Alamagordo?

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green73

green73

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Hello All

Military guy here looking for a new assignment. Holloman AFB is a distinct possibility for me. It will not be happening for maybe a year. I am just looking for whatever information I can get. I hear it isn't the best place to be a single guy. Other than that I haven't heard anything really bad. I hear it is a bit far from some of the bigger cities. I have only ever been through Las Cruces once and thought it was a nice city. Just looking for info to help my decision. THANX!!!
 
What about Kirtland in Albuquerque? Alamagordo is not that bad, but Albuquerque is a bigger town.
 
Are you guys from Texas?

It's AlamOgordo.
Not even Texans say Remember the Alama.

juane
 
I should have known that. Alamogordo, like Clovis and the rest of those parts might as well be part of Texas. :rolleyes:
 
green73 said:
I hear it is a bit far from some of the bigger cities.
Click to expand...

Hello!

Alamogordo is a small NM town with a large part of the economy dependent on Holloman and WSMR. As far as distances to bigger cities, you have a long haul to Lubbock or Amarillo to the East and those cities are in Texas. There is a large university in Lubbock. To the SW, there is El Paso which is a very large city in comparison to Alamogordo. Juarez is a comparable sized city in Mexico that is just across the border from El Paso. A little north of El Paso is Las Cruces and you said you have been there. Cruces is a lot smaller than the Texas cities that I have mentioned. There are some smaller towns in that part of the state like Roswell, Clovis, and Carlsbad.

Albuquerque is the only large city in the state of NM. It is important to remember that the distances in the West are huge in comparison to the East Coast. 200 miles between towns out here is 200 miles of nothing but dirt and tumbleweeds.

-Mike-
 
It depends on what you're looking for. Alamogordo isn't a bad place, despite what our local curmudgeon says. Mike's right about distances - You're pretty much limited to Las Cruces (College Town ~ 75 k population) or El Paso (Border Town ~ 500k population) for larger communities within a hundred miles.

As I said, it depends on what you're looking for. Weekends are somewhat wild in Ruidoso, a tourist town, especially during skiing season. It's the closest ski area to most of Texas.

I'd agree Kirtland in Albuquerque has more options for things to do...
 
Okay...

...I was born and raised in Alamogordo. Went to high school and my folks still live there.

Alamogrodo, originally a railroad town, is famous for the first atomic bomb test and book burning churches.

As Mike, said, it is very much a military town with Holloman AFB, originally a bomber training base (B-17s and later B-29s) and currently home to the F-117 Stealth which is soon to be replaced with the Raptor. Holloman also trains Luftwaffe pilots in Tornados (how's that for historic irony - American base, German air force, British aircraft). Then there is the Army's White Sands Missile Range, bigger than a number of eastern states.

The town it's self is a typical small desert backwater meaning: it's scuzzy and right wing.
Visitors arriving from any direction are greeted with acres of junkyards and it is home to one of the original sage brush rebellion organizations, The Paragon Foundation.

And, as mentioned, it is very close (70 miles) to the seething metropolis of El Paso/Juarez with a combined population of 50 million, 1 million of which flood the mountains of southern NM on any given weekend.

Aside from the cultural stuff, I think the geographic setting is sublime. The town is nestled on the edge of a great basin (the Tularosa Basin) with a dramatic escarpment cut by deep canyons raising directly behind the town. Though the town is in the heat of the desert at 5000 feet, a thirty minute drive up a winding highway will take you to the cool pines and firs at 9000 feet near Cloudcroft and Ruidoso.

As far as four wheeling, well, as a kid with a CJ-2A, later a CJ-5 (can I say that here?) followed later by an FJ-40, it was great. Both the desert and the mountains. I belonged to a very active 4x4 club. These days, with Forest Service road closures and such, I don't know. Great mountain biking though.

If you have any specific questions let me know.

juane
 
juane said:
...I was born and raised in Alamogordo. Went to high school and my folks still live there.

Alamogrodo, originally a railroad town, is famous for the first atomic bomb test and book burning churches.


juane
Click to expand...

How far is Alamogordo, from the actual Trinity test site.

Thanks,
Vince
 
SteveLCetc said:
Alamogordo isn't a bad place, despite what our local curmudgeon says.
Click to expand...

Being a curmudgeon not withstanding, it's not a locale I wouldn't recommend to a "single guy" unless his only interest was outdoor activities. I'm just young enough to remember being a single guy, and at that time the outdoor stuff was a second place consolation when "other" pursuits didn't pan out.
 
Cruisergreg said:
Being a curmudgeon not withstanding, it's not a locale I wouldn't recommend to a "single guy" unless his only interest was outdoor activities. I'm just young enough to remember being a single guy, and at that time the outdoor stuff was a second place consolation when "other" pursuits didn't pan out.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if that was a Freudian slip or what, but I assure you Ruidoso has plenty of the "other" pursuits around on the weekend, if I recall my college days correctly. Specifically, the youth of the family Leporidae, particularly the winter mountain variety. That said, the odds are, overall, not that great - so it depends, again, on what you're looking for.

What exactly do you do in the AF?
 
Pyro-boy said:
How far is Alamogordo, from the actual Trinity test site.

Thanks,
Vince
Click to expand...

Vince,
Alamogordo gets the credit (as well as the Cruiser-sized radioactive ants) but Trinity is actually closer to Socorro.
juane
 
Good question, actually. Anybody got a Google Earth image, or lat/long, or something?
 
SteveLCetc said:
Good question, actually. Anybody got a Google Earth image, or lat/long, or something?
Click to expand...

For the giant ants?

33d 40' 25" 106d 28'
It is already bookmarked in the latest version of GE.

Compare the size of the Trinity scar with later scars in the area which were all conventional explosives (ammonium nitrate?).
 
Kewl. What's that big clearing 8.3 or so miles to the SW?

Here's the fastest excavation I've ever seen - not that I was there when it happened.... Looks better standing next to it too...

37.1776 N, 116.04695 W
 
SteveLCetc said:
Kewl. What's that big clearing 8.3 or so miles to the SW?

Here's the fastest excavation I've ever seen - not that I was there when it happened.... Looks better standing next to it too...

37.1776 N, 116.04695 W
Click to expand...

Sudan (sp?) I have been there.
37 10' 36.97 " N 116 02' 45.89"

Vince
 
Yep, Sedan. Project Plowshare...
 
Someone mentioned the F-117 being replaced at Holloman. That replacement is what could bring me there. I intend to volunteer to be on the initial team of Raptor maintainers there. I have been on the Raptor for over a year now, it's a bit of fun. I was stationed in Alaska (Elmendorf) for 3 years, so I am pretty understand and am cool with traveling a bit to go places. So far this is exactly the kind of information I am looking for. Still sounding really appealing right now. I hate living in Virginia. Nowhere to wheel, laws are silly, crowded, rude ropulation, and I can think of some other things I dislike.
What can I expect in the line of a house? I would like to buy a place with at least an attatched garage. It has to be cheaper than Hapmton/Newport-News Va. Are there any area's to avoid living in? What's the crime rate like (should I worry about a topless FJ40?). Should I need a loaded firearm in the house?

Thanks for the info thus far!

Oh And I'll work on my spelling.
 
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