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The guy that took over as 41 AS/CC is one of the best leaders (career Herk driver/Patch) I've ever worked with. They're in great hands.

Good to hear. What about the 3 officers that just had their careers shit on? I'm familiar with the one and don't think its justified. Curious how the 41st is taking the 1-2 punch.

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  • 4 months later...

All:

I figured I would post my very recent experience with the living circumstances here. I didn't read the entire thread so apologies ahead if it is redundant. This may be more helpful for those going solo for the normal training TDY.

I came down by myself for TDY and left the family back home. I started off living on base, then moved downtown a block from the "Rivermarket." Here are my (very general) takes:

On Base:

Good:

You can roll out of bed and walk to work. That is nice for the zero dark-thirty shows.

The gym is very nice, but usually pretty packed during peak hours. Nice facility though.

Not Good:

The dorms are clean, but small and dated. There is not a kitchen. (Big suck for me.) You only have a microwave and a refrigerator. For the $56.00 nightly rate, you can do much better out in town.

The DFAC is OK. You'll want to put the business end of a gun in your mouth after eating there for a few months though. Your B.P. will likely be 300/190 with all the damn salt they use. Also, there aren't a lot of off base options close, unless you can live on fast food. I personally can't...

You need to drive for 15-30 minutes to get anywhere "good." (Cabs are usually pretty reasonable if you drink your face off.)

I'm a guard guy now, so I felt like I was done living on a base unless absolutely necessary, as it still has that minimum security prison feel.

Off Base:

Really nothing bad. Occasionally the front gate can get backed up and delayed. Plan accordingly during peak times. For the $56.00 per day lodging rate, you can get a pretty nice place. The only regret I have is not moving off base sooner. (Just my opinion.)

There are options to lease totally furnished places at a good rate. They are fully furnished (WiFi, cable, utilities, etc.) The person I used to find a furnished place off base is listed below. She was very easy to work. Leasing options are very flexible. I am on a month to month, and may even go week to week if I get delayed. She can work with anything. If you are thinking about a furnished place in or near LR, give her a call. Hope this helped. Good luck...

Diane McCoy

Arkansas Suites

Corporate Housing

Executive Director

800-644-2787

501-221-7829 (Central Arkansas)

479-464-7368 (Northwest Arkansas)

www.arkansassuites.net

diane@lrapartments.com

Just curious if anyone has any other good poop on short term furnished places to rent at the Rock. I will be up there for about a month and was going to bring the family, but Diane said she only had a 1-bedroom, and it was pretty far away. I had friends at the Links in Sherwood last time I was here, but I have heard horror stories since then. Thanks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not sure but we were stuck in the airplanes engines off with ITS near 100 for 3 hours. If I find out who it was I'm dropping a deuce all over the inside of their car.

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News media reported it was a real world issue that happened to coincide with the date of the exercise. The exercise was supposed to have minimal disruption of normal base activities. The base was locked down for about 5 hours, and some C-130's landed @ Adams to wait it out.

One report I saw (but can't find now) says someone was seen on base wearing black clothing, a helmet & carrying an "assault rifle" - someone suggested he might have been - for whatever reason - dressed up in paintball gear. At any rate, they locked down & searched the base but couldn't find him.

It was reported that those in the commissary at the time were taken to a back room to shelter in place & were told (initially) it was an active shooter situation. It was never an active shooter, just a report of a suspicious person that they couldn't find.

More info is supposed to be released tomorrow (today, Thursday, 7/24/2014)

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My guess is there was a security forces guy out playing the bad guy for the exercise. Somebody saw him and called it in. The same security forces guy got all suited up and went looking for himself.

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Today they are saying it was someone who was forcibly trying to get into a building and that it ended up being a "case of mistaken identity"

There has to be more to the story - one I'm pretty sure they aren't proud of.

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  • 1 month later...

I got J's to LR out of UPT and I'll be PCS'ing there in January. My wife and I are thinking about buying a house there, so I'm trying to get an idea of what areas/neighborhoods to look at or avoid. Any suggestions?

So far we've been looking at Sherwood and North Little Rock; seems like you can get a decent house around there for a reasonable amount and it would be a good balance between my commute to the base and a short trip downtown for bars/restaurants/probable wife employment.

We don't have kids so I don't really care about school districts, but future resale or (preferably) rental value would be a concern later on.

Thanks!

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Hillcrest and the Heights are two areas of town that are close to downtown Little Rock proper. Great older historic Craftsman style homes, Sherwood is your basic cookie cutter suburbs; close to base, but far from all the fun stuff downtown offers.

Cool I'll check it out. I think we had found a few in that area on Zillow. My only requirement is a decent (2+ car) garage though and a lot of those older houses have just a car port or nothing at all. Some of the houses are pretty cool though!
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Hillcrest and the Heights are two areas of town that are close to downtown Little Rock proper. Great older historic Craftsman style homes, Sherwood is your basic cookie cutter suburbs; close to base, but far from all the fun stuff downtown offers.

If you enjoy paying and extra $50k-$100k to live in a place that's close to bars/neat area, then have at it. Even from Sherwood/NLR it's a $20 cab ride home and you get a lot more house for your money. Now if you want a big ass house for your money, go to Cabot. But that's 20min to base and like 45min to downtown.

West LR is a great place all around. Bigger houses than the 100yr old "historic craftsman" line and a great area. Homes aren't as expensive as Hillcrest/Heights and they're newer as well. It's maybe a 30min drive to base, but it doesn't have the downtown traffic that comes with Hillcrest/Heights since it's all on the highway.

Either way, you'll quickly learn the ways of the 19AW and hate life for the metric shit ton of queep and bureaucracy.

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Spaceman it really all depends on what you like. An older historic home with character or cookie cutter new developments. Personally I loved the Heights because of the location to the city and all the cool things to do outside of work within walking/bike riding distance (Big Dam Bridge, Arkansas River Trail). Wherever you end up its a great city with a lot of fun things to do, enjoy it!!

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An increasing number of people live out in Maumelle and WLR as well these days. Commute from Maumelle to the base is about 35-40 minutes, but you're about 15 minutes from downtown...and it's a fairly quiet town. WLR is a little bit further out from the base, and more crowded but there are some good neighborhoods out there. Hillcrest/Heights has plenty of older homes for sale, but they go for a higher price and lately it's been tough to sell out there.

The middle ground is Sherwood/NLR...it's closer to base and there's some new neighborhoods going up along Hwy 107, but it's further from the city if you're the type that likes to hang out downtown, etc. Cabot/Ward/Austin are for the people who are more concerned with time to drive to base and don't care about going into town...it can easily take 30-45 minutes to get to downtown LR from there.

Conway is also another place some people live, but it's probably the furthest out from everything...about 45-50 minutes to both the city and the base on a good day...but for people who want a smaller town feel, it's not a bad place to consider.

As far as places to avoid, most people that can afford to live elsewhere tend to avoid Jacksonville and certain parts of Sherwood. I'm sure you'll know the areas I'm talking about as you drive around. Anywhere south of 630 tends to not be a decent neighborhood. NLR just north of Argenta (the downtown area of NLR) is pretty rough too. Also consider anything on the south side of the river (LR itself, Hillcrest/Heights, WLR, etc) you have to cross the bridges for work and in heavy traffic they tend to get fouled up pretty quick.

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