Rucker Information needed

[WaterRooster]

So a few random questions for the guys that are down there right now. I haven't been able to find these anywhere really so perhaps you can help me out.

 

Time to upgrade the phone, so with the iPhone 5 coming out its a toss up between AT&T and Verizon. What seems to work the best down in that area? I have AT&T right now, but get off the beaten path and ouch.

 

Enterprise seems to be the place to live, at least with the better off post living options. How is that gate for getting on post? Pretty busy I would imagine, also how is the drive across post?

 

This is for the NG guys, but anyone can go at it, but.... I haven't been on an active duty post for more then a few weeks outside of basic training 8 years ago. All the other active time I have has been overseas. Whats it like to live on or be so close to an active post? Lots of salutes, going the speed limit and learning to deal with stopping your car at 5pm is what I am imagining. Any insight would be awesome.

 

Another little things you can think of would be awesome. I'm just trying to get an idea of what it will be like to be there for over a year. It will be a big change to be active CONUS I am sure. Thanks!

[heloidaho]

Cell service: Verizon. You can even get 4G signals from Dothan.

 

Places to live: Most off post people do live in Enterprise. I'd take a hard look at living on post, personally. I love it. The first month is free. No utility bills. And you're 10 minutes from work through basically any phase of training, from BOLC, to primary and instruments, to your advanced track. The on post housing is nice and the communities are great. Out in Enterprise most people live in cookie cutter town homes. None of the gates, however, get crazy backed up. Rucker is a pretty small post, so the lines aren't crazy.

 

Base life: I'm NG, and I came from the Air Force, so this was my first time living on post. It is really, really mellow. The base is very top heavy on rank, so you do a little saluting, but no more than anywhere else I've been. I go weeks without tossing one out there, typically. You do have to go the speed limit and stop your car at 5am. B Co 1/145th is really up in arms about traffic violations right now. If you get any sort of ticket as a flight school student. Like failure to completely stop at a stop sign or backing out of a parking spot without your seat belt on, you'll most likely have your on base driving privileges revoked for a week and have to write an essay. This is regardless of where your residence is or where you are at in training.

 

Overall, the base life is really chill and I like it. I try to leave base as little as possible because I don't enjoy Alabama very much. Things on post seem more sane than off.

 

Lots of people talk about wanting to live off post so they "don't have to be military all the time", but the fact of life here is that regardless of if you live on or off post, your neighbors will most likely be in flight school or work at Fort Rucker. So you're just changing your neighborhood around.

 

Just my 2 cents. Let me know if you have any other questions or what not. I'll be here another 5 months.

[heloidaho]

Noticed a typo: with stopping your car, that is twice a day, basically. Reveille in the morning and retreat in the evening. It is no big deal.

[akscott60]

The above posts are golden. Use Verizon and live on post.

[rob.]

Yep. Living on post is so convenient.

[WaterRooster]

Thank for the info guys! its just little things to try and figure out really. As for living on post, I wish I could. My girlfriend/Fiance of 4 years is coming with so unless we get married(I'm ok before we go, her well...she has girl plans for a wedding haha) it isn't going to be a possibly from what I understand. So Enterprise is probably going to be where I end up.

 

So i am NG and will be PCS moving down there would you say it is better to come a few weeks early to get moved in and established before checking in at WOCS? Also after WOCS the only time you are lock downed is in SERE correct?

 

Thanks again for all the info. You can find all the Big ticket information, but the devil is in the details as they say.

[heloidaho]

She can still live on post. People do it all the time. She wouldn't have a military ID to go to the commissary / PX, but she can come and go from post as she pleases. You'll just have to get a place to yourself and not get a military roommate.

 

I PCS'd before WOCS and moved all my stuff down. I was here about a week early, but I had a place to store my stuff. I didn't get housing until after WOCS. That will be the tricky thing. You might have to get a storage unit.

 

Your Guard unit is going to cut you orders to PCS. Until you have those orders in hand, you can't leave. Getting here a week early was all I could manage. It does help getting here a little early to knock out items on the WOCS packing list, but if you're missing things you'll have your Snow Bird phase to try and get them. If you are missing big items from the packing list, it won't keep you out of WOCS. Might just add a tad to your stress level.

 

And yes, SERE and WOCS are the only locked down courses. WOCS you typically get 2 Sundays of a little bit of freedom. SERE you get 21 days without so much as a phone call. The time goes quick for both.

Edited September 5, 2012 by heloidaho

[SBuzzkill]

Almost all of my friends that lived on post wished they didn't. I'm f*cking glad that I decided to live in Enterprise and not on post. Yeah sure, my neighbors were flight school students, but my streets weren't patrolled by MPs and breaking the rules at my neighborhood pool only got me in trouble with nobody. I enjoyed stepping out my front door and running the streets with earbuds in my ears and in my civilian clothes even though it was PT hours.

Edited September 6, 2012 by SBuzzkill

[akscott60]

I enjoyed the short commute, no a**hole loud partying neighboors, and how quiet Rucker is. I rarely saw MPs on my street, but I was on a short street with a dead end.

 

Its school. Make or break school. I am happy I lived on post, then, and now I am happy I live off.

 

To each his own.

[heloidaho]

Two sides to every coin. Just depends on preference.

 

I've never seen a MP on my street or been harrassed about running with ear buds. Course I seldom run during the PT hours. When I do I don't mind the gear. Who likes short shorts? I do, I do! Haha.

[SBuzzkill]

I was being dramatic. It's a nice to be able to leave the gate at the end of the day and see post in the rear view.

[av8rnik]

SBuzzkill, those that didnt like being on post, did any of them have spouses/kids?

[SBuzzkill]

Split in thirds between singles, married couples, and families. They had issues with the housing quality, living on post and being farther away from the weekend scene, wanting more of a rural scene, wanting to be closer to Dothan, etc. Some guys got lucky and had great houses on post and others ended up in cheap old houses. Personally, I was not impressed with most of the places my friends lived and I had more privacy living in a townhouse.

 

My advice to someone moving to Rucker is to spend some time searching off post before you get locked in to living on post. Travel time from wherever you live will be constant year round since you don't have snow to deal with and the lines at the gates are rarely more than a 10 minute wait. I enjoyed living in Enterprise and would be glad to live there again although it will be one of your more expensive options.

[av8rnik]

if there is an issue or something, can you move on/off post or are you locked in for a certain period of time?

[WaterRooster]

Lots of info here so thank you very much for that. The funny thing is that moving from Chicago, paying 1100 a month to rent a house is amazing! There here gets you a 700sqft 1 bedroom with nothing included haha So with my girlfriend also working down there it seems like not a bad deal in comparison. A few more that I had thought about...

 

Registering a vehicle to get the sticker? Is that just done at any gate or does it have to be a specific gate?

 

On the holds in between classes, I am assuming that you will be placed on duty that you have no choice over. So it would be PT at 5am and then off to Duty till 5 pm? Its a never having been on Active duty other then deployments kinda thing.

[SBuzzkill]

Same shock happened to me when I moved down there from Seattle. I literally lived in a 700 square foot 1 bedroom apartment in Seattle and for the same price down in Alabama got a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath 1500sqft townhouse.

 

When I went through the details on hold varied greatly for everyone. Some guys were on 5 days a week, some guys like me never got assigned a permanent detail at all and just did a day here and a morning there.

Edited September 8, 2012 by SBuzzkill

[heloidaho]

On post, or off post housing, have leases. So you would have to do your year lease or what not. If you get a roommate on post, and that relationship with the roommate isn't working out, you can get into a new house, but only on post.

 

In regards to vehicle stickers.... they have done away with them. Congratulations. One less hassle. Just have valid registration and insurance should you get searched at the gate on entry. They just check your ID, be it military or civilian. I often just hand my driver's license and not my military ID without issue.

 

You schedule on holds will vary depending on the detail you get. You will get a detail. It is just life here. Some are worse or longer than others, but almost none of them result in 40 hours of work a week. Most are less than 20 unless you get a lot of casual duty officer shifts or flat iron duty.

 

When on hold, you do have to go to PT. There is a commander's PT exemption program, so if you work your butt off to get in shape in WOCS, don't let it slide before you do your entry PT test at B Co 1/145th. If you can score over 90 in each event, you don't have to go to PT every morning. Over 270 is like 3 days a week, over 280 is 2 days a week, over 290 is only Fridays, and if you get a 300 or more you don't have to go at all.

 

It is really doable. I came into WOCS with a 245 PT test and left with like a 287. Then worked hard the 2 weeks after WOCS and ended up with a 290 something. I've hardly had PT since I've been here. And believe me, less time at organized PT is a good, good thing.

[Bobsyouruncle]

I would recommend living close, those 4 AM busses make for a long day if you have a commute. I lived on post and didn't see any of the things Sbuzzkill is talking about. I did PT in civilian clothes during PT hours, ran with earphones and never really saw any MP's.

 

I wanted things simple to focus on flying and at Rucker housing mows your lawn for you and you are 5 minutes from the bus. There's some good houses just off post also, whatever you like.

[fatbretcantjump]

I've got a question along this same line.

 

I have a cat. I'd like to keep her, if possible. Once I'm through with WOCS, is there any way you guys can see that happening?

 

On base or off.

[SBuzzkill]

Of course. The only time it will be an issue after WOCS is during SERE school, so if you can't find a friend who can take care of her you will have to board her. But other than during SERE school you will be home every night.

Edited September 13, 2012 by SBuzzkill

[fatbretcantjump]

Cool. While that may work out, what are the longer term issues with having a pet, in our line of work?

 

Do any of you pilots have a cat? And what happens if you're stationed in Korea for 2 years?

[yakfishr19]

So after WOCS my wife can move down to Rucker?

[heloidaho]

Hill, yup, they can.

[yakfishr19]

I more question, in my contract it states that if I fail WOCS i have to serve the rest of my army career as an enlisted soldier for 3 years active duty, I have seen and heard from people that if you fail WOCS due to academics or such that you get recycled to the next WOCS class? Who is right here? Do street to seat applicants have it different than prior service in this case?

[heloidaho]

Don't stress about being recycled or any of that jazz. It isn't worth the time it takes to think about it.

 

You don't get kicked out of anything in the whole flight school pipeline for failing once. Really. It takes a sincere lack of effort or desire to not make it through. As long as you don't give up you will do just fine. There are a handful of people that make it here without the aptitude, but I've only known a couple since I've been here. Most of them lacked aptitude and the desire to really be here.

 

If you fail a text in WOCS, you just have to re-test. We didn't lose a single person to test failures out of 94 people in our WOCS class. We had one person get set back to clear up a security clearance issue. The tests are not hard if you study just a bit, and you'll have time for it.

 

I could explain how failures work for all the different courses (BOLC, SERE, flight school) but it is the same concept. You get more chances, and the vast vast vast majority of people make it through everything first shot.

 

As far as what happens if you do get kicked out, the results vary. Street to seaters typically go back to the street. Some people revert to enlisted ranks. It all depends.

 

I know you want to be prepared and think of every possibility. You are prolly type A. But for WOCS, the most failed thing is the PT test to get into the course.

 

This isn't to say that you don't have to study, but just remember that the majority of people make it through school just fine. I'm proof that they don't even kick out the dumb ones!