Fort Bragg, North Carolina

Location: Fayetteville, North Carolina
General Description: Fayetteville is definitely a "military town." While I do not know the city's history, I can say that Fort Bragg and Pope Airforce Base have a huge impact on the city's economy.
What I Liked: Ft Bragg is within a day's drive of a significant number of points of interest in the eastern United States. If you drive about six hours to the west, you will be in the Smoky Mountains. About five hours to the north puts you in Washington, D.C. If you drive a scant two hours to the east, you will come to any number of beaches, most notably Wilmington and Carolina Beach. Driving about five hours to the south west puts you in Atlanta. Charlotte is only an hour or so to the southwest and Raleigh is about an hour up I-95 to the north. In Charlotte, a sports fan can take in the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats or the NFL's Carolina Panthers. If NASCAR is what you're into, then Charlotte is definitely for you. Sports fans may also enjoy the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL. If you're into college sports, you are within an easy drive of five Atlantic Coast Conference campuses and one Southeastern Conference campus. Those being Duke, North Carolina, Wake Forest, and N.C. State of the ACC in North Carolina and Clemson and South Carolina of the ACC and SEC respectively in South Carolina. Minor League sports are also present in North Carolina. The famous Durham Bulls are up the road in Durham and Fayetteville has a few minor league franchises.
What I Hated: Fort Bragg is like a gigantic "spitting contest." By that, I mean to say that it is the home of the Airborne and Special Operations. If you show up on post and do not have at least a set of Airborne wings, then you are in for a rough time. Airborne wings are the "minimum standard," especially for males. A lot of the men are Ranger and Special Forces qualified. There are various other "hooah schools" that a man is expected to attend throughout his tenure on Bragg. I suppose my position has always been that I don't need any wings, badges, tabs, or other accouterments to be good at my job. Oh, and you had better be good at PT. Every day is a "run day" on Bragg.
Conclusion: Fort Bragg is not a bad place. I wanted to go there because my cousin was stationed there. I got there and quickly fell victim to a bad case of culture-shock. I hung in there from November, 2006 to March, 2009. It wasn't a bad experience, overall. I think that I just misunderstood a lot of things while I was there. Would I go back? Absolutely. If nothing else, I'd like another chance to prove that I can hang in and be successful.