Last Updated on August 9, 2019
Your Name (if you would like it to appear): Kristin
Base Name: Fort Riley
Base Location: Kansas
How long have you been here? 2008 – Present
What is housing like?
On-post?: The waiting list was 3 months and I was 9 months pregnant when we PCS’d here so we didnt want to get stuck in temporary lodging but the on base housing is pretty nice. You can look up the housing on this website (https://onestop.army.mil/).
Off-post?: I love living off post. We have a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house we rent with a huge kitchen, garage and washer and dryer. Its only $775 a month and our BAH is $956 so it works out pretty nice! I found a lot of nice places that are already military approved off this website (http://www.ahrn.com/). You can view pictures of listings and everything… its a great website.
Rate the PX & Commissary. The commissary is pretty nice and they just opened a new PX on February 13th, 2009. I think the prices are pretty high and since we live off base it seems like the Super WalMart next to our house is cheaper then the Commissary and PX.
Activities on base? They have various things all the time, a talent show is going on this month.. Last month they had a dinner and dancing type of thing.
Active Spouses Club? I’m not in anything right now since I stay at home with the baby. But I’ve heard a lot of good things and I filled out a volunteer sheet when we got here for the FRG.
Things to do in area? There is a lot of bars, restaurants and little shops in Aggieville. There is a mall in Manhattan that is a pretty good size and A LOT of stores. There is also a zoo in Manhattan and the Wizard of Oz museum is close by.
School System? I’m not sure, I don’t have any kids in school yet.
Any colleges in area? Kansas State University is less then 10 miles from base.
Jobs? The PX and Commissary and Shoppettes are ALWAYS, ALWAYS hiring.. There are signs everywhere. There is always the hospital as well.
Favorite aspect of this base/surrounding city? I LOVE Manhattan. I think its a gorgeous town and I love all the stores and everything so close by. Manhattan is about 15 minutes from the base.
Least favorite aspect? Nothing.. yet… =)
Local websites? http://www.riley.army.mil/
Any other tips? I would suggest living in Manhattan. EVERYTHING is right outside your door. Unless you favor the PX or Commissary you will need to drive at least 15-20 minutes to get to a decent store like a Wal-Mart.
We lived in Manhattan for about a year and loved it. However, we live on post now. I do agree that the clothing prices at the PX are kinda high. But everything else is pretty low… especially at the commissary. The prices are way lower than anywhere else.
Junction City is only about 5 minutes from my house. And Walmart is less than 10 minutes. So getting a Super Walmart is not a 20 minute drive as the author said.
Living on post is really nice. My husband works just right down the street and can come home for every meal. It is really nice seeing him, especially after he has been gone on deployments. There are some down sides… such as my close neighbor. They are evil. LOL
I’m an army fiancee and i will be moving there august or September 2012. I’m worried about finding things to do there. I’m from California so im sure it will be a culture shock. I’m 20 and i have no kids….hopefully i can make friends lol
hey Kathleen! how is it since you’ve been there? im from New Orleans & i’m kind of feeling the same way, but i do have two kids.
I am currently living on base at Ft Riley. We have been here for three years and although i love our house on base now, I HATED our old house. I DO NOT SUGGEST living in a tri-level. It was awful!! Plus the neighborhood had alot of issues. We are currently in a one level near the commissary and we love it. We have great neighbors and are very comfortable. As far as the surrounding areas we aren’t very happy with them. We have three kids and other than the zoo which is an hour away unless you go to the tiny one in Manhattan there is NOTHING to do here. There are very few options for dining and most of the life in Manhattan is geared towards college kids. There are a ton of bars and bookshops. There is no longer any type of soldier “club” on post, it is now a bingo hall. The library on post is tiny and there is only one post office, located on the hill, and no mail drop boxes off the hill. The traffic on the hill is horrendous is the morning and around lunch time. My husband is with aviation so he works on the airfield and the traffic there isn’t as bad but the roads could be better for passing cars that are turning. There are alot of historical things to look at here but once you’ve seen it there isn’t much point to looking again. If you want to do anything fun at all you have to drive at least on hour to Topeka or 2.5 hours to Kansas City. It isn’t all horrible here, just horribly boring for us. I suppose we got used to life at Ft Eustis where there was always something to do. Good luck to anyone coming here!!! Oh and the schools are pretty good but there are 5 elementary schools on base and not one of them is a DOD school, they are all Junction city/Geary county schools and there will be a 6th next year. The classes are very crowded.
hi. i guess its more of questions from you guys. im a newlywed & my huband is also new to this. we’ve just learned that is duty station will be fort riley & im a little nerves about it all. i have a 6yr old son & a 1mth old daughter and moving from family to a place where we know no one. as for me i would like to know alot about the first steps as a wife in a whole new world, so to say..help ladies 🙂
hey ladies I am 21 no kids yet. im still really new to fort riley my husband been in a while now and Im still not figuring it all out. We live off post currently and I hope to make friends soon.
My husband has been stationed at Ft. Riley since Aug. 2009 and we have 3 children a 12 year old girl, 9 year old girl and a 8 year old boy. I am from NC (Fayetteville- close to Fort Bragg) To tell you the truth I personally hate Ft. Riley. We live on post in a newly remodeled 4 bedroom townhome. I love our house! We started out in a flat level 3 bedroom that was built in the early 60’s, it was horrible. They are building alot of new homes on ft. riley and remodeling the older ones. The wait lists for housing depends on the bedrooms you need and your rank. It goes for 3 months to 9 months. We have Manhattan a TINY city about 20 mins away but they are currently doing road work so it can take up to an hour to get to or from. It is a collage town and they do have a small mall and a walmart and target. Resturants are very limited. The manhattan sun set zoo is small but nice. Junction City is on the other side of Ft. Riley right outside of the gate, it is also very small. Crime rate there is on the higher side. There is a walmart there also. I don’t really have anything good to say about JC except they have a great 4th of July celebration. Rent off post is high if you have a family. On post the commisary is nice and good size, the PX is a normal PX the prices are on the higher side. They do try to have alot of things that are family oriented. The schools on post are NOT GOOD. I have 2 special needs children and I have had to fight tooth and nail to get them the proper help even with IEPs. The class sizes are horrible. They are not DOD schools they are Geary County. You can look up the stats online. There is only one private school in the area. All in all I Give Fort Riley KS a 3 out of 10 with 10 being the highest. Its boring, over crowded, bad schools, high rent, but it’s Pretty to look at!
My husband and I have lived at Fort Riley for 18 months now and everyday we dream about leaving here! This is his 3rd duty station in the Army and so far they have all sucked, Fort Riley included! Unless you have beaucoups of kids or are a young, party loving, binge drinking college kid, you will feel completely out of place here. We live on post and I would not recommend it (unless you have multiple children and qualify to live in the Forsyth neighborhood, which is brand new construction mini-mansion style housing). We have had nothing but trouble with our house here on post. Everything from multiple floods, to the air conditioning not working in the summer time, to the heat not turning off in the winter and heating the house to 90 degrees so you have to resort to opening all your windows and running your ceiling fans in the dead of winter, you name it, we’ve dealt with it. A little tip to the wives out there: if you live on post, think about how much fun it will be to deal with these types of disasters while your husband is deployed! I’m speaking from experience when I say that, too. The post housing in Peterson Place has plumbing that was done sub-par so it doesn’t even meet building code now, nor did it when it was constructed (one of the many maintenance men I’m on a first name basis with admitted that to me one day). Our neighbors here in Ellis Heights haven’t been allowed back in their house for 3 weeks now after a sewage line literally exploded and flooded the crawl space of their house along with the first floor and carpet with their raw sewage…sounds like fun, doesn’t it?! Another horrible thing about Fort Riley is the location. It is literally in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. If you don’t like long, hot, horribly humid summers, you’ll hate Fort Riley! Summer 2012 was one for the record books here where we had 3 straight weeks of 100+ temperatures! Combine that with the ineffective geotheremal heat pumps they use to air condition the houses here on post and you have a sweatbox for a house all summer long! My husband’s grandmother came to visit us in July, she is from McAllen, Texas right on the Mexican border, and even she was complaining about how hot is was here! The majority of the wives here are moody, rude, and don’t do much but keep procreating (probably so they can get into the better housing here on post). Of course, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between. Counting down the days till we get to leave…
Personally I feel any post is what you put into it. If you don’t want to find entertainment out of what you have then you are going to be bored and complain needlessly. My family spent 5 years stationed at Ft. Bragg which is triple the size of Ft. Riley and I complained most of the time of being bored. After growing up some and looking back at it my boredom came because I wasn’t making use of the resources available to me and not because there was “nothing to do”.
The area is in located almost in the middle of the state so to get the major Kansas metropolitan areas you will need to travel. Otherwise there are several towns nearby including JC and Manhattan. They all have shopping, and dining from fast food to 4 and 5 star restaurants. There are bowling alleys, movie theaters, arcades, parks, playgrounds, fairgrounds, sporting events, fishing, boating, hiking. If you are a nature enthusiast you will find beautiful trails and lakes. There is a plethora of educational opportunities, good schools, and a friendly atmosphere as most of the locals have grown up with Kansas values. Yes it’s small and secluded in comparison to some of the larger military posts, but you have to put in what you expect to get out with anything in life.
My husband and I got stationed here in November. I personally hate it. They claim they are concerned and it’s family first, but that’s a lie. I have a 3yr old and one on the way. I’m 4vmonths pregnant, and having a lot of complications with this pregnancy. My husbands Sgt seems to me not to give a D*** about that. He had to stay with me today because Im unable to do somethings right now. I’m in pain and his family COMES FIRST REGARDLESS!!!!! I’m just so disappointed because they fussed at him and told him he cant just take off work like that…..Mind you he informed his SGT that he might not be in today because of my condition, and I just got the hospital. So I feel like they don’t give a SHIT about family \. ITS NOT RIGHT TO TELL MY HUSBAND THAT AT ALL!!!!!!! he goes to work everyday and does what he suppose to do, so WHAT THE HELL!!! IM just so upset because they have no care in the world about families. What should I do?????
Hi. I have been married for two years, I’m 22 and my husband and I just had our first son! We are going to be moving to fort Riley soon and I am also nervous about the change. We are moving from El Paso, big change! But I would like to think of it as a new experience, a change is always good.