Why the USAF Is Better...
This is not a park...
...it's a couple of shots of the Shaw Airplane Patch golf course, taken from the clubhouse parking lot. Nice, eh?
We're just back from a beer run out to the base and this was my first time on Shaw. My initial impressions are this is one of the best-kept Air Force bases I've ever seen. I've been in national parks that were less meticulously maintained... and not nearly as beautiful. They didn't have jets, either.
Gorgeous! The old speculation that the AF goes in first to get the golf course established must be true!
ReplyDeletePepper and I just might have to check that out.
The best kept grass out here at Edwards?
ReplyDeleteDrum Roll Please!
The Golf Course.
No lawns in some of the housing. We live in the Desert, fer cryin' out loud!
Buck, have you ever been on Barksdale?
ReplyDeleteThe place is gorgeous. It's the best neighborhood in three Parishes.
Eldest son raves about Offutt. He was stationed at Fort Ord for two years in school. Man, he was glad to get off a post, and on to a base. They got some nice digs now in the AF. I have zero personal experience, but my anecdotal impression is that EVERYTHING is better in the AF.
The old speculation that the AF goes in first to get the golf course established must be true!
ReplyDeleteI think the Marines go in first, then we come along and build the golf course... ;-)
Glenn: The best grass on ANY AFB is found on the golf course.
Andy: I do have some experience with the other branches... our erstwhile allies... by going TDY to Army and Navy installations during the course of my career. In addition to those brief encounters, I spent a year in an AF tenant unit on an Army base up on Turkey's beautiful Black Sea coast. Your perceptions are indeed true: we live better.
I've never been on Barksdale, but as the home of a numbered Air Force... the FAMOUS Eighth... one would naturally assume the base would be beautiful. I say that mainly because that's the case with other numbered Air Force HQs I've been on. Shaw is home to Ninth AF HQ.
It is beautiful on Base there. Too bad you don't chase the little white ball.
ReplyDeleteYeah, bases with a NAF HQ (or other bigshot mission...i.e., STRATCOM at Offutt) tend to be very well kept, although there are exceptions. Elmendorf is home to 11th AF and ALCOM and the grounds are tolerable but look no better than our Army neighbors at Fort Rich. You get away from that and out to the "real" AF and things can go downhill quickly...see Minot and/or Whiteman.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I'm pretty sure that the best kept grounds award (at least outside of the D.C./Andrews/Bolling area) has to go to Maxwell, which makes sense seeing as how it's where all the officers go to attend PME.
Naval Air Station, Kaneohe Bay, has a well kept links, so I daresay the AF doesn't have the market cornered on the best courses.
ReplyDeleteI think it may be related to aviators in general, perhaps.
Lou: I have been known to rent sticks on occasion, but I can count those times on one hand. Well, mebbe two.
ReplyDeleteMike: Or Cannon. Maintaining good greens in the desert takes some doin' and as for Minot? "Freezin's the reason!"
BR: The course at the Presidio in San Francisco is world-class, as well. Google it... it's a National Historic Landmark.