TDY Gouge - North Carolina

MCAS Cherry Point, NC - Holiday Inn (252)444-1111 was nice. Great Buffet, close to McD's, BK Lounge, and a great pizza place called Mario's. Decent rooms, awesome staff, within Govt. rate. Great nightly buffet, cheap too. We got a deal for $4 pitchers of domestic. 20 minutes from the beach and great seafood places in Beaufort. Sheraton (New Bern) was a great hotel. Only about 15 min cab ride from Cherry Point. Very nice hotel. Walking distance to Outback. Great bar and restaurant. Shuttle service provided to the New Bern airport every half and hour or so.

MacKall AAF, NC -I f you are ever stuck out at Mackall AAF, NC for any reason it is possible to get transportation from Sand Hills taxi service into Southern Pines, NC which is about 15 minutes away. I have misplaced the card but all you need to do is call the Hampton Inn and they will send them out to get you. Southern Pines, NC has over thirty golf courses and the Hampton is located near Enterprise Rent-a-car, multiple restaurants and a an excellent gentleman's club within walking distance. Believe it or not it is a much better destination than Pope AFB and their bad BOQ rooms. The only thing is that you are quite a distance away from any type of maintenance support and this would only be one of those places to be if you were broken like we were a couple of days ago.

Pope AFB, Fayetteville, NC - TDY to Pope. Innkeeper, Crosscreek - across from the mall. Several hotels are available in Spring Lake - real close to base, but NOT in a fine part of town. Sleep Inn 910-436-6700 was clean and furnishings new and employees friendly. They have free internet access, free local calls and bake cookies for you. Continental Breakfast included. -Had good Mongolian BBQ at b&d's Mongolian BBQ. It is by the Innkeeper. It cost $12.99 for all you can eat. It has a great selection of meats and veggies. Had great BBQ at the 'Red, Hot & Blue" in Fayetteville, 867-2810. Get the Wet Ribs or Pulled Pork. Another great hotel is the Fairfield Inn at the CrossCreek mall - it is right at the shopping mall and near a bunch of restaurants plus less than 20 minutes from No Hope Pope. ~Holiday Inn Express (910 436-1900/ 910 436-9483) was a nice new hotel in Spring Lake. Most rooms have free T-1 cable internet connection. (Just bring net card and adapter.) Customer appreciation night on Wednesday includes free beverages in the lobby. Nice pool and cable television. Eat at the MASHHouse on Sycamore-Dairy. Good beer and good food. Also, Luigi's on McPhearson-Church is exceptional Italian Food. ~Days Inn at I-95 (910) 738-6401 was a dump. Worst hotel I've ever stayed in. People were smoking pot in the rooms next to some of the crew and the ENTIRE staff had a horrible attitude. This is very close to FAY, but about 45 minutes from POB. If you stay this far out, go to Smithfield's BBQ in Hope Mills. It's about 20 minutes from the hotel. Take I95 South to NC 59. Go west through town. It's past the Wal-Mart on the left (behind McDonald's). Get the BBQ platter. Enterprise Rental Car on Yadkin road sucks! Don't count on them. In almost every instance that our crews have rented cars over the past three years there was a problem. IE: Reserve two cars yet only one is delivered. Reserve a car and none is delivered. They drop off a car at Pope base ops that is littered with trash and only has 1/16th tank of gas in it. Recommend use the Enterprise Rental Car located at the Fort Bragg PX - (910)436-5200. You'll have better luck.

~Note to aircrew: Mr. Luther (Prime Knight guy) has now gone completely off his rocker! He claims that the '24hr rule' is superseded by some AFI that he refuses to quote. best bet: Just bypass him completely or go to billeting yourself.

~update: Landmark Inn is now a dump! --I'm not a flyer, and found your site by accident. I'm an SF guy outbound on PCS, but thought you might want to know. The landmark inn is no longer new, was obviously built by DEH at Bragg, and quickly deteriorating into the appearance and service of the Airborne inn which is the biggest MWR scam in the area, and a dump. For $63.00 a night (only if you are on orders) you get, attitude from the staff, the same pubic hairs in the bathrooms day after day (that were there when you move in), Army barracks conditions, internet service that no one on the staff knows anything about other than collection of money, and handing out codes. I wouldn't recommend this place to anyone, especially with family. They claim it is civilian owned. I'm sure it is, but there is definitely an attitude that well, they are only soldiers they will accept anything and not complain about it. The post is closed, and I can't imagine a civilian going out of his/her way to stay on a closed installation and go through the hassle of getting on and off post. You can get more for the same price downtown. Good luck.

~Update 05Apr2008: We stayed at 4 different places over 8 days. The Baymont Inn and Suites was just crap. Not close to base, not close to entertainment, currently under construction and we were woken up twice (while flying night lines) at 0730 to the sounds of power drills coming through our walls. The Landmark Inn on base made it convenient being nearby, but it smelled like an Army barracks. The Jameson Inn of Sanford was the best place- but it was about 40 minutes from base. There's a couple restaurants right outside the hotel and the rooms were pretty nice. Overall, Fayetteville still sucks. Try not to break there if at all possible. The nearest sports bar is "Itz", not far from the base. Its usually packed on the weekends. Pope's MX service also left a little to be desired after we broke the third time.

Good to know phone numbers for Pope AFB:

Pope AFB DSN424 / (910)394-1110

41AS DSN424 / (910)394-694043AW CP X 9000

41AS Staneval X 698543AW Current Ops X 7383 / 7386

41AS DO X 695343AW Wing Staneval X 7654

41AS Fax # X 694443AW WX shop X 6543

Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC - Overnight at Seymour, we stayed at the Jameson Inn, www.jamesoninns.com , in Goldsboro. It was a nice resort. (919) 778-9759 Nice place, only 10 min drive from the base, and right next to a Outback Steakhouse and Ruby Tuesday's. Staff was very nice, and they have a good (and free) continental breakfast in the lobby. Across the highway (10 min walk) is a WalMart SuperCenter and a couple other restaurants. You also might want to check out the Hampton Inn and Holiday Inn Express in Goldsboro. They looked decent and they're right across the street from the same Wally World. Hampton Inn Goldsboro 919-778-1800/919-778-5891 was a Palace! Great staff! Every time I go there the faces are the same. They call me by name and know what I like. Free Highspeed internet in all rooms, great free breakfast, free pass to YMCA. Coin Laundry (only hotel in city that has one) free popcorn and cookies. Great location! ~Hampton Inn (919 778-1800 / FAX919 778-5891) was a palace! Jameson and Holiday Inn allow pets - these hotels are not as clean as they should be. Didn't like animals in the breakfast area. Barking and putting their noses on the tables. One lady at the Jameson let her dog eat off the table. I finally tried the Hampton and it was great. No animals and friendly staff. They have the same staff members working every time I check in. That wasn't the case at the other hotels. Great hotel and I won't stay anywhere else.