Fort Campbell

101st Airborne (Air Assault), where 'Air Assault' means rappelling out of a helicopter that doesn't want to be there either, and the 10-day Air Assault School will either give you wings or destroy your knees — usually both. The base straddles Tennessee and Kentucky, which means your barracks are technically in a state that can't decide if it's Southern or Midwestern, and your chain of command can't decide which state's liquor laws apply (spoiler: the strict ones). Clarksville has grown from a dusty military town into something approaching respectability — actual restaurants, a real downtown, and a population that's exploded because soldiers kept marrying locals and buying houses. Nashville is 45 minutes away — just close enough to give you hope and just far enough to drain your gas tank every weekend. Broadway is where paychecks go to become bad decisions and honky-tonk memories, and every 101st soldier has a Nashville story that starts with 'I only went for one drink.' The gate traffic on Fort Campbell Boulevard has been studied by DARPA as a potential weapon system. The Rakkasans, Bastogne, and Strike brigades will argue about which is the best, and they're all wrong because the answer is whoever just got back from deployment.