I have finally received medical clearance for entrance to the USAF :-) and I need to find out about some difference base locations as I have to put in my preferences soon. I would be much obliged if you could lend me any knowledge you have of the following bases.

Boston
Shaw (Columbia, SC)
San Antonio (Randolph or Lackland)
USAFA
Nellis (Vegas baby!)

What I want to find out is the following: How big are the health care facilities (huge medical center? small outpatient clinic?)? Good base housing? General quality of living?

Or really anything else you have to offer, or if a base that is great to be at is not on my list, please let me know.

thanks in advance!
-Tim
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Congrats Tim!! :-) Retired Army 1SG here...but Langley AFB in Hampton, Va is nice. :-)
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oooh yeah! I forgot to list that one.
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Tim..

Nice new hospital...and Portsmouth Naval Hospital (the Walter Reed of the south) is 35 minutes away.

Beautiful base housing.

Quality of life??? Come on...it's the Air Force. Their quality of life is far better than the other services.
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hmm.. you talk a nice game good sir, I will make sure Langley is in the top 5 fo sho :-)
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Boston

Probably a Guard/Reserve base. Their is no base for Active Duty in Boston. Sorry!

Shaw (Columbia, SC)

Everyone I know who was stationed at Shaw loved it.

San Antonio (Randolph or Lackland)

I love San Antonio and both of those bases are legit. The base housing is pretty nice on Randolph.

USAFA

Colorado Springs, BABY! What more can you say?

Nellis (Vegas baby!)

Eh, Nellis is OK. It gets old pretty quick.
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thanks for the input Darrell, yeah, I rechecked my pharmacist duty station list, Boston isn't on it. San Antonio is close to family, but not too close, AFA would obviously be awesome, and SC seems like it'd be fun for a spell
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Congrats Tim. :-)

I have been to Randolph as a civilian contractor and that is a beautiful base.
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I should note that I still have to submit a few more forms and have my application put before the Selection Committee, but the biggest hurdle has been cleared, I'm reasonably confident the rest will work out.
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cough....

Pope AFB.....

cough......

When you're ready to quit dilly-dallying around, look into working with the PJ's or CCT's.

Then get your a$$ into JSOC.

Anything less would be....uncivilized

:-)
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I had considered Pope, what would set it apart?

also, I dunno what all that other business means, but I'll be a pharmacist, so I don't know if they would apply anyway
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They call it no hope pope for a reason. LOL. Shaw is a much better choice IMHO.

In all seriousness I would HIGHLY suggest Germany!!! Take i from a guy that was in Europe or almost 13 years. Get over there and tour the hell outta europe and you will be richly rewarded. ahhh the memories.
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I definitely want to do some time overseas, but the initial tour has to be lower 48
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Why does the initial have to be 48? Is that a AFSC thing? I know plenty of folks that did first tour overseas. Shaw is great if you love the outdoors. When I left in 06 base housing still sucked and alot of it was being torn down. Sumter county is no gem. But Myrtle Beach, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Savanah are all relatively close. Columbia is pretty decent as well.
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I'm not entirely sure, but the list I have for initial tours, for health care professionals, are all lower 48. That's ok though, my wife and I are planning on children in the next few years so we'd like to be somewhat close to family

I've been talking to some people and I've decided my top two will likely be AFA and Lackland, but I still need a few more to round out the list.
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Somehow missed this thread for the past couple days, so let me say congrats Tim. Hope everything else works out now that you've gotten past the medical clearance.

As far as bases, I don't have a whole lot of experience, I'd say try to get overseas, but seeing as your first tour will be in the CONUS, I really don't have much input (I was only CONUS for BMT and Tech School). Looking forward to seeing where you end up though.
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Congratulations, Tim.

Of the bases you listed, I only have limited experience with Lackland and the AFA. The facilities at both are decent. Peterson is also in Colorado Springs, so you may want to add that to the list for consideration.

It is my opinion that Colorado Springs has more to offer than San Antonio. Regardless of the amenities on base, you will spend most of your time in the local community. Do a little research into the towns in addition to the bases. Are you an outdoors guy? If so, the comparison just became a lot easier.
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yeah... I'm somewhat outdoorsy, but I'm pretty familiar with both cities, they're quite different for sure.

SA offers closer proximity to family, bigger city stuff (although Denver has that too), it's close to Austin so UT games would be easy to make, plenty of good mexican food, and my children can be born in Texas :-)

CS is naturally prettier, more pleasant weather for outdoor activities, Denver is only an hour away so I could get Avalanche season tickets.

I'd be happy in either place, but I'm more curious what I would be doing as a pharmacist in those places. I had forgotten about Peterson being in CS. Is it nice? big/small? etc
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Darrell mentioned no AD base up in Boston, but he forgot about Hanscom.

In my view it all depends on what you want to do. When I was young it was all about the mission and I told every Ops Officer I had to "give me 5 minutes to cash a check and buy a tooth brush and I'll go anywhere you want me to." So it didn't much matter where I was stationed, I was TDY (temporary duty) 250 days of the year.

When i got shackled with staff jobs it was nice to be at Scott AFB outside of St Louis. I love the midwest and it is right next to St Louis, or a 5 hour drive to Chicago for the long weekends. Loved my time at USAFA, Colorado is fantastic.

Never stationed at the following but in the states I spent a lot of time at, and enjoyed, McChord near Seattle: Elmendorf outside of Anchorage: Travis 1.5 hours outside of San Fran: Langley down near VA Beach; and loads of time in and around DC - Andrews, Bolling, Pentagon, and many Air Force Offices at Ft Belvoir. Eglin and/or Hurlburt down in Ft Walton Beach, FL.

In hindsight I always wanted, and wish I had gotten, a long overseas assignment. preferences would be Ramstein (Germany), Aviano (Italy), Souda Bay (Crete) - Navy Base but there are some AF billets, Mildenhall (England) - I spent a whole lot of time here. Moron (Spain) - I spent a good bit of time here as well. It is a shadow of what it was, but I believe there are still a few (very few) permanent party positions. Incirlick (Turkey) - loved it there. Yokota (Japan) - lots of time spent here as well, and loved it.

I would say try to get overseas if you get the chance. But it sounds like your AFSC will limit you on your first tour, but I would try to get overseas when you can - great opportunity many civilians will never have the chance to take advantage of.

FWIW
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Why did I think Hanscom was closed?
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