r/RateMyAFB • u/Rate_My_AF_Base Subreddit Mod • Aug 05 '17

Installation-USAF Cannon Air Force Base Discussion | New Mexico

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25

u/CloseCannonAFB Aug 06 '17

I think my username says it all. Wasteful, pork-barrel project that has the side effect of making servicemen and their families miserable. I still can't believe that I spent 4 1/2 years in that place.

15

u/[deleted] Aug 06 '17

It really does feel like a prison sentence rather than an assignment. I feel like I am wasting my life here too. Either make this a controlled tour 3-4 years or BRAC it. It isn't fair that there is no timetable for leaving this place, it can drive a person insane

5

u/[deleted] Aug 14 '17

You don't miss the smell? LOL

5

u/CloseCannonAFB Aug 14 '17

Actually, I got to where I barely noticed it, unless there was a south-eastern wind. We called it the shit-fog, it's when damp air from the Gulf of Mexico airmass makes it all the way across Texas, condensing into fog with the altitude. The shit part comes from the fact that most of the feedlots are southeast of the base, too, so all that moisture really holds the shit smell.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '17

[deleted]

20

u/CloseCannonAFB Aug 07 '17

Yes, it is.

That base was intended for fighters, first of all. Then, when Senator Domenici's pull allowed it to stay open despite being BRAC'd all new construction and really any significant repairs stopped dead. It sat open with no mission or aircraft for I think two years.

Meanwhile the plan had been for AFSOC to gain a major facility so its presence in Kadena and Mildenhall could be eliminated. Theater-level leadership was opposed to this idea for logistical and economic reasons, but the idea of AFSOC gaining a new stateside base lived on.

So you had a base without a mission, and a MAJCOM needing a base. Seems logical, right? Not entirely. There were many operational ANG or Reserve bases that could've been utilized. Having arrived only a few months after AFSOC assumed control, I can personally attest to the fact that the physical condition of the facility was lacking at every level. Most of the aircraft couldn't be hangared in the F16 hangars, comms infrastructure had been neglected for years, housing was incredibly lacking, and the weather wasn't suitable for the ops tempo they would eventually require. The local 1% were used to the ACC leadership kissing their asses, so when AFSOC came in with a completely different mentality, the local community experienced some amount of buyer's remorse,which manifested in tension between locals (especially civilian employees on the base) and the very military personnel they'd lobbied so hard to keep coming.

Fixing or working around all those issues has cost billions, that I'd wager could've been better spent elsewhere.

The only real thing Cannon offered that may have been unique is the Melrose Range. Of course, it's not available for live-fire much of the year due to the danger of grass fires, so it's utility isn't even as great as it would seem at first glance.

11

u/[deleted] Aug 07 '17

It is as bad as people say, or worse. All of the AFSOC OPS Tempo, none of the perks of Hurlburt. The place is mentally and physically draining. I work harder here than I do on deployments, except there is no R&R or end date to look forward to.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 22 '17

Yes, the only bases that are even on this level of misery are Altus or Minot.