Fort Huachuca

The Army's intel and UAV hub, where everyone has a clearance and nobody can tell you what they do — conversations at the commissary are 50% awkward pauses and 50% weather talk. If Military Intelligence were a zip code, it would be 85613. Sierra Vista is a retirement community that accidentally got a military base attached to it: the median age at the Safeway is 67, the early bird specials start at 3 PM, and the most exciting Friday night involves a particularly competitive bingo game at the VFW. Fort Huachuca is world-famous for birding — actual birding, with binoculars, field guides, and hushed tones — which is the most intel-community hobby imaginable. Elegant trogons don't know they're visiting a military installation. The Huachuca Mountains are beautiful, the San Pedro River is a riparian paradise, and the monsoon season from July to September turns the desert into a green explosion while lightning shows put every Fourth of July display to shame. Tucson is 90 minutes north for when you need to remember what a restaurant with more than four tables looks like. The UAS (drone) training mission produces every Gray Eagle and Shadow operator in the Army, and watching them fly at sunset over the Arizona desert is admittedly cool. The cost of living is low. The social scene is lower.