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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Is Ft. Bragg really as bad as I hear?
We are at Ft. Knox, KY now, and it seems like all I've heard is that Ft. Bragg is awful and no one can wait to leave. So when my husband found out we will probably be transferring there next spring I freaked out a little. He insists its nice & new but I'm hearing other things too.
So has anyone lived there? Visited there? How is it?
Re: Is Ft. Bragg really as bad as I hear?
YES!
Nah, I'm just joking. I've never been there. But I've heard it's decent by degrees. As in, at least you aren't at Polk or somewhere else even more sucky. However, there's a regular here who has a blog about living at Ft Bragg. It sounds like the place is what you make of it, kwim?
Click me, click me!
My roomate in college lived there in high school (her parents still do, i think) and she graduated from HS in Fayettville. She said some parts are ghetto, but otherwise she enjoyed the area. RedRox, a regular poster, has a blog about their life at Ft. Bragg, it's great!
All in all, Hindsight is right, any place will be what you make of it.
There are places around Ft Bragg that are pretty sketchy. The base it's self it so much better than it used to be. I have several friends up there. They really like it. They live in an area to the NW of the base, Pine Somethingoranother.
Redrox and a couple other ladies are there now. Hopefully, they'll post sometime today. Keep checking back.
We haven't been stationed there but I've been there to visit. It's not that bad, a lot Fayetteville is pretty ghetto and run down but they have some nice surrounding areas. Post is pretty nice and big as well. I haven't been to Knox but I heard there isn't much there, so going to Fayetteville would be an upgrade(from what I hear) because they have tons to do there. I actually hope we get stationed there maybe next. Pumpkin is stationed there as well, I'm sure her and RedRox will be on later to chime in.
There are definitely worse places and Fort Polk is probably number one on that list for everyone, ha.
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Like everyone said, there are some places around here that are run down but isn't it like that just about anywhere? Everywhere has it's good and bad points.
I think Fort Bragg gets a bad rep because it's Airborne here and they do things a lot differently than the big Army....so the younger single guys complain a lot and it spreads. There's also more to do for families than there are for younger guys...and if you hear from families that there isn't anything ever to do then that's a bunch of BS. They're the ones who came here with a closed mind, sat at home and complained, and didn't go out and explore.
Trust me, I came from a NICE area in DC and I thought I'd hate it here. But I kept myself open minded and open about exploring and have found a lot of gems here that keep me and the H happy. This place has definitely grown on us and we even bought our first home here. It's all about your perspective.
I sometimes blog about life here if you're interested in reading more on that, there's a link in my sig. Pumpkin will also probably chime in and attest that it's not that bad here, and she knows a lot more about stuff to do here for families than I do.
Also, there's a thread a few pages back where we listed all of the things you can do here for fun. Try the search button, hopefully it helps!
We love it here. We also bought our home here and we have the nicest neighbors I've ever had. Seriously, they're the type of people you see in movies. A lot of them are veterans so they know the struggles of this lifestyle and are always available with help or tips. When K leaves for TDY, they stop by and ask if there's anything I need, if I want to come over for dinner, yadda yadda yadda. We have neighborhood parties frequently. And we live in Fayetteville, not in a surrounding city.
There's tons of things to do both in the city and the surrounding area. Some of the wives I used to hang out with before they moved would just complain non-stop about how bored they were and how much they hated it. We always have stuff to do though. You just have to be open, willing to Google things to do, and then actually go do it. And contrary to what the last poster in the thread Red mentioned, there's a lot more than downtown. I love downtown, but there's plenty of other places in the city to explore.
Also, if you do hate it here, one of the other big perks to Bragg is that if you get a mileage pass, DC, Florida, Myrtle Beach, etc are close enough to do on long weekends. Raleigh, Charlotte, Wilmington, Durham are all close enough to explore on a regular weekend.
Are you looking for family friendly or just couple type stuff to do?
The one thing that might be really bad when you get here is traffic. I know they're supposed to start doing major work on the roads into base sometime soon.
We lived there for four years. (er, _I_ lived there for four years... DH came and went as the army sent him...)
I enjoyed Bragg. We lived in base housing, and the first housing we were in was old, not refurbished housing. It was nasty-bad. But, they moved us into new built housing after about 6 months, and that place was _great_!
We were near one of the commissaries/PX's (there are two sets at Bragg). I could walk to go get groceries. I liked that a lot.
Fayetteville is a decent town. It's large enough to have most normal places that folks want to go (decent restaurant and shopping options, a few specialty stores, a minor league ballteam and hockey team with cheap tickets, etc). Fayetteville is also small enough that it doesn't take forever to get somewhere, too, which was nice.
There was a town on the far side of base that had an _awesome_ yarn shop, which goes a long way toward making me happy in a place.
It's relatively close to Raleigh/Durham (1.5-2 hours), close to the coast (2-3 hours), and close to the mountains (5-6 hours). It's close to DC (6 hours). You can find just about anything you might want to find within that...
Probably the strongest recommendation, though - if DH had the option of going back to Bragg, or to somewhere else, there are only a few bases I would pick ahead of Bragg. I'd be happy going back there.
My husband went to Fayetteville State and then continued to live in Fayetteville for 2 years after he graduated. He really enjoyed it and visited Ft. Bragg a couple of times and said it seemed decent. Fayetteville is definitely a military + college town..there's a couple more schools in the area..Methodist University, Fayetteville Tech..so bars, strip clubs, Hooters, etc...there are A LOT haha, but obviously if that's not your scene I'm sure it's easy to avoid.
I can't really comment too much as I've only visited Fayettevillea handful of times. I lived in Raleigh (about 1 1/2 hour drive away) for 2 years and I can certainly say I prefer Raleigh and its suburbs compared to Fayetteville and its surroundings. PP was correct in the crime rate being high..I always heard stories coming out of Fayetteville although I'm not sure on the exact statistics, but it seemed to pop up a lot on the news. As with any place, like others have said, it's probably all in what you make of it. Just stay away from the sketchy places..i.e. The Murch! (Murchison Road)..and keep a positive outlook. GL!
I love it here. Granted I have only been here since May but there is so much more to do then there was at Fort Riley. I live in North Fayetteville which is a lot nicer then in the middle of town. There is always something to do and most stuff is within a decent drive. I agree with people it is what you make it, but I have really enjoyed it here so far.
I agree with everything you said. The young guys just complain because its SOOO strict. My DH is 82nd and this is his first duty station and he wants to leave so bad. I was previously married and we were stationed here and I loved it. I loved living on base and being involved with all the families. It's all in what you make it. Definitely be ready for later days and not getting all of you '4 day' weekends. When it comes to that stuff it's a lot different and a little frustrating at times. Good luck though.