What U.S. city has the most military installations? (living, compared, bigger)

[SteveShoe]

I have lived in San Antonio my whole life and it is defiantly a military town. I don't see how none of you guys have heard about our bases... we have quite a few to say the least. There is military everywhere you go. It is great to have all these bases, and to be proud that we are a military town. Although, there are disadvantages. I remember during the attacks that San Antonio was a major ideal place,.. everyone here was freaking out. Still are.
Also, we have the biggest military hospital. People from all over are sent here to this hospital. We are very proud of it.

[SteveShoe]

Lackland is one of the most sophisticated bases. It is the home of some of the most advanced equipment in the world.

[Shadow Inc.]

Washington, D.C. and surrounding area.

-The Pentagon
-Andrews AFB
-Marine Barracks
-Washington Navy Yard
-Bollings AFB
-Ft. Belvoir
-Ft. Meade
-Indian Head Naval
-Quantico
-Fort Detrick

[jsimms3]

I have the most detailed and most accurate military information coming up. It will clear up everything. I think there may be some surprises. It does not sound like many people have a full grasp on where our military has its largest operations. Hint: San Antonio is not *as* much of a military town as people are making it out to be, but it is a top 20. Where you really want to look is where the Navy has large bases (NAS and homeport). A large naval base or NAS is much more of an entity than your average AFB, which many cities have a nearby AFB.

Also, a good indicator, military services, retired veteran population, and military family population. I will show you guys all of this info coming up. Hold tight.

[jsimms3]

Also, Fayetteville, NC is like 100 or so miles south of Raleigh. When I did my research/databasing, I tried to include everything within ~70 or so miles of a city...I was very generous. However, Fort Bragg being in a smaller metro 100+ miles away does not make Raleigh a military town. Between Fayetteville, Goldsboro (northeast), and Jacksonville, NC (which is East ), there is definitely a huge military presence there.

A real military city has its bases *in* the city anyways, and not 50+ miles out.

[FastFerrari]

New Section - Top 10 Military Cities

Top 10 Military Cities is a list of the top 10 cities with the largest concentration of active and retired military. The list provides information regarding the military bases in the city and the city itself. Top 10 Military Cities was designed to answer questions regarding the area and to make relocation easier on you and your family.

Fayetteville, North Carolina
Hampton Roads, Virginia
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, North Carolina
Warner Robins, Centerville, Kathleen, Georgia
San Antonio, Texas - My home
Clarksville, Tennessee
Oak Harbor, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Fort Riley, Kansas

AllMilitary.com - Where The Military Matters Most

San Antonio Texas is known as the cultural gateway to the American Southwest and the10th largest city in the United States. San Antonio is also one of the world's largest military consolidations and is home to:

Brooks City-Base's largest tenant is the United States Air Force and is considered the leading force in aerospace medicine. The major units of the Brooks City-Base are the Unites States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine and the 311th Human Systems Wing.

Fort Sam Houston is known as the "Home of the Combat Medic" and "Home of Army Medicine." A United States Army post whose primary mission is to be a support post and provide medical training. Fort Sam is the headquarters for the U.S. Army North, 5th Army Recruiting Brigade, U.S. Army South, 12th ROTC Brigade, and U.S. Navy Regional recruiting.

Kelly Air Field Annex is the runway and the land to the west of the runway that once was the Kelly Air Force Base. Following the transfer of control to Lackland Air Force Base in 2001 Kelly Air Force Base became the Kelly Air Field Annex. The Kelly Air Field Annex now operates flights of the Texas Air National Guard 149th Fighter Wing and the Air Force Reserve Command's 433rd Airlift Wing

Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base. Lackland Air Force Base is largest training base in the Air Force and the only location for Basic Military Training for the United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard.

Leon Springs Military Reservation is made up of Camp Bullis, used for firing ranges and maneuver areas for combat units, and Camp Stanley, used mainly for ammunition storage and testing. Medical units from Fort Sam Houston's Brooke Army Medical Center are also used on the Leon Springs Military Reservation.

Randolph Air Force Base is the headquarters of the Air Education and Technical Command and is the sole base conducting pilot training and combat systems officer training. Randolph Air Force Base is the home of the 12th Flying Training Wing which provides support to more than 30 Department of Defense units.

[jsimms3]

Ok, so when I saw this thread, I was interested. I grew up in a military town (Jacksonville, FL). I'm surprised it wasn't really mentioned and some cities like San Antonio and New Orleans were. A military town is one in which the area's economy literally depends on the military. A military town is one where there is at least one very large base and perhaps a few others, *in* the city. A military town is one where there is at least one, if not five articles related to the local military presence in the paper every day. A military town has a long military history. A military town will always be a military town and when other bases close (BRAC 1993, 2005), they will consolidate with bases in a true military town. It's hard for a military town to be in a very liberal area, and the numbers below will show that most military towns are pretty conservative, politically.

Just as a heads up, here are some characteristics that being a military town has brought to Jacksonville. Aside from New York, Atlanta, and S FL, the largest net immigration and emigration destinations to the Jax metro are San Diego and Norfolk/Newport News/VA Beach. The military is the reason. Also, Jacksonville has one of the highest Filipino populations in the country, because of the military. Read anything about the city, and one of the first things that will be brought up is the military. The biggest area of contention in Chesapeake Virginia area is the fact that they are losing a nuclear aircraft carrier to be relocated to Jacksonville. That means they lose 9,500-11,000 jobs just like that, and NE FL gains 9,500-11,000 jobs, just like that. That's one ship (albeit a large one). Atlantic Coast/Carribean drug interdiction is carried out from Jacksonville (USCG/4th Naval Fleet). Mayport is home to the 3rd largest naval fleet in the U.S. and will be the primary homeport of the new littoral combat chips (replacing the frigates). Though there are many hangars at NAS Jax, the Navy's largest hangar was just built there for P-3s (287K SF, fits 8 P-3 Orions).

Ok, now on to the numbers. I was very generous here. I gave bases almost 100 miles out to cities, and I included CSA populations for civilian veterans (taken from US Census Bureau 2009 numbers) and for total population/%.

[Rank] [Area] [Total Active Armed Forces]
1 VA Beach/Newport/Norfolk/Hampton/Portsmouth 127,808
2 San Diego (includes Pendleton) 106,168
3 DC/Baltimore/Annapolis CSA 78,176
4 Seattle/Puget Sound CSA 55,624
5 Fayetteville, NC 47,800
6 Jacksonville, NC 43,069
7 Jacksonville, FL-Camden County, GA 42,411
8 Honolulu/Oahu 41,952
9 Fort Hood, TX (Bell County/Killeen, TX) 39,937
10 Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach 34,421
11 Columbus, GA 33,000
12 LA CSA 26,588
13 Nashville CSA 23,299
14 San Antonio 22,327
15 Charleston-Beaufort 21,809
16 Savannah 20,000
17 Louisville CSA 18,296
18 Colorado Springs 15,565
19 DFW CSA 14,897
20 Philadelphia-Trenton CSA 14,745

[Rank] [Area] [Total Military Personnel (Including Civilians)]
1 VA Beach/Newport/Norfolk/Hampton/Portsmouth 181,500
2 San Diego (includes Pendleton) 156,578
3 DC/Baltimore/Annapolis CSA 140,697
4 Seattle/Puget Sound CSA 78,488
5 Honolulu/Oahu 63,301
6 Fayetteville, NC 58,037
7 Jacksonville, FL-Camden County, GA 54,258
8 Jacksonville, NC 52,746
9 Pensacola-Fort Walton Beach 47,328
10 Fort Hood, TX (Bell County/Killeen, TX) 44,069
11 Columbus, GA 39,824
12 LA CSA 38,103
13 San Antonio 37,661
14 Philadelphia-Trenton CSA 26,716
15 Charleston-Beaufort 26,633
16 Nashville CSA 26,134
17 Chicago CSA 24,306
18 Oklahoma City CSA 22,802
19 Louisville CSA 21,917
20 Savannah 21,511
21 Colorado Springs 20,672

[Rank] [Area] [Military Population (Including Military Families)]
1 VA Beach/Newport/Norfolk/Hampton/Portsmouth 351,387
2 San Diego (includes Pendleton) 277,568
3 DC/Baltimore/Annapolis CSA 216,939
4 Fort Hood, TX (Bell County/Killeen, TX) 156,320
5 Seattle/Puget Sound CSA 142,139
6 Jacksonville, FL-Camden County, GA 126,975
7 Louisville CSA 108,373
8 Honolulu/Oahu 107,380
9 Columbus, GA 93,632
10 Jacksonville, NC 90,975
11 Pensacola-Fort Walton Beach 79,746
12 Fayetteville, NC 75,019
13 Nashville CSA 65,248
14 San Antonio 62,070
15 Savannah 58,814
16 LA CSA 55,158
17 Atlanta CSA 53,944
18 Charleston-Beaufort 45,582
19 Philadelphia-Trenton CSA 34,315
20 Tucson 34,298

[Rank] [Area] [Civilian Veterans] *(Notice that several military towns like DC-Baltimore, Seattle, San Diego, VA Beach, and Jacksonville have higher than usual numbers for their respective populations)*
1 New York/N NJ/LI/SW CT CSA 1,042,277
2 LA CSA 844,050
3 DC/Baltimore/Annapolis CSA 671,723
4 Chicago CSA 527,538
5 Philadelphia CSA 456,746
6 DFW CSA 413,882
7 Bay Area CSA 400,683
8 Seattle-Puget Sound CSA 381,794
9 Atlanta CSA 379,750
10 Detroit CSA 365,771
11 Phoenix 320,612
12 Miami/S FL 293,160
13 Boston Area 286,698
14 Tampa Bay Area 283,475
15 San Diego 252,898
16 St. Louis CSA 247,868
17 Denver CSA 222,066
18 VA Beach/Newport News/Norfolk 216,806
19 San Antonio 191,079
20 Jacksonville, FL-Camden County, GA 183,600

[Rank] [Area] [% of Total Population That Is Military (Retired or Active) or civilians employed by military and their family]
1 Fort Hood, TX (Bell County/Killeen, TX) 70%
2 Jacksonville, NC (Camp Lejeune, Cherry Point) 68%
3 Columbus, GA (Fort Benning) 43%
4 Fayetteville (Fort Bragg) 35%
5 VA Beach/Newport News/Norfolk 34%
6 Watertown, NY (Fort Drum) 30%
7 Savannah (Fort Stewart) 28%
8 Pensacola-Fort Walton Beach 27%
9 Jacksonville, FL-Camden County, GA 23%
10 Fairbanks, AK 22%
11 Honolulu/Oahu 21%
12 Topeka (Fort Riley) 21%
13 Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula CSA 19%
14 Norwich-New London, CT 19%
15 San Diego (includes Pendleton) 18%
16 Charleston-Beaufort, SC 18%
17 Colorado Springs (Fort Carson, USAF Academy) 18%
18 Louisville (Fort Knox) 17%
19 Melbourne-Cocoa Beach-Vero Beach (Patrick AFB) 17%
20 Anchorage 16%

...

24 San Antonio 13%

Now for the least military cities.

[Rank] [Area] [% of Total Population That Is Military (Retired or Active) or civilians employed by military and their family]
66 Miami/SE FL 5%
65 New York/N NJ/LI/SW CT CSA 5%
64 Bay Area CSA 6%
63 Chicago CSA 6%
62 LA Area CSA 6%
61 Fresno 7%
60 Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo CSA 7%
59 Boston Area 7%
58 Detroit CSA 7%
57 Dallas-Fort Worth CSA 7%
56 New Orleans CSA 8%
55 Memphis 8%
54 Providence/Newport/Cape Cod 8%
53 Denver CSA 8%
52 Phoenix 8%
51 Atlanta CSA 8%
50 Philadelphia-Trenton CSA 8%
49 Mobile 9%
48 Albany, NY 9%
47 Kansas City CSA 9%


***Not every single metro/CSA was examined. Only metros/CSAs that had a base of some sort. For instance Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Columbus, Austin, Sacramento, Portland, Orlando, Minneapolis, Buffalo, Indianapolis, and Birmingham are left off the list. It is doubtful that they have really high civilian military populations that would make them "military" cities.

Hopefully this puts any speculations to rest.

[jsimms3]

Excluding smaller towns that basically exist because of a large military base (I'm thinking the Fayettevilles, Jacksonville NC, Columbus GA, Fort Hood/Killeen TX, Watertown NY, etc etc) here are what I think are the biggest military cities. Also have to keep in mind city size, what the military means for the economy, and how big of a part of the culture of the city revolves around the military.

My ranking given the above numbers for metros over 500,000 people:

1) VA Beach/Norfolk/Newport News/Portsmouth/Yorktown, VA (no question here)
2) San Diego, CA (no question here)
3) Honolulu, HI (too much history to put lower on list)
4) Jacksonville, FL (just looking at the numbers and given what I know)
5) Seattle, WA (people don't think about it, but this is a big military town, and think about all those Boeing military contracts)
6) Pensacola/Fort Walton Beach, FL (huuuge military town, but barely over 500,000 people)
7) Colorado Springs, CO (huuuge military town, but not much over 500,000 people)
8) Charleston/Beaufort, SC (with Citadel, the carrier museum, and area bases like Parris Island)
9) DC Metro (just the fact that it's DC and by default has so many bases, the big Naval hospital, Naval Academy in nearby Anapolis, the Pentagon, etc etc etc)
10) San Antonio (I guess it should be included on the list given the above numbers, but I had no idea that San Antonio was a military town)

[HtownLove]

wow, great info.

I would not list SA in the top ten then, they didn't make it to the top ten in any of your lists. The way the SAians talk you would swear that no other cities had military institutions list SA

[jsimms3]

Largest Military bases in the country as far as total working personnel (excluding family members that live on the base, but don't work there, also excluding adjacent military hospitals and adjacent bases that are separate and too small to make the list individually):

Norfolk Naval Station 112,033
Fort Bragg near Fayetteville, NC 54,715
Fort Hood in Killeen, TX 44,069
Fort Benning near Columbus, GA 39,824
Camp Lejeune (Jacksonville, NC) 38,637
Camp Pendleton 35 miles from San Diego 37,527
San Diego Naval Station 30,000
Naval Base Coronado (San Diego) 30,000
Fort Sam Houston near San Antonio 27,000
Fort Campbell 50 miles from Nashville 26,134
Fort Lewis, WA (next to McChord on Puget Sound near Seattle) 25,000
Jacksonville Naval Air Station 23,000
Fort Knox 45 miles from Louisville (will lose 4,600 personnel to Fort Benning) 21,917
Fort Stewart 41 miles from Savannah, GA 21,511
Washington Naval Yard (near DC) 21,426
Fort Shafter in Honolulu 16,069
Bremerton Naval Base across Puget Sound from Seattle 19,649
Mayport (Jacksonville…number seems low to me, but will gain ~10,000 from Norfolk) 15,260

Also notice how air force bases really aren't as large as the largest naval, army, and marine (Pendleton, Lejeune) bases.