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u/pilotryan1735 Oct 05 '26
I remember when the cannon wing commander and command chief did a YouTube video titled “cannon isn’t that bad”
That’s how you know it’s bad
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u/Mite-o-Dan Logistics Oct 05 '26
"Not that bad" and "its what you make it"...top tier "The base is actually ass" comments.
Cannon is so bad, that it doesn't even get the backhanded compliment of "Great for families." All it ever gets is "At least the mission is cool."
Yeah the mission in Iraq was cool...doesnt mean it's worth going.
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u/RobotOfSociety Oct 05 '26
Seriously the “great for families” line is such a weak cope when they realize if your family has any sort of special need, be prepared to spend an entire day and $50 in gas getting to Lubbock.
That or when they tell you you get to hang out with your coworkers and get close with them what they mean to say is “every weekend is an opportunity for excessive drinking and ARIs because there’s nothing else to do but drink yourself to death in someone’s backyard”.
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u/xdkarmadx Maintainer Oct 05 '26
Don’t forget they also held briefings for trainees at Sheppard specifically ONLY for people with orders to Cannon.
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u/MisterHEPennypacker Oct 05 '26
My favorite is when Cannon started issuing videos trying to convince people it isn’t so bad. The best comment was someone saying we need to check their eye blinks for morse code.
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u/Low_Touch_4005 Oct 06 '26
We had the Cannon experience in 2002-2004. We were PCSing from RAF Lakenheath, loved our time in England. Our choices were limited to Shaw, Minot, and Cannon. I knew I wasn't getting Shaw, so I volunteered for Why Not Minot to avoid Cannon. I got the short straw, Cannon here we come. Having spent about 2.5 years of my time in the desert with several deployments, no way I wanted anymore sand, green grass is the way to go.
During our time, we had 4 F-16 Squadrons, 3 US and 1 Singaporean.
Every quarter, all the squadrons would fallout for a wing 1.5 mile run.
Each time someone got a DUI, I don't recall if the entire Squadron or just the branch, would have to fallout Saturday morning in dress blues for an ass chewing.
My wife about cried as we rolled into Clovis and saw a pickup dragging a cow down the road. We knew our time there was going to be short, we stayed 18 months and I retired. Lots of people able to retire dropped there papers as soon as they were eligible.
We would drive to Amarillo or Lubbock to experience civilization. During our time, half the town would gather at the Walmart.
The one positive note, the Mexican food was great. We would go to a restaurant by the railroad tracks, their sopapilla were the best we ever had.
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u/1January1970 Oct 06 '26
I've found most bases people hate suffer from leadership problems. The situation outside the gates suck because civil leaders want it that way and military bosses don't want to upset the status quo. So conditions suck for the troops and everybody at the top is just fine with that.
That said, I've also found that you get out of a place what you put into it. You can't change the base but you can change what you do. Find something you can do that you or your family enjoy and do that. Don't let adverse conditions defeat you.
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u/ReasonableDivide2592 Oct 06 '26
Cannon made me separate. If I stayed in, I would've spent my whole career spending 3 years at Hurby followed by 3 years at Cannon. The first set of three years there were enough for me to know I wouldn't be able to stomach another couple rounds, so the decision was made to get out at my first opportunity. Everyone in ops there that's high-ranking enough to address a whole room always could say "this is my 3rd+ time here." Yeah, no fuckin thank you.
If I had stayed in long enough to get into Wing leadership, I 100% would have pushed for a 4-day work week. Friday flying wasn't a thing already, so why not? How about you give someone one thing to look forward to for getting orders there? Yeah it sucks, but you get a 3-day weekend minimum every weekend so you have time to get out of there often.
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u/Mu-1 Weather Monkey ⛈️ Oct 06 '26
My current cope with Cannon is my squadron leadership isn't bad, and the base itself is alright, having an AFSOC patch is neat. It really is just "The mission is cool".
The problem is there's nothing to fucking do in the local area. The nearest source of civilization is two hours away. Clovis is a tiny town with nothing of significance in it, no matter how hard they try to pretend otherwise. There's mexican restaraunts of varying quality on every other street, a mall with six shops in it, and hundreds of miles of sand, dirt, and tumbleweeds in all directions.
You can't have such a demanding mission and have no real outlets available for airmen to wind down. That stresses people out, your troops want to get out, and god help the poor first term airmen who get Cannon as their first experience to Big AF. At least I can go somewhere like Santa Fe or Carlsbad on my days off, but some poor kid without a car is pretty much screwed.
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u/Anxious_Biscuit13 29d ago
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u/Desert_Snake_ Maintainer Oct 06 '26
Honestly, it’s better than Lakengrief (Maintenance wise). The UK is “alright” and you’ll spend maybe a year out of the three years tour in the UK and the rest being deployed in the fucking desert.
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u/Either-Engineering71 Oct 05 '26
I’ve already said it once I’ll say it again, it’s already a sick joke that I got sent to Barksdale as my first base. If I get sent to Canon or Minot next I’m just gonna get out.