It is time for my husband and I to start paperwork for transfer to new duty location for USAREC.

Wondering, what states you have lived in (or recruited from if a part of USAREC) that you enjoyed living in? Our move this time can not include anything within 3rd BDE. Bye Bye Midwest.

I (the wife) would REALLY like to live in Massachusetts, Maine or Vermont or New Hampshire. Husband doesn't think any of those states would be nice to live in or recruit from. So, I suggested Washington state. Same response from him

Of course he wants Kansas or Oklahoma since he loves tornadoes. One of those two will go down as first pick. I get pick #2 & #3

We both know we would not want somewhere like Florida or California.

Anyway, could you please give some feedback on what states you have lived in while a part of the Army or USAREC and what you and your family thought of the state- both positive and negative?

Thank you so much

I've lived in a wide variety of states over my relatively short life.
We're currently at Ft Lewis...at this point in time, I think your husband is right--would be difficult to recruit given that A: they're a Blue state and B: we've suffered a rash of losses recently and not a whole lot of traffic travel thru them offices right now...

Blue states tend to have less people that sign up and are quite liberal in my experience--Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, etc...those are difficult states.
Most of the mid-west and south are more 'gungho' about joining....Nebraska, Kansas, Wyoming, and pretty much all points south are good bets.

If you're looking at climate--there's that factor as well.
Also pace of life---some folks dig the heck out of the city and all the excitement that goes with it....I am not one of them people-lol-so Ft Lewis is just enough tucked in between 2 major cities for me to be okay. There's enough country around here so I can just get away from the hum of I-5.
Ft Lewis is saturated with both current and former military personnel and their families. It's both a blessing and a curse sometimes. With 70% of personnel living off post currently...the surrounding communities are flooded with both civilian and military. There's a mixed bag of folks living here--either they love ya or they look at you with disdain. Only reason I love it here so much--I was primarily raised north of here and my family is pretty much all still here in the area. If I need a mama or daddy-fix, I can jump in the car and head north for the day or the weekend. Personally, I prefer the south or anywhere with less people....
Then there's the group of folks that are just looking to get out of wherever they are. For whatever reason, life is boring or hokey for them...this can be a plus for a recruiter.
We have quite a few places in NE that are just climbing with people who want to join and get away from all the feedlots and soybeans...
Just my personal observation there.

Since you already ruled out Florida and California, both of which I consider great places to live, I like Texas and Hawaii. You couldn't get me to go to Kansas and Oklahoma would be very low on my list (I was raised in Texas). If you like small towns, Louisiana or Mississippi could be nice although the schools leave something to be desired. Georgia was a really nice place also although you don't want to have your kids in the Atlanta school system.

We are really leaning towards New Hampshire at this point. Although we have found many people to ask questions about NH online, none of them have been military personnel. Hoping someone in the military will see this post as I have a few questions they may be able to help with

Thnx