Life in Fort Irwin, California
It’s been almost ten years since I lived in Fort Irwin, California, out there all alone in the Mojave Desert, but I still have fond memories of the place. Some people might find it a bit isolated for their tastes (the nearest city is Barstow, 40 miles away), but I rather enjoyed it growing up there.
Fort Irwin is a quiet little place, out there all alone. If you are in the military, then you’ve most likely heard of Fort Irwin, the National Training Center (NTC). Chances are good you’ve even been there on rotation for training.
Living in Fort Irwin and coming to train at Fort Irwin are two very different things. For members of the OpFor (Opposing Force, the bad guys that soldiers from across the country come to train against), life and battle in the desert are constants, not a one-time thing. The same goes for their families (well, perhaps not the battle part).
Although it’s been ten years, I doubt things have changed that much. There might be some new buildings, but I bet they are painted brown. (The only things not painted brown are the schools, and that only came about when I was last there. And not without protest from the current Commanding General at the time, General Leon J. LaPorte).
If there is one thing you are not going to like about Fort Irwin, it will most likely be the isolation. NTC, in its entirety, is larger than the size of Rhode Island. But the actual post makes up a tiny fraction of that, the majority of it is wide open spaces. Although there are things closer than Barstow (Yermo is about 30 miles away, yeehaw!), for the most part when you are in Fort Irwin there isn’t anything else around. Fort Irwin also boasts the famous “Absolutely Nothing, Next 20 miles” sign.
When I lived there, the family would pretty much only leave the post once a month, on our monthly trip to Victor Valley where we would go to the mall. We would spend the whole day there, then we would go home, and wouldn’t leave the post for another month. This changed of course when I wen to high school (near the aforementioned Yermo), so I got to leave post every day for a one hour bus ride to school and back.
If you aren’t working on post, there are some entertainments. For shopping there is the PX, two Shoppettes and a Mini-Mall (This was when I was there, this could have changed by now). You also have an arcade at the PX, and a pretty nice bowling alley. (I spent quite a bit of time in both the arcade and the bowling alley as a kid). And you can’t forget that constant of every military post, the Class Six store (for the civilians out there, that is where alcohol is sold on post).
Fort Irwin also its own movie theatre, showing movies a month behind the times at discount prices (used to be 3 bucks a ticket). And, somewhat impressive for a town of its size, they actually have their own radio station: KNTC – The Heat. I have fond memories of working at KNTC during the summer months, although I have to admit I rarely listened to it.
If there is one thing you are going to like about Fort Irwin, California, it is most like the isolation. Living in Fort Irwin is an experience different from any other I have had (and I’ve lived in quite a few places). It is a quiet place, out there in the middle of nowhere. There’s little noise, none of the big city business going on around you. You walk for twenty minutes and you can’t even remember that you are in a town anymore, its just as if you are out there in the lonesome desert alone.
Some people might not consider the desert to be beautiful, but I do. It has a quiet, calming grandeur all its own. There is something serene in looking out across vast expanses of empty, gently rolling desert sand. And the skies in the desert are something that must be seen to be believed. With hardly any precipitation clouds are at a minimum, creating vibrant blue skies on a daily basis. And at night, out there far away from anything, the stars are so clear that you can actually see them, almost like they used to in days of old.
But besides just the beauty of the desert, there is that quiet serenity that comes when you are out there. It is like a whole other world, detached from the hustle and bustle of this crazy modern world. A serenity I still often miss.
Of course there are always the trips to the mall in Victor Valley (still one of the most impressive malls I’ve ever been in. Not that I am a big mall-goer, but it was a nice day out for the family at the time). And there are interesting places around there. Camping at Death Valley (actually just on the other side of the mountains from Fort Irwin), the Calico Ghost Town in Yermo (my one and only Ghost Town experience. I wasn’t greatly impressed but it was an interesting enough day).
I wish I could say more about Barstow, but we hardly ever went there. I did go to the Barstow Mall, once. It was dying, only a handful of stores, one of them having a closing sale. It was strange standing in that mall, the empty stores surrounding me, almost as if it were a chamber of death. I was most glad to get out of there.
If you ever find yourself, for whatever reason, living in Fort Irwin, California, you are in for a rare experience. Don’t expect too much rain. Don’t expect too much excitement. But do expect a quiet, steady desert life, where things don’t change to much. Some people love it, some people hate it. Hopefully you’ll be one to love it, because if you hate isolation it is hard to get away from it in Fort Irwin, California.
