Choosing a duty station

[snatchinbride]

Well the time has come a lot sooner than expected... Time to choose a duty station. We got a list of 10. Polk, Knox, and Bliss are at the bottom, obviously. We'd prefer to stay at Bragg. However we're also looking at Campbell, Bethesda, and Wiesbaden.

Any first hand knowledge: quality of life and more importantly how is the civilian job market? I'm in animal health sales, and would hate not working.

[NomadicMama]

I currently live in Wiesbaden. We weren't expecting OCONUS orders, but I'm really enjoying it here (even with a soon to be deployed DH). Civilian jobs are hit and miss.

We lived in Northern Virginia for two years (and I lived there before becoming a nomadic wife). It is not Bethesda, but close. The job market would be best here, since it's a big city. It is expensive to live in the NCR, but I love the area.

I lived in Nashville while DH was deployed last time--Fort Campbell is about an hour away. I enjoyed the general area, but because the military is such a presence there, you might have a difficult time finding work in your field.

Hope this helps a little bit!

[meltoine]

Personally, we will always choose overseas when given the option. You can move anywhere in the US fairly easily on your own. Overseas is a bit more complicated.

[JakJak]

I am from northern virginia, so I am biased, but I would choose Bethesda. It's definitely a HCOL area, but the job market is pretty good. I loved living there because it had so much diversity and everything you could ever need is all within a short driving distance. That being said, I don't know much about the others! Sorry...

[basilosaurus]

I also agree with going overseas whenever possible. Yeah, it sucks to not work, but you get used to it, and in a place like Germany, there are too many travel opportunities to miss working.

I went to college in Nashville and didn't meet any military, other than H and his ROTC friends. Ft Campbell folks seemed pretty isolated even though it wasn't that far a drive.

If you do prefer CONUS, I'd go with Bethesda hands down. I like diverse cities and hated living in the south, so that kind of limits my choices. I don't know what animal health sales is. Is it selling science diet or rimadyl or something?