What was your best and worst living conditions during a deployment?

2015-04-07T09:34:06-04:00

Example:
Worst: FOB Hope, Sadr City, Iraq. I was in a port-o-potty for a week after sharing some Iraqi food.
Best: Bagram Airfield Afghanistan. I had my own room about 100 feet away from the building I worked in.

Invite others to respond by typing @name

Response by SSgt Dan Montague made Apr 7 at 2015 10:04 AM

2015-04-07T10:04:24-04:00

I would say the USS Anchorage. The Captain wouldn't run all the a/c generators on the ship. We were on the coast of Africa by Somalia in the summer time. The berthing was 100deg all the time. Of course up top where the Captain was, the a/c was kicking hard.
We also had a sewage back up issue in the heads. we pushed through a massive pacific storm that lasted for a couple days. Everyone was sick from the rocking. Our toilets and urinals all backed up. Because of the excessive rocking, the sewage escaped the head and flowed into and down into the berthing areas. Several Marines had sewage pour down the latter well onto their racks. Not to sound too gross, but the added smell with the tossing of the ship, made it harder to hold it down.
The best was Okinawa 96. I was the sr Cpl on my deck and had my own room for the deployment.

*please note this was a horrible storm. There was injuries that occurred from the rocking. People tossed from their rack, down latter wells and a cook slid into a moving mixer and almost lost a hand. When it was over, there were foot prints on the bulk head.

Response by SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. made Apr 7 at 2015 10:46 AM

2015-04-07T10:46:31-04:00

I am sure all the CIB / CMB holders are having a good laugh right now.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2015 10:52 AM

2015-04-07T10:52:33-04:00

I was on this side of the flowers each time so I have to say...All of them are/were the best.

Response by MSgt Michael Durkee made Apr 7 at 2015 10:59 AM

2015-04-07T10:59:41-04:00

Worst: Taif AB, Saudi Arabia during Desert Shield. We were crammed into King Fahd's banquet facilities until the tent city could be constructed to house the surge of personnel. Civil Engineers converted the kitchen into a makeshift open bay shower.

Best: Camp Phoenix, Kabul, Afghanistan. We were housed in B-huts and each had our own room, the DFAC was great, and we had a Green Beans coffee on the Camp.

Response by Maj Chris Nelson made Apr 7 at 2015 11:58 AM

2015-04-07T11:58:47-04:00

Lived out of my RV...er 4 litter ambulance during Desert Storm....most enjoyable but probably worst conditions..... Best was OIF stationed at Balad Theater Hospital in Iraq.... lived about 400m from the hospital, never left the wire...work was draining tho.... Best overall deployment was OEF.

Response by CSM Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 7 at 2015 12:23 PM

2015-04-07T12:23:21-04:00

Iraq dirt in OIF 1 was the best and worst living conditions I ever had during a deployment.

Response by SGT Hector Rojas, AIGA, SHA made Apr 8 at 2015 12:56 AM

2015-04-08T00:56:37-04:00

Worst: FOB Shank, Logar Province, Afghanistan. We had to jump 9 times in 5 months due to IDF. Removing sandbags and re-sandbagging every time. No working latrines, no electricity, 3-4 people in a second floor RLB metal container without ac in 120 deg temps. Not fun.

Best: Bagram AB, Afghanistan. I had my own room in a wooden unit with AC and a door lock. 5 minute walk to one of the many dfacs. It even had a lan cable for sniper hill.

Response by Lt Col Jim Coe made Apr 8 at 2015 9:34 AM

2015-04-08T09:34:13-04:00

Best: BOQ, RAF Mildenhall, UK. Worst: Quonset hut without air conditioning on Incirlik AB, Turkey (in the summer). I know all the Army and Marine guys will have a good laugh at this, but that's the way it was. Being an aircrew member had its advantages.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 8 at 2015 1:07 PM

2015-04-08T13:07:09-04:00

Best. Living out a ruck sack in the middle of the desert during DS/DS. Worst. Living in the Hadji tents they set up at King Fad intl airport prior to push north. Tents were soaked in some kind of kerosene/diesel. If the smell didn't make you nauseous wondering what kind of critters would crawl up thru pallet floor in middle of night (no cots)

Response by SSgt Joe V. made Apr 8 at 2015 2:00 PM

2015-04-08T14:00:02-04:00

Worst - out of a soft-skinned Hummer from Kuwait to Baghdad calling in airstrikes along the way...Worst part of that deployment was the first bus we happened upon after insurgents decided to eliminate their own that were trying to escape.

Best - Out of a soft-skinned Hummer from Kuwait to Baghdad calling in airstrikes along the way...Best part of that deployment was that training really does kick in and our commander got us a ride home on a Ranger-filled C-130.

Response by MAJ Private RallyPoint Member made Apr 9 at 2015 3:14 AM

2015-04-09T03:14:36-04:00

Best: Probably my CHU at Camp Virginia, Kuwait. I had my own room, air conditioning, and pay-as-you-go internet. The chow hall was a short walk and so was the Green Beans.

Worst: Transient housing at FOB Kalsu. When were running convoy escort missions past Baghdad this is where we stayed. They were tents that some sort of foam had been poured over the top of. Inside were some of the nastiest cots I'd ever seen. They were more brown than the green they should've been. The ground was muddy and the whole thing stunk like TCNs. I'm sure it was still a lot better than what some of the units stayed in during the invasion.

Response by TSgt Bret Whitmore made Apr 21 at 2016 5:33 PM

2016-04-21T17:33:09-04:00

Worst: A perimeter's worth of armpit-deep fighting positions my fellow Airbase Ground Defenders (ABGD) and I spent weeks in, guarding a dry lakebed (Bicycle Lake) out in the nowhereland scrub-desert of NTC in early '83. (Yes sports fans, contrary to popular misconception, even some of us Dirt Airmen have been there.) And not to lapse into maggotism here, but if it hadn't been for the worthless slack-tailed 'battle' I got stuck with there (refusing to take his shifts, not covering his half of the work, snoozing all the time and never allowing me my couple of hours a day, always bawling about missing little mama back home) it might have been a better time.

Best: Cairo West Airbase, Egypt, during Bright Star '85. The pic above shows Yours Truly, then a punk Buck Sgt in Aug 1985, in my "Five Star" accommodations (a cot in a corner of a G.P. Medium Tent) at "CENTAF City", perched (with about 85 other tents) on the desolate sand plains of the "beautiful" eastern Libyan Desert, approx. 30 miles west of Cairo, Egypt. The day this pic was taken it was a "lovely" 130 degrees in the shade.

Response by SGT Philip Roncari made Apr 21 at 2016 7:09 PM

2016-04-21T19:09:09-04:00

Worst Kotum province RVN
Best Hong Kong R and R

Response by SGT Paul Mackay made Apr 21 at 2016 11:22 PM

2016-04-21T23:22:53-04:00

I lived in a foxhole