Difference in C-17 bases

[Guest zmanisfireproof]

Hey guys,

Assignment night is coming quick, and I can't decide how I want to rank the C-17 bases in my dream sheet! They're all pretty sweet spots, so how do I decide? If anyone out there can tell me the pros/cons of each base, that would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[Dead Last]

Hey guys,

Assignment night is coming quick, and I can't decide how I want to rank the C-17 bases in my dream sheet! They're all pretty sweet spots, so how do I decide? If anyone out there can tell me the pros/cons of each base, that would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Creech and then Cannon, YOU'LL Love it I promise

[HercDude]

PROs: seven of them are not Deleware

CONs: one of them is Deleware

[XL0901]

Hey guys,

Assignment night is coming quick, and I can't decide how I want to rank the C-17 bases in my dream sheet! They're all pretty sweet spots, so how do I decide? If anyone out there can tell me the pros/cons of each base, that would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

Umm...First, wouldn't it be nice if that was all you had to worry about?

Second...here you go.

Dover: Airland only, 1 squadron, also "My C-5m is better than your C-17"

McGuire: Airland only. 1 squadron, Talk to a McGuire guy. Unless you have a good reason to go there...

Charleston: "Best of the best...HUAH", but seriously, good location though. Airdrop/Airland

McChord: Cloudy anyone?? Hippies anyone? Airdrop/Airland

Travis: Airland. 1 Squadron

Elmo: PACAF...different ball game. Don't really deploy. Airdrop/Airland. 1 Squadron

Hickam: Da Kine Bra...Shoots, PACAF, Airdrop/Airland. 1 Squadron. Island fever??

Bottom line...it's your life, why don't you decide. Pick on mission first, location second...you won't be there much anyway. If you don't post your assignment we will all assume it's not a -17 and this was all just a waste of time.

Edited September 16, 2009 by HerkDerka
OPSEC

[HerkDerka]

"Best of the best...HUAH"

Oh my gay.

HD

[C17Driver]

Travis: Airland. 1 Squadron

But Travis is "America's First Choice". It says so on the sign when you drive onto the base.

[ChkHandleDn]

I know a lot of -17 folks hate on McGuire, but we actually love it here. We were apprehensive when we got our assignment here because all that came to mind when we heard of NJ were fist-pumping guidos, the Soprano's and "Mah new foockin' haircut!" However, it's a stone's throw away from everything. NYC is an hour train ride away. DC is 1.5 hours by train. Philly and the shore are only 45 mins away. Where else can you go to NYC for a day and Philly the next?

Yeah Charleston has "history." But after you see the downtown and the beach, what else do you have? Travis has wine tours and traffic. Hickham has surfing and island fever. McChord has rain and hippies. Elmo has snow and eskimos. And Mcguire? We have high ass property taxes, stupid jug handles, and gay gun laws. But it's not a bad assignment by any means. I actually like it better than my previous base, Hill AFB. Take that FWIW.

Good luck on your assignment.

[Butters]

McChord may have rain and hippies, but it also has Boeing and Microsoft. Boeing and Microsoft, along with America and freedom, pretty much rule.

[DFRESH]

Boeing + Microsoft + America + Freedom = Awesome.

Charleston is a cool place. I personally love the Wild Wing Cafe there (which has finally expanded and now has a location in Jacksonville, Fl!) And yes, a good wing place is a perfectly good reason to choose one city over another.

[Guest captnmo]

I'm not an Air Force guy.....yet. But have lived in the Ft. Lewis/McChord area my whole life. If you're an outdoor type, you'll love the Northwest. Weather is always between 30 and 90 degrees and low humidity. Hiking, biking, ocean, fishing, hunting, mountains, desert, rain forest (yes, rain forest)...pretty much everything. Yeah, a lot of hippies, but they're all in Seattle. Besides, Seattle and Tacoma are pretty fun towns. Sure, a lot of rain, high taxes, shitty traffic in and around Seattle, but if you can get around that, the surroundings and choice of outdoor activites are specatular. I've been around and wouldn't trade it for anywhere else.

[noodles]

McGuire-- Lots of folks live in downtown Philly. Some even live in Hoboken, NJ...across from NYC. Can't beat that...if you like city livin.

[Clayton Bigsby]

Yeah Charleston has "history." But after you see the downtown and the beach, what else do you have?

Umm, a whole lot of pvssy to chase! There's what, 4 colleges and several beaches?

McChord - believe it or not it's very sunny and not so many clouds at all for like 5 months straight, sometimes longer. 90+ degrees there is pretty rare, it's usually in the 70s or low 80s all summer, and with the exception of this past winter it usually doesn't get all that cold there, 40s-50s and rain in the winter.

Do you want to do airdrop? McChord, Charleston, Hickam, Elmo...not necessarily in that order, just those are your only opportunities for it if it's something you might like to do someday.

[spaw2001]

Ok..Well, a serious response other than the weather. Don't worry, you won't spend much time at Mcchord...I have probably done 2 landings at home station in the year I have been at McChord. If you want to fly your ass off, this is the place to go right now. Also, the general trend right now in my squadron is to send pepes to airdrop very early. I went after only 5 months of being at the base. This is definitely awesome becvause you learn the full capabilities of the jet. I do caution you all though that flying and being gone all the time sounds great when you are in pilot training, but it definitely gets tiresome after a while. The C-17 is an awesome airplane, but realize the majority of the flying is cruising for 6 hours to a destination to drop off pallets. It cand be mind numbing. With that being said, it is deinfitely the premier airlift acft we have and is capable of diverse missions. Also, it has great bases to enjoy when you are home....Bottomline, pick an airplane based on lifestyle and not how it looks or the perception you have duting UPT...Ops tempo is high right now and expect to be on the road constantly if you pick the C-17 and McChord. If you are cool with that then great! You will have a great time...If you want more stability, then carefully analyze the plane and base you pick...

[Guest wannabeflyer]

Does the amount of time the average co pilot is gone vary that much from base to base for the C-17? Is this always changing or are there certain bases that normally have a slower ops tempo? Also if you could define "gone all the time" that would be appreciated.

[C17Driver]

Does the amount of time the average co pilot is gone vary that much from base to base for the C-17? Is this always changing or are there certain bases that normally have a slower ops tempo? Also if you could define "gone all the time" that would be appreciated.

"Gone all the time" is a relative term to when individuals started flying. Some of us remember spending 28 of 30 days gone per month for 3 or 4 months in a row. We would leave on a 14 day SRT. RTB on the 14th day, have 24 hours and then leave on another 14 day trip. Repeat for 2 years (not always non stop due to schools (Airdrop, PME) and guys would time out with flight hours, but it was pretty constant. Now co's are usually flying 1 10 to 14 day trip per month...maybe 1.5 trips per month. Of course this doesn't count when the squadron is deployed (for 120+) every 16ish months.

[Guest zmanisfireproof]

Thanks for the info everyone. A lot of what you said has helped me make a better decision. I think right now, I'm kinda leaning towards putting Hickam first, followed by Dover, McGuire, then Charleston. McChord would be fifth, then Elmo and Travis at the bottom. I'm from the east coast, so, besides Hickam, I was thinking of going back to the east. But after reading some of your posts, I think I should put some of the airdrop bases pretty high on the list since I'm really interested in doing that. Either way, all of the bases seem like a sweet deal to me.

Can anyone explain a little bit more about the missions and lifestyles at McGuire and Dover? How far is DC from Dover? My wife is a social worker and said she could get a sweet job in DC if we were to get -17's at Dover, but I don't know anything about that place yet. Being in the middle of nowhere right now at UPT, I was thinking that McGuire would be nice, considering I would be close to NYC and Philly. But who knows. Maybe I'll end up UPT part 2.. uh, I mean getting FAIP'd...

[noodles]

Given your wife's job there would be ample job opps in the Phia area...far closer than DC to Dover. You could live in Philly or in the Philly suburbs in NJ. Either way you'd be set.

[spaw2001]

You probably already know, but Dover and McGuire don't have airdrop and there are not a ton of Hickam drop downs. Depending how much you want to do Air drop, I definitely recommend picking bases accordingly. Realize that if you don't go to airdrop during your first assignment, chanced of going are pretty small. There is a "window" where they normally send you to copilot airdrop. When you're a second assignment IP, that window is normally long gone. Btw, I whole-heartedly recommend picking a base with AD. It is by far the coolest thing the airplane does and deployed airdrops in afghanistan are badass. There is nothing like directly supporting the troops and working with other assets, services, etc...

[Guest CA]

I live outside Baltimore towards PA and it takes me a little over 1.5 hours to get to Dover. "DC" is a general term, you can get there from Baltimore in an hour if you're just going to the outskirts, otherwise it's 1.5-2 hours with traffic. So you're looking at 3+ hours from Dover to DC, not worth it unless she's flying herself in everyday.

Edited September 17, 2009 by CA

[zrooster99]

It is by far the coolest thing the airplane does and deployed airdrops in afghanistan are badass.

(Warning, rhetorical questions to follow): Yeah, but how often do you really do real world drops, and how much time do you spend at home station training vice doing the airland mission? How much does AC airdrop at Altus suck? My point is, AD is not all sweet flying and supporting the troops. On the other hand, the airland mission is pretty sweet, you still do low levels (which are plenty fun), and you don't spend as much time at home training.

Edited September 17, 2009 by zrooster99

[BADFNZ]

How often do C-17s do low levels compared to the C-130? Do either actually do low levels outside of training?

[Karl Hungus]

I'm not a C-17 guy, so I admit I know little about what you all do... but what's the point of practicing low levels at an airland only place? Is there that big of a demand for low level infiltration to land on a dirt strip and offload? Couldn't they roll that into the airdrop mission? Not bashing, just curious.

As for the C-17 bases, you really can't go wrong at any (except Altus, of course). I think the people who bash on McGuire have some weird hatred for the northeast, don't like the weather, or don't like the base itself... and I'd bet a lot of those live on base (puke) or in dirty Jerz. If you're single and choose to live in suburbia over one of the biggest cities in the country, then I've got no sympathy for you. I can understand if you're married/ have kids I guess, and then the Jersey suburbia is basically the same as any other in the country with the exception of having a terribly designed road system. McGuire is one of the few AF places that allows you to live in a real city. The commute is well worth it, probably why tons of new people coming in are flocking to Philly. You can always do the suburb thing later in life.

[Guest CA]

McGuire is one of the few AF places that allows you to live in a real city. The commute is well worth it, probably why tons of new people coming in are flocking to Philly. You can always do the suburb thing later in life.

I'd enjoy McGuire or Dover. Both are great locations. As far as living in Philly and commuting to McGuire.. That's more than an hour drive. I hate driving that far to work, it takes away so much time from being at home with my wife and kid. I'd rather live just outside of base a couple of miles.

[Karl Hungus]

I'd enjoy McGuire or Dover. Both are great locations. As far as living in Philly and commuting to McGuire.. That's more than an hour drive. I hate driving that far to work, it takes away so much time from being at home with my wife and kid. I'd rather live just outside of base a couple of miles.

More than an hour drive? Do you drive 35mph? I do the commute daily and it takes me 40-50 minutes depending on traffic. Driving from Cherry Hill or Mt. Laurel or whatever still takes 30 minutes, 15 extra minutes is easily worth it. To each their own... having a family changes everything, but I get a kick out of the single dudes/ chicks who live in Jersey and then complain about having to drive to Philly on the weekends.

[rdo0022]

Some folks have said that there is a specific window for people starting the AD courses. How do FAIPs fall into this window or do they not do AD that much?