My husband finally received his unofficial orders stating that we're being stationed at Ft. Hood, TX. This will be our first duty station with the Army. I was reading another person's post about Ft. Hood, made about a year ago, so I thought I'd post this for more up-to-date info...

Is there any advice anyone can give on making life easier and nicer? Don't need anything that won't do us any good ("the base is horrible, it's in the middle of nowhere, there's nothing to do...") because...well...it won't do us any good! Is there anything I can pass on to him to make this transition easier? We're new to the Army (he's ps Marine).

Thaaaaaaaaaaank yoooooooooooooou

Currently on Ft. Hood right now this also was my first duty station. Not to scare you but this is a constanly deploying post. Not sure of your husbands rank or MOS. That makes a difference on who he will get attached to. Over 1/2 of the Post is deployed right now myself leaving next week with 1BCT 4 ID. 1st Cav just returned so he might get attached with them, but be ready for the worse. As for the area Ft. Hood is bordered by Killeen, Coppers Cove, and Harker Heights. Not a bad idea to live on post to get used to area first off and move off later. Every city around has its good and bad spots the cheaper the rent most of the time the worser the neighborhood. Traffic is horrible to PT and Work and also after getting off from work. Another plus to live on post sometimes. The area has plent of shops and resturants galore in a 3 mile radius. Lot of people like this post becasue of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio being within hours of Ft. Hood. Hope this helps.

quote:

Originally posted by dewey:
Currently on Ft. Hood right now this also was my first duty station. Not to scare you but this is a constanly deploying post. Not sure of your husbands rank or MOS. That makes a difference on who he will get attached to. Over 1/2 of the Post is deployed right now myself leaving next week with 1BCT 4 ID. 1st Cav just returned so he might get attached with them, but be ready for the worse. As for the area Ft. Hood is bordered by Killeen, Coppers Cove, and Harker Heights. Not a bad idea to live on post to get used to area first off and move off later. Every city around has its good and bad spots the cheaper the rent most of the time the worser the neighborhood. Traffic is horrible to PT and Work and also after getting off from work. Another plus to live on post sometimes. The area has plent of shops and resturants galore in a 3 mile radius. Lot of people like this post becasue of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio being within hours of Ft. Hood. Hope this helps.

Ugh on the deployments. My husband has not been to Iraq or Afghanistan and I've not been through a deployment, so the thought of him deploying, although realistic, is not comforting knowing I'll be someplace I'm not familiar with. As for you, I wish you the best! Be careful and stay safe.

My husband is 88M, which makes me nervous in regards to deployments and his life being at risk. So, I don't know how "in need" he'd be, but I know his MOS is important in regards to supplies and such. I wish I could say, "tell me that he's not THAT needed" and it would be convincing.

Thanks for the insight.

We're still trying to decide if we want to live on or off base. When he was in the Marines, we lived off base and the apartment scene was awful! I'm thinking where we were in NC (Camp Lejeune) will probably be similar to Hood in regards to the surrounding town (Killeen, from what I've heard, sounds like NC's Jacksonville, which was a big mess of a military town) and so I would definitely think I'd feel more comfortable on base.

Is the housing nice? I mean... nicer than what I could be picturing? We have no kids and he's currently E4, so I know it won't be anything spectacular, but is it worth it for what we'll get, in your opinion?

Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it.

Good luck again. I hope that you and your troops will be safe and return home soon.

quote:

Originally posted by dewey:
Currently on Ft. Hood right now this also was my first duty station. Not to scare you but this is a constanly deploying post. Not sure of your husbands rank or MOS. That makes a difference on who he will get attached to. Over 1/2 of the Post is deployed right now myself leaving next week with 1BCT 4 ID. 1st Cav just returned so he might get attached with them, but be ready for the worse. As for the area Ft. Hood is bordered by Killeen, Coppers Cove, and Harker Heights. Not a bad idea to live on post to get used to area first off and move off later. Every city around has its good and bad spots the cheaper the rent most of the time the worser the neighborhood. Traffic is horrible to PT and Work and also after getting off from work. Another plus to live on post sometimes. The area has plent of shops and resturants galore in a 3 mile radius. Lot of people like this post becasue of Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio being within hours of Ft. Hood. Hope this helps.

Hurry up and get your a$$ to Iraq. Your brigade will be relieving mine. Are you in the BSTB?

quote:

Originally posted by Soldier's Angel:
We're still trying to decide if we want to live on or off base. When he was in the Marines, we lived off base and the apartment scene was awful! I'm thinking where we were in NC (Camp Lejeune) will probably be similar to Hood in regards to the surrounding town (Killeen, from what I've heard, sounds like NC's Jacksonville, which was a big mess of a military town) and so I would definitely think I'd feel more comfortable on base.

Is the housing nice? I mean... nicer than what I could be picturing? We have no kids and he's currently E4, so I know it won't be anything spectacular, but is it worth it for what we'll get, in your opinion?

Thanks for your input! I really appreciate it.

Good luck again. I hope that you and your troops will be safe and return home soon.

Try this link for housing. I hope it helps.
https://onestop.army.mil/armyonestop.asp?v=1