Holloman AFB

KiloDelta Newcomer Holloman AFB

Hello,
I joined the Air Force back in November and I am in my final block of tech school (Tower Simulator). I found out that my duty station is Holloman AFB, NM and I was wondering if anyone could tell me anything about it. Is it a good starter base? Is there anything I could be doing now to be more prepared when I get there? Any information would be great.
Thank you,[
Kilo Delta

polo708 Epic Member tower

pretty busy and in the middle of nowhere...

RadarContact Scope Dope High Desert TRACON

Well I can tell ya a thing ot two.. I work the radar for Holloman AFB. The RAPCON is based at White Sands Missile Range, about 40 miles down the road toward Las Cruces. Right now we are pretty dead as far as traffic goes. We used to control the F-117's, and we're transitioning to F-22's. So far we've only gotten a few, but we're supposed to be up and running full bore by November. They're also looking at brining UAV's here by the end of the year. Most of our traffic right now is the German Air Force Tornados, and a few T-38's. Getting rated shouldn't be a problem as long as you have the right attitude and willingness to learn. It's certainly no Nellis / Eglin / Sheppard here.

Hours are pretty chill, we are only open M-F 0600-2400 and Sat 0800-1600. The rapcon splits the shifts and during the summer hours they are even shorter due to "monsoon hours" (thunderstorms building up in the evening). As far as off duty life goes, I'm sorry to say that most people hate the fact that Holloman is really out in nowhere-ville. Alamogordo is the nearby city and it's quite the little dump of a city.. they do have a Wal-Mart though! You'll probably spend most of your time on base though. Everyone from my shop goes to El Paso to party.. though thats quite the drive from Holloman.

If you have any more questions feel free to PM me, or email me: svtcobra281@gmail.com

Good luck with the rest of tech school, and don't brain dump everything you learn!

-BC

Radium Epic Member SoCal Tracon

I think people told me WhiteSands was slow as shit, in addition to being hot as hell and in BFE (ie nowhere).
I've only known one person to go there, was in my tech school, then we met up agan in Iraq... I really think the facility does NOT make the controller. Obviously it has something with upgrade training and such, but when it all goes to hell and things get hella busy... its the person that stands out, not where he learned the trade.
The best radar controller I met while in Iraq was from a BFE Missouri Guard base with zero ops and like 3k feet of approach space.

OFC this is all radar crap I'm talking about and you are gonna be a tower kid, so oh well. Best advice I can give you is dont be a COMPLETE suck up, but dont make enemies. That was my mistake, pissed off some people early, and took a long ass time to get back in their favor.

Also if you're 21+, imo that helps. Becoming "one of the boys" really helps imo. We always HATED training the new guys, but it made it a lot more bareable if A: you were not complete trash, and B: you'd come be a cool cat when we all partied that weekend.

KiloDelta Newcomer Holloman AFB

thank you guys for the feedback, that really helps a lot!
But I have another question:
Im pretty sure that I am going to be a tower controller at Holloman, I have a friend that Is willing to trade white sands rapcon for my tower slot. So the monumental question here is radar or tower? from the info I received above, white sands seems pretty dead, how is Holloman tower? I prefer radar to tower simulator so far, but thats only the simulator if anyone is dual rated or knows anything about these bases, it would be greatly appreciated

Radium Epic Member SoCal Tracon

IMO keep the tower slot. Right now I'm sitting around on unemployment waiting on my FAA stuff, WISHING I had a CTO (I'm a radar guy) so I could make 30$/hr at some cake contract twr near home.

polo708 Epic Member tower

Definitely go for the CTO(tower route).

RadarContact Scope Dope High Desert TRACON

The difference between tower/radar here is negligible.. the whole airspace is slow right now. Pretty much everything that comes from the tower airspace comes into radar and vice-versa. The jets do tend to beat up the tower pattern more than the radar pattern, but the tower also doesn't talk to the traffic for our satellite airport (Alamogordo) either. Whichever you decide to go with, you will probably have about the same amount of work. White sands is crappy for a new airman 3-level because you are stuck on an Army base about 25 miles from anything, and the base is primarily civilian contractor types right now so most of the services (read.. food) close down early. At least at Holloman you have a regular BX/food court/ a McDonalds, and some other stuff that stays open normal hours. Thankfully I am an NCO and my wife and I live in Las Cruces which is a decent sized city.

As far as the tower/radar debate, I came out of tech school wanting to go tower, but now glad that I've done radar. A CTO would be nice but I'm planning on going enroute at the end of the year when I'm done with the AF.

Nodak Rookie Valdosta, GA

All i will say is if you plan on doing your 6 and getting out...A CTO will give you alot more options. A Contract TWR is a nice stepping stone while your waiting for the FAA.

KiloDelta Newcomer Holloman AFB

Thank you so much for all the feedback
I decided to hold onto my tower slot and see how it treats me
you guys are great, I really appreciate the feedback
=]