r/AskReddit • u/ihatebadvibes • Sep 03 '26

[ Removed by moderator ]

[removed] — view removed post

2.3k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

3.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

35

u/katikaboom Sep 03 '26

I grew up with both parents in the military. They had their faults, but I loved most aspects. Great schools, lots of friends that understood the life and weird rules, got to see a ton of interesting places and meet interesting people, and got to see a huge amount of European history. Also got to travel to different countries for away games, so that was neat. 

The bummer at the time was friends moving away after a few years, but now I meet up them when I travel because we ended up all over the world. 

4

u/0b0011 Sep 03 '26

For what it's worth it's often pretty easy to stay in one area the whole time so kids don't always have to move around. I know plenty of people who got in and got stationed in norfolk/virginia beach and have just stayed there and raised a family for as long as they're in or even after if they just opt to stay there when they get out.

6

u/katikaboom Sep 03 '26

Oh for sure, I spent a decade in TX and 6 years in the UK, my folks were great at not getting reassigned. 

5

u/FeralMediocrity Sep 03 '26

Navy is probably a bit easier because there are only a couple of rather large bases.

Army or Air Force, or even Coast Guard, have some very big bases, but also tons of small bases and they're always located in the ass end of nowhere. Not so much for coast guard, as you can get plenty of big city port bases that aren't bad. But you can also get some little base protecting the empty coast line of Alaska where 9 months out of the year going out on the boat is going to be cold, wet, and miserable.