JBER, a combination of Army Fort Richardson and Ai...

JBER, a combination of Army Fort Richardson and Air Force Elmendorf. Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson. I had the pleasure of staying her a few days while in Alaska on vacation at the Air Force TLF (Temporary Lodging Facilities) as a home base between stints in Seward and off base Hotels. I m going to butcher a lot of the specifics because I m not military. I was a dependent as a youth and this trip was planned for by my sister (Air Force)

There is some redundancy on gates due to a combination of bases, but as we were still getting used to the 10:30pm summertime sunsets, most gates close early and without schedule/warning making entry slightly more difficult. There was an airshow when we arrived so the road closures and road blocks to keep public to certain areas of the base made a lot of back tracking. The main roads are well maintained, but parking lots are pretty much at the mercy of the extreme weather with some deep potholes. It s a pretty flat base and you can see planes take off in the distance from almost anywhere.

The PX/BX is cool, reminds me of a Fred Meyer, but with a dedicated food court and some outside vendors. Commissary it s pretty basic. Gas is cheap probably due to the oil Alaska produces. The Burger King on base closes early even though we stocked the fridge at our housing.

What I did make use of was the recreational facility. You can rent a hot tub there? Coolers, rain gear, bikes, fishing gear, archery gear for hunting, kind of whatever you need. It all was really cheap, if not free. I didn t explore too much because of the 100% security check and it s a big base and I didn t feel like biking around it too much. There was a bowling alley and a bar that s got limited schedule.

It s a pretty cool base, but we had some issues with TLF and quality, but rec facility made up for it.