What You Should Know About Being Stationed At Ft. Campbell

We have lived in the Ft. Campbell area for over five years now. Although this part of the country is not home to me, there is a lot to like about it. I am still learning about the city of Clarksville and everything is has to offer.

Ft. Campbell is on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee, about 45 minutes from Nashville

If you end up here you have a lot of choices on where to live. You can live on post of course but you can decide to live in Clarksville on the Tennessee side or Oak Grove on the Kentucky side. Some people live further out in either direction and commute to Ft. Campbell for work. Some want to be closer to Nashville and others like living out in the country.

We live off post about 15 minutes from Ft. Campbell. This allows us to be somewhat in the middle of everything. We can enjoy some of what the post offers but also live in Clarksville so our kids go to the city schools and we can be a little more involved in that community. Clarksville is much bigger than Oak Grove. Since it is a different state, taxes are different which is important to keep in mind, especially if you have a Direct Sales business and sell both on and off post.

The area is really spread out. It would be hard to live here without a car. I have gotten more used to this but when we first moved here I couldn’t believe how far it seemed to be from the post to the mall. There is a lot of open spaces and don’t be surprised if you get caught behind an Amish buggy or a tractor of some kind slowly moving along to its destination.

There are a lot of parks in the city of Clarksville, however they are not really all that easy to get to from the neighborhoods. You do find that on post so it would be good to keep that in mind if you have toddlers and walking to a park is important to you.

Since we are just 45 minutes from Nashville, there is more to do there then closer to post. Nashville is also where you will find the airport you would use to fly home if you need to.

Ever since we have moved here, we have seen more and more growth. More houses, more restaurants, more Dollar Generals. Seriously, they keep adding new ones which seems a little strange to me. We have two movie theaters, plus the one on post. We have 4 Walmarts in the area but only 1 Target. We have a lot of the basic restaurants you would find in this part of the country. Several Starbucks and other little coffee shops to try. We have one city library and several city pools. We have gyms, walking areas and regular events such as Movies in the Park in the Summer and Holiday events by the river in the winter.

The weather here can be a little frustrating sometimes. Summer can get very hot and humid but you can also have rainy and stormy days mixed in. You can go weeks with rain happening at least once during the day. Fall is nice but it never last long enough and the colors are simply beautiful. Winter is also very interesting to me. It gets cold and we do have snow and ice which can shut school down for a week. However, if you are from the North, you will laugh at the snow levels and wonder what the big deal is. Spring is a nice season but we tend to get a lot of rain and some really bad weather like tornadoes. It really depends on the year.

If you are getting ready to move here, know that there is a lot to get involved in

Post has PWOC, MOPS and lots of activities for young kids through the MWR and YMCA programs. Off post has its share of programs too and we have been overall pleased with the school system however it is not without its issues. It does seem like different people have different experiences with the same schools. Make sure to double check on the school if you are looking for a place off post, not everyone in the same neighborhood is zoned for the same school and it can get a little confusing sometimes.

The post itself is rather large but a lot of it is training areas. They built a new Commissary a few years ago and we have a PX with a little mall that contains a few stores, my kids are big fans of the Game Stop. We have a foot court that doesn’t feel as exciting as the foot courts in Germany did simply because you can get other food off post.  It is nice to have if you want to meet your spouse for lunch or take the kids for some ice cream.

There are always people deploying and coming home here. There are always people PCSing to and from. There are always new people to meet and get to know.

Have you been to Ft. Campbell? Getting ready to PCS here soon?

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