Best deployment location.....and why

[sputnik]

Alright, my unit is trying to get some people together for an AEF rotation to Al Sahra Airfield. I know nothing about this place (mainly because it has never been mentioned here).

Can anyone vouch for the place? Is it a tent city or does it have hard facilities? Is it full of shoes like the Died? Any and all info is appreciated.

Please help a young enlisted troop, sooner rather than later. I need to give my superiors a solid answer tomorrow.

I spent six months there in 06. It's about 95% Army there the only AF was the TACPs, a Red Horse unit, and the Port guys. Personally I prefer the Army when deployed, or at least during that deployment. The port was in the middle of the AF, pretty much on their own. Self contained squadron. Army chow halls, much better than the AF ones I visited in AOR. Gym was decent. BX, all the usual MWR stuff if you got the time off. Base is massive, very spread out. You guys are totally on your own, have to drive to get anywhere. Both a blessing and a curse. Like I said, been a few years for me, but it wasn't very busy, at most a half dozen flights a day. If you got a unit swap out, more. But most of the time it was pretty slow. I was buds with the CC over there and used to swing by once in a while, he was kind of bored. There is a full up ADACG there to handle pax and cargo processing, so AF just handled AF load/unload and the C2 stuff. So, bad--no. Boring--quite possibly.

Base is outside Tikrit, close enough to hear gunfire but that's about it. We didn't get shelled that much. Used to be the Iraqi AF Academy so there's all the old family housing (you won't be in it, other side of base). There's a pool. Unfortuantely 4ID used it as a tank bath in 03 and it hasn't worked since. Pretty cool stadium that 4ID used as target practice with chain guns, again not so functional but it made running stairs more interesting than your typical stadium.

PM me if you have more specific question or want some photos.

[pcola]

"3" for the Royal Sun...some of the best strip clubs are in Souda...many, many Russion and Hungarian chicks with tits hard as a rock.

In the C-21, we seldom deploy, however, I've had the opportunity to RON at the following kick-ass locations OCONUS:

Mexico City (Mexico)

Rio De Janerio (Brazil)

La Paz (Bolivia)

Panama City (Panama)

Grand Caymen (Spain)

Lima (Peru)

Lajes (Portugal)

Rota (Spain)

Moron (Spain)

Barcelona (Spain)

Lisbon (Portugal)

Grand Canary (Spain)

Tunis (Tunisia)

Entebbe (Uganda)

Cairo (Egypt)

Souda Bay (Creete)

Athens (Greece)

Istanbul (turkey(

Bodo (Norway)

Stavanger (Norway)

Helsinki (Finland)

Casement (Dublin, Ireland)

Mildenhall (UK)

Lakenheath (UK)

RAF Waddington (UK)

RAF Lyneham (UK)

RAF Brascomb Down (UK - 3 miles fom Stonehenge)

Prestwick (Scotland)

Edinburgh (Scotland)

Prague (Czech Rep)

Krakow (Poland)

Vienna (Austria)

Bratislavia (Slovakia)

Riga (Latvia)

Vilinius (Lithuania)

Moscow (Russia)

St Petersberg (Russia)

Kiev (Ukraine)

Tel Aviv (Israel)

Tblisi (Georgia - brought back grenades used in Bush assasination attempt)

Budapest (Hungary)

Constanta (Romania)

Bucharest (Romania)

Burgas (Bulgaria)

Aviano (Italy)

Naples (Italy)

Pisa (Italy)

Palma De Mallorca (Spain)

Keflavik (Iceland)

St Johns (Canada)

Many other "standard" locations (Stuggart, Berlin, etc)....C-21 assignments have to be one of the best gigs in the AF. I'm gonna definately miss it!!

-Cheers

Agree, it doesn't count as a "deployed location" topic, but I've been flying the lear out of ETAR for 2 1/2 years now and I can vouch for 90% of those locations (minus the South America stuff), plus some equally as interesting (Rome; Chisnau, Moldova; Izmir, Turkey; Ankara, Turkey; Geneva, Munich, Brussels, Paris, Oslo; Bahrain; Goose Bay, Canada; Sicily; Cyprus; Amsterdam, etc.) The list goes on. Flying the Lear in Germany is an awesome assignment and I recommend it to any of you heavy drivers out there. Consider putting it on your ADP, you know what they say, you definitely WONT get it if you dont put ask. We've got people from all backgrounds (C-5s, C-17s, C-130s, KC-135s, KC-10s.) If you and/or your spouse likes to travel, it beats the hell out of any other white jet tour I've heard of.

[amcflyboy]

Christchurch, New Zealand (for a peacetime deployment).

Figures someone would say that...meanwhile I'm down here freezing my balls off at McMurdo.

[Guest BAK12]

I spent six glorious months in Balad Air Base. Aside from getting mortars getting lobbed at us every hour, wasn't all that bad...

Edited November 5, 2008 by BAK12

[Guest BAK12]

Oh, almost forgot; the reflective belt policy is alive and well there too....Nothing like being lit up like a Christmas tree in a combat zone....

[HuggyU2]

Anywhere with another U-2 pilot in the bar.

[busdriver]

Whoever gets to "deploy" to Souda, you suck and I hate you.

That said, Kandahar is actually pretty good as far as desert bases go. We were basically shunned by big blue there, and did our own thing. There are so many various nationalities there that you can get away with just about anything and the food was pretty good (06 time frame). Yes, they mortared us frequently, but the upside was that we got left alone, no sock nazis, no reflective belts and no visits by O-6+ with nothing better to do. We wore civilian hiking boots, two piece flight suits (after big blue had already told us no) and ball caps and no one cared. Nothing like being able to do the mission without being hassled.

[flyguy2181]

Camp Lemonier, Djibouti -

- the volunteer opprotunities off-base (orphanages and english discussion groups)

- the opprotunities to get involved with other services (flew on C-26 and CH-53s, trips to aircraft carriers and watching live fire F-18 bomb excercises)

- travel opprotunities (1 wk Safari and trips to Ethiopia & Rwanda),

- working w/ foreign militaries (french air force/french foreign legion)

- MWR (scuba diving trips, fishing trips)

all in four months....great if you can tolerate the hot, humid, crappy weather

[JarheadBoom]

Camp Lemonier, Djibouti -

- the volunteer opprotunities off-base (orphanages and english discussion groups)

- the opprotunities to get involved with other services (flew on C-26 and CH-53s, trips to aircraft carriers and watching live fire F-18 bomb excercises)

- travel opprotunities (1 wk Safari and trips to Ethiopia & Rwanda),

- working w/ foreign militaries (french air force/french foreign legion)

- MWR (scuba diving trips, fishing trips)

all in four months....great if you can tolerate the hot, humid, crappy weather

Just watch out for the trips to the Godoria Range...

[Murph]

Al Udeid, for the chicks.

[CharlieHotel47]

On 11/6/2008 at 4:02 AM, busdriver said:

Whoever gets to "deploy" to Souda, you suck and I hate you.

 

That said, Kandahar is actually pretty good as far as desert bases go. We were basically shunned by big blue there, and did our own thing. There are so many various nationalities there that you can get away with just about anything and the food was pretty good (06 time frame). Yes, they mortared us frequently, but the upside was that we got left alone, no sock nazis, no reflective belts and no visits by O-6+ with nothing better to do. We wore civilian hiking boots, two piece flight suits (after big blue had already told us no) and ball caps and no one cared. Nothing like being able to do the mission without being hassled.

11 yr old bump...

Wondering what the best/worst locations for the 135s guys are these days. I am a 47 driver jumping over to the tanker community. Only place I got to experience while in the Army and outside of the US was good ole Kanhadar. 

@busdriver. FYI, KAF has not changed much since your above description North line chow hall has descent food still, along with everything else you said. I was there '13 and again '17-'18. The experience might have varied from an Army point of view, been close to the flag pole sucked and army leadership loved to fuss at us about PT belts, eyepro, blousing deblousing pants for the flyer types, etc. Nothing like standing in line for chow after an 8hr ash-trash mission, only to get your ass chewed by some FOBed Sgt. Major. about your pants being unbloused. All while there might be a group of Air Force tanker dudes standing next to us wearing ball caps, with pants unbloused, laughing at us. We weren't allowed to wear ball caps. Only person who wore a ball cap in our task force was our SWO (air force dude).  On a side note, KAF is now about half the size of what it used to be. Some areas look like zombie land with trash and crap all over the place. 

Edited September 23, 2019 by CharlieHotel47

[Scooter14]

If you’re going Guard there 47, it’ll be old home week.

[baileynme]

I'm a huge fan of Incirlik as a 135 dude. Can't go off base but you live in a house, have good Turkish restaurants, and an open Class 6.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Baseops Network mobile app

[tac airlifter]

6 hours ago, CharlieHotel47 said:

11 yr old bump...

Wondering what the best/worst locations for the 135s guys are these days. I am a 47 driver jumping over to the tanker community. Only place I got to experience while in the Army and outside of the US was good ole Kanhadar. 

@busdriver. FYI, KAF has not changed much since your above description North line chow hall has descent food still, along with everything else you said. I was there '13 and again '17-'18. The experience might have varied from an Army point of view, been close to the flag pole sucked and army leadership loved to fuss at us about PT belts, eyepro, blousing deblousing pants for the flyer types, etc. Nothing like standing in line for chow after an 8hr ash-trash mission, only to get your ass chewed by some FOBed Sgt. Major. about your pants being unbloused. All while there might be a group of Air Force tanker dudes standing next to us wearing ball caps, with pants unbloused, laughing at us. We weren't allowed to wear ball caps. Only person who wore a ball cap in our task force was our SWO (air force dude).  On a side note, KAF is now about half the size of what it used to be. Some areas look like zombie land with trash and crap all over the place. 

Regarding bolded above... North DFAC at KAF has better than “decent food.”  I’ll wager it’s the best chow hall in any AOR.  They have 6 kinds of espresso.  They have a dude who walks around handing out samples of grilled meat.  They have a RipIt slurpy machine with 4 flavors.  Don’t undersell it man!  I’m not someone who likes KAF, but it’s a damn fine chow hall.

[CharlieHotel47]

10 hours ago, tac airlifter said:

Regarding bolded above... North DFAC at KAF has better than “decent food.”  I’ll wager it’s the best chow hall in any AOR.  They have 6 kinds of espresso.  They have a dude who walks around handing out samples of grilled meat.  They have a RipIt slurpy machine with 4 flavors.  Don’t undersell it man!  I’m not someone who likes KAF, but it’s a damn fine chow hall.

The slurpy machine was not there about a year ago. Maybe it was just installed. Never tried the espresso machines. Overall, I am happy to retract my statement above. All the other stuff you said were true. The dude walking around handing samples was awesome. In my defense, I've only been fortunate to sample the great cuisine at KAF. Haven't been able to travel the far reaches of the AOR yet. Hopefully soon. cheers

[ViperStud]

Is there still a rated (albeit a pounder gig) position at Eskan?  That place is cush.  I was downtown or going to steak night at the embassy every other day.  Hardship mid-tour TDY to Jeddah was rough.

[HossHarris]

Egypt ETSS gig was better than Saudi 

[SocialD]

Best deployment...Tallinn, Estonia.  Even better if you score it in the summer!  

[nsplayr]

Had a buddy "deploy" to Curacao flying the -135. I thought he was on vacation when I saw pics of him and his wife snorkeling haha. Not sure if that even counts but it seemed pretty damn sweet.

[Bergman]

7 hours ago, nsplayr said:

Had a buddy "deploy" to Curacao flying the -135. I thought he was on vacation when I saw pics of him and his wife snorkeling haha. Not sure if that even counts but it seemed pretty damn sweet.

Yup.  Best trips ever.  We’d work the schedule to have one crew fly the first week and the other fly the second, effectively giving you a week paid vacation.  The diving is the best I’ve ever done.

Amazing how one good-deal trip like that made up for a lot of time in the sandbox.  Now almost all of the good deals are gone, including Curaçao.

[Sua Sponte]

9 hours ago, Bergman said:

Yup.  Best trips ever.  We’d work the schedule to have one crew fly the first week and the other fly the second, effectively giving you a week paid vacation.  The diving is the best I’ve ever done.

Amazing how one good-deal trip like that made up for a lot of time in the sandbox.  Now almost all of the good deals are gone, including Curaçao.

Fairchild started going on that good deal AFTER I had just PCS'd to Altus. I've always been horrible with timing.

[Gazmo]

KAF is decent. Better than the Deid by far. Food is great. People leave you alone. Weather is better than the Deid. Rocket attacks have been few and far in between. Dynamic sorties from a tanker perspective. Not much to do on off days, but go and fly your arse off and your 30-60 days will go quickly.