This is the question I wondered when I found out my hubby was going on TDY to San Diego Naval Base (& I got to tag along!). Well, now I know...and the answer: it's NOTHING like an Air Force Base!! Lol, it's toootally different in so many ways. Some better, some worse.
When we first got there, we drove up and were told that we had to have a car pass to get into base. Huh? The AF did away with those years ago! We just do ID cards now. Well we had to go back out and down the road to another part of the base to get a car pass. That was pretty painless, so we left, only to go back to the gate and be told we were at the wrong gate for lodging....um, what? We find another gate to go into, only to be told the same story....what?! Turns out, Naval bases {or San Diego Base anyway} has literally 3 separate bases and 15 gates!! There's a fleet {water} side, dry {duh, land} side, and a shopping/MWR side each with mulitple gates.
Holy cannolli!! I'm so glad that we found out the building he was supposed to go to the next day. Otherwise, we would've been in a panic trying to figure it out! I ended up having to drive hubby to work every morning to keep him from stressing so much about where to go. I have never seen such a base before, lol. On an AF base you know where to go, there are signs everywhere, they all have pretty much the same stuff & same layout. You know an Airman's rank right away. Not a Navy person's though. I couldn't for the life of me tell their rank because it blended in too much with their dark uniforms {just know that the officer's ranks are in yellow to stand out more}. Also, the people on an AF base are nice, but not super friendly. Everybody at the Naval base was always friendly...maybe it's because we were outsiders and they wanted to make a good impression, lol. We knew we were definitely in another world, haha.
One of the major differences is that as a driver on an AF base, you're scared to death not to come to a complete stop for a full 2 seconds at a stop sign. If you don't, you'll get a ticket! On a Naval base, rolling stops are perfectly fine. On an AF base, there are arrows that you must follow in parking lots and the shoppette for gas...if you don't, you get a ticket. Not on the Naval base, you go whichever way you want! Another difference is that on an AF base, we have rent-a-cops at the gate a majority of the time. Even if we do have Security Forces, neither are very friendly or welcoming. On a Naval base, there's only Security Forces at the gate; and they are super nice and call you by name {even as a spouse!} and welcome you on base. AF bases have like 3, maybe 4 gates. Naval base, literally 15!! and all areas are separated; so you have to go in and out different gates to get to different parts of the base.
After the third day we finally got the layout of the base :p It was really nice, and their Commissary is to die for!! I'm so jealous, lol :p They also have 2 exchanges!! One is just like a Macy's and the other is like a regular Target-like exchange. The food court is also to die for with so many choices of places to eat!
On the other hand, the AF Lodges we've stayed in are waay nicer than the Navy Lodge where we stayed. Not to say all AF are better and all Navy are bad. I mean, it was a nice place and great price, we just had a couple of issues with having to call multiple times for housekeeping to clean our room and bring new towels. Overall, my first experience with a Navy base was awesome! I loved being able to see how another branch of the military works from their base to their people. More to come on the trip later....
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