Ten Perks that Come with a Civilian Job on a Military Base

1. People generally don't cut you off, tailgate, honk, or speed on the roads. Well, they do speed a bit on their way out the gate after work, when home is making its full-throated call. But guards with radar guns tend to put a stop to that, even if the speed limit on the way out is a ridiculous 15 mph.

2. Groups of men wearing shorts and tight T-shirts pass your window during PT runs.

3. When you drop your car off at the Exchange mechanic for new tires, he immediately drives you in your own car over to your job, even though you'd planned to take the 10-minute walk.

4. Uniformed (and even un-uniformed) men either step aside for women or step up smartly to open doors ahead of them. You don't notice this until you go out and about in the civilian world and you have to open every door, and then three different men in no particular rush almost run you down on foot one afternoon in the aisles at the store because you didn't automatically step back/aside.

5. Guessing games to pass the time on the way to work, such as "Is the guy in the convertible with the sunglasses on, the top down, and the too-cool-for-school look who zipped around you at 85+ mph on the freeway (only to end up two cars ahead of you at the gate) going to turn off the main road in the direction of the flightline?" [Do I really need to answer that?]

6. Daily airshows. For example, yesterday was Steep Takeoff Day.

7. When you drop something, a gallant military man is instantly there to help you pick it up with a smile and a "You're welcome, ma'am."

8. Convoys of really cool military vehicles rumble past your window while conducting training exercises.

9. A truth that must drive anti-gun types nuts: you work on one of the most heavily-armed pieces of real estate in the area... and every time you cross that line of words painted on the asphalt--"U.S. Government Property"--on your way to work, you're safer than the average person outside the gates .

10. All those people in uniform never know whose wife, daughter or girlfriend you just might be (which probably at least partially explains numbers 1, 3, 4 and 7 above). *GRIN*