For those stationed at Fort Irwin, 11th ACR, what was a typical month for an infantryman?

Irwin is the best kept secret in the Army if you are compatible with or can adapt to the isolation. Successive OPFOR training missions conducted simultaneously alongside of BLUFOR training missions increase the stress level of Iron Horse and Eagle Horse soldiers. The stress level for all training missions resemble a pulse on a medical monitor. I spent some of my long recovery weekends on the beach in Coronado, Santa Barbara, Temecula, and the Bay Area. On the long weekends I did not travel, I spent hours in the Barnes and Noble in Victorville or just driving in the desert. The drive to Vegas is particularly memorable: for miles the brown desert consumes four lane I 15. Stop in Baker at the Mad Greek for a gyro and a milkshake, play cards in Primm, and continue on into Vegas for the shows. You'll see I 15 open up a few miles after Primm and the road descends into Sin City. It's kinda awesome. For someone like me, that drive never gets old.

The rotations as I remember there is RSOI week and that is getting everything ready, then rollout either Thursday or Friday. The first week of training is all STX so there is opportunity to come in at night, also when there is a Suspension of Battlefield Effects (SOBE). The second week is force on force and out the whole time. 1/11 and 2/11 switch off as leads for the rotation but augment from the non-lead unit. So it's 19 days straight of work then a 2 day weekend come back for 2.5 days to do recovery and such then off for the 4 day. There are 10 rotations a year, nothing in December and either June or July. Fort Irwin is 35 miles from the nearest "town" but 70 miles from the nearest REAL town. LA, Las Vegas, and San Diego are all roughly 2-3 houra away. San Francisco is 6-7 hours. In the early spring you can go to the beach in San Diego or go snowboarding at Big Bear. You have the best of everything as long as you are willing to travel. Living on post isn't bad, I could go a month on one fill up if I never left post. In the end it is what you make of it that will make you happy or miserable. Hope this helps.

I was stationed there for 35 months (not as an 11B) it is in the middle of nowhere. You have to drive 30 minutes to the nearest town (Barstow), an hour drive to the nearest mall (Victorville), 1.5 hours from Las Vegas and 2.5 hours to LA. Either you like it or hate it and make sure that you have either Verizon, AT&T or Sprint cell phone service.