Beale AFB

Beale Air Force Base

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We just recently found out that we were getting orders from Beale AFB to Ramstein AB, Germany. I jumped on the web to see what information I could find about Ramstein, the local area, the housing, etc. Though there were many websites that had information about Ramstein, it just wasn't the information that I was looking for. I complained to myself about that fact, then realized, there might be people out there with assignments to Beale AFB who are looking for information as well. The Beale AFB webpage has some information on it, but I figured I'd throw some info out on the web to help fill in the gaps...

Housing Internet Schools

Housing
Beale has a lot of housing, ranging from 2 - 4 bedrooms. Most of the housing is either Wherry or Capehart housing, which means they are quite old. However, in the last several years, many of the houses have been remodeled, and a great many new houses were built. Most, if not all, of the newer houses are 2 bedroom Junior NCO houses. The housing here is scheduled to become privatized mid-2004. Base housing provides an economical alternative the extremely high-priced off-base housing in the surrounding communities:

Wheatland Lincoln Rocklin Roseville Marysville Yuba City Grass Valley

Note: The Beale website lists some data on the expected costs of housing in the surround communities, in particular, for he Yuba-Sutter area. Not sure what their source of information is, but the figures are definitely low-ball figures. When searching for housing, Lincoln, Rocklin, and Roseville are all in Placer county, and a lot of folks from base live in those areas.

Internet
After having a cable modem while we were stationed at Offutt, it was very difficult for me moving to Beale and being "stuck" with 56k modem speeds. An analogy, if I may:

If you've driven a Ford Pinto your whole life, you've got no complaints and it gets you where you want to go... but... once you've driven a Ferrari, it's hard to get back into the Pinto.

Salvation arrived when ATT installed Broadband Internet at Beale about two years ago. Bought out in the meantime by Comcast, the cable modem speeds you get at Beale are higher than most places in the country. I routinely get speeds on my downlink over 3500kbps. This is several times faster than T1 speeds. While your uplink speeds are capped at 256kbps, most folks spend their time pulling info from the internet, vice pushing, so the uplink speed is typically more than enough.

Pricing for broadband is rather high, and is dependent on whether or not you also subscribe to Comcast's digital TV. Therefore, pricing will range anywhere from 44.95 to 59.95 per month.

Schools
There are two elementary schools on base, Lone Tree and Far West. Lone Tree is K-3, and Far West is 4-6. Students in 7th and 8th grades attend Bear River in Wheatland. Bear River is currently for grades 4-8, however, the town of Wheatland is building a new middle school, which will accomodate grades 6-8. This school should be open in time for the 2004-2005 school year. All of these schools are a part of the Wheatland School District.

High school students attend Wheatland High School. Wheatland High School is in a one-school district, the Wheatland UnionHigh School District. (same site as link above). There are currently discussions revolving around merging he high school into the Wheatland School District. For a wide variety of reasons, this would be a great idea (my opinion) as the principal of the high school is also the superintendant of the high school district and would provide for greater accountability and ensure better communication about the curriculum between the middle school and the high school.