Learn more here and be sure to check out more great stories on our homepage. For service members who love to travel, youll be happy to know youre only 1 mile away from Miami International Airport. Fort Lewis is easily one of the best Army bases in the United States. Best area perk? Welcome to Fort Drum. Melanye Martinez. Do warm days and sunny skies year-round sound appealing? Savings may be hard to come by, as local shopping and driving are both very expensive. The weather is tropical yet really pleasant in the winters if youre not a fan of the cold or snow. Best Military Bases OCONUS: Okinawa, Japan. Look at what matters most to you, and then research if those amenities and interests are present in the duty station location. Best area perk? Enjoy one of our high quality American, State . All the bases are on flat land no matter what terrain is surrounding it. At a mere 44 miles long, it can be easy to get island fever here if you arent actively seeking adventure while stationed at Marine Corps Base Hawaii. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Kirby Turbak. Eglin Air Force Base. Here are some of the best bases you will find overseas. Fayetteville is one of the few bases on our list thats located in an actual town, or as a Marine spouse in neighboring Camp Lejeune put it, at least they have a mall and a Discount Tire. Still, soldiers insist that the place reminds them of every combat zone the US has visited in the past four decades.Most common escape: Charleston, Wilmington, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Myrtle Beach are all within a couples of hours drive. No more Tattoo Taboo: Air Force and Space Force to allow neck and hand tats, How will I do when that time comes? In the surrounding areas, you can see everything from pre-Civil War forts to the southernmost point of the continental U.S. Special Report: The top 5 best bases for airmen. New Mexico is underrated when it comes to its outdoors. RAF Mildenhall (Air Force) Just a 45-minute drive to Cambridge, Suffolk is a quaint little village surrounded by cottages and castles straight out of a fairytale. Answer (1 of 3): I've answered this before but here's what they were when I was in: McChord AFB. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Craig spent many years on active duty service in the Air Force stationed in such places as Okinawa, Japan and SAC Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Home of the Space and Missile Systems Center and the 61st Air Base Group, Los Angeles Air Force base is situated in El Segundo, California. Nature enthusiasts want to spend their time hiking while they tour jungle land with numerous waterfalls. However, couples will love everything millions of vacationers find a reason to visit Hawaii each year including spectacular scenery and fantastic weather. The military base serves as the host for the 6th Air Refueling Wing. Shop here and skip paying sales tax on everything from electronics to groceries. Sometimes you end up drawing the short straw when it comes to military assignment locations. The Best And Worst Airlines in America in 2021. What lifestyle amenities do you appreciate in your life now? South Korean Air Force - 898. To enjoy all that the area has to offer, dress accordingly on and off base to explore the best parts of this beautiful region. It may be fun to have pristine beaches and Disneyland practically in the backyard of your duty station. Task & Purpose polled more than 1,000 of its readers on the worst military installations in terms of living. "You might be leaving, but you're always part of the community. If youre getting ready to pick your dream list for your very first duty station, you may be a little unsure of what locations to choose for your top choices. Population: 448,759 Veteran Population: 94,938 Median Home Price: $222,100 Unemployment Rate: 4.8% Crime Rate: Safer than 10% of U.S. cities Military Bases Near Colorado Springs: Fort Carson, Peterson Space Force Base, Schriever Space Force Base; Colorado Springs is one of the best places for military retirement! But the area's high cost of living and housing prices partly because it is about a 25-mile drive from Boston landed Hanscom in the bottom five. Naval Base Kitsap . RAF Lakenheath is located in Suffolk County in East Anglia. Nevertheless, it is great during the winter. HubPages is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. We used formulas to convert the raw data from each category into a 10-point scale. All Rights Reserved. Here's what they say for 2022. This made us wonder which military towns in the US are the safest and which aren't as secure for military personnel and civilians. Sarah Sicard While there are numerous overseas locations worth considering for singles, this list focuses on bases in the United States. Royal air force. Here are the top 10 US military base towns overseas. Yet these are the top Air Force bases overseas relying on the same factors as the top-rated in the U.S.: Anderson AFB also serves as naval headquarters yet is largely considered the premier place to live and serve overseas in the USAF. Everyone has interests based on where they are in life. You wont want to miss a minute of taking in the natural beauty of Hawaiis third-largest island. The Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Caverns National Park are also within reason. Image: Wikimedia.org. Best area perk? Pacific Fleet. There are just under 60 active U.S. Air Force bases in the country. These are the highest ranking Air Force bases for couples: Do you really need an excuse to live in Hawaii? Unlike many other military bases, this one has a great cost of living its actually 18% lower than the U.S. national average. This is a large base that does not have a lot of Westernized shopping. The UK Royal air force is also referred to as the Royal Air Force and it boasts of over 890 aircraft and a large number of workers, making it Europe's largest air force. So if youre unimpressed by Louisiana, at least you can benefit from some military-issued, updated hospitality. Despite the astronomical costs of living in L.A., BAH rates are surprisingly low. Related Article Best Army Bases for Families, Couples and Singles. Average winter temps hover in the low teens in a place where cows outnumber people three to one.Most common escape: Only ninety minutes away is the Worlds Largest Buffalo monument, in case your version of escape is looking at a larger version of your natural surroundings.Surprise silver lining:For a while Minot was at the center of the North Dakota oil boom, jolting the local economy into overdrive, providing loads of jobs for military dependents, and causing rent prices to soar. MacDill Air Force Base. A static Curtiss P-40E Warhawk is displayed outside of the front gate at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, Nov. 3, 2020. Capt. Bedford is a great place to raise children, said Lisa Pizarro, the school liaison officer at Hanscom. Key West the very last Key on the string is the dream station for anyone who loves warm weather and blue coastal waters and is one of the nicest military bases in Florida. The base is on the smaller side, so youll get a chance to know your fellow service members and their families well. In other words, Fayetteville is the awkward neighborhood kid surrounded by cooler, more beautiful neighbors in every direction (yes, even Myrtle Beach. 6. Fort Carson, Colorado. When you view any duty station as your new home, youll be able to better embrace the local culture and unique base aspects. Thankfully, many of the USAF bases in the United States have quick access to the outdoors and are in rural locations. The coastal military base provides that Florida weather with plenty of charm. So yeah, Lemoore might not be much to look at, but you are just down the road from some spectacular #nofilter #views.Surprise silver lining: Another perk of living in the agriculture-heavy Central Valley of California is access to fresh, local eggs and produce through farm co-ops. 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. The median home cost there is a whopping $766,000. In an interview, Debra Westervelt, Hanscom's capital asset manager, acknowledged that the Bedford housing market is "pretty tight," and said many airmen assigned there choose to live on base for that reason. 10. The military facility is in the Fort Walton and Destin area with direct access to the Gulf of Mexico. For the most part, you will have to live off base and may feel that Italian houses are not up to par with Western style housing. So it is best to be prepared. The IAF has ordered 689 aircraft in which there will be Su-57 (144), Tejas Mk.1 (99), Rafale (35), Su-30MKI (8), and other helicopters and aircraft. Families love living here for many reasons, including affordable housing. Perhaps you parked in the By Nearby towns include: The base's commissary is small, its only medical facility is a clinic, and its small exchange is just a shoppette. Basic allowance for housing is nowhere near enough to foot the bill of an area that has a housing purchase median cost of $766,000. Besides the unique cultural tensions of living in a border town, service members reported that Fort Bliss was hot, isolated, and subject to sandstorms. This city has one of the highest veteran populations in the U.S. and is home to . The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Also worth mentioning: Freedom Crossing, the first-ever, on-base, open-air shopping center offers tons of restaurants and shops. This list is subjective, of course there are too many duty stations to post here so do your research before submitting your wishlist. At Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Air Force and Army installations that merged in 2010 to form a single post, Task Force True North was recently created to address suicide, Air Force Col. Gregory Beaulieu, commander for the joint base, said in a statement Sunday. A enlisted thinktank brought to you by Task & Purpose. Required fields are marked *. But he estimated food and housing expenses there were easily three to four times as much as in the Scott area. What someone that serves the military and is single wants is drastically different from a service member with a wife and kids. Oh and for the record, Lake Bandini isnt an actual lake. Get the latest in military news, entertainment and gear in your inbox daily. While in the military, he spent time analyzing imagery from a variety of aircraft such as the SR-71. Part of the reason Lackland ranks so high is because of its superior medical facilities which are important to a lot of military families. Jason Do has been stationed at Columbus for five years and called it "one of the worst bases" in the Air Force. Here are the top Air Force bases in the nation: Located in St. Clair County, Illinois, Scott Air Force Base tops the list of the best Air Force Bases in the U.S. overall. Being that its the only active-duty base in the Northeast, housing on post is limited, forcing service members and their families to live elsewhere. The unassuming military base in small-town Illinois is a hidden gem based on those who have served at the location. Eating organic and local has never been easier, which is great news for anyone who has watched any documentary on factory farming, ever. Because everything is bigger in Texas, the post has the largest on-base bowling alley, fitness center, and Post Exchange (PX) in the whole Army. On base, youll enjoy access to a private, lifeguarded beach. For those that like to hunt and fish, there are plenty of outdoor activities. Its cheaper to live in the place you never wanted to! Global Firepower tracks total air service strength for each national power taken into consideration for the annual GFP ranking. Plus, the Kitsap Peninsula isnt far from multiple day trip options, including Seattle, local mountain ranges, water trails, and even Canada. Keep in mind that you may not get anything on your list (my wife and I didn't). Some residents have taken to calling the area Smell Segundo. The main issue, however, is really the money. On your off-duty days, you can do everything from tasting the best key lime pie around to snorkeling, diving, or fishing off the coastline.