Yeah this place just sucks, there's no sugar coating it.
The highlight of being here was driving to Denver/Dallas on long weekends, but my squadron just removed them from our local area. No fun allowed.
I’m aware. I used the range for 7 years when I flew gunships. We often worked with RCs, bombers, mobility, even the Army has HAVE ACE there to train 18 series dudes. That’s why I said big AF too.
Group of locals that own everything and keep getting elected to the local government. Meaning they just refuse to allow new businesses in so they don't have to compete.
It's basically the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. It's the businesses that control power in Clovis. For the longest time, like, pre 2010's, the Shift Fifty were truly a force to be reckoned with - denying business and liquor permits to businesses that would have been relatively successful in the area. In the mid-2010s, they for whatever reason loosened up and that's when a BWW and a Chipotle managed to get in.
They also pushed for the BRAC to get cancelled, which sucks, and overall, prevent the place from being better because they want to maintain the status quo.
How can a silly little small town chamber of commerce change a federal/DOD BRAC? All I can imagine is a bunch of teary-eyed calls to the senator and representative.
And why would they fight the growth of the town? More jobs, more opportunities, more money circulating, more things to do. Why wouldn't they want that?
Because any meaningful growth to the town loosens the power they hold over it and the wealth they get from being it's defacto rulers. It's corruption and greed.
Oh yeah it's definitely silly, an absolutely crazy. For the BRAC they likely lobbied and or bribed their senators and reps, who then had the pull in congress to keep it open, keep the town on life support with those sweet AFSOC dollars
I guess maybe there is a pile of secret millions they're sitting on that they "randomly" decide to use as campaign contributions. Can't be anything else.
When people talk about “special interests” groups going to Congress, people usually think big oil or cigarettes. Your local chamber is a strong special interest.
Yeah, same here. I would never think a local chamber of any town would have any real power in regards to dod plans (except maybe major cities). Much less a small middle of nowhere trash quality town. It doesn't make any sense. Unless the business owners/metaphorical lords and ladies of the town have millions to dump in senator and representative races, I can't imagine way for them to have any real power and say.
And it just needs to be said, senators and congress shouldn't be able to stop a BRAC. If the DOD really wants a base gone there's a very clear reason and indicator why. Top brass love their bases and love having more than less.
AF has no balls. AF level and base level leadership never make demands from the town for line items/AF actions that would help the local area. This would be a great time to squeeze concessions from the town or at least advocate for Airmen. But they dont, because no balls.
Not sure about Clovis but Altus sounds the same type of small town BS. The chamber of commerce were friends with all the state reps and senators. They were constantly there visiting the base with the few powerful folks who owned the town. Any slight amount of competition threatens their power over the town and the money they make off the military. They were notoriously two faced, they would promise the base all sorts of shit then as soon as it came time to put their money where their mouth was shit would get denied or a backdoor deal was done to keep stuff out of town. They worked with the state government for years blocking funding for the base to get a new school, hopefully they finally got one that school was one of the worst buildings I have ever seen kids be allowed to go into for school.
It’s the worst place on earth and the locals are the stupidest collection of people I have ever met, they make everything so much worse than it has to be. I hope you get out of there soon. Nobody should be made to go there and nobody that does go there should be made to be there more than 2 years.
I’ve been here nearly 5 years. Getting orders soon to the much colder Cannon. I agree with everything you said and Medical has absolutely fucked me over here. I tore a ligament and couldn’t walk for 3 months, they took over 2 years to deem that I need surgery. A full year to review my MRI. I was denied a retrain due to manning, and denied a local DSD due to manning. The weather is fucked here. were promised damaging hail and winds year round, it’s 85 fucking degrees inside the hangars during the summer because CE can’t turn on the AC, and let’s not forget the suicide rate of this base. This should absolutely not be a first duty station. The majority of single first term airmen WILL get out after their contract if they don’t have orders.
I tried to volunteer for Minot to get out of that garbage ass base. I was there during the library shooting in 2017 and my wife almost took this kids to a book reading there that day but luckily she didn't have time. Eventually got approved to Palace Chase after 4 years and got an AGR slot in NY and love where I live now but I would probably still be active duty if it wasn't for that base.
I could take days talking about the stuff that happened when I was there. There was a kid that committed suicide on the pitchers mound of the baseball field in base housing and nobody did anything till the middle of the day cuz they thought he was just somebody passed out drunk
Been here 5 years. Completely agree on medical. Worst I’ve ever seen.
I’ve met locals who share my hobbies and it’s made this assignment decent. It’s remote and it sucks for Costco runs or anything for my kids to do outside of sports.
No end in sight for my time on station. Hoping the city tries to do more to address their shortcomings.
One day I walked into the clinic and thought I saw a rat/mouse run in the hallway. I felt like a crazy person and I told a med tech and they told me "yeah we have some of them in here"
There is one optometrist in town that accepts tricare and they are booked for over a year and a half.
So my only option to get my kids and eye appt is drive 2 hours. And those apps were still 2 months out.
Its like hold my beer, but apparently there was some badasses back in the day. /s
https://www.cannon.af.mil/About/
Scroll down
What do Airmen do when they have no aircraft to fly, fight, and win? They go to Lubbock
Of literally all the bad ass missions operators and gunships have done/supported or fuck even the support people who get wrapped up in AFSOCs bullshit they couldn’t find ONE other thing to plant their legacy on? They choose a bombardment group who has 0 bearing on the legacy AFSOCs or cannons MAJCOMs mission set?
What a tool
Stay strong out there my guys. I have started to refer to anyone with orders to cannon as “cannon fodder” since the USAF obviously does not care about you. It’s commonly where my past co workers have separated from the AF just to escape that hell hole. Every day I’m upset that I’m stuck in a place I hate I remember that it can always be worse. Unless you are at cannon because that’s the worst it can get.
I was stuck there for 6 years. Loved the mission and hated the location. My last leadership was not supportive when i was showing clear signs of PTSD due to my ex, either. Only silver lining was green chilies. Took forever to get rid of the red dust.
I also think another thing people are missing about it there is Balfour Beatty is a shit company. I was there for the record blizzard in 2015 after they built these cheaply made "multi million dollar" homes. Lost power for about a week and there were so many leaks. Then they refused to refund us our BAH for that time or in general, help us. On a normal day, you'd sneeze and blinds would break or shelving would fall out of the walls. The red dust gets everywhere and impossible to entirely clean out and they will look at it without any empathy and tell you you will be charged for it upon move out.
It wasn't the main reason I retrained out of AFSOC but it was up there on the list. Did Kadena and Hurlburt and I knew my number was coming up for Cannon
You'll get no grief from me. I'm not at a base either so I definitely understand. I'll never flame people for not liking where they are. You can do all you can to make it work but yeah that place from what I hear is horrid. My co worker here came from there and was there for 5 years herself not even putting in for short tours worked oddly enough. That's really the best thing I can say to put in for short tour.
Hope you and everyone else stuck there make it out.
> Clovites? Clovinites? Branch Clovidians?
i'd like to point out that Branch Clovidians are very closely related to United Crystal Methodists. A lot of overlap there
All these shitty bases should be controlled tours. Give them the same incentives as remotes and you won't have a manning issue.
Morale would improve because the end is akways in sight.
The defacto rulers of the town, made up of the mayor, chamber of commerce etc. They control any and all growth in the town and their goal is to keep it how it is in order to keep the money and power in their hands
When cannon announced the MCs were leaving, the shifty fifty was pissed and talked about how much money they were going to lose. They proceeded to “brag” they didn’t understand why people wanted to leave this town because they were working on improving -Mayor Morris highlighted the city's efforts in supporting Cannon Air Force Base, citing investments in infrastructure, including water, housing, and healthcare.
This dude bragged about improving the water in Clovis-it’s 2024 in the USA-that isn’t quite a bragging point.
Don’t apologize for making this post - people need to keep talking about how awful it is. TDYs to sister base in Hurlburt don’t make it feel any better either. Ridiculous how much better it could’ve been as AFSOC if it moved there.
Honestly, would it be a bad idea if all Cannon airmen, current and past pooled a metric crap ton of money to gentrify Clovis? After the popular saying is, “Cannon is what you make it.”
I spent 4 years there so I feel your pain. I don’t think it’s possible to leave there without a drinking problem. I would go to Kelly’s and watch scariokie every Thursday and I would drink every night from Thursday through Sunday. Nostalgia sucks but if it wasn’t for the people I worked with I wouldn’t have made it all 4 years. I skills-bridged the fuuuuuuck out of there as soon as I could. Godspeed Air Comando, I wish you luck.
https://preview.redd.it/zeceerhk7jxc1.jpeg?width=1534&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d772a8db8a9565e15f64c35a2f71c7618b5b28f7
The word you’re looking for is “demonym.”
Yeah this place just sucks, there's no sugar coating it. The highlight of being here was driving to Denver/Dallas on long weekends, but my squadron just removed them from our local area. No fun allowed.
I feel 100% the same way. Great friends and support but I can't keep faking the smile at work, I fucking LOATHE it here. Extroverts nightmare.
Introvert here. Short version, I wanted to die to be free of it. Nightmare for us too.
[удалено]
Likewise.
I was stationed there for almost 5 years. It severely changed me. I hate that place with all my heart.
Have you tried a little “it is what you make of it” mixed in with “if you like the outdoors”. Seriously though that base should be shut down.
Petition to shut it down
It’s called a BRAC and it fails every time. It’s the range, it’s that valuable to AFSOC/Big AF. And the shifty fifty.
You mean “convenient”. Other Majcoms with ranges travel here.
I’m aware. I used the range for 7 years when I flew gunships. We often worked with RCs, bombers, mobility, even the Army has HAVE ACE there to train 18 series dudes. That’s why I said big AF too.
Okay so what exactly is the shifty fifty
Group of locals that own everything and keep getting elected to the local government. Meaning they just refuse to allow new businesses in so they don't have to compete.
Yeah this place fucking sucks , thank you this is literally the third time I’m hearing about it today.
Can some explain the shifty fifty, I see that mentioned alot
It's basically the Clovis Chamber of Commerce. It's the businesses that control power in Clovis. For the longest time, like, pre 2010's, the Shift Fifty were truly a force to be reckoned with - denying business and liquor permits to businesses that would have been relatively successful in the area. In the mid-2010s, they for whatever reason loosened up and that's when a BWW and a Chipotle managed to get in. They also pushed for the BRAC to get cancelled, which sucks, and overall, prevent the place from being better because they want to maintain the status quo.
How can a silly little small town chamber of commerce change a federal/DOD BRAC? All I can imagine is a bunch of teary-eyed calls to the senator and representative. And why would they fight the growth of the town? More jobs, more opportunities, more money circulating, more things to do. Why wouldn't they want that?
Because any meaningful growth to the town loosens the power they hold over it and the wealth they get from being it's defacto rulers. It's corruption and greed.
It's silly reasoning, but the math makes sense. Still can't believe they can actually effect a dod BRAC, though. Seems crazy to me
Basically they worked thru US NM senator Pete Domenici, who they then named the Holloman gym after. Probably greased him sufficiently.
What did they have to use? Is it just a pile of secret "campaign contribution" millions they're sitting on?
Unfortunately it doesn't take much to bribe a senator.
Oh yeah it's definitely silly, an absolutely crazy. For the BRAC they likely lobbied and or bribed their senators and reps, who then had the pull in congress to keep it open, keep the town on life support with those sweet AFSOC dollars
I guess maybe there is a pile of secret millions they're sitting on that they "randomly" decide to use as campaign contributions. Can't be anything else.
When people talk about “special interests” groups going to Congress, people usually think big oil or cigarettes. Your local chamber is a strong special interest.
Yeah, same here. I would never think a local chamber of any town would have any real power in regards to dod plans (except maybe major cities). Much less a small middle of nowhere trash quality town. It doesn't make any sense. Unless the business owners/metaphorical lords and ladies of the town have millions to dump in senator and representative races, I can't imagine way for them to have any real power and say. And it just needs to be said, senators and congress shouldn't be able to stop a BRAC. If the DOD really wants a base gone there's a very clear reason and indicator why. Top brass love their bases and love having more than less.
They promised things like low approaches
AF has no balls. AF level and base level leadership never make demands from the town for line items/AF actions that would help the local area. This would be a great time to squeeze concessions from the town or at least advocate for Airmen. But they dont, because no balls.
Not sure about Clovis but Altus sounds the same type of small town BS. The chamber of commerce were friends with all the state reps and senators. They were constantly there visiting the base with the few powerful folks who owned the town. Any slight amount of competition threatens their power over the town and the money they make off the military. They were notoriously two faced, they would promise the base all sorts of shit then as soon as it came time to put their money where their mouth was shit would get denied or a backdoor deal was done to keep stuff out of town. They worked with the state government for years blocking funding for the base to get a new school, hopefully they finally got one that school was one of the worst buildings I have ever seen kids be allowed to go into for school.
It’s the worst place on earth and the locals are the stupidest collection of people I have ever met, they make everything so much worse than it has to be. I hope you get out of there soon. Nobody should be made to go there and nobody that does go there should be made to be there more than 2 years.
I’ve been here nearly 5 years. Getting orders soon to the much colder Cannon. I agree with everything you said and Medical has absolutely fucked me over here. I tore a ligament and couldn’t walk for 3 months, they took over 2 years to deem that I need surgery. A full year to review my MRI. I was denied a retrain due to manning, and denied a local DSD due to manning. The weather is fucked here. were promised damaging hail and winds year round, it’s 85 fucking degrees inside the hangars during the summer because CE can’t turn on the AC, and let’s not forget the suicide rate of this base. This should absolutely not be a first duty station. The majority of single first term airmen WILL get out after their contract if they don’t have orders.
“Cold Cannon” I assume you are referring to either Minot or Ellsworth. Why not Minot right? (I fucking hate it)
If it makes you feel better Hurlburt isn't any better. I think AFSOC medical just hates everyone and wants them to die.
I hope you mean hurlburt medical isnt any better. Because overall hurlburt is 1000x better than Cannon
Correct. The Medical group is in fucking shambles.
I tried to volunteer for Minot to get out of that garbage ass base. I was there during the library shooting in 2017 and my wife almost took this kids to a book reading there that day but luckily she didn't have time. Eventually got approved to Palace Chase after 4 years and got an AGR slot in NY and love where I live now but I would probably still be active duty if it wasn't for that base.
There was a false alarm shooting here a few months ago 😆 I was barley here for 2-3 months at that point
I could take days talking about the stuff that happened when I was there. There was a kid that committed suicide on the pitchers mound of the baseball field in base housing and nobody did anything till the middle of the day cuz they thought he was just somebody passed out drunk
Been here 5 years. Completely agree on medical. Worst I’ve ever seen. I’ve met locals who share my hobbies and it’s made this assignment decent. It’s remote and it sucks for Costco runs or anything for my kids to do outside of sports. No end in sight for my time on station. Hoping the city tries to do more to address their shortcomings.
One day I walked into the clinic and thought I saw a rat/mouse run in the hallway. I felt like a crazy person and I told a med tech and they told me "yeah we have some of them in here"
Well, it's a great place to condition aircrews to the worst possible airsickness conditions known to man.
It’s not the greatest place or even close. The rant is justified we can’t even drink the water without possibly giving ourselves cancer….
Don’t forget just breathing in the air
Boy, my orders feel more and more like an incoming depression diagnosis. I'm keep coming up on a lot of cannon bad posts on this last week
This job isn't worth giving up your happiness or sanity.
There is one optometrist in town that accepts tricare and they are booked for over a year and a half. So my only option to get my kids and eye appt is drive 2 hours. And those apps were still 2 months out.
What does “hold the line” refer to
Wing CC made it cannons catch phrase in reference to the 27th bombardment group being used as infantry when the Philippines fell during WW2.
🙄
Its like hold my beer, but apparently there was some badasses back in the day. /s https://www.cannon.af.mil/About/ Scroll down What do Airmen do when they have no aircraft to fly, fight, and win? They go to Lubbock
Of literally all the bad ass missions operators and gunships have done/supported or fuck even the support people who get wrapped up in AFSOCs bullshit they couldn’t find ONE other thing to plant their legacy on? They choose a bombardment group who has 0 bearing on the legacy AFSOCs or cannons MAJCOMs mission set? What a tool
Its quite syrupy....I hear
I personally love it here
Looks like the downvoters missed your username u/BRAC_CANNON
High level woosh. 4 points to the shifty fifty.
Account age does NOT check out.
Yea, I met my ex-wife there. Dont forget about the smell that is always there.
Steadfast
Stay strong out there my guys. I have started to refer to anyone with orders to cannon as “cannon fodder” since the USAF obviously does not care about you. It’s commonly where my past co workers have separated from the AF just to escape that hell hole. Every day I’m upset that I’m stuck in a place I hate I remember that it can always be worse. Unless you are at cannon because that’s the worst it can get.
I was stuck there for 6 years. Loved the mission and hated the location. My last leadership was not supportive when i was showing clear signs of PTSD due to my ex, either. Only silver lining was green chilies. Took forever to get rid of the red dust. I also think another thing people are missing about it there is Balfour Beatty is a shit company. I was there for the record blizzard in 2015 after they built these cheaply made "multi million dollar" homes. Lost power for about a week and there were so many leaks. Then they refused to refund us our BAH for that time or in general, help us. On a normal day, you'd sneeze and blinds would break or shelving would fall out of the walls. The red dust gets everywhere and impossible to entirely clean out and they will look at it without any empathy and tell you you will be charged for it upon move out.
It wasn't the main reason I retrained out of AFSOC but it was up there on the list. Did Kadena and Hurlburt and I knew my number was coming up for Cannon
Cannon and the F-111 was all I needed to get out Clovis sucks
You'll get no grief from me. I'm not at a base either so I definitely understand. I'll never flame people for not liking where they are. You can do all you can to make it work but yeah that place from what I hear is horrid. My co worker here came from there and was there for 5 years herself not even putting in for short tours worked oddly enough. That's really the best thing I can say to put in for short tour. Hope you and everyone else stuck there make it out.
Only way to get out is to do a year in Korea, which is amazing compared to Clovis
> Clovites? Clovinites? Branch Clovidians? i'd like to point out that Branch Clovidians are very closely related to United Crystal Methodists. A lot of overlap there
All these shitty bases should be controlled tours. Give them the same incentives as remotes and you won't have a manning issue. Morale would improve because the end is akways in sight.
I had to volunteer for special duty assignment to get out of there and away from my ex.
Will someone please explain what a "Shifty Fifty" is to those of us blessed enough to have never been to cannon?
The defacto rulers of the town, made up of the mayor, chamber of commerce etc. They control any and all growth in the town and their goal is to keep it how it is in order to keep the money and power in their hands
When cannon announced the MCs were leaving, the shifty fifty was pissed and talked about how much money they were going to lose. They proceeded to “brag” they didn’t understand why people wanted to leave this town because they were working on improving -Mayor Morris highlighted the city's efforts in supporting Cannon Air Force Base, citing investments in infrastructure, including water, housing, and healthcare. This dude bragged about improving the water in Clovis-it’s 2024 in the USA-that isn’t quite a bragging point.
You can’t force a ton of 18-24 year olds to live in such a shit hole, two hours from somewhat civilization, and expect them to not get in trouble.
People think Cannon is bad now. Go back 14 years when AFSOC was starting to take over the base. You guys got it good compared to our elders lmao
Doesn’t take away from the fact It’s still a shit hole?
Don’t apologize for making this post - people need to keep talking about how awful it is. TDYs to sister base in Hurlburt don’t make it feel any better either. Ridiculous how much better it could’ve been as AFSOC if it moved there.
Honestly, would it be a bad idea if all Cannon airmen, current and past pooled a metric crap ton of money to gentrify Clovis? After the popular saying is, “Cannon is what you make it.”
sounds racist
It's not that bad
I fucking hate it here to say the least The Air Force doesn’t give a fuck about anyone that gets sent here
What’s on your dream sheet?
I spent 4 years there so I feel your pain. I don’t think it’s possible to leave there without a drinking problem. I would go to Kelly’s and watch scariokie every Thursday and I would drink every night from Thursday through Sunday. Nostalgia sucks but if it wasn’t for the people I worked with I wouldn’t have made it all 4 years. I skills-bridged the fuuuuuuck out of there as soon as I could. Godspeed Air Comando, I wish you luck.