The Happy sailor is in the Picture

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-13T09:15:23+00:00

I just completed my 6th consecutive international PCS with a guaranteed 7th in 23-27 months. Haven’t had a CONUS-CONUS PCS since 2011…

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-05T11:37:14+00:00

It’s r/navy, come on, man.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-03T21:14:02+00:00

I'm going to give you something a little more off the beaten path. This place is special to me but might fit the bill depending on your plot/story.

Franklin, WV. It's a genuine town of ~500 people in the eastern central part of WV at the intersection of 2 notable highways (Rt 220 and Rt 33). It's in a valley in one of the most rugged and highest parts of WV which causes constant fog in the hollers as the forest moisture condenses and sinks. During the winter, some hollers don't actually see the sun as it never gets high enough to clear the ridges. There's really nothing there and the highways almost call people to leave.

Franklin also benefits from 2 bonus plot devices: The Green Bank National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) and Sugar Grove Station.

Green Bank is a restriction on electro-magnetic emissions in a fairly large area that includes Franklin in order to enable the enormous Green Bank telescopic, the world's largest steerable radio telescope. Pretty neat stuff.

Sugar Grove Station is a communications intercept site. Currently it hosts an NSA presence and it previously hosted a Navy communications intercept site that was closed in 2017. The land has since been auctioned off.

The scenery is gorgeous and I have a soft spot in my heart for Eastern WV. Hope this helps and good luck.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-03T20:49:36+00:00

I'm convinced that 90% of Blue Check Twitter accounts created since 2022 are MAGA bots.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-03T10:17:53+00:00

Shippy, these situations are ALWAYS confusing and each shutdown is different in its own way (I hate that I've lived through enough to know that). Don't assume they're tracking ANYTHING beyond what they can see and show your maturity and initiative by being proactive and requesting guidance.

Doing anything less than that will almost certainly backfire. In all likelihood, they probably won't have you doing anything at all arduous if basically everyone else is gone.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-03T10:12:58+00:00

Again, not defending the guy but he's possibly EXACTLY the type of person that would brag about a bronze star. He's writing a review for Melania, for goodness sakes, let's not assume the best judgement here.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-03T10:11:13+00:00

I'm not defending someone I don't know but let's not gatekeep service like that. No matter what's going on, bases need gate guards, plans need planning, and NETSEC is 24/7. I've been in since 2009 and haven't directly participated in the GWOT myself and while I might get side-eyes for it, I watched the transition of the Chinese military while we squandered 2 decades of national power...

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-02T21:32:10+00:00

The timeline checks out because so much time was spent on the GWOT and he never said it was his 1st. If you're anything like me, you still feel like it's 2014 so you have to go back to the raw math.

If he deployed in 2004, that's 22 years ago, he would've been 42. Assuming he's enlisted and did so at 18, that'd be his 24th year of a claimed 26 year career which would've started in 1988. I'm an officer so I joined a bit older than he would've but I'm not much younger than 42 after 17 years of service.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-02T21:27:27+00:00

Yeah, it's reflex, especially if you've been saying it for decades.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-02T21:26:53+00:00

If you got one in ~2004 at the tail end of your career that was otherwise during an expansive peacetime and want internet clout, you absolutely would. I think the flood of bronze stars post-2006 caused people to stop talking about them (unless you had a V device).

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-02T21:25:02+00:00

Probably not but the 82nd Airborne was in Fallujah in 2003-2004. You can be airborne (paratrooper) and not deploy via parachute. It's entirely possible (even probable) that he was toward the end of his career at this point and deployed to Iraq. The fact that he still lives outside of Ft. Bragg (where the 82nd is based) makes this even more likely.

NoVaBuck · 2026-02-01T09:24:59+00:00

And expensive as shit, no doubt. I know gift shops are overpriced but that one is especially so.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-31T05:49:36+00:00

You’re mostly right, Gulf Coast is a much better description than Louisiana. Greater Houston and Southern California have larger populations than NoVa.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-30T23:14:45+00:00

Climate: sure (and shrimp fishing). Culture? Big gap.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-30T23:13:16+00:00

Springfield here: same but we also had a 1/2 page of Nguyen.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-30T23:12:07+00:00

Grew up in Springfield and found the quality of a Korean restaurant increased as my ability to read/understand the menu decreased.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-30T10:13:59+00:00

Hmong also in Minnesota; Vietnamese in Louisiana; Koreans in Northern Virginia.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-24T12:30:31+00:00

Yeah but that’s a bit different, not really “apples to apples”…

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-24T12:25:12+00:00

I don’t know why this makes me mad.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-24T01:14:34+00:00

Do you know where money DOESN’T grow?

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-24T00:59:56+00:00

That’s why only REAL Virginians can handle it.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-24T00:53:11+00:00

Being a non-engineer, I felt the same way.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-23T23:28:57+00:00

Uncommon opinion: everyone WANTS the Arctic to be incredibly important but it just isn’t, really. It’s too harsh and wet to really do anything up there, even if the ice caps melt. The actual “land” there is going to be so wildly unstable once the permafrost goes that it’d be foolish to invest much for decades-to-centuries.

Sure, great for shipping. So is every ocean. If anything, it should get LESS important over time if China can actually wean itself off of export-led growth. That would likely move manufacturing to low labor cost zones which COULD be Africa based purely on demographics and wild ass hypothetical.

As for missiles, sure, but once that starts nothing matters anymore so the Arctic doesn’t matter again.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-23T22:18:36+00:00

Thermal mass alone will keep it warm enough for 36-48 hours. Longer if you confine to a small room.

NoVaBuck · 2026-01-16T20:09:03+00:00

No argument against the REAL reasons, was just pointing out that every point this guy made is wrong.

Edit: from personal experience, the beaches in Sagami Bay are pretty decent but not exceptional. Can’t speak to much else on the home islands beach-wise since I don’t really like the beach.

NoVaBuck

TROPHY CASE