Free Republic

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Coast Guard Yard, MarylandThe United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a United States Coast Guard operated shipyard located on Curtis Bay in northern Anne Arundel County, Maryland, just south of the Baltimore city limits. It is the Coast Guard's sole shipbuilding and major repair facility, and part of the Coast Guard's core industrial base and fleet support operations. Its annual budget is $88 million.For over a century, the United States Coast Guard Yard has built, repaired and renovated ships in Baltimore, Maryland, for the U. S....

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Pohakuloa Training Area, Hawaii Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) is located on the island of Hawaii between Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea and the Hualalai Volcanic Mountains. It extends up the lower slopes of Mauna Kea to approximately 6,800 feet in elevation and to about 9,000 feet on Mauna Loa. The training area is about midway between Hilo, on the east coast and the Army landing site at Kawaihae Harbor. The area is the largest DOD installation in Hawaii. The PTA consists of 108,863 acres, of which 24,048 are leased by the Army...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Vance Air Force Base, OklahomaVance Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in southern Enid, Oklahoma, about 65 miles north northwest of Oklahoma City. The base is named after local World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient, Lt Col Leon Robert Vance Jr. The host unit at Vance is the 71st Flying Training Wing (71 FTW), which is a part of Air Education and Training Command (AETC).Currently there are 128 buildings and 292 facilities on Vance AFB as of October 2016. Vance is currently replacing...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Edwards Air Force Base, California Edwards Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located on the border of Kern County and Los Angeles County, California in the Antelope Valley. Edwards is home to the 412th Test Wing. The base is strategically situated next to Rogers Dry Lake, a desert salt pan; its hard playa surface provides a natural extension to Edwards' runways. This large landing area, combined with excellent year-round weather, makes the base a perfect site for flight testing. The lake is a National Historic Landmark. Designated...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: USS Nimitz, CaliforniaUSS Nimitz (CVN-68) is a supercarrier in the United States Navy, the lead ship of its class. She is one of the largest warships in the world. She was laid down, launched and commissioned as CVAN-68, but was redesignated CVN-68 (nuclear-powered multimission aircraft carrier) on 30 June 1975 as part of the fleet realignment of that year. Nimitz was homeported at Naval Station Norfolk until 1987, when she was relocated to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. After her second nuclear reactor refueling in 2001, Nimitz was relocated...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Blue Grass Army Depot, KentuckyBlue Grass Army Depot (BGAD) is a U.S. Army storage facility for conventional munitions and chemical weapons. The facility is located in east central Kentucky, southeast of the cities of Lexington and Richmond, Kentucky.The Blue Grass Army Depot is a 14,494-acre site, composed mainly of open fields and wooded areas, and is used for munitions storage, repair of general supplies, and the disposal of munitions. The installation is used for the storage of conventional explosive munitions as well as assembled chemical weapons. The depot primarily is involved...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Camp Shelby, MississippiCamp Shelby is a military post whose North Gate is located at the southern boundary of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, on United States Highway 49. It is the largest state-owned training site in the nation. During wartime, the camp's mission is to serve as a major independent mobilization station of the United States Army Forces Command (FORSCOM).Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center is the largest reserve component training site, covering 136,000 acres, allowing up to battalion-level maneuver training, Gunnery Table 8-12, field artillery firing points and a wide range of support...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Fort Leavenworth, KansasFort Leavenworth, Kansas is the oldest continuously operating military installation west of the Mississippi River. This historic post, noted for its campus setting, open green spaces and hometown character, is the home of the US Army’s Combined Arms Center (CAC). CAC, as a major subordinate headquarters of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command, has often been referred to as the “ Intellectual Center of the Army”. It is, in many regards, “home base” for the majority of field grade officers across the Army.Since its founding in 1827, it has...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Fort Detrick, MarylandFort Detrick is a United States Army Medical Command installation located in Frederick, Maryland. Historically, Fort Detrick was the center of the US biological weapons program from 1943 to 1969. Since the discontinuation of that program, it has hosted most elements of the United States biological defense program.As of the early 2010s, Fort Detrick's 1,200-acre campus supports a multi-governmental community that conducts biomedical research and development, medical materiel management, global medical communications and the study of foreign plant pathogens.It is home to the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Keesler Air Force Base, MississippiKeesler Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located in Biloxi, a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States. The base is named in honor of aviator 2d Lt Samuel Reeves Keesler, Jr., a Mississippi native killed in France during the First World War. The base is home of Headquarters, Second Air Force (2 AF) and the 81st Training Wing (81 TW) of the Air Education and Training Command (AETC).The Second Air Force mission is to provide the best-trainined, combat-ready forces. To carry out...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia Joint Base Langley–Eustis (JBLE), composed of Langley Air Force Base and Fort Eustis, is a United States military joint base located in the greater Hampton Roads area of the Tidewater region of Virginia. The installation is the result of the Base Realignment and Closure, 2005, a Congressional initiative to maximize the operational efficiency of 26 military installations nationwide by combining their support functions, contracts and organizations. Unlike other joint bases that share common perimeters, such as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in New Jersey and Joint Base Lewis-McChord in...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, California Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego is a United States Marine Corps military installation in San Diego, California. It lies between San Diego Bay and Interstate 5, adjacent to Lindbergh Field and the former Naval Training Center San Diego. MCRD San Diego's main mission is the initial training of enlisted male recruits living west of the Mississippi River. Over 21,000 recruits are trained each year. The Depot also is the home to the Marine Corps' Recruiter School and Western Recruiting Region's Drill Instructors School....

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado Peterson Air Force Base is a base of the United States Air Force located at Colorado Springs in El Paso County, Colorado, United States and it provides runways for the adjacent City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport under a shared joint civil-military airport arrangement. It was named in honor of 1st Lt Edward Joseph Peterson who was killed in a crash at the base. Peterson AFB is home to the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), Air Force Space Command (AFSPC),...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Luke Air Force Base, ArizonaLuke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located seven miles west of the central business district of Glendale, in Maricopa County, Arizona. It is also about 15 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona. Luke AFB is a major training base of the Air Education and Training Command, training pilots in the F-16 Fighting Falcon.The 56th Fighter Wing is the host unit at Luke. It is part of Air Education and Training Command. The wing is composed of four groups of 27 squadrons, including eight...

​     ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Vandenberg Air Force Base, CaliforniaVandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base located 9.2 miles northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). Vandenberg AFB is a Department of Defense space and missile testing base, with a mission of placing satellites into polar orbit from the West Coast using expendable boosters (Pegasus, Taurus, Minotaur, Atlas V, Delta IV and now SpaceX's Falcon). Wing personnel also support the Service's LGM-30G Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force Development Evaluation...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Base Coronado, CaliforniaNaval Base Coronado (NBC) is a consolidated Navy installation encompassing eight military facilities stretching from San Clemente Island, located seventy miles west of San Diego, California, to the La Posta Mountain Warfare Training Facility and Camp Morena, located sixty miles east of San Diego.In 1997, Naval Base Coronado was created, incorporating seven separate Naval installations under one Commanding Officer. Those facilities include: Naval Air Station North Island; Naval Amphibious Base Coronado; Outlying Field Imperial Beach; Naval Auxiliary Landing Field San Clemente Island; Silver Strand Training Complex, formerly known...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Fort Greely, AlaskaFort Greely is a United States Army launch site for anti-ballistic missiles located approximately 100 miles southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska. It is also the home of the Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), as Fort Greely is one of the coldest areas in Alaska, and can accommodate cold, extreme cold, or temperate weather tests depending on the season.Fort Greely has a proud history. Because of its location and environment, it has been the site for cold-weather training and testing of operations and equipment through the past half century. Until the...

      ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California Marine Corps Air Station Miramar formerly Naval Air Station (NAS) Miramar is a United States Marine Corps installation that is home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is the aviation element of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. It is located about 10 miles north of downtown San Diego, California.The base contains 23,116 acres. It is bisected by Kearny Villa Road and Interstate 15. The area east of Kearny Villa Road, called "East Miramar", is undeveloped and is used for military training.On October 1...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Pine Bluff Arsenal, ArkansasThe Pine Bluff Arsenal (PBA) is a United States Army installation located in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. PBA is one of the six Army installations in the United States which stores chemical weapons. PBA supplies specialized production, storage, maintenance and distribution of readiness products, and delivers technical services to the Armed Forces and Homeland Security. PBA also designs, manufactures and refurbishes smoke, riot control, and incendiary munitions, as well as chemical/biological defense operations items. It serves as a technology center for illuminating and infrared munitions and is also the...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Yuma Proving Ground, ArizonaThe U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground is one of the largest military installations in the world. Situated in southwestern La Paz County and western Yuma County in southwestern Arizona, U.S., approximately 30 miles north-east of the city of Yuma. The proving ground is used for testing military equipment and encompasses 1,307.8 square miles in the Sonora Desert. In a typical year, over 500,000 artillery, mortar and missile rounds are fired, 36,000 parachute drops take place, 200,000 grueling road miles are driven on military vehicles, and over 4000 air...