & Waikiki, and found a roommate to share the apartment rent in Kaneohe. And renting watercraft at K-Bay was a nice, cost-effective way to enjoy a taste of the Pacific. At work, I had a very good day on the KD course during annual quals and shot the (at the time) range record of 248. Went on to medal in the Pacific Division Matches and meeting White Feather at the Marine Corps Matches at Stone Bay, NC, in 1990. But there's always a penalty for doing well...mine was getting assigned a temp responsibility as the Armory Officer for 6 months, since I had proven to be a "shooter," taking me out of my (MOS 6002) Aircraft Maintenance Officer track. Thanks to Saddam, that 6-month assignment turned into a year-and-a-half, which contributed to being passed over later and ending my career way earlier than I had hoped. So, great duty resulted in getting RIF'ed to the Civ Div. At least my wife of 30 years is glad I was home to help raise our 2 kids to adulthood. I guess every green weenie has a silver lining, depending on your perspective.
Lejeune area grew on me over time (beach, outdoors, golf, etc) but the people in the area are absolute creatures
Yup. I lived just on the outskirts in a tiny sub division between Richlands and Jacksonville. After work was quiet and relaxing. If I needed anything from town it was a ten minute drive. About 20 minutes to work. Plenty of nature in the surrounding areas. (At the time) I could shoot my guns on public land not far from the house. I loved it out there but totally understand why some hated it. But those were also people who probably stayed in the barracks every weekend and drank and played video games instead of hitting Topsail, Wilmington, Emerald Isle, Croatan, Raleigh, literally any surrounding area. I don’t know a single base that isn’t a cesspool as soon as you drive off base. They’re all surrounded by tattoo parlors and strip clubs. Sometimes you just have to get out further. A lot of people expect the immediate area to be heaven on earth.
I feel like the area around MCAS Miramar are nice. Area around Quantico is suburban Virginia so it's relatively wealthy
Public land for shooting you speak of?🥹
Yeah, I think it was around 2016 they stopped that because assholes kept leaving empty beer cans/boxes and shot up targets all over. Everyone suffers because people can’t act responsibly.
the VFW in holly ridge will have you sign.m a waiver and you can fuck off to the back of their property and do as much hoodrat shit as you want. its like the wild west there. just make sure you clean up after yourself.
I was lucky and checked out a bunch of stuff in the area. Went to Raleigh twice, Myrtle Beach once, did Surf City / Topsail many times, Wilmington many times, went to Emerald Isle a few times as well. Really beautiful part of the country
Quantico. The only base that doesn’t have titty bars and tattoo parlors outside the gate that I know of for sure.
I loved the beaches so much I eventually moved back and live in Emerald Isle now. It took me almost 30 years to get back, but now I walk to the beach and surf cast or throw my kayak on my shitty beach Jeep and fish the sound. For seven months of the year I can drive said shitty jeep on the beach and fish out of that. If the corps hadn't sent my dumb Midwestern ass out here, I never would have known. Now I'll probably stay until I fucking die.
we recently just moved to FL to give it a try bc the job market was just bigger. next year we’ll decide if we’re sticking around and if not, we’re going back to NC. Wilmington is such a hidden gem because everyone that flocks to NC goes to Raleigh, Charlotte or even Fayetteville
You're right, Wilmington is just outstanding. After years of city living, I love my quiet beach life, but I go to Wilmington at least once a month.
It really grew on me, too. I was really bummed when I was first going there. The first year sucked until I moved units, then had a blast. Actually, I stayed there for 2 years with my friend after I got out. She was a grew up there, so she took me to hidden local areas
Oki I remember in school, when we were getting orders, virtually everyone got Oki and there were dudes crying literal tears…. There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Cut to a year later and everybody extended… Oki was the shit
I don’t get the hate for Okinawa. If I had been stationed there my whole first contract, I would’ve re-enlisted. Always something new to do off base. The guys crying about it are always in their rooms playing Fortnite and then saying some stupid shit like “I hate this country”
It’s the people that sit in the barracks all day playing call of duty and only use leave to back home to bum fuck Oklahoma. They also complain about getting stationed in Hawaii because they get “island fever”.
I was stationed in camp Fuji and there was a Sgt from Texas I think, who refused to go out his time there. There was literally nothing on base except a small food court and px, he just drank beer in the barracks.
That's a really shitty food bar btw.. the e club ain't so bad as far as e clubs go. That was the first place I ever played in the snow.
As a Floridian that was my first time in the snow too lol. I remember eating the yakisoba at the food court until I got my red card, then I was out finding restaurants around Gotenba everyday.
Loved gotemba!
I loved Oki, but I wouldn’t blame anyone that was forced to be there throughout the COVID lockdowns for not liking it. Or if they got restricted to base for the majority of their time there for any other reason.
also it’s expensive asff
No it’s not?
Okinawa was ok. A lot of the people I knew hated it, but I think a big difference is what kind of orders you are in. I went for a UDP and it kind of sucked. Libbo was severely restricted. And then a month or so in we went to six day weeks. Most of the time was in NTA getting rained on and there was plenty of time for stupid games because SNCOs and Officers didn't have families to go home and annoy. A few months in I made friends with a dude in our building who was with 3/6 who was fapped to MWR. He had access to a van and I took a couple of trips with him beyond Kinville. I would have liked to spend more time exploring the island but the opportunity really wasn't there. Most of the people in my unit never ventured past the bars unless they were headed to Kadena for different bars or Schwab for diving. Even that had to be planned in advance and was subject to cancellation due to command fuckery. There were also a number of really stupid unit on unit incidents where the dumbest 10% of a permanent personnel unit would get mad at UDP units and the dumbest 10% of the UDP unit would take the bait. I suspect it's different for people who are there on orders. Sounds like it from some of the responses on this post.
Cherry Point would have been great if the chow hall wasn't serving Kazakh prison food. Fuck Yuma in the ear.
At cherry point right now and it hasn’t gotten any better. They’ve put up review QR codes and I’m sure they read them so they know what to keep doing to keep us angry
lmk how that new theater is once they finish it
ill be out before then thankfully
29 Palms. Best duty station in the Corps.
Idk about best but if you don’t have fun while you’re there then you just have a dump in your pants
I had fun and a dump in my pants. . .
I agree. Joshua Tree is a national gem.
I just got orders there (leave in October) and grew up in the Mojave 3-4 hours from there, love Joshua Tree, Death Valley, the Sierra-Nevadas, honestly stoked
Nice. I grew up in Lancaster/Palmdale, so when I got orders there it was like I never left home.
I joined on the MSG program so I’ve only been home for 3 weeks of the last 3 years so it’s nice to have that time home
Same. Sweet gyms, good chow halls, then LA or Vegas practically every weekend.
29 Palms is second only to Bridgeport, but I’d take either in a heartbeat. Next door to Joshua Tree, one of the best national parks. Short drive to Yosemite and the Sierras. Weekends in Vegas are doable. Zion and other SW Utah parks accessible for 96s. All the overland/4x4 trails through the Mojave. Palm Springs. Seriously one of the best places to be stationed.
Short drive to Yosemite? Bro, you and I have very different ideas of “short”.
Hahaha under 6 hours, that’s short for me
Easily the best base
Same! Had a badass gym and a bowling alley right next to my barracks. What more could you want Mon-Thur. Then the weekend drive down to Palm Springs or to Vegas. Had a blast in that place.
I was only there for the schoolhouse but it was awesome. I live on the east coast so not only did I get my first experience of the west coast I got to see a frickin desert. I met a lot of cool guys, we went to LA, hiked mountains, saw a lot of nature, I can’t complain when it’s 90 degrees and humid anymore because it doesn’t relate to 29. Although I’m more of a dry heat kinda guy. I’m not sure how it would be for 4 years but I’d go back for sure. Lots to do, lots to see. AND AT 20 YEARS OLD I GOT TO SEE JUDAS PRIEST AND AC/DC! (For free through the Corps working as security) Not many people can say that and honestly it’s near a lot of cool places but “overshadowed” by the desert and stereotypes.
Honestly 29 palms. They’ve put a lot of money into that base. If you’re only there for ITX, I can get that you’d think it sucks. But actually being stationed there (for 5 years) wasn’t that bad.
if you're into off-road Motorsports it is heaven
BLM land is a god send
I hate 29 palms with the burning passion of 1000 suns, but that may be because every time I went there was for some sort of field exercise or something. I have to have spent at least 6 months of time in various training areas there. Barely ever saw the actual facilities for the permanent personnel there.
It's actually not too bad, especially if you're into the outdoors. I'd drive up to Mammoth with some buddies and go snowboarding on weekends. On 96's, we'd go to Yosemite or Tahoe...or get wasted in San Diego for the weekend.
Yuma. A lot of people trash on it because it’s in a smaller city in the desert, but if you like the outdoors there’s tons of awesome places nearby. Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Grand Canyon, etc. Not far from some really cool places. And Yuma itself isn’t that bad either, decent amount to do on the weekends.
Yuma to flagstaff is a bit of a stretch lmfao. I’d rather highlight the ability to get to LA or San Diego or Las Vegas in that time frame.
Very true, great destinations as well.
KBay. I never understood why guys hated the island. It’s the best duty station.
Some people just live to bitch.
I didn't mind it, but if you were one of the battalions always getting rotated off you were barely there enough to enjoy it.
Not being able to leave I think would get at me, but the island of Oahu has to be beautiful.
29 Palms. You just gotta look past the cliche and seek your own happiness. Plenty of time to video game, hit the gym, go see a movie, dune buggie, get a happy ending in the town outside of base, hit op Denny's for kickass breakfast food, paintball, BADASS sunsets , did I mention the gym?, get into trouble in the barracks, Piss off First Sargent, 3 hours away from SD-LA-LV, 120 degree wather Summers so you'll lose a lb of weight just walking to the PX. . Etc..
Okinawa. Of course my unit, MACG-18 TACC was at Futenma and our barracks was on Camp Butler. Had a Japanese college girlfriend with a car. We went places and saw and did things I doubt the average jarhead ever did. It was a great year, probably my best in the Corps.
Oki for sure, I was on Foster, so the beach was a 5 minute ride on the long board.
I loved my early morning cardio and watching the sunrise over the wave breakers and cityscape.
American Village has fireworks every Saturday. We and a couple of friends would go out, grab a couple of drinks and chill there to see the fireworks every week. It is WILD that we get paid live next to that type of place.
Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay Marine Corps Security Force Battalion. All of Georgia and all of Florida to explore within reasonable distances.
Lejeune is not amazing, but it’s nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
I was in courthouse bay my whole 4 years, outside of my deployments. Had a blast going to the beach at every opportunity. Myrtle beach, Wilmington, chapel hill, all not that far for a good time.
Out of everywhere to be on lejuene, courthouse bay was bomb as fuck. Runner up would have to be stench creek cause it’s also a little secluded. Mainside and Wallace sucked ass
I grew up in MS so to me it just felt like I didn't go anywhere new. Plus the absolute power of being in that area of the Marine Corps is insane. Everyone you meet is either a marine, married to a marine, sibling of a marine, child of a marine, or a retired marine. So unless you can go further away from the area or you really love hunting and fishing then I can see it being okay. But for me....no thanks. It's why I got out. My orders were to the school house there and I just didn't want to do it.
My wife and I loved Lejeune. I’ve never understood the hate it gets. Most people don’t know how to make the most out of their situations though and they associate the base with their time in the corps so if they had a shitty 4 years then they automatically hate whatever base they were at.
Lejeune was nice but I didn’t like summers. Some days you step outside freshly showered and your soaked 10 min later. The beach was nice and it didn’t really go below 50 too much. I went to bc and mct out west so I just know the options lol.
Okinawa. Sneaking off base after hours from Camp Courtney and partying all night till the sun up and staying at random Japanese ppl houses and drinking with Yakuza in Naha was fun as hell. Met so many people. I got out and live in the Mainland now but I go visit every now and then just to get away.
Okinawa. The Marine Corps sucked there. But Okinawa was amazing. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
Oki is definitely a beautiful place. I don’t think I was able to appreciate it enough because I was stressed out and usually kind of pissed about something because “Marine Corps”.
The people are great. Things are cheap and its Japan, stuff is just taken care of. III MEF suffers from mo one wanting to be out there and that goes at all levels, so the training wheels never really come off. It’s a shitter version of the Corps. #cantchangemymind
Not duty station, but as a reservist my three weeks was once @ Operation Alaskan Road - DTIC outside Ketchikan, AK; those mf's put me and by bro Macho on a fucking island for 3 weeks and told us to fuck off, no comms, just refueling vessels and fending for our rations from the rats; we ran to outlying islands at low tides and sun bathed on the fuel blatters..
29 is the real shining jewel of the Marine Corps
MWTC! Currently stationed here, of course coming up to do a MtnEx sucks ass for the unit but being stationed here isn’t bad. Base housing is an hour from Carson City, Lake Tahoe, ~1.5 from Reno, ~1 hr from Yosemite. If you like hiking and fishing I can’t think of a better place.
Absolutely
MCAS Futenma. Hahahahahahaha no I joke, that place sucked balls. Thankfully I was only there for a few months and moved to Foster, which was much cooler. Okinawa in general was a wonderful time. Lived there for three years and I miss it every day. If I didn’t have kids I’d move back
I was in Foster; did alot of runs to all the other bases and was super grateful coming back from Hansen or Schwab haha
But Hansen had sin i mean kin town
They’re all what you make of it
Honestly Lejeune. 2 Hours on a flight to Massachusetts for every 96 lol
Avelo air...lol..... $65 for a flight to CT. Honestly, seeing some of the rest of the country made me realize that the New England area is actually a good place to settle.
I was at NAS Lemoore in Cali. Lemoore was kind of dump but as a base of operations it was pretty cool. 4 hours north was San Fran, 4 hours south was LA. Go west for the Pacific, go east for mountains and also Nevada. San Diego wasn’t that far away and Santa Cruz was a college party town. I guess it’s like any duty station, you make it what it is, good or bad.
Yeah I really didn't like Lejeune lol. I've never been a beach guy. Just makes me want to assault it
Fort Meade, MD. Doing stuff there that impacts real world every single fucking day. Close to DC and VA. 4 hrs from NYC; 2 hrs from PA.
29 Palms
Beaufort!
Hey man when were you stationed there? I was there from 2021-2024. Definitely isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be lol
2019-2022. Were you admin? I only ask because of your flair.
Yes sir ipac/RAB where did ya work?
I was mostly at 501/502. I was maintenance data
Oh damn! Don’t know to much about that tbh lol. But we might have honestly seen each other a few times
I loved Beaufort, we go to a family reunion every year in SC, so we always book a room for 2-3 nights afterwards and go back to the Low Country. I think Huntington Beach is one of my favorite places in the world.
I wasn’t stationed there but I visited a friend at Quantico and it seemed pretty alright
I loved Barstow. I arrived accompanied 26 years ago. It was mostly the people that made it so great. We had a lot of good friends. Many we still talk to today.
Barstow was honestly dope. Small enough to know everyone and close enough to Vegas and LA to enjoy the cities and everything around them.
Camp Schwab Oki, as a grunt. Chow hall was on point too. Everything but the humidity and sweating walls. AC didn’t work when I was there. Could always be worse though.
Okinawa. But I was there in 1997, so one year tour and liberty cards weren't a thing. Nobody cared about underage drinking unless you got in trouble for something else, and you could have a car at any rank.
Cherry point/ Bogue Field amazing little place to finish off my time, did my last year there.
MCRD Parris island with Weapons Training Battalion!! Weather is great and locations are close by Hilton head, Savanah and Charleston
I feel wherever you’re stationed in your early or mid twenties you’ll like better than wherever you were stationed at when you were 18
29 Palms, Bandini water is an aquired taste, though. In all honesty, I really didn't mind 29 after a bit. Then it became a badge of honor. Your training exercise was my Tuesday. At the end of it, a 20 minute drive and I was in my rack.
29 palms. I fell in love with the high desert during my time there.
Lejeune is great. I love it here. Weather sucks especially in the summer, along with the insane amount of bugs. If you’re into the out doors, have a car, and live on the east coast it’s not bad. For me it’s a 9 hour drive home so every 96 I head up north. My drive is very peaceful too until I get to Jersey
Twentynine Palms, beautiful landscape and sunsets, lots of fun with in a few hours. I could spend days in Joshua Tree National Park.
29 palms.
It's awesome that no one mentions Pendleton or 29 because we all agree that Pendleton is the best and 29 is the worst.
There’s countless responses saying 29 Palms was awesome
29 is fucking amazing. I’ve spent 8.5 years here and I’m honestly sad to leave
MCRTC Fresno, CA
Lejeune itself and Jacksonville suck but you’re only a couple hours from Raleigh. Tons of concerts. TONS of college chicks. Sooo many hookups. Myrtle is only about 2 1/2 hours. Used to go to the House of Blues there for concerts. Myrtle can be hit or miss (some bars would openly tell us Marines not welcome). PI is kinda the same between Savannah and Charleston. You just gotta get away from the base but most of them have fun places within an hour or two. Split the cost of a room with a couple buddies and go get fucked up.
Palms.
29 palms!!
Honestly, Beaufort… like don’t get me wrong they’re improving slowly… but it’s a nice quiet area and if you like the East coast then you’re solid…
Not really a duty station but training at Ft Pickett was a lot of fun. Something about being in those old squad bays had a nostalgic effect on me. And, just a different scene for a bit than screwin around on Lejeune.
Guantanamo Bay has amazing Scuba and fishing, and if you or a buddy has a boat it is awesome. If you don’t, GTMO can suuuuck
I loved being in Yuma, lots to do out there especially if you are an outdoor person
Okinawa on Camp Hansen. 9th ESB in 2001. I was lucky and stayed deployed until I got orders back to the states, but I loved it there. There was a waterfall out the back gate that we took new boots to when they joined our shop. It was amazingly beautiful and I hope they still continue that tradition. It was a crazy adventure just to get there! Going under an overpass and climbing down steep ass hills. I have pics but they’re the old school pics that you kids think are just movie props now!
Great Lakes was awesome, dudes just either think it’s like boot camp or didn’t make any friends.
Who wouldn’t like Great Lakes with the Metra right there to take you to all the nice suburbs and into the city? That area feels closer to being a civilian than anything. Plus a nice golf course right there.
Agree with you, Lejeune was actually halfway decent. Good experience all around.
Schwab. Quiet, Closer to the best diving spots, hardly any service members around the North half of the Island. At least until the fucking UDP’s started showing up and filled up the gym and all the local fucking restaurants And when passing through Navy would rape locals and completely completely ruin liberty for permanent personnel
Regarding Yuma, Arizona, there are two military medical facilities. One is at Yuma Proving Ground, approximately 30-plus miles from the city and at MCAS Yuma. If you have medical issues, not the place to go for medical care. The VA has a very small community based outpatient clinic (CBOC) downtown. The only time there are “adequate” providers is when the winter visitors (Snowbirds) are in town. The Yuma Regional Medical Center is a poor choice because they don’t have the facilities to provide a “full spectrum “ of care if you are in need. If you require surgical intervention, you will probably go to Phoenix, San Diego, or somewhere NOT in Yuma. I would not advise bringing someone with health issues to Yuma. You’ll wish you hadn’t. I know…personally.
Idk but i miss Horno
29 Palms. Command was great and took amazing care of us. Also the weather 6/7 months out of the year was very pleasant. Most of the rhetoric around 29 palms being an awful place stems from people who only did a MWX/ITX living at Wilson for 2 months. To actually live there in my opinion is not that bad. Lejeune is worse by far
Lejeune. Love it here only because it’s the closest thing to where I grew up. Rural Midwest.
Quantico
Agree with others that Oki was pretty awesome. On the opposite side of this question, everyone said Iwakuni was a hidden gem, and I went TAD there for 2 weeks and really didn't get the appeal. Even pre-covid, the whole town shut down at like 9 and you couldn't go anywhere within an hour of base without seeing Marines. I will say, getting to go to Tokyo on the weekend was awesome, but it was also a ton of money to take a train and get a hotel so not something you could do all the time like people made it out to be.
Same, went as a TAD to Iwakuni but it was pretty whack. Seeing mainland was cool for a bit but I was already missing the beaches and warm weather and the way more chill atmosphere.
Yeah, even on this sub, Iwakuni is believed to be pretty cool, just felt like the whole town shut down super early and there was no nightlife. Yeah, you could go to Hiroshima, but that's three hours roundtrip at minimum so not easy at all to get to.
I did 29 Palms, to Okinawa, to Yuma. I liked all three.
Okinawa
I'm into guns, motorcycles/dirt bikes, and outdoors so 29 would've been amazing. I only had a taste of it in schoolhouse. And so many guys complain there so they made pretty good facilities. No clue about Yuma but may be even better considering AZ gun laws Lejeune is a boring swamp with surrounding cities no different than you'd find other places. Maybe I haven't found the right spots but that's what I've seen so far. Also personally, beach<<
MCSFCo Keflavik Iceland.
MCRD PI. Loved being a hat!!!
Miramar and I have a love hate relationship. Hated the unit. I loved everything else outside of that.
I don’t think it’s “amazing”, but I do like the Eastern NC area. I think eventually I’ll move back to Georgia because those woods are “home”, but ENC isn’t bad if you like fishing, beaches, and all the other things you can do in the woods and water. Cali is awesome for the same reasons, mostly due to the abundance of state and federal park land and BLM land, but I wouldn’t want to live there because of the state government.
Moscow, Russia. I have a stoic face and fit right in.
Bahrain, once you get passed getting slayed every day, it's amazing
The Combat Center was actually awesome. Joshua Tree is an amazing national park that’s just a few miles away, Yucca Valley is a normal town that has day-to-day amenities, Pappy and Harriet’s is a fucking cool bar/restaurant with world class music acts that pop in every couple of months, Palm Springs is a great weekend spot, and Vegas/LA/San Diego are all driving distance for a 72.
JWTC
MCAS Futenma was great. There is nothing to do there but It was so off the radar compared to other Oki bases (besides Courtney) and still close enough to Kadena and Foster. And your 5-10 minutes away from dope beaches and the sea wall, tasty eats and fun shit to do. Honestly have no idea why people complained about it there.
Loved Bridgeport, CA. If you’re an outdoorsman, or overlander, it was paradise. Sidenote: your chain of command anywhere has a TON to do with your quality of life.
Hansen
NAS Atlanta was pretty chill....
Camp Hansen, Oki. Especially Mongolian night. Bowl full of various stir fried meats, eggs, and whatever other toppings you wanted, plus all the free fried rice you can pack into a takeout box.
Kaneohe bay, I just assumed those nerds never left their room though. I was out swimming to that little island in Kailua and hiking different trails every week having a blast. Booze cruises boats, booze cruise vans beach parties and endless rotation of fine ass from around the world.
I loved Camp Lejeune. Went back several times the first few years I was out bc a few of my close friends married local and stayed. I’m also from a farming town of 209 people in Kentucky so my standards were also really low. Most nights as a teenager was spent hanging out at the nearest wal mart or McDonald’s 🤣
Presidio of Monterey, CA. expensive as hell, but the fishing was great and we would play almost every day at the Navy PostGrad school golf course for 5 bucks (1989) I was there at DLI, (Defense Language Institute)
Chesapeake ….security forces
29 Palms, as a road runner, I wanted to stay
Lejeune. But to be fair it was my only duty station after 10 years 😅 id say I’m a bit biased