USMC 2ndLt. here, about to graduate TBS in about a month. Received my MOS of 1802 Tank officer with orders to Ft. Benning for tank school (ABOLC). Has anyone here been to ABOLC, or Benning in general? How is it down there? Thanks all.

I only did Airborne school at Benning in 2005 but the base's facilities sucked back then and the town of Columbus isn't any better.

Been to Benning during all seasons.

Summer: Satan's Taint. Hotter than all fuck. Humid as all fuck. The brush in certain areas like Yankee South will eat you alive (Yankee North not so much though). FYL

Fall: starts off hotter than all fuck. Then it gets rainy. Brush will still eat you alive.

Winter: Hovers at right around 33-35 and pisses rain on you. Non stop. Brush is dead, but it's withered corpses will eat you.

Spring: pisses rain on you and then gets hotter than all fuck. Evil new brush starts growing back. It thirsts for fresh meat....


There are also hogs EVERYWHERE.

There is nothing worthwhile on Victory Drive or at the mall. If you want to go drinking go downtown.
If you need to pick up some gear go to Commando (the only place you should go to on Victory Drive)
Benning has a Mexican restaurant down around Airborne School called El Zapata. It's pretty good, isn't too expensive, and has beer.

Victory Drive is like other local town main streets near a base associated with Infantry and Airborne...

...which is basically like walking through a Brigade-sized ambush consisting of interlocking fields of fire and coordinated assault elements from:

* $2 hookers with their teeth knocked out after years of drug deals gone bad with their pimps, dealers, and unhappy customers

* Tattoo parlors

* Surplus stores

* Pawn shops where the hookers put stolen things in pawn for cash to buy meth

* Strip joints where future Rangerettes work for a living, and hook sucker young Privates and Specialists into a future of LES handovers while said Joes are deployed 9 months out of the year

* Liquor stores

* Title loan agencies

* Used car lots with E-1 financing and up available, just bring a copy of your LES!

* Fat Cleatus riding his tow truck to repo Joe's financed brodozer after his stripper wife "forgot" to make the payments while he is off slaying ragheads like a rock star, so the same vehicle can be sold back at the used car lot for maximum profits multiple times over


My advice:

Visit the National Infantry Museum on Fort Benning daily.  Take lots of notes and pics.  Don MOPP 4 before leaving Post.  Look for alternate exits to Victory Drive.  Look up the MWR office and see what kinds of outdoor fun you can have on post.

Fort Benning MWR Euipment Rental

Last time I was there was in 1982. I have heard it has changed a lot. One of the better places to go to get away from junior EMs was Al Who's but I heard it was closed. When I went through IOBC in 1979, I spent most of my time at Wilkins Hall (BOQ) and studied. Best to immerse yourself in excelling, IMO.

Drink water...summer is here and it's only getting hotter...

VD Drive has toned it down quite a bit since the last time I was here ('92)

Downtown has had a huge shot in the arm with CSU moving part of their campus there...cool bars, restaurants, music on the streets, hot college chicks...

All in all not bad...

Watch out for the fire ants.

This is gold!  Pure gold!  It brought back so many memories!  From OBC in 1985, to BAC in 1986, to OAC in '91, to deploying out of there in 2008!    

fucking legs



 

I was there for infantry school in 1982-83. Sounds like it hasn't changed.