help!!! my DH is gonna reenlist soon and he wants to go to ft meade after his tour in iraq,
can anybody tell me about ft meade? housing? weather? is it also true that they dont deploy there??? im just curious...

Hi! My DH had orders to Fort Meade when he gets back from Iraq. I am afraid I can't be too much help with your questions since he is not with a unit yet and we don't live on post. My understanding is that there are deployments from Fort Meade but they often aren't as widespread or as long as typical deployments from some other posts. I think they tend to do 6 month deployments. Although I am sure there are some exceptions.

I can tell you that DH and I love this area and plan to stick around after he gets out of the Army. It is very expensive and there is a lot of traffic but DH and I are used to that since we are from Boston. There is a great job market here and there is so much to do within a few hours drive, from beaches to mountains to historical sites to big city amenities. There are great restaurants in DC, Baltimore and Annapolis. The schools are hit or miss, I work for Prince George's County public schools and I would never send my kids to school there.

As for weather, you definitely get all four seasons here. There were leaves on the trees into December and they come back around April. The winter is not very harsh here IMO. It gets muggy in the summer.

HTH!

My DF deployed from there. There are special missions that go all the time, just not full blown entire brigade on 15 months deployments and stuff.

DB is based out of Meade. He's deployed right now. Guys from his unit are generally sent for 3-6 months at a time.

I'm a Baltimore girl and I like it here. It is expensive, but not overly so. The weather isn't too extreme in any season. Summers are hot and humid (perfect for the pool), fall is gorgeous, winter is cold (40*), but not very snowy, and spring is wet and wonderful. I can't tell you about enlisted housing on Meade, but officer housing is nice. The schools around Meade, from what I've heard, are adequate, but not stellar. My friend that lives on post sends her son to parochial school. There are tons of restaurants, shopping areas, activities, and adventures within a relatively short drive. All in all, it's a nice area. If you are used to wide open spaces (like my DB is), it takes some getting used to. But if urban is your thing, MD has it all.

I live near Ft Meade! I grew up only about an hour from there so if you have any questions you can always PM me!

It's a great area. Your very close to DC, Baltimore, and Annapolis so there is always something going on.

Housing on post for enlisted isn't bad. BD and I moved up here last yet and love it so far. We decided to live on post after looking for places to live (at least 2 bedrooms) and found that many places near base aren't affordable compared to the BAH he's getting. You have to factor in all the utilites living off post as well. For a few places I did find affordable (like $1500 rent for a 2 bdrm 950ish sq ft apartment), it was in areas I did not want to live and read bad reviews on apartment rating sites. So for us, we'd rather live on post.

They have "classic" homes which have not been renovated. I'd suggest not to get in one of those. I think most of the housing has been renovated though and they are building a lot of new housing (but it looks like it's for those with children). Most of the units have been renovated and some lucky ones even get newer housing. We live in a renovated townhouse and although it's a little small, it's nice. One of my neighbors warned me of bad plumbing, saying she had backups at least once a month. Either I'm lucky or she's just unlucky. I've only had one problem since I've been here and it's nothing I couldn't fix with a plunger :)

Just let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer them :)

Angela

Have lived in the area previously. PM me if you need info. Was just going to say Julianne is there and ArmyEGirl but they already posted.