TDY Gouge - Georgia

Augusta, GA - Your typical Southern town, pretty nice place to relax after a long mission. The airport is small and easy to operate in. They will most likely park you at the base of the tower. The people at the FBO (Bush Aviation) are very helpful and have a decent flight planning area. Their frequency is the same as UNICOM (122.95), and if you can get a hold of them inbound, they will have the power cart ready upon arrival. As far as where to stay, try the riverfront. It's a nice area with nice hotels. The Country Inn Suites is a very nice place with a couple of bars nearby. You will have to talk the manager into offering you the government rate, (most places by the river are over the max lodging rate) but if you can, you will benefit from cozy rooms and a nice, scenic location. More info on Augusta Georgia.

Columbus, GA - The Wingate is a great hotel. It has fridge and micro in each room. Wi-Fi and high speed connections in the room. If you don't have a laptop, you can access the internet in the business center or through the TV in your room. Free beer and wine Mon-Thu 1800-2000. Great place to stay.

Dobbins ARB, GA - The Wyndham Garden [1-800-996-3426] is a great hotel and several Bar @ Grills within walking distance. Kastaways is a great bar and grill located near the base which is owned by a Tac Airlifter and caters to aircrews. Comfort Inn 770-952-3000 was decent. Comfort Inn is about 3 miles from the base. They offer a free continental breakfast (bagels and cereal) in the mornings and a free hourderve (sp) plate in the evenings . In the evening they also have 50 cent beers from about 5:00-6:30. Good hotel, seem like most of the hotel was military. The hotel is about half a mile down the road from Dave and Busters. We found a good bar a couple miles down franklin called All-Stars Cafe which is very close to the Wyndam. The road that the main gate to the base is on has everything else on it, just travel in either direction and there be malls and food. Do not stay at the Comfort Inn near the base. This place is ghetto. My neighbor had his car broken into overnight. The police said they get called out about every other day for a vehicle being burglarized. They also had a problem with water and the lights were not working in my room. Go to the Wingate Inn on Cobb and I-285. Newer and most rooms were suites. Never crowded and close to all the restaurants.

~Billeting on base is limited, giving you a good chance to be placed off base. Marriott’s Residence Inn on Cumberland Blvd. (770) 433-8877 (1-800-331-3131 for reservations) is 5 minutes from the base and in a great location. It's a fully loaded option to add to the Dobbins gouge for the growing school house. I was there for AC school and this place worked out great. They are an all suite hotel that has big rooms with full kitchens. FREE cold beer and food 5:30-7 on Mon-Thurs and every Weds they grill up burgers and dogs and/or something extra special for the guests. Breakfast is Tac. airlift style every morning with eggs, sausage, waffle machine etc. Free internet in all the rooms and they will give you passes to Main Event Fitness which is a great gym where a lot of NFL types work out (Hines Ward, Jamal Lewis). The pool and b-ball court are up by the club house. Very military friendly, the staff is great and going out of their way to help a lot of relocated military working out of Dobbins during hurricane Katrina relief.

Check out more information on the Dobbins C-130 Schoolhouse.

Hunter AAF, GA - If in Savannah, Don't stay on Hunter AAF! Army billeting is the worst, and this is a shining example! We stayed at the Days Inn, but if you are looking for location AND a good hotel, you might want to try the Radisson or Hyatt downtown. Days Inn had breakfast and location, but the rooms were average. If you don't want to worry about renting vehicles, Harold has his own Taxi service that will pick you up at Base Ops. 912-412-2248.

Lawson AAF, Columbus, GA - Army Basic Airborne School. Sheraton is nice hotel at a good location, but all the good deals for crew dogs are now GONE. You still get free passes and transpo to Gold's Gym. But no more free drinks, or free breakfast -- Paul the tall, English, Food and Entertainment Director, claims that no matter what, it is a "nice hotel so military people will be back..." Service was poor. As far as food goes, there is an excellent Japanese Steakhouse (Mikatas) and a great Greek/Italian restaurant (Mediterranean Cafe) across the street from the Sheraton - both boast tons of good food. Good Chinese food at Chef Lee's Peking I & II - 6100 Bradley Park Dr (706)653-8888 and at 4248 Buena Vista Rd (706)568-7554. Instead of the Sheraton, I would rather go elsewhere: there is a Courtyard by Marriott just a few blocks away, as well as a Hilton in town. Stayed at the Comfort Suites right around the block from the Sheraton, but the hotel is not of the best quality. The rooms have fridge and Micro, and also a little couch and work area, but the heating/AC unit smells like someone's smoking pot and its workout area is absolute crap. 1 broken treadmill, 1 useless bike machine, 1 ancient universal gym. Otherwise the people are nice that work there, but if I had a choice I would try somewhere else before returning there again. Continental breakfast is bare bones...and no bar to speak of. La Quinta - shady joint. Another good place is the Holiday Inn Center City - it is a bit further away, but boasts free beer and food for aircrew and will treat you like a king (or queen). Rivertown (Old Holliday Inn) has no more good deals....roaches everywhere (roaches make the wake-up calls). Well, after a couple of months of treating everyone really well with free beer and food, they won the contract with the Army for billeting folks. So, things have gone for a turn for the worse. Lost the reservations, checked us into rooms that were already full, no freebies, etc. And as we sat in the restaurant area (approx 2330L) having a few beers that we got at the gas station next door, we were entertained by the hotels trained roaches wandering around the floor and walls (final tally of 14 sightings, to include the one that woke one pilot up in the middle of the night as it crawled across his face). So, Lawson has changed.... Rocks thrown through windshield on way there. Go somewhere else.. Wingate Inn (706 225 1000) is THE place to stay in Columbus. Talk to Jan Pease (hotel manager) and she will hook you up with free beer and breakfast everyday. The service and cookies rocked! Ring the GM there Darren Phillips to hook you up. Also they will shuttle you around to what ever restaurant or bar you want to go to. We got rides to/from Hooters. Speaking of bars, Mulddons is a good one about a mile from the Wingate. The hotel also has heated pool, hot tub, gym and business center. I stayed overnight in the billeting (looks like a castle) Not bad overall. Not many places to eat on base (BK, Subways at NCO club). There is no formal crew trans here!! Had to share 2 vans between 4 aircraft! Enterprise rent-a-car closes at 6 pm! Base ops & TA were big help on everything except transportation! Ramada Limited (as in VERY limited) (3560 Highway 280 North) -rooms were nice, but no fridge/micro. The skimp on the continental breakfast. Lots of "misunderstandings" regarding contract. We were very aggravated with Sunny Rainey's promises. It's 40 minutes from Lawson, nothing close by, and in Alabama. Don't make the mistake we did by not remembering Alabama is a dry state on Sunday. ~I go to Lawson quite frequently and the last time I had to go they put us up on base. At first I was bummed, but when I moved in, they actually had better rooms than most of the downtown area. For the first time I was actually impressed that "Army" and "nice billeting" were in the same sentence. ~Sleep Inn is new and clean with fairly large rooms. Free beer/appetizers on weeknights and a decent breakfast every day, including eggs, sausage, fruit, and other continental-type items. Very close to good restaurants/bars, plus a gym pass. Highly aircrew convenient.

NOTE: Rental cars are authorized (you must arrange) and if you use 'Enterprise', they can deposit and recover the cars at Lawson Baseops.

Moody AFB, GA - I was stationed at Moody AFB for the past 5 years, and while it's not TDY hub, there are crews that need to RON there on occasion. There are three areas that they put you up: on base, off base at I-75 Exit 16, or Exit 18. If you\'re on base, you're lucky. The billeting rooms are very nice and within walking distance of the BX, commissary, shoppette, and the consolidated club. Right out the south gate is Mema's BBQ, which is quite good, and Family Pizza next to it, which is also pretty good, although the portions are fairly small. If you're at Exit 16, it's a 30-minute ride to the base, but there are a lot of restaurants in the area, Austin's Steak House being the best. If you\'re at Exit 18, plan on 25 minutes to the base, and there's a pretty good Hooters there, too. The manager, Bridget, used to be Air Force, so they treat military very well. Within steps of Hooters are the Texas Roadhouse Grill, Outback Steakhouse, and Longhorn Steakhouse, all good, but packed on weekend nights.

~Moody should have plenty of U-Drives available. The Fairfield Marriott was fine and was surrounded by lots of places to eat.... Outback, Hooters, Applebees, etc.. The Fairfield is also about 1.5 miles from the bar district associated with Valdosta State University where there is live music almost every night.

Savannah, GA - Days Inn on Bay Street (912 236-4440) was a nice hotel at an awesome location! You are about 74 steps away from River Street. Lots of good food and bars. They will give the Gov Rate.

Warner Robins, GA - Stayed at the decent Ramada on Watson across from the Super Walmart which is open 24 hours. The rooms were big but not much in them. The only freebie is no cost for 800 number calls. There are plenty of places to eat near the hotel with Waffle House being the only one open 24 hours. The Best Western next door advertised free deluxe breakfast. There is a shopping mall within walking distance of either. Base ops, the AMC ramp, command post and billeting are kinda far away from each other so plan ahead accordingly. There is no weather shop so you must call Shaw and get the brief that way. Atlanta and Six Flags are about 90 minutes away should you get stuck there. Transpo sucks. if you're aircrew, don't plan on getting a vehicle. There may be 4 or 5 vans in the lot, but forget it. We were off-base and told "we don't give vehicles to aircrew." Light at the end of the tunnel, maybe. We did talk a Msgt into letting us use a vehicle. So good luck when you come to Robbins. My advice, STAY AWAY.

~Better be patient when getting a crew bus and crew transport. They eventually showed up, and are operating 24 hours a day, but their sense of urgency is suspect. They also required two trips by sending a small mini van for 7 crew, with the driver and a trainee driver. They were very nice folks, just slower than what aircrew would want, consider ordering at least a half hour prior to when you need them. Billeting was great, big rooms across from the O-club. Transport took us out and picked up for dinner. Warner Robbins dining has been relegated to the When Pigs Fly or Sonny's Barbeque, but both were closed on this particular evening, so we were in search of something, and what a surprise to find this gem of a family owned restaurant, the Shahenshah Diner, 2028 Watson Blvd., Warner Robbins GA. 487-923-3433. It was great, Belly Dancer getting All of the patrons involved, great menu with lots to choose from, Greek, Curries, Lamb, and all wonderful. They are new and didn't have a liquor license, so the owner drove a couple of crewmembers to the local liquor store for wine and beer. Quite an enjoyable evening of feasting and dancing, so if you are in Warner Robbins and have had enough of the Barbeque, this is one restaurant experience not to be missed.

~Aside from BBQ, there are many good local places to eat in town in Warner Robins. The above mentioned Shahenshah does have a liquor license now and serves beer and wine. A recommended dish is the Lamb Korma with an Iced Chai Tea. If you go south on Highway 247, which is the road that runs parallel to base and connects all the main gates of the base, there is a small shopping center that includes La Cabana Mexican, Emilio's Cuban (so-so), and the Siagon Noodle House (highly regarded). All of these places are best for lunch or early dinner. The newest and best Asian in town is Peking Sushi, which is a ways from base, west on Watson Blvd by the Kohl's-Kroger shopping center. Sushi Thai is also a very good Asian restaurant and is closer to base on Watson near the Cracker Barrel, IHOP, and Moe's. Decent chain food is available at the aforementioned, as well as Firehouse Subs, Ruby Tuesdays, Cheddar's, Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Logan's Roadhouse, and Buffalo's.

~Bars are at a premium near base, and the best are in restaurants such as Buffalo's and Cheddar's. The old O-Club, now called Horizons Club, is passable with a minimal bar and poor food at high prices. The Class VI has a moderate selection, and is located by the BX and Commissary, which are far from Base Ops and only a bit closer to base lodging. For more selection, see Bennett's Liquor on Russell Parkway, or if you can get a vehicle hit up Galaxy Spirits on Highway 96 near Houston Lake Rd., southwest of base. Galaxy boasts the largest wine selection in Middle Georgia, and is run by a true wine and beer expert.