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Lakenheath RAFB
Hello ladies! We just got orders to Lakenheath and I wanted to see if anyone had any information about housing, schools, or general tips. Thanks in advance for any help.
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Re: Lakenheath RAFB
About 7 years ago, my husband was stationed in London, and I studied in Cambridge. We used to pass Lakenheath driving between the two. Sadly, I can't really tell you anything helpful, except I remember it being kinda in the middle of nowhere and having the only Taco Bell in the UK. This was seriously exciting to the guys on my husband's base.
Good luck with the move!!
To know whether or not you can get a house that big off base I would need to know what your husbands rank is since that determines what your BAH is and here how much you get really determines the size of house you can get. My husband is a Staff and we live in a 1200 sq ft 3 bedroom about 30 min from either base and our house is considered big. Also the further you go from base the more house you get so if you dont want to be far away from the base then I suggest living on base with a large family. Driving here is like driving on only country roads back in the States, there are no direct routes anywhere. We live 12 miles from base but it takes us a solid 30 min to drive those 12 miles, and that is if we dont get stuck behind a tracktor or by a train. What time of year will you be moving here? Are you shipping a car? Do you have any pets your wanting to bring over?
We really like living overseas and the travel opportunities are gret but it is an adjustment. They do things very different here so make sure you come with an open mind and a sense of humor!
My husband is a Staff as well. He doesn't want to live 30 minutes off base as that's what we do now and we spend so much money in gas driving us all back and forth. We may change our minds later and since we are on an extended tour we will have plenty of time. We will be moving in December just before Christmas so we will probably be in TLF for that. We will be shipping our Maxima over and buying another car when we get there. We need to be sure we have at least one car that all 3 kids (and carseats) will fit in! I do have a cat that lives at my mother's house so we aren't sure if we will be taking her yet or not. I would like to though.
We are so excited about the travel and adventure of living in another country. We are an active family that likes to go see things so I am optimistic that this will be a great assigment for us. My husband became a citizen at 19 and I have lived in lots of different places so hopefully we will be able to adjust well.
I dont know what the current BAH rate is for Staff (it changes ) but once you find out there are a few websites that you can look at to find houses off base. Just be sure to choose according to square footage and not by how many bedrooms there are. I think you will be able to find something and willbe fine either way. If you do plan on bringing your cat you need to start planning for that now because it takes 7+ months to get all of the vet appointments and shots done before your pet can enter the uk. If you have any questions about that feel free to ask. We shipped out two dogs over here so I can help.
I know this is really late (I had my baby a couple of weeks ago so I haven't been on here) but we've been at Lakenheath for almost three years. We love the area. My husband's not thrilled about his work environment (he's backshop), but all in all, it's been a really good experience.
My husband is a staff sergeant and our housing allowance is 1050 pounds. I recommend looking on www.rightmove.co.uk for housing if you want to live off base. Try to talk to people who live in the area before you decide to let a house there. We lived in Feltwell when we first got here, and in the first year, four cars in our drive got vandalized and our house was broken into twice. Some areas are a lot worse for crime than others. When looking at distance, in general it seems to take twice as long to get somewhere as it does in the States. A fifteen-mile drive will probably take up to half an hour.
The new housing is really nice, but it's a long wait to get in. The older housing is a little rundown.
If you're wanting to work on base, start looking into usajobs.com before you come to get an idea of what's available.
Thank you girls so much for all of your help. Can I PM you in the future to ask any questions?
Happy halfway point txbrwneyedgrl!!! (that may be totally wrong) I'm going off memory.