Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Fayetteville, NC/Fort Bragg Area

After 5 years in Asia (3 in Korea, 2 in Japan), the fam and me are headed to Fort Bragg for my next assignment. Anyone familiar with the area? Pros, cons? I've been there before, but never stationed there. We plan to live off post. The girls will be 10th and 7th grades next school year.

Expat

Welcome to the Southeast! And, welcome back state-side!

I have spent many years in the Fayetteville area, with the ARNG and selling building materials (I live about 110 miles NE). I like the area, but it can be a rough area in places. There is still a building boom going on in Cumberland county and the surrounding area, obviously the economic engine that runs the area is Ft. Bragg, which is growing from huge to tremendous! There are many High Schools in Cumberland county, seven that I can think of off hand - if you PM me I will put you in touch with a shooting friend - he is a former Navy man and works for the VA, his wife is a real estate agent - they have lived there for years and can tell you about school zones, neighborhoods etc. I will be glad to tell you what I can about all the neighborhoods being built now. The area is booming, lots of shopping centers, new schools, new stores, etc. Jim's Gun and Pawn stocks a huge number of firearms, lots of smaller pawn and guns with more specialized stocks. Gander Mountain has a mid-size store there now. The 82nd is being rebuilt - I am selling materials to the new 3rd and 4th BDE construction jobs right now, 44th MEDCOM's new facilities where bid last week, the old COSCOM area (now 1st TSC) is being totally built new, FORSCOM will be relocating in the next few years to the old Pope AFB, that work hasn't even begun, etc, etc. PM me with any specifics. Odessa

I spent 2 tours for total of 10 years at Bragg. Loved the place. I haven't been there since 95 so a lot has changed. My number 1 criteria for choosing where I lived would be based on the school my children would attend. My last time there my kids attended 1 year off post then we got base housing and they attended the DOD elementary school on post. All high school students attended off post schools and the reputation of the off post scools was that a couple were good some really bad.

All,
Thank you for the welcome and the information. We are looking forward to living in NC.

Odessa (Sir),
PM sent.

Expat

Observations form the AF side of the house. A higher than normal percentage of E1-E4 and O1-O3 are using crutches. Most of the E5 and O4 and above limp. If you took all of the crutches on FT. Bragg and put them in a pile you could have a bonfire the Texas A&M students could only dream of. Red Adair would struggle to put the fire out.

The Pope AFB class six store seems well stocked.

Sounds like many things have changed since I left in 94' and many are still the same.

They just finished the new orthopedic hospital when I left

Mike

Seems like it changed a WHOLE lot since I was there in the 60's.

Very true. "Combat alley" is mostly gone, taken on one side by the new jail, and on the other by empty buildings. The infamous 500 block of Hay Street (Bunny Club, Rick's Lounge, Pop-a-Top, etc) is now City Hall (new building) and the next block is some sort of large Health Services building. Also, nearby is the Airborne and Special Operations Museum, built on several formerly infamous blocks (including The Cellar and the transvestite prostitute area).

From what I saw on my last trip home in 2004 and what the relatives tell me, it seems ol'Fatalburg is getting plum uptown.