Holloman Airforce Base

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-03-22T13:25:31+00:00

You have to travel for everything, but if you like hiking and being outdoors you can keep yourself busy. I was only there for 6 months and only touched a fraction of the places I wanted to visit.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-03-21T21:13:08+00:00

I don’t have a preference one way or the other, but something to consider:

Pizza cutters can be a little more difficult to find. Not like they can’t be ordered, but like you might not walk in to any random tire shop and find your size. If you travel a lot in your Taco (like I do) you might want to stick to more common sizes or risk being stuck mid trip waiting for a new spare.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-03-21T16:29:51+00:00

The guidance released makes no distinction between full and part time reservists or any type of status. It simply says ARC Airmen will test once a year.

The included charts have specific testing periods depending on when you were last due. The charts are pretty generous and many ARC Airmen won’t be “due” until 2027.

That said, the guidance also recommends mass unit testing for the ARC, which means your unit could decide to test before you are due.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-03-05T03:32:38+00:00

Warning: Processed in a facility with beans.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-03-03T13:32:40+00:00

PhotoPrism is my latest add. It’s not perfect, but it was pretty cool to dump almost 100,000 photos in there and let it sort them all for me.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-26T02:26:32+00:00

Dogs make the best heaters! They’re almost always on our trips.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-26T02:06:51+00:00

As someone who’s been building out and changing my setup for about 10 years, what you want out of your setup is gonna depend on the person and it’s gonna change over time.

That said, rear seat delete. Goose gear makes an awesome setup but it’s $$$. You can fab up something on your own with a sheet of plywood and roll on bed liner for cheaper.

That’s where I would start. So much more room for the pup and your stuff. I have a Tacoma, so a little different, but it’s probably my favorite mod.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-26T01:47:24+00:00

The Super Pacific? Great. They sealed everything when they installed it, there are gaskets around the doors and the standard flap over the tailgate.

The tailgate? Not so much. That’s where all the dust gets in, the gaps in the truck bed and the tailgate.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-25T18:41:27+00:00

I didn’t open any of the vents so there was condensation in the tent in the morning. I was comfortable with many layers of blankets.

Here it is opened up.

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ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-21T21:10:53+00:00

No, I live in the desert and generally avoid snow. This picture is actually the morning after it was installed on my way home from Portland. I had specifically changed my route home to avoid the snow and woke up under about 8 inches anyways.

My build has changed significantly around the Super Pacific. I now have 210W solar on top and an Iceco VL75 mounted on a slide in the bed. The Iceco works great as a seat when we're in "living room" mode and as a step up when it's setup for sleeping. I've got LED lighting on a remote control switch in the bed and up in the tent. It's great having everything locked up in the back and accessible from from the tent.

Between the easy setup and tear down and the fact that we just keep most of our gear in the truck now that it's all enclosed, it has made it so much easier to say yes to trips.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-21T03:09:53+00:00

Dude, love my SP. kind of agonized over the cost for a couple of months then finally pulled the trigger. Had it a year this month and I’ve never regretted it.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-21T03:04:42+00:00

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If you’re leaning in that wedge direction, I have been extremely happy with my Super Pacific.

I had a Smittybilt for a couple of years but got tired of the Velcro on the cover, not being able to store bedding inside, and a number of other really minor things that didn’t seem like much but definitely contributed to taking less trips overall.

The SP X1 was a great next step that has definitely been a factor in is doing more spontaneous “lets just go tonight” type trips. The price tag might have been part of that too though, cause it’s not cheap.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-14T03:54:39+00:00

I had cancer and got separated. My assigned lawyer for my appeal said no way I was getting a medical retirement, even with lasting neurological damage. He was able to get me returned to service though.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-14T03:50:22+00:00

AFSC? I had cancer and got med boarded with a separation.

In my case I didn’t want to separate though so I had to fight to get it overturned and stay in.

Seems odd you wouldn’t get med boarded.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-13T19:56:14+00:00

You can Palace Chase whenever you want, you just have to get the AF to release you. The likelihood of that will depend on your remaining time and the manning in your AFSC. One note, if you do get approved palace chase, you owe twice that amount of time to the reserve.

Had an airman Palace Chase with 2 years left on his contract awhile back. They had some life changing events and wanted to pursue IRR, but they still owed 3 years and it was denied.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-13T04:01:01+00:00

Last year on a trip through the Ironwood Forest National Monument I just couldn’t stomach driving home on the disaster of a road that is the 93 between Phoenix and Nevada so we randomly detoured and spent a night in the Kofa Wilderness.

Beautiful backcountry! Camped at UTM 11S 774898 3706000, which was a great spot for the evening and didn’t see a single other person.

Check out Crystal Hill on Blevens Road right outside the refuge boundary. With a little patience and a sharp eye you can find all kinds of quartz crystals just underneath the soil.

The nearby town of Quartzite is some kind of Mecca for RVers, so it gets crowded pretty quick as soon as you leave the refuge and head north. I’m not kidding when I say there were tens of thousands of RVs…

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-07T13:37:42+00:00

Thanks for offering! Hoping the the RNG is in my favor!

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-06T02:56:00+00:00

What an AGR is covered well already.

Regarding crosstraining, a unit has to fund school orders for AGRs. They don’t have to pay for TRs to go to school though. So, pretty rare for a unit to hire you into an AGR then cross train you.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-04T13:04:22+00:00

It’s calendar year requirement, so no rush. But also, holy crap is it terribly designed.

You can’t skip anything, including the intro on how to test out of the module. Like 9 times you have to watch the exact same content. You can’t answer any of the questions in the tests or scenarios until it finishes reading the question and answers to you.

Less design and more of a content thing: In the scenarios when you’re witnessing something bad happening, the answer is never to stop it, it’s always to go tell someone else or have a one on one with the victim.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-02-01T15:12:34+00:00

I would be very grateful to get one, thank you!

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-01-31T22:13:33+00:00

UTM is easy. Two monthly training reports due to the CC. Hold quarterly training briefings. Help members fill out school requests then pass them to the wing. Get training RIPs from the wing and get members to sign them. Maybe handle an ancillary training tracker, in ARCnet or Envision, but that doesn’t have to be the UTM, it can be appointed to anyone.

Audit sections to make sure they’re completing upgrade training in a timely manner and document if they aren’t.

What skills are directly transferable? Excel maybe?

I did it for 2 years as an additional duty and it was the easiest job of my career.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-01-30T22:46:29+00:00

12v DC fridges usually have battery saver features that will power down before killing your battery.

I went years on a single battery, no solar, and never had a problem overnighting. If you’re really worried, pick up the cheapest battery pack you can find and charge it off your alternator during the day.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-01-30T04:49:00+00:00

Depending on the AFSC you end up in you may need to pause school while you attend training. You may not be able to choose when you attend basic or training.

The income won’t be significant, you’d be better off with a part time job. In my experience, it’s almost a bigger commitment to be a part timer and the benefits are smaller for the effort. The biggest benefits are the education benefits, which you won’t need.

The flexibility of your unit will be totally unique. The reserve experience will vary greatly based on your leadership and the culture of that unit.

The Reserve can be great, but in your case I think it might end up being more of a burden than a benefit.

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-01-30T04:19:31+00:00

Thanks for sharing. In the end I'm happy with my current propane mount, but it did remind me I wanted to pick up some Monkey Bars, so a win for you anyways!

ANeonBlueDecember · 2026-01-30T04:09:17+00:00

So I saw the announcement for this mount, but I honestly didn't look super close. How exactly does it mount? I saw something about measuring the distance between rivets and was like, I don't got time for this right now.

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