r/army • u/Kinmuan 33W • Apr 03 '18
Duty Station Thread - Virginia, DC, Maryland (Belvoir, Eustis, Lee, Meyer, AP Hill, Belvoir, MDW, NOVA, Meade, Aberdeen, Detrick)
All,
The Duty Station Threads are meant to be enduring threads where individuals with experience or insight in to being stationed in the area can give advice and tips on the duty station in question. If you have a heads-up on better neighborhoods to live in, what the optempo of units there is like, what DFACs are the best, internet providers, what cell phone companies are better in the area, etc, please feel free to share with the rest of us.
The hope is that these individual threads can serve as 'megathreads' on the posts in question, and we can get advice from experienced persons. Threads on reddit are not archived - and can continue to be commented in - until 6 months. Each week I will keep the full listing/links to all previous threads in a mega-list below, for ease of reference.
If you have specific questions about being stationed at these locations, please feel free to ask here, but know that we are not forcing or re-directing all questions to these threads, you can still make separate posts.
This post is covering the following;
Duty Station Thread - Virginia, DC, Maryland (Belvoir, Eustis, Lee, Meyer, AP Hill, Belvoir, MDW, NOVA, Meade, Aberdeen, Detrick)
This is not limited to the bases mentioned, and is intended to be all-inclusive. Any random ARNG/USAR or other bases, or other small posts, are welcome to be discussed. Tag me and I'll add the other locations to the body of this post for searchability.
Additional locations mentioned in this thread:
Upcoming DSTs:
None
Previous DST
(These posts are still active and can be posted in)
Duty Station Thread - Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri (Leavenworth, Riley, Sill, Leonard Wood)
Duty Station Thread - Wyoming, N/S Dakota, Nebraska (Camp Guernsey, Camp Ashland, Camp Grafton)
Duty Station Thread - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana Areas (Lewis, JBLM, Yakima)
Duty Station Thread - Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin (Ripley, Dodge, McCoy)
Duty Station Thread - Illinois, Indiana, Michigan (Butler, Atterbury, Stout, Detroit Arsenal)
Duty Station Thread - Alabama, Tennessee (Rucker, Redstone, Anniston, Holston, Milan, Campbell)
Duty Station Thread - North / South Carolina, Kentucky (Jackson, Bragg, Campbell, Knox)
Duty Station Thread - Alaska, Hawaii (Greely, Richardson, Wainwright, Schafter, Schofield, Wheeler)
Duty Station Thread - Guam, Puerto Rico, Cuba (Andersen, Fort Buchanan, GTMO / Guantanamo Bay)
Duty Station Thread - South America / Caribbean (Soto Cano Honduras, SOUTHCOM Areas)
Duty Station Thread - Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan
Duty Station Thread - Italy, England, Poland, Misc Europe (Vicenza, Sigonella, Menwith)
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u/BlissSociety Jul 01 '18
Eustis (Aviation AIT trainees): Hah you messed up son. Welcome to your home for the next 3 months - 2 years depending on how much your leadership hates you. The living accommodations are OKAY. Ft Jacksons barracks are better in the names of air conditioning and upkeep. If you are a tango, except to have 2 other roommates; You will hate one of them. While you're in phase 4 (at least the first month) you are restricted as shit. You spend weekends cleaning and can only go to the PX or stay in the barracks. TRADOC headquarters means you should expect to see brass at all times. Keep your right hand sharp. Day 3 I went to the Warriors cafe and right behind me a brig and some French officer walked in for a tour about the international classes.
Food: Warriors cafe is alright. If you are a reclass, your defac is shit compared to anywhere else you were. Expect chicken and rice as your only choices for the week days. Hope you love powdered eggs. The desserts are banging in both areas but you get the smallest portions imaginable. On weekends, Bravos pizza is the fucking place to go. You also have dominos and pizza hut nearby to deliver. There's a hibachi and sushi place close enough to deliver; very hit and miss though.
Class load: it's a joke. If you dont keep a 95% GPA then you're literally a shitbag. Stay awake in class And ask questions when you're confused. On tests, utilize your instructors. Completely lost on a question? They will nudge you along towards the answer. Having problems with the hands on (which you shouldn't, you have a step by step picture book on your laptop)? Ask them. Chances are, the equipment you're trying to use is just too old and they'll pass you on it. I'm making it with a 98% right now. Distinguished honors grad should be your goal feller, it will help you get to Hawaii. There's a high possibility that you may have internationals with you. The Korean ints are normally awesome and have great manners. If you have anyone from the Balkans, you will be blown away by their GPA. It's been a trend, I'm not sure.
On post: BK, taco bell, pizza hut, popeyes, subway, Starbucks, Arby's, Korean food truck in the PX parking lot, a bowling alley. That's all you'll ever be able to see. Off post: Virginia and Buckroe beach. You'll get mugged on Buckroe, Virginia is real nice. Do NOT flirt with locals. They are either tricaratops, or family of your drill sgts or instructors. One way or another you will fuck it up. There are a lot of high end seafood places to hit up nearby. Dont be that pvt to waste your entire check on food, because it's real easy out here.
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u/hyuove Apr 14 '18 edited Apr 14 '18
At belvoir now. I live in the barracks but commute to the pentagon though. AMA and uh, if anyone wants to carpool that’d also be cool.
Barracks is decent by army standards. They also have renovations coming up soon! Joint service so there are navy and marines here as well. Pretty sure Marines are students/ trainees though. PX is one of the best I’ve seen. There are 3 fitness centers and they’re all pretty big and one of them is open 24/7.
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u/zelon64 Apr 06 '18
Currently at Ft Belvoir and this shits a breeze. AMA.
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Jul 25 '18
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u/zelon64 Jul 25 '18
Not a clue about the 25V. Barracks apparently have mold problems but not in my room in particular.
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u/lobstahcookah Apr 08 '18
How's the MWR Auto Skills Center? Local DOD civilian who needs to do some work on my car and haven't used that shop yet. Belvoir is closest and most convenient. Only others I know of are JBAB or Meade.
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u/ibwahooka Apr 09 '18
So the Auto Skills Center on Belvoir is a bit more strict than some of my previous duty stations. Requirements are for you to watch a 1 hour video, get an orientation on the shop, and sign some paperwork. That's not the strictest part.
Your vehicle that you are working on must be registered in your name and you have to show that proof of registration every time you visit. Kind of a pain since I change my oil every 3 months or so and I still have to show that I own my truck. Apparently, they had problems with non-owners working on their buddies vehicles and doing shoddy work.
Other than that, I love the Auto Skills Center here. I can usually get my oil changed in less than 45 minutes or so.
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u/lobstahcookah Apr 13 '18
Thanks for the feedback and apologies for the late response. Ended up using the one on JBAB due to scheduling this week but will give Belvoir a shot next week to finish up some work. It's usually a more convenient drive for me anyway.
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u/zelon64 Apr 08 '18
I actually have no idea sorry. Got to imagine it’s fair, comparing it to everything else on Belvoir at least.
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Apr 08 '18
I lived on belvoir for a while, go there home on leave a lot. Auto skills center is nice.
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u/mengmel Apr 06 '18
I just moved this week from Fort Eustis after being there for 3 years. Let me know if you have any questions, someone above covered lots of information but I can tell you some of the best local spots to eat and stuff to see and do.
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u/Kinmuan Apr 05 '18
Weekly Reminder, because I stop posting this for two weeks and people are already fucking it up;
Thank you to everyone who is willing to answer questions about the duty stations, but the immediate preference would be for informational posts. Please remember these are meant to be enduring sources of information. I'm going to link them in the wiki, and they're linked here, every week, for 6 months (the initial intended length of this series).
I've made the title and body searchable with key words for the duty stations, so that more people find it through the reddit search function.
Someone might stumble upon this 1-2 weeks/months/whenever from now. You might not even still be on reddit. 6 months from now, this post will be easily findable, but no one will be able to comment because it'll be archived.
So, again, willing to answer questions is great, but if there's any information you can impart now, I think that would provide the greatest benefit.
DO NOT: Ask duty station questions unrelated to those listed. Do not ask random joining questions. If your question isn't about duty stations in the states listed, then it probably belongs in a different DST, the Weekly Question Thread, or a new post.
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Apr 05 '18 edited Apr 05 '18
I'll do a review of a few posts around here, and general areas.
Joint Base Anacostia Bolling: Holds a very large Defense building and some green and white helicopters, along with some Air Force stuff. Full PX, and I believe it's still a Burger King. It's mainly run by the Air Force, so if you need a CAC or any of the essential HR functions, you'll likely have a great experience. Traffic on 295 in the morning to get into a gate is crappy between about 6:30 and 9:00, then leaving is a shit show after 3:30 PM as well. Parking for the large Defense building is sort of like backgammon - no one knows the rules, but everyone wants to win and you always see shit stacked up on top of everything. Living situation is pretty fluid, the only real rule is don't live to the West. You'll hear about Anacostia before you even get there. DC, Alexandria, and Arlington/Clarendon are solid options. If you happen to work at the large Defense building, you can watch the DC/Nationals 4th of July fireworks from the top of the building or parking garage - take advantage!
Pentagon: Live somewhere near a metro station. Don't drive. Become best friends with a general officer. Ride their coattails for a while.
NOVA: A lot to put here. MI nerds and SOF dudes have a lot of spots around here. Crystal City (South on Route 1 from the Pentagon) is a decent place to work, if you can get the parking from your building paid for. It's all garages and underground and not always included in your building. Living in residential Arlington across the highway is great, since schools are excellent and there is no room to build any more houses/strip malls (recurring theme in NOVA). This description pretty much applies to Tysons/Langley as well.
Fairfax/Reston/Chantilly: A mixed bag - great for families with kids, and extremely varied duty stations away from a flagpole. If you're at Westfields, enjoy - you're now on big boy rules but are also living out in a pretty expensive area of the country. There are income-controlled apartments around there, and I believe the cutoff was $48k a year which DOESN'T include BAH. Some of the duty stations will have things like a "Trading Post" on the high side where you can find places to rent, roommates, etc.
Loudoun and beyond: I know a few field grades that live out in Loudoun - specifically in Leesburg/Ashburn. More space here than closer to DC, but this space is quickly turning to townhouses and nail salons. Great schools. As with every city, the farther you get from DC in VA, the cheaper housing gets. There is a bus that runs a few times every day from the park and ride lot at the Leesburg Airport all the way to the Pentagon every day. And soon - the Metro will come all the way out to Ashburn Station - will be complete next year.
Quantico: North side is all Marin Crops, south side is RKB, TBS for Marins, and the FBI/DEA Camps. If you're a CID HQ dude, you'll be at RKB - which is a weird Navy owned building. Housing is probably the shittiest out of DC/NOVA - best bet is to go all the way down to Fredericksburg, or live a smudge north in Woodbridge since you'll be doing a reverse commute. You will use Belvoir for family services unless you can make a drug deal work with Quantico/Navy for some medical services.
Unless you hate your god damn life, DO NOT travel from:
Tysons Corner to Bethesda, MD in between 6:30 AM and 9:00 AM
Exits 248 to DC on 95 North in between 6:30 AM and 9:00 AM
And the reverse of those routes in the afternoon.
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Apr 05 '18
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u/j_e85 May 28 '18
I've got SLICC and ALICC at Lee. If you are interested then message me and I'll give you the POC for both courses
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u/aRandomNakedMan Apr 05 '18
If anyone has any questions about Walter Reed shoot me a message. Too lazy to type out a detailed response at the moment
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u/kawaiininjamommy May 28 '18
My husband is projected to go to Walter Reed for phase 2 of his training (68C). How is the area? I hear people say they love it, and some hate it. Apart from the barracks which I gather suck, but thankfully we'll be BAH, how is the actual hospital/base ?
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Apr 05 '18
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u/aRandomNakedMan Apr 05 '18
Ok well now that I'm home with a beer in my hand and not processing fucking leaves I can write something up.
For those unfortunate enough to have orders incoming to TC-WRNMMC I hope you're either married or have kids. Because the barracks fucking suck and there's no DFAC you get BAS which doesn't cover shit for this area. On the other hand, if you do get BAH I would say to live along the red line of the Metro out towards Rockville/Wheaton area as getting a Parking Placard is rare. You will get Metro benefits which is why I'd recommend living near the metro. Plus its easier on weekends to just metro into DC to go look at monuments, museums, or parades/bar crawls. There's always something going on. As far as night life it depends on what you're looking for. The college crowd is Adams Morgan area, U street like Adams Morgan just less rowdy, Dupont I've only been to a handful of times since its literally where you wanna go if you want the HIV.
For the outdoors people there are places to hike/fish down towards Ft. Belvoir which is about a 40 minute drive from Bethesda.
Edit: forgot to mention the 250 mile ranges up to New York so if the area doesn't have something you like theres always places to drive too.
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u/MerchantofHate Jul 06 '18
Attending school at USUHS this fall, and I'll be living near Bethesda / Walter Reed. I'm trying to figure out which posts in the DC area have gyms like Tucker or Frederick at Bragg?
I know Myer-Henderson Hall has what I'm looking for, but it's a bit out of my way.