Norfolk Naval Station

[gerae2004]

What's the best community to get into if your a E-3 in Norfolk, VA? How is Norfolk as far as housing, night life, and waiting times for housing? This is my first time dealing with any of this, can you paint inside or is it just white? What else can you tell me about this area!

[JsonD13]

Good luck waiting two years to get into Navy housing.  Now if you are single, you will be put into a barracks room, or live on the ship.  If you are married, best bet is to take your BAH and live in town.  Prepare for commutes upwards of 45 minutes depening on where you live though.

[withroaj]

If you're E3 and not married prepare to live on the ship (carrier) or to enjoy the Stalinesque beauty of the barracks at lovely NOB or NNSY.  Keep a positive attitude about it and you'll hit your 4-year (BAH) point in no time.

[maxparity]

My experience in the lovely Norfolk Naval Base area was a truly fine experience indeed. One stretch in Sandbridge during a Portsmouth SRA in a very nice summer beach house was memorable. A few places in the V.Beach area were all good, and even a stretch in the dreaded Ocean View and one in Willoughby Spit were'nt that bad. Its all what you make of it and what your attitude is. My philosophy was whatever/wherever I had to live in order to not live in the nuke berthing area onboard the ship was all that mattered. A two week stint in a storage area was heavenly.The Navy has plenty of time to work their magic on your soul as it is, maintain some semblance of sanity,live outside of Dodge however you can. Good Luck- Thank you for your service.  MM2 SMc. USS NIMITZ CVN-68 1980-1984. BOHICA.

[Cycoticpenguin]

What's the best community to get into if your a E-3 in Norfolk, VA? How is Norfolk as far as housing, night life, and waiting times for housing? This is my first time dealing with any of this, can you paint inside or is it just white? What else can you tell me about this area!

Communities -> every town has their good and "bad" parts. Stay away from portsmouth for the most part. Va Beach, Suffolk, and hampton are fairly decent places to live.

Night Life -> pm me

Housing -> Didnt want to wait. As far as housing goes, getting in is easy. Getting out is NOT. You can do what you want, it just has to be restored to the same condition you received it in.

Commute ->  loooonnnngggggg waits in bumper to bumper traffic.

[deltarho]

Commute ->  loooonnnngggggg waits in bumper to bumper traffic.

This is usually compensated by you coming to work at about 0300 (good luck finding a parking spot, recommend wearing PT gear and use this time running the 1 1/2 miles you parked from the pier to practice for your PRT).  When you arrive, shower and rack out in your given pit until 5 minutes from quarters.  If you believe that breakfast is the best meal of the navy day... you will get up sooner.

Sorta like getting used to the bus ride at Idaho Falls to and from the plant.  One learns the various Pavlovian responses: diesel fumes = nighty night or scratchy wool blanket pulled over your head = nighty night.

[Mnemorath]

Check this weeks Navy Times. There is a story in there about condo-style apartments for junior single sailors. They are building something similar on base here in San Diego. If I was single I would love to move in to them. 2 sailors per apartment each with their own master suite. They only share a living area, kitchen, and laundry. They also come fully furnished. Congress has also authorized partial BAH for those who live in them. This pays the rent so no out-of-pocket expenses. Utilities and internet access are also included.

I will do a little research and see if I can find a link.

[Cycoticpenguin]

This is usually compensated by you coming to work at about 0300 (good luck finding a parking spot, recommend wearing PT gear and use this time running the 1 1/2 miles you parked from the pier to practice for your PRT).  When you arrive, shower and rack out in your given pit until 5 minutes from quarters.  If you believe that breakfast is the best meal of the navy day... you will get up sooner.

Sorta like getting used to the bus ride at Idaho Falls to and from the plant.  One learns the various Pavlovian responses: diesel fumes = nighty night or scratchy wool blanket pulled over your head = nighty night.

bit extreme, no?

[deltarho]

bit extreme, no?

Why sugar coat? I didn't even talk about what it is like to leave the base, all the ships seem to have the same in-port hours

[S3GLMS]

I spent 4 years in Norfolk and they were all the same as far as work hours and traffic.  I lived in Greenbriar ( Part of Chesapeake) just off the I-64 loop that puts you exactly half way between Portsmouth (Norfolk Naval Shipyard) and Norfolk (NOB Naval Base).  I would get up at 4:30 AM every day and drive in to the base to get there before the rush.  After parking in the lot I could be on the ship at pier 10 by 5:10 AM.  I could grab another hour of sleep and then get dresed and go to morning briefings and quarters.  Any other attempt to get to the ship in the morning after say 6:00 AM resulted in traffic gridlock and no parking left near the piers.  This was mostly true for Portsmouth Shipyard times and the Newport News Shipyard.  I was stationed in San Diego and it was not even close to that bad in the morning on I-15 or I-5.  You will get used to the traffic and the congestion though.  It is when you leave there that you realize how really bad it was from a traffic standpoint.  Additionally, when I was there in the early nineties, it was the highest murder area in the state.  There were more police officers killed in the line of duty in the Hampton Roads area in 1993 than any other metropolitan area in the country.  I believe it has become better over the years, but there were some extremely dangerous areas at night in the Hampton Roads Metro region. 

When People who actually lived there for an entire sea tour tell you how they had to go about there routine, they are not kidding about what had to be done to get through each day.  Then, there is always the unkown days where a battle group pulls in and overwhelms the base for a while until you deploy.  This can even mess up your normal routing becasue things get even worse in the short term for access and parking.  I would not want to go through all of that again just so I could go home each non-duty day.

[93-383]

I enjoyed my time in Norfolk (except for most of the time on the ship). The only guys in my division that realy hated it where the trendy nigh life types (mostly from California or Florida) the country guys liked the bars in the Little creak area the Bank most notably. Going down to the Waterside in downtown Norfolk is a bad idea in my opinion unless you aren't drinking. I would guess that half of the departments DUIs came from guys going to Bar Norfolk or Crock Rocks and trying to drive home. The Norfolk PD has a tendency to campout near the parking garage exit and look for drunk sailors. My commute from Chesapeak in the deep creak area took around 1hr form my door to the parking lot. If you have a roommate and carpool it works the best provided you are in the same divsion and get off at the same time. The HOV lane cuts a fair amount of time off the commute and if you go through the back gate rather than 564 to the main gate. Living in deep chesapeake makes the drive to NOB longer but the drive to NNSY is shorter since you get to bypass the down town tunnel via 464 to military hwy.

Choose where you plan to live based of the ships scheduel if they are going into NNSY try not to live on the upper peninsula. Whereas if the ship is going into Newport News SY then living on the peninsula can be advantagous. The major thing is avoid living with a draw bridge or tunnel inbetween you and the ships berth. This is not a very easy if not impossible thing to do.

DO NOT move to any part of Portsmouth south of I-264, East Ocean View, or the area around Newport News shipbuilding company.

Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Suffok  are safe for the most part. Norfolk is hit or miss you can find a nice street and then two streets later its a high crime area.  I can't tell you much about the peninsula

[deltarho]

I spent 4 years in Norfolk and they were all the same as far as work hours and traffic.  I lived in Greenbriar ( Part of Chesapeake) just off the I-64 loop that puts you exactly half way between Portsmouth (Norfolk Naval Shipyard) and Norfolk (NOB Naval Base).  I would get up at 4:30 AM every day and drive in to the base to get there before the rush.  After parking in the lot I could be on the ship at pier 10 by 5:10 AM.  I could grab another hour of sleep and then get dressed and go to morning briefings and quarters.  Any other attempt to get to the ship in the morning after say 6:00 AM resulted in traffic gridlock and no parking left near the piers.  This was mostly true for Portsmouth Shipyard times and the Newport News Shipyard.  I was stationed in San Diego and it was not even close to that bad in the morning on I-15 or I-5.  You will get used to the traffic and the congestion though.  It is when you leave there that you realize how really bad it was from a traffic standpoint.  Additionally, when I was there in the early nineties, it was the highest murder area in the state.  There were more police officers killed in the line of duty in the Hampton Roads area in 1993 than any other metropolitan area in the country.  I believe it has become better over the years, but there were some extremely dangerous areas at night in the Hampton Roads Metro region. 

When People who actually lived there for an entire sea tour tell you how they had to go about there routine, they are not kidding about what had to be done to get through each day.  Then, there is always the unknown days where a battle group pulls in and overwhelms the base for a while until you deploy.  This can even mess up your normal routing because things get even worse in the short term for access and parking.  I would not want to go through all of that again just so I could go home each non-duty day.

Do you still think I was exaggerating?

[Creeker]

The first time I was sent to Norfolk area was 92, and the Enterprise was still deep in ROH, so I always lived in the Newport News or Hampton areas.  Once the ship moved back over to the base, I just drove the bridge tunnels every day.  I bought a cheap motorcycle while the ship was in NNSYDDCO, and that cut down my walking commute a LOT.  But, one or two close calls in the tunnel on the motorcycle cured me of that.  Hampton and Newport news are, well, splotchy.  Anything well away from the shipyard in Newport News, up around J Clyde Morris, is OK to live in.  And the Mariner's Museum park is very nice to have close by.  Hampton, though... There are some nice areas, and a block or two away are areas you don't even want to drive through.  You have to look around, and get a feel before signing a lease.  Another idea.. When we moved here to Emporia, KS, we were looking around, and saw a couple bike cops, so asked them for advice on living areas.  They pretty much drew us a map, outlining areas to avoid.

[Cycoticpenguin]

Do you still think I was exaggerating?

this is mostly dependent on how many ships are pier side, and where you live I guess... I leave ~45 minutes before muster and im dressed and ready to go 10 minutes prior.