where are the best deployments?
 

From experience, whether you’re still in the service or left a long time ago, where are the best deployments in your opinion? State side or across the pond? Why?

Tampa-stan is a fun one. Especially if you are single. Iraq is not. Especially if your single.

Booze, ladies, and a non-muslim country is usually a good start. Maple Flag, Sentry Eagle, and Sentry Aloha were fun, OIF...not so much, although getting stuck in Sevilla for a week enroute didn't suck.

Tac Fighter Weaponry in Aalborg Denmark was about as good as it will ever get. Booze, good flying (i.e., not the RedFlag 13 hour day), and the hottest/friendliest local talent on earth.

Guam or Thailand always my favorites

Wherever the perdiem is the highest.

St Croix, Howard wasn't bad either

How about Bogota or Curacao

Stateside isn't really a deployment....that's called "TDY". I got a good chuckle once hearing a fighter guy talking about his SQ's "deployment" to Red Flag. :rolleyes:

Just a matter of perspective ;)

I had a blast on Westpac, land based.

FJDG baby--Diego Garcia, The Footprint of Freedom in the B.I.O.T. It was like summer camp in paradise. Plus there were not the LBFM "distractions" that you'd get in Thailand getting your young troops in trouble.

Coronet Oak out of San Juan. 120 days of flying all over Central and South America. I don't think my liver has fully recovered from that one :D

OIF is a TDY for most guard flyers! ;)

Fighting a war from Aviano! Boy I miss those Allied Force days

Deployed to U-Thapao, Thailand to do humanitarian airlift following the tsunami. Stayed in the Marriott with all the comforts, and too much of all the things that can get you in trouble...

Anwhere and doing anything in AUSTRALIA!!!

USMCFLYR

When it involves a 12-hour/7-AAR Coronet pond crossing with three different tankers to get there, and then it lasts for 65 days...it's a deployment.

BTW, no fighter guy is considering that deployment as an AEF square-filler.

Clark, where every day was Fat Tuesday. Hong Kong SAREX with the Royal HKAF, RAF Woodbridge/Bentwaters for culture and beer, and Midway Island for world class saltwater sport fishing. Oh, did I mention Clark?

Wake Island had quite the reputation for this also - though a weekend was long enough at one time :rolleyes:

USMCFLYR

Pattaya Thailand, Marylins(sp) upstairs from the Thai kickboxing place, man the stories I can never, ever, tell the wife!!!

Slice,

Just curious, when did you get stuck in Sevilla. I was on a coronet earlier this year (hauling the maintenance package), and the whole package kept getting delayed and we got "stuck" in sevilla for about a week.

Sevilla was great, but then TACC decided to send my crew home and bring in another crew to take our cargo.

Riddler

Fall 2006.

I still have nightmares every once in a while :D A buddy of mine actually got hit with one of the darts. Talk about sweating your next blood test :eek:

I did a kick ass 47 days in Prestwick, Scotland 10 yrs ago.

Fair enough...thanks for that perspective.

The guy I laughed at was "deploying" to Nellis from Moody :rolleyes:

And yes, I know it takes a whole lotta effort and planning to move a fighter squadron (and MX and support) from point A to point B. Still...it gave me a good chuckle.

Back when Howard was open down in Panama it offered a herk squadron a pretty good time. It wasn't Clark, but we made the most of it. Sweet 45 days that dropped on us out of no where.

Use to fly out of Howard in the late 80s when you could still stay downtown... phenomenal....course then we had to go down on christmas vacation and kick pimple face out...

10 days at the Jolly Beach in Antigua doing HALO for the SEALS.....

Green Flag... well except for the Blazer I flipped in the dessert near Tonapah.

Mildenhall on "Bravo Squadron" deployments.... especially when the BRAVO Bar was still allowed.....

Worst...... Azraq Jordan..... ugh.......

Three months at Keflavik defending our freedom against the Russian Bears. That equated to fight-tank-fight-tank-fights in the F-15 everyday and chasing 5'5, 120 lb. blonde/blue eye Icelandic tail every weekend in downtown Rekjavik.

I CAN gaurantee you no deployment on here can top that.

General Answer: Where the threat is low, and the Per Diem high.

Specific Answer: Overseas, because the artificial environment of being "Americans in a strange land" means you have better comraderie with your squadron. You hang with your squadron buds because you're all in the same unfamiliar situation, so you look to your squadron for something familiar--a piece of America. You develop life-long friendships in these situations.

Supporting Answer: Scrappy, I don't know you, but can vouch that the local talent in Iceland is the 8th natural wonder of the world!

Well, lets see.

Howard AFB, Panama (Panama City Yacht Club)
Red Flag (if off base)
Mildenhal AFB, UK (after 75+ days in Saudi)
Anderson AFB, GU (anytime)
Incirlik AB, Turkey (downtown, casinos, strip)
McDill AFB, Fl (original Hooters, obvious others)
Castle AFB, CA (great visiting California for a few months at a time)
Elmendorf AFB, AK (airshow in August - brought back over 100 lbs of salmon)
Shepard AFB, Tx (MIMSO graduation)
Randolf AFB, Tx (Jock Night)
Miramar NAS, Ca (airshow after 1st gulf war)

Just to name some of the better one's! :D

It was better when the WHIFF was the WHIFF

Al Dhafra UAE, as long as you could still leave the base. Private beaches, halfway decent margharita's, and lonely expat nurses from the commonwealth.

Zargosa, Spain, stumbling down the "tubes" at 0400. Wow.

I spent my last two years in Zaragoza living right on top of the tubes :D They should cut you orders to rehab following that assignment! What a great place. Its a shame the AF hardly goes there anymore.

Manas... back in the day though! Back in 2003ish you were able to buy unlimited beers and you were intermingled with the Italians, Danish, Dutch, and Aussies. You were able to go downtown and stay the night at the Hyatt! You could bring back unlimited amounts of local Vodka and wines.

Now I hear it's 2 beers and no off base. How times have changed! Diego Garcia is a close second!

Red Flag at Nellis back in 2001, wasn't too bad
Pheonix Banner for 3 weeks at White Marsh, MD back in 2004
Prince Sultan back in 2000
Seeb in 2002..lots of gurls...the Brit Bar was awesome!
Al Udeid in 2004/2007
Getting stuck at Moron for 3 days..on my way to Prince Sultan in 2000
Delta at ETAR, back in the day when active duty pulled 3 month tours
RON at St. John's, Newfoundland on a Friday night..before or after crossing the pond

I spent a month on Guam, that was pretty nice. Also spent 2 on Sicily, and a couple of 45 day rotations to Incirlik. All were pretty great. The last couple of 4 monthers to the Died sucked, though.

I'm hearing rumors that the "apartments" over at the Died are open now... is that true? What happened to Coalition Village? I'm going in about a week... just curious if I will be spending a few days in a group tent or have my own room?

Hmmmmnnnn...deployment needs to be defined...but

7 day airshow in Melbourne, Australia is hard to beat.
14 days in Keflavik was good
14 day Nato excercise in Karup, Denmark
16 days in Istres, France
16 days in Curacao in Feb. during Carnivale is very close to illegal fun
7 days for an airshow in Acapulco and not participating in said airshow (done that one twice!)
Coronet to Souda Bay, Crete in the summer when all the Scandavians are on holiday makes for very good scenery even if you're only there for 3 days.

Those are just some of the highlights...

Not sure what it is like for transients. I was there for four months ending in Jan, and we had the typical hard billet rooms, the village hadn't opened yet. Then we moved to tents with other transients for a week or so when the other Sq relieved us. So your guess is as good as mine. Who knows, sorry I couldn't be of more help.

Just got back in July and the "apartments" were open but only to those that were on 6 month or 365 "vacation" orders. All 4 monthers were still in CC, but everyone (pilots and aircrew) were getting their own rooms.

Hope this helps, but I don't think anything can help deploying to the Deid!:cool: