Fort Wainwright Pros and Cons

Apr 21, 2021

It’s hard to believe that we’ve been stationed in Fort Wainwright, Alaska for almost two full years now! We’ve spent two summers and two winters at Fort Wainwright so I felt that I was finally “qualified” enough to start sharing a little bit of information about living at Fort Wainwright. Naturally, I get questions all of the time about what Fort Wainwright is like and whether or not Fort Wainwright is a good duty station. I also get a lot of requests for post guides so I wanted to try and dip my feet into exploring the creation of more informative posts about where we’ve been stationed.

There will be more Fort Wainwright posts to come, including a Frequently Asked Questions post but I wanted to kick off this “post series” on Fort Wainwright with a simple Fort Wainwright pros and cons list. Anytime I’m scrolling through a PCS related Facebook group the number one question I always see is “pros and cons of x” so I figured this would be a good place to start! If you have any questions about Fort Wainwright, please feel free to leave a comment, connect with me on Instagram, or send me an email here!

If you’re new here, I guess I should introduce myself so you know where my perspective is coming from. My husband and I got married in 2018 after he graduated from West Point. We actually chose to come to Fort Wainwright due to the fact that my husband is originally from Alaska and his family still lives here (6.5 or so hours away from Fort Wainwright). When we PCS’d to Fort Wainwright we had a one month old baby and at the time I’m writing this we are currently expecting our second child.

Disclaimer: I can only give pros/cons based off of my own personal experience living at Fort Wainwright. My experience is not all encompassing of everyone’s experience who gets stationed here

Fort Wainwright Pros and Cons List

Fort Wainwright Pros

You get to live in Alaska, a place that is a bucket list destination for many people
The summers are incredible! Up to 24 hours of sunlight and the temperature is mostly moderate with low humidity
A great place for anyone looking to be more adventurous or who loves a great outdoors trip. There are a ton of different and unique outdoor activities you can take part in such as camping, hiking, fishing, hunting, dog sledding, and more!
See the Northern Lights in the winter from your own porch!
Small town atmosphere and a great culture of community within those who are stationed here.
Great breweries and restaurants all across the state!
Slower operational tempo for soldiers. Due to the climate and harsh winters, there’s not a lot of training that can take place during the winter months. While training does ramp up during the warmer months, there are still a lot of great opportunities to get out and explore the state!
There is an airport located right in Fairbanks making travel to Anchorage and the lower 48 easy. The airport is about 10 to 15 minutes from Fort Wainwright itself.
Fairbanks, Alaska is home to its own university, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, if you are looking to enroll in college classes during your time here.
Many of the on post housing neighborhoods on Fort Wainwright are made up of newer homes. The housing at Fort Wainwright also tends to be very spacious.
Fort Wainwright has had a recent deployment in 2019/2020
There’s a Costco located in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Typically, being stationed at Fort Wainwright provides three years of stability from moving.

Fort Wainwright Cons

The winters are harsh. I’m just going to be blunt here. Winter usually lasts from October to April, there’s minimal sunlight, and the temperatures can be -40 or lower.
Traveling to and from Alaska to the lower 48 is time consuming and expensive.
You can get the Alaskan version of “island fever” due to its remote location from the rest of the continental United States.
Fort Wainwright itself is fairly isolated from the rest of the state.
The closest Target to Fort Wainwright is 357 miles.
Shopping options are limited in Fairbanks. While there are a few big name stores like American Eagle and Old Navy, the rest of the pickings are pretty slim.
Shipping items to Alaska is expensive and often limited.
In general, the cost of living in Alaska is higher. Expect to pay more for pretty much everything.
The wifi sucks and options for cable/internet are limited to local companies.
The summer months bring extra daylight and sometimes wildfires that can be pretty bad. You’ll want to invest in blackout curtains.
On-post housing at Fort Wainwright does not have air conditioning. We’ve made it two summers without AC but the temperature can be upwards of 90+ degrees in the summer which can be pretty unbearable inside of the house.
There are no chain restaurants besides fast food restaurants located in Fairbanks. However, the local restaurants tend to make up for that and most of your favorites are available in Anchorage.

Fort Wainwright, and truly every duty station, is what you make of it. If you can look past some of the cons on the list then you are sure to be able to have once in a lifetime experiences while you’re stationed in Alaska. However, I wouldn’t say Fort Wainwright is the perfect duty station for everyone. It requires a true commitment to making the most out of whatever the weather (and Amazon shipping) throws at you.

Once again, please feel free to leave any questions below! I hope you’ve found this post helpful and if there’s any pro/con I missed, definitely shout it out in the comments!