Monday, February 8, 2016

7 Things That Happen When You Live On A Military Base

My husband has been in the Air Force for almost fifteen years now. We've always lived on the military base and I've learned some things over the years.









1. Your husband will be like, "There's a F-16!" or, "There goes a C-17." Meanwhile, you're like, "There's an airplane." (Unless you're a good military wife. Then you might know them all too. But to me, an airplane is an airplane and odds are, many of them have woken me up from my sleep so I'm not really a fan.)


2. You think you scored a parking spot in the front--and then you see it's reserved for a Colonel.


3. When in a hurry, you wonder why everyone has suddenly stopped. Are they zombies? Then you realize, crap, it's retreat. (For the non-military folks, at 5 Monday-Friday the National Anthem will go off. Everyone has to stop and pay respects. You'll notice the military people standing ramrod straight, fists balled at their side as they face the closest flag.) (And in case you're wondering, reveille goes off at 7 AM and Taps is heard at 10 PM.)


4. To know if you want to eat in the food court for lunch, that you have to get there at 1030. Otherwise the lines will be insane. Especially if Popeyes lives in the food court.


5. You'll be nosy and want to know why the ambulance, two security forces vehicles, and the firetruck is in front of someone's house. Yup, they all show up if you call 911, which I have thanks to Natalie getting a hole in her head. I noticed people standing outside watching. I can't blame them. I watch from the window if I notice them in front of someone's house, I'm not going to lie.


6. The spouses page for the base is probably filled with some drama. You'll get someone asking about a cheating spouse, or another bashing a fellow wife for talking "trash" about her. It'll make you feel old because you're so beyond that BS and will remind the "young" wives that coming online and calling someone the C-world isn't going to solve a thing.


7. You'll hear random booms and bangs. You'll wonder if the Mythbusters show is in town but then realize it's probably just the soldiers firing their weapons. Or someone is doing airplane stuff.



Have you lived on a military base before?


31 comments:

  1. Having grown up in a military town, I hear you on the planes! Who cares when they wake you up at 5am! Oddly tho, when I moved away, it was so weird not to hear them anymore.

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  2. Haha yes to all of this! We have lived on post 3 out of 4 of our duty stations. We love it though.

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  3. I live about 30 minutes from an Air Force base, have never been inside despite driving by it countless times over the last 20 years, and have no idea what goes on. So it was nice to have this little inside glimpse.

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  4. I think it would be so cool to live on a military base! I have never even visited one but I find them fascinating.

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  5. So crazy.. I've never lived on base but my best friend's husband is a Navy pilot, so I've visited her several times and just being on base is such a trip. She gets saluted in her car, and just the whole atmosphere is so formal feeling and other-worldly. I wouldn't know the planes either.... I get like that when my husband points out "awesome" cars.. and what type it is.. and I'm like.. it's a car. Cool.

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  6. Really interesting!! The planes would probably bother me too! Can't believe the wives talk trash about one another online...so high school!! LOL

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  7. We were bass fishing on base (Shaw/South Carolina) when retreat went off. We had two fish hooked and our poles jumped all over the place while we stood straight, eyes jumping from flag to poles to flag!

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  8. I've never lived on a base (non-military family here), but my I met my best friend who lived here for 3 years because her husband was on Recruiting duty for the marines. So I've been on a base many times to go visit her and am always surprised at all the rules!

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  9. I've only lived on base once - our first station, and the worst part was trying to PCS. The inspection moving out was the worst experience I've ever been through. They would have a checklist of all the things to fix, we would, and the next day they would show up and provide ANOTHER list of items to fix. This went on for over a week. It was infuriating. But then, I'd look next door to the house that burned down 2 years prior, had holes in the roof, raccoons pillaging through the trash cans and weeds knee high, and wondered why the little tiny pin hole in the wall was too large and needed to be filled in. That was the last time I lived on base. The inconsistency were too much for this mama.

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  10. Yes to all of it! Or running to the Shoppette for a few things. Or the Commissary. Or trying to talk to your neighbors in the yard and having to wait until the deafening plane goes over. I miss military life sometimes!

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  11. I've only been on a military base once before, so I really didn't know very many of these. It definitely sounds interesting.

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  12. I've never lived on base but totally agree with these anyway. Some of the spouses pages are just awful.

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  13. I grew up as an Air Force brat and this post just overwhelmed me with memories. So many of these hit home and it was wonderfully nostalgic.....thank you! It was a wonderful life!

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  14. I'm always impressed when someone can tell what a plane is just be the sound of it! I have no idea :)

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  15. I grew up an Air Force Brat and I loved living on base! We had so much more freedom than the kids off base. We knew we had to behave, because if Dad got called before his CO, we were dead meat! I hated living off base.

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  16. I do not miss the booms!
    When my husband was in Iraq, whenever a helicopter flew over our house my daughter would say, "Daddy in Iraq," and she point to the helicopter.
    XOXO

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  17. I've never lived on a military base, but I grew up one mile from Paine Field and the huge Boeing plant, so loud planes was the norm.

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  18. I am a Navy brat, and until I graduated from high school, always lived on military bases. It's a small world, the military and while moving often was hard, after a while you'd know that most likely you would meet up with people who you knew from another base. We mostly lived on Marine Corps bases (Dad was in Navy medicine and the USMC uses Navy med). When I started high school there were always new people each year, and even during the year. I was lucky-I was able to go to the same school all 4 years. Not many brats can say that.

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  19. I've only been to military bases, but I hear ya on the planes... Here in Sing, a couple months before National Day, the Air Force is practicing and can hear them flying by the whole time. Scares the sh*t out of me!

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  20. This is my first time living on base and number 3 freaks me out when I look out at 5. I live across the street from the commissary and the MCX, so my road is fairly busy. At five everything freezes including the cars on the road. This, of course, is the time my kitten loves to jump on our balcony and scream her lungs out at all the people because she wants cuddles.

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  21. This is so interesting to me, mainly because we live in the literal woods and if we all streaked around all day and didn't mow our lawn for a month, no one would ever notice.
    We need to visit each other, I say.

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  22. Not military, but my husband works on the outskirts of an AFB (one layer of security to get into his work, another layer to get on base.) Sometimes we meet him for lunch and he gets us on base so the kids can run around at the park. It's awesome!

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  23. I grew up on a military base. It was great having neighbors from all over the country and world - literally. Some of them became life-long friends. Those planes flying literally right over our home could be annoying, though. Couldn't hear a thing when they did.

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  24. haha "theres an airplane" ... also the spouses page sounds juicy - and ridiculous!! haha

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  25. So true! We lived on one for almost 2.5 years then off-post military housing which is basically like a mini on post neighborhood in the middle of a German village. I think if Ben had stayed in and we PCSd I would want to live on post again.

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    1. I really like living on post. I feel more connected to everyone and the base.

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  26. Now try all that overseas and you have my life growing up ...LOL such a great life I never knew any other way

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    1. Yes, I lived overseas a lot growing up as well. My mother was in the military :)

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  27. When I moved here, I really had to get used to hearing the planes from Langley. I barely notice them now. And at the Newport News airport, Airforce One practices takeoffs and landings every day. I neve.r get tired, on my drive home from work, of spotting Air Force One flying right over my head

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  28. Great blog! Since my husband retired from active duty, I miss many of these things. And I really miss the commissary! Thanks for sharing. :-)

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Thanks for the comment!

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