RV'ing at the Naval Station in Key West

Info at Military Campgrounds will tell you who can use it, how to get to it, how to make reservations and how much it will cost.

Jack, I found a post on this topic a couple of weeks ago that discussed their process in great detail. Can't find it now, of course.

The bottom line is it is first come, first serve, but they have a system that ensures that no one is ever turned away, and everyone rotates in and out of the full hook up sites for 2 weeks at a time.

Looks like its not all Veterans.

Authorized Users
Active, National Guard, Reservists, Retired, 100% DAV, DoD Civilians, DoT civilians working for Coast Guard, NATO allies on orders to the US.

TNRIVERSIDE wrote:
Looks like its not all Veterans.

Authorized Users
Active, National Guard, Reservists, Retired, 100% DAV, DoD Civilians, DoT civilians working for Coast Guard, NATO allies on orders to the US.

Isn't America great? I commented on this about a year ago.

A combat wounded veteran will be turned away from a military campground.
But, a pencil pushing civilian who never served will be welcomed with open arms.

We need to rethink our hero status..... JMO

gbopp wrote:

TNRIVERSIDE wrote:
Looks like its not all Veterans.

Authorized Users
Active, National Guard, Reservists, Retired, 100% DAV, DoD Civilians, DoT civilians working for Coast Guard, NATO allies on orders to the US.

Isn't America great? I commented on this about a year ago.

A combat wounded veteran will be turned away from a military campground.
But, a pencil pushing civilian who never served will be welcomed with open arms.

We need to rethink our hero status..... JMO

Where do you get "pencil pushing civilian" ... civilians are not allowed to camp in military campgrounds. Active duty, retired military, and Disabled Veterans in that order.

Although, the base commander can allow DOD assigned to his base to camp. I personally disagree with DOD camping, but am not a CO ... it is technically against the law for DOD to camp, but many bases turn a blind eye to it because it generates revenue. And, we all know the dollar is top dog ...

One problem with allowing DOD civilians - it fills up the sites long-term, and then an authorized military family gets turned away. We have that battle a lot.

DOD get a housing allowance, quite a bit, to rent locally when working in DOD projects - then some of those folks rent a CG space for about a fourth of that allowance, and put that extra money in their own pockets. In fact, some AD families get BHA, and do the same thing ... I believe it's illegal, abuse of funds to do it - but that's a losing battle as well. The folks that benefit from that abuse are the ones that make those enforcement choices - so, guess what?

gbopp wrote:

TNRIVERSIDE wrote:
Looks like its not all Veterans.

Authorized Users
Active, National Guard, Reservists, Retired, 100% DAV, DoD Civilians, DoT civilians working for Coast Guard, NATO allies on orders to the US.

Isn't America great? I commented on this about a year ago.

A combat wounded veteran will be turned away from a military campground.
But, a pencil pushing civilian who never served will be welcomed with open arms.

We need to rethink our hero status..... JMO

Totally agree.

Right or wrong, again their park their rules.
Several years ago we were at a Famcamp on west coast and this couple with Canadian plates camped next to us. We thought maybe they were sponsored by their active duty son in law. Got talking and he was retired Canadian Army. He told us some Famcamps allow them depending on Base Commander policy. Also mentioned that that we could use their Famcamp system if we were up there.

monkey44 wrote:

gbopp wrote:

TNRIVERSIDE wrote:
Looks like its not all Veterans.

Authorized Users
Active, National Guard, Reservists, Retired, 100% DAV, DoD Civilians, DoT civilians working for Coast Guard, NATO allies on orders to the US.

Isn't America great? I commented on this about a year ago.

A combat wounded veteran will be turned away from a military campground.
But, a pencil pushing civilian who never served will be welcomed with open arms.

In the link posted by accsys it states normal military veterans are NOT authorized to use the campground.
A civilian MAY be authorized.

It's not right, JMO

We need to rethink our hero status..... JMO

Where do you get "pencil pushing civilian" ... civilians are not allowed to camp in military campgrounds. Active duty, retired military, and Disabled Veterans in that order.

Although, the base commander can allow DOD assigned to his base to camp. I personally disagree with DOD camping, but am not a CO ... it is technically against the law for DOD to camp, but many bases turn a blind eye to it because it generates revenue. And, we all know the dollar is top dog ...

One problem with allowing DOD civilians - it fills up the sites long-term, and then an authorized military family gets turned away. We have that battle a lot.

DOD get a housing allowance, quite a bit, to rent locally when working in DOD projects - then some of those folks rent a CG space for about a fourth of that allowance, and put that extra money in their own pockets. In fact, some AD families get BHA, and do the same thing ... I believe it's illegal, abuse of funds to do it - but that's a losing battle as well. The folks that benefit from that abuse are the ones that make those enforcement choices - so, guess what?

In the link posted by accsys it states, regular veterans are NOT authorized to use the campgrounds.
Civilians MAY be authorized.

It's not right, JMO

As noted, each facility has the flexibility to set "who can use", it all comes down to money. These facilities don't have the option of receiving massive amounts of DOD money to sit around unused/underused

Many of the parks that allow DOD Civ and retired DOD Civ do so for one reason, there are not enough active duty (first priority) or retired (2nd priority) in the area to ever fill the campground. The more income the park generates the easier it is to fund the facility.
The most popular/high-volume parks don't allow DOD Civ, heck I know of one that only allowed active duty (small, in a high usage area)

QUOTE: "The most popular/high-volume parks don't allow DOD Civ, heck I know of one that only allowed active duty (small, in a high usage area)"

That's not entirely true. Many of the 'popular' parks are full because they allow DOD in ... and so it "looks full" and "popular" but the retired and AD military can't get in on short term vacations, leave, or travel.

And the problem we've seen too, the 'DOD' stick around all year, saving money, and the campsites become a mess ... any time we have a situation where any one 'type' of user stays continuously, it brings a sense of "don't care" attitude with it. They're already cheating the system (taking housing money and then camping, and keeping it." So that kind of mentality suggests a lack of ethics, and even less character.