We just received our assignment selection today and are all super excited to get to Mildenhall. Our RNLD is the end of December and are coming from Germany.
I am looking for as much advice and info as I can possibly get.
I have four daughters ages 13, 10, 5 and 3. So we will be looking for a large house. LOL
What does everyone wish they would have known before getting there? 

We came from Germany. Any pets? Doing a partial dity move?

We drove with our pet over here, took the ferry over and loved doing it! We had 1 dog, 3 kids and a trailer full of stuff in January of 2010 (when there was all that snow!). If you want to talk about driving over, let me know! I can let you know a lot of stuff.

I'm sure that you know Germany is just gorgeous but coming here, it's a bit sad around the area but you drive a little ways out and it gets gorgeous again! Plus, we have a LOT more sun here than in Germany! Always great! :-) 

We have a small dog.
We plan on taking leave in route so we can head back home to Alaska for Christmas first. By the time we get back we are hoping our belongings will be there. I don't know yet if we will ship the car before we leave or if we will return to Spang and drive over to Mildenhall.
It is good to hear about the sun. We had a B-E-A-utiful day yesterday with a high of 91 degrees!! Today-cloudy and rainy. I knew it wouldn't last long! LOL

Can you give me any advice on housing? We have a pretty decent sized house here and hope to have the equivalent or same there. 

Hurry up and get out of germany as the place is infected with Ecoli and Germans! 

Can you give me any advice on housing? We have a pretty decent sized house here and hope to have the equivalent or same there.

I found it much easier to search for housing once I got here. Are you looking for close to base or mostly surrounded by locals? I live quite far from base (almost 40 min) and like the quiet country side but the roads are incredibly narrow and especially dangerous in the winter. Hope that helps some. 

Bill, I swear the underground needs to have a "like" button!!! LOL 

The house is going to be a bit more difficult. I know the type of houses you get there. We lived in Niersbach. My suggestion is to only start looking at housing for a month or two before you get here since most of the houses you will see will be gone when you get here. Here is a great place to look! That's all assuming you want to live off base. Living off base here is different. The utilities are NOT included like in Germany so you won't pocket much money if any like you could in Germany. We have gas for heating, I really recommend that. The gas company will take out money, you don't have to budget for buying oil in bulk. You will need to save a bit to pay the letting agency when you get here if you go through one...I think we paid somewhere around £200?

We got a really nice, recently converted barn. We had to pay out of pocket for 8 extra days in pet TLF, but it was worth it. We ended up getting a 4 bedroom, 4 bath home. It's very nice and about 2,000 square feet which is pretty big for most houses here. So if you need to, stay extra for a better house!

We don't get the heat like Germany (very very short if we get it) but the sun makes up for it! Especially in the winter, waking up to sun just makes my day still! Even if it disappears later in the day.

Incase you didn't know, if it ever comes up, you can defer taking COT leave. We took our leave for that 6 months after we got here and took commercial flights back. You don't need any commander signature to defer COT leave either. Just incase you need to know.

If you want pet TLF, call the TLF here as soon as you know you will be here. Don't wait! You could even call now but since you aren't sure of actual dates, it would make it useless. So call as soon as you know to get in! I'm guessing you know all the PET SCHEME stuff? The FAVN test?

Also, if you do a partial dity move (which would be even if you drove here with no trailer, just the car) use the scales there to weigh everything. Use the quarries there by Binsfeld. TMO has a listing of all the weigh stations if you need it though. 

Oh and...a HUGE problem we ran into in Germany when we left. German companies are still legally able to take out money of any accounts you opened in Germany to pay bills (like Service Credit Union) for 6 months even if you go the correct ways to turn off the service (by letters 3 months prior). Once you leave Germany for good, SCU will NOT let you close any accounts so if you have money going into an account (like we did since we bought a car there) what you need to do is cancel the card you used when setting up to pay the bills. We had sky and the phone there. SCU was totally unhelpful about trying to stop the money from being taken until 2 months later when someone let us know all we had to do was cancel the cards! 

You will change your mind when you get here. 

When I posted on my site that I got orders here, I got emails and comments like the one above letting me know how much Mildenhall sucked and how I would hate it. I think every one of them was wrong. It is what it is - you'll have to decide if it's for you once you're here. 

Barbara,

All I ask of you is one thing. Don't listen to the likes of Rabbit and make your own mind up when you get here. Give it a fair chance and dont be one of 'those' wives that sit in their posh little house in Liberty Village and dont leave the base. 

@tigger and Barbara

I agree, every assignment is what you put into it. I do have my gripes about this place, as I do every place. We always focus in on what we enjoy and finding our routine.
I was given some wonderful advice from a military wife stationed here whom we met on the bus ride from the airport. She said " don't let the weather keep you home, get out as much as you can even if it is a trip to the park or the market. Plan stuff on the weekends even in the winter."

We have 2 lists for things we want to go and do. I have the warmer weather list of stuff that is outdoors. Then I have a list of attractions and short day trips of stuff we can do in the winter.

When I meet new people I ask them about trips they have taken and stuff they have found to do with their kids. 

We came here in December and I had never been so depressed. All of the houses looked dirty to me, the sun was only up for about 5 hours a day, and I had zero friends. After about a month I finally snapped out of it and started going on day trips like Dawnmom25 said. Now, 6 months later I almost never want to leave. There's so much history in the area and so many fun activities. It's so cheap to travel here too. It really is an amazing assignment in my opinion. 

You all are so fantastic with your info. Just wanna hit on a couple things:
I doubt I will change my mind when I get there. England is one of the places I have always dreamed of living. I am a huge British history buff and know that I won't be "that" spouse that locks themselves up and doesn't explore.
As far as the dark and the weather, I'm from Alaska. The dark and snow and rain rarely keep us from our adventures.
I know there is always something about each assignment that you don't like. That is a part of moving around so much. But it IS truly what you make of it. The 17 years we have been in has told me that much. I love Germany, but don't care for many things about my base. I deal with it and move on.
The biggest problem is always leaving friends behind just to start over and try to find other at the new station. Not just for me, but my girls too.

Do any of you have kids in the British schools system?
On base or off base housing?
My sister was stationed there in 1998. Is Georgie's still right there off base? :D 

Barbara, where in AK are you from? My wife is from Anchorage. East High Class of 2005. 

On base or off base housing?

They will try to push Lord's Walk on you, but people warned us to stay away from there. I've heard there is a lot of theft in the area. Liberty Village is nice but you have to wait until you're actually here to get on the waiting list. Living off base is fun though. I love talking to all of my British neighbors! 

If you are going to Mildenhall, I would ask for Beck Row or Mildenhall housing. Most are right off the base within walking distance and the sizes aren't too bad. We had a 3 bed but I know they have 4s too. I would walk to base every day with my son in tow in a wagon and we would hang out at the Bob Hope Center (there is a climbing thingy inthere for kids and a coffee shop) and the gym is great if you are in to working out because they have a gated area with toys so you can work out while they play. 

England is MUCH different than Germany! I have a lot of friends who prefer it here, but personally I prefer Germany. It is a lot more expensive to live here and you recieve the same amount of cola as Germany.We have had some nice experiences here so far but everything is expensive so be prepared. We took our COT enroute and now regret it! It kinda screws you over with your pay. When you get here be ready to pay 215 pounds per vehicle for road tax, 150 pounds for TV tax and if your vehicles are not new you will need an inspection for each which is anywhere from 35-50 pounds. Also you will need to do somelight conversions more than likely and cost depends on what needs to be done. We didn't have a sponsor when we got here and were blindsided by all these expenses up front. We also had a hard time financially because we took our COT en route. So just budget for that. Houses here are significantly smaller than Germany. We live about 35 min. from base and have a large, nice house but we spend quite a bit on gas going back and forth. There is also a lot of crime in certain areas closer to base, just like in Germany. So generally the farther out you go the better. Do not take Lords Walk if you want on base housing. It is not on base, very run down and crime is an issue. Oil heating will be promoted as being the most efficient and cheapest heat but it isn't! We are learning the hard way. Most houses are oil, but if you find one that isn't and you like it, you should take it! Over the winter we spent over $2000 in oil to heat our water and home. We were also VERY conservative with our use of heat. I'm not trying to be negative if I am coming off that way. I just want to let you know all the things I wish someone would have told us when we got here. We were not prepared for how financially draining it would be to live here and have been trying to catch up. There are some awesome things about living here too =) We love driving to the coast and the seaside towns are awesome! Cambridge is really close and always exciting. London is very easy to do in a day trip and can be fairly cheap depending on what you do. 

@AFCartoonist-I'm from Wasilla and miss AK tremendously!

I know exactly what you are saying about the cost of oil. The same thing happens here. We were fortunate when we moved off base to find a house with geothermal heating.
I appreciate you telling me about the taxes that are due upon arrival. That is some very important information so we can budget that into the move.

I am very excited to get there. As a matter of fact, I may take a quicky trip over around the end of the summer just to get the lay of the land and check out the base(s).

Do any of you have kids? What are their thoughts on living there?
My 13 and 10 yr olds both can not wait to get there. My littles only understand that we are moving. LOL 

If you drive your vehicle over, they just mail you the tax disc and you don't pay the first year. At least, that's what happened to us and the base didn't let us know how to take care of it the next year the road tax was due. We thought we could just pay the road tax at the post office here like everyone else, but instead we had to go the registration office and wait for 2 weeks and had to rent a car. They said it could have taken up to 4 weeks to get the tax disc in the mail. So if you just receive your disc in the mail, you will have to pay the registration office on base the next time it is due!

I have kids, they love it here. They go to school on base. 

Hi Barbara. We are going to Mildenhall this September coming from Germany. We were stationed in Alaska for nine years and consider it our home. We lived in Wasilla for 5 of the years. I miss it so much too! 

Do we know each other? It wouldn't surprise me!!
We were at Elmo for 9 years too with 5 living in Wasilla. Over in the Finger Lake/Larson school area.
Where are you in Germany? We are at Spang. Maybe we can meet up and compare notes? 

We were stationed in Alaska for nine years


Now ya talkin!!!! That hot Hockey Mom comes from there and will be the next President cant wait.did you see her on the Harley last week........ 

Don't be makin' fun of my girl, Sarah, now! LOL
We are from the same hometown.