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Tank... There are several T-6 drivers, me included, who have boats - Malibu, Tahoe, Moomba, etc...nothing as large as your boat. DO NOT put your boat in Lake Columbus unless you want to flush your entire engine 4-5 times, plan on hitting a submerged tree, run over a log, etc. Best thing around here for fishing by far, but, not for "pleasure boats". Most of us run our boats on Lake Tuscaloosa - VERY nice lake, but, a bit choppy. Lake Lowndes is also close, but probably too small for your boat. There is no public swimming in Lake Lowndes, but I use it for maintenance / burning gas. Two boats max on Lowndes and then it gets crowded. The Rez is down in Jackson - about 2.5 hours away - and is the same distance as Pickwick. We have Verizon, and it is the best service around. Don't change. The city school system here is PATHETIC....read: anything that feeds into Columbus High School. Depending on your financial situation, there are 2 private school options: Heritage Academy and Emmanual Baptist. I know for a fact several parents who pulled their kids out of Heritage and put them in Emmanual. Heritage is MUCH larger than Emmanual....less than 10% of the base populace sends their kids to these schools. The most popular school district is Lowndes County ISD, which consists of West Lowndes (aka ghetto), New Hope (about 30 minute drive) and the MOST popular schools - Caledonia (which is where we send our kids). We have a 5th grader, and the Elementary School is fantastic...just received the states top honors, etc. Caledonia is probably recognized as the best option in the area. What you'll find is that the jobs available are hit or miss. If you want to live close to the jobs, you are looking at the poor school district. If you are looking at Subdivisions -- Sherwood Forest area is popular (mostly married w/no kids though), about 8 minutes to the base. This subdivision feeds into the CIty schools - but is closer to the town. Oakdale Park is also very popular, and is where we live - feeds into Caledonia. Housing market here is "eh"? More things to rent than buy (check out www.militarybyowner.com or www.ahrn.com). No need to go thru a realtor if you plan to rent. We found our house by miracle. Listed as "For Sale by Owner" and had been on the market for nearly 6 months. No bites, and the owners (who are military) had to front two mortgages. We signed a 2 yr lease to ease their burden...so, if you see something you like, and you want to rent, call the owner and ask! If you see something you like, PM me the area and I'll tell you what I know. What type of job are you looking?

Advice you didn't ask for and probably don't want to hear, but I wish I had heard it when I was a new Lt: Do not take out any kind of loans. Period. If you want something, save for it. If you need a car, get something you can pay cash for, and then take what you would be paying on a car payment and save that away until you have enough to "upgrade" at a later date. Contrary to popular belief, you do not HAVE to have a car loan/personal loan like it's some sort of pet. Avoid debt and use that sweet income you are going to be making to pile up cash. Start maxing out a ROTH IRA ($5,000/year = $416.66/month). Avoid credit cards like the plague even if they offer sweet sounding "rewards". I know this involves some delaying of pleasure and sounds boring but you are only cheating yourself if you don't start right away. For those of you that would talk about the ridiculously low interest rates and how you can take advantage of them -- well, probably not much I can say to you other than people who are millionaires (which you can be) didn't get there by taking advantage of low interest loans and credit card rewards. If you do insist on borrowing money, pay it back ASAP (like, double-triple payments at a minimum). As a borrower, you are slave to the lender. Finally, the most valuable book (in my opinion, and no, I don't work for him, but I am a huge believer in his ideas) is Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover". Go buy it off of Amazon. Yesterday. Seriously. It's the best thing you can read this early in your career. Best of luck and congrats on making it this far.

FIFY.