Skip to main content
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation (Sticky)

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About Essay Contests
    • Innovation for Sea Power
    • Marine Corps
    • Naval Intelligence
  • Current Issue
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • American Sea Power Project
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues
Adak
Tents and Quonset huts used to house Navy personnel at Naval Station Adak, Alaska, 1941.
U.S. Naval Institute Photo Archive

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About Essay Contests
    • Innovation for Sea Power
    • Marine Corps
    • Naval Intelligence
  • Current Issue
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • American Sea Power Project
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues

Asked & Answered

What are or were the best and worst Navy, Coast Guard, or Marine Corps bases or stations, and why?
March 2023
Proceedings
Vol. 149/3/1,441
Asked & Answered
View Issue
Comments
Body

Patrick Lobejko, U.S. Navy Veteran

Gaeta, Italy. It was the best base because it’s not a base at all. I had the fortune to be stationed on the USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) homeported there. That I had the chance to live in town among the Italian people made it a fantastic duty assignment.

Dave Kisor, U.S. Navy Veteran

Naval Air Station Lemoore, California, is the worst. You get sprayed with agricultural poisons between the operations and mainside parts of the base, and even with a seven-mile dead zone around the base, there must be a noise complaint phone line. Lemoore will never be livable.

Captain Fred Furtek, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired)

Having spent three years there (1969–71), the worst was Naval Station Adak, Alaska. Adak had constant precipitation, winds, temperatures below minus 60 degrees, earthquakes, an active volcano, and largely unpaved roads. Navy Exchange shopping only—no restaurants, fresh fruit, vegetables, or milk, and no live television.

Major Bob Cypher, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired)

Hands down, the worst is Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow, California, in the middle of the Mojave Desert. It’s remote and has just a tiny Marine Corps presence. The best is Marine Corps Base Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. We’ll probably close it and move everybody to Twentynine Palms, California.

Robert Deschak, U.S. Marine Corps Veteran

The best was Naval Air Station Cubi Point, Republic of the Philippines. “Welcome” jeepneys on the flight line, “Burn Your Own Steak Night” at the bachelor officers' quarters, Cubi Specials at the Plaque Bar. . . . If you had been there, you wouldn’t have asked—if you were never there, you won’t believe how it was.

James Friderici, U.S. Coast Guard Veteran

The worst Coast Guard station was Scotch Cap Light Station on Unimak Island, Alaska, on the outer stretch of the Aleutian Islands. It was isolated duty on the east side of Unimak Pass with supplies from a buoy tender.

Gaeta

The U.S. Naval Activity and USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) in Gaeta, Italy. U.S. Navy (Brianna K. Green)

Commander Adam D. Guthrie, U.S. Navy

The best was Navy Supply Corps School Athens, Georgia. As a newly commissioned ensign, I was in a college town with a nice paycheck for a six-month stint. Lieutenants spent two-three years there as instructors. More officers met future spouses at this station than any other of which I am aware. It was closed in the mid 2000s.

Mark Brogdon, U.S. Navy Veteran

Subic Bay Naval Base, Republic of the Philippines, was the best—hands down! Beautiful mountains, friendly people, good food, enlisted-friendly cost of living, and San Miguel beer!

Commander Larry A. Grant, U.S. Navy (Retired)

As a surface navy guy with tours in San Diego, Monterey, Newport, Seattle, Charleston, and Gaeta, Italy, I am not sure the Navy has any bad naval stations. The worst locations always seem to have been shipyards.

April question

Commander Jerry Hannon, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired), Golden Life Member

The admin complex of Naval Security Group Activity Winter Harbor, Maine, was one of the most beautiful locations you could imagine, located within the Schoodic Section of Acadia National Park. Officers and enlisted working at the operations site in Corea, but living in the BOQ/BEQ, drove along forests and rocky tidal ponds as well as the boulder-laden ocean front to reach the two main ops buildings.

Midshipman Third Class Webster Lowe, U.S. Naval Academy

Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is the best Navy base in the strategic sense, as its location near the antipode of the United States dramatically flattens the loss-of-strength gradient and enables power projection throughout the U.S. Africa Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and U.S. Central Command areas of responsibility.

Captain Ray Brown, U.S. Coast Guard (Retired)

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the best. Yes, I know the misery of East Coast refresher training three times and many port calls during drug patrols. It has a safe harbor, fuel piers, telephones for both official and personal business, an airstrip for bringing supplies and personnel, and a softball field.

Lieutenant Brian Mills, U.S. Coast Guard

The best or worst duty station, depending on the day, is sailing our nation’s only heavy icebreaker, the USCGC Polar Star (WAGB-10), on her annual cycle of a five-month Antarctic deployment, followed by four months away from homeport in dry dock to keep the nearly 50-year-old cutter operational.

Ron Linville, U.S. Navy Veteran

Unless there have been a lot of changes, the worst must be Naval Station Great Lakes, Illinois. First, it isn’t near any salt water. Second, they have terrible barbers.

Related Articles

Eugene Ely
P Asked & Answered

Asked & Answered

February 2023
What or for whom should the next aircraft carrier (CVN-82) be named and why?
San Francisco Bay
P Asked & Answered

Asked & Answered

January 2023
What was the most demanding sea-and-anchor detail you have ever experienced?
Normandy
P Asked & Answered

Asked & Answered

December 2022
The American Battle Monuments Commission operates and maintains 26 permanent American military cemeteries on foreign soil. How many have you visited, and which visit was your most memorable?

Quicklinks

Footer menu

  • About the Naval Institute
  • Books & Press
  • Naval History
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Oral Histories
  • Events
  • Naval Institute Foundation
  • Photos & Historical Prints
  • Advertise With Us
  • Naval Institute Archives

Receive the Newsletter

Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations.

Sign Up Now
Example NewsletterPrivacy Policy
USNI Logo White
Copyright © 2025 U.S. Naval Institute Privacy PolicyTerms of UseContact UsAdvertise With UsFAQContent LicenseMedia Inquiries
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
×

You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Proceedings this month.

Non-members can read five free Proceedings articles per month. Join now and never hit a limit.