|
I also have lived at both Hanscom and Columbus. Columbus is very isolated. A lot of spouses, especially student spouses, feel very alone. The students put in 12 hour days and have to get 8 hours of sleep. That leaves 4 hours for them to study. So, many of these spouses are very lonely and have a very hard time getting jobs. The local community knows that a lot of people are only at Columbus for a year and if they connect you with the base (ie resume) they will not hire you. It's very very frustrating. I ended up going back to school for a graduate degree at the University of Alabama, which was a good move for me. Columbus doesn't have any on base schools, so parents have to put up with the local schools which are terrible. When I was there, there was a large homeschooled population. You just don't have a choice if you want your children to get anything near a decent education. On the up side, when you have a spouse in flight training you can have a lot of fun with the other spouses who are in the same situation. You get very close very fast. Hanscom was wonderful. It's outside of Boston, so you get all the wonderful things about a large, very historic city, but it doesn't feel like it. The base backs up onto Minuteman National Park, which is wonderful. There is traffic, but nothing like in LA or various other large cities. The cost of living is high, but if you live on base, it doesn't affect you too much. The base owns a mobile home park that is nice and a way to make a good bit of money if you can get in there. The south was quite an experience for me and I'm really just glad to be in the north again. People aren't as friendly around here, but when they are you know that it's genuine where as in the south people were nice, but fake, fake, fake. Jobs for spouses are easy to come by and pay very well. As we all have learned, how happy you are is
|
