A Veteran’s Day Salute To RVers In Our Armed Services

Not only is November 11th Veterans Day, but it falls in the middle of National Veterans and Military Families Month. And how are a significant number of those we’re honoring spending their free time this month? Like lots of other lovers of the great outdoors in America – RVing!

If you’re not seeing them at public RV parks, it may because they are camping on the grounds of military bases, like Ft. Meade Army Base, located between Washington, DC, Baltimore and Annapolis. There, authorized RVers pause to show their military IDs to armed soldiers before passing through the heavily guarded Main Gate toward the Camp Meade RV Park.

In most cases, the RV parks are owned by a branch of the military and managed by the branches’ Department of Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) or a similar office. The Navy MWR just concluded the Great Navy Campout 2022, their 7th annual summer-long event, which celebrated outdoor recreation and camping as a way to connect with nature and wildlife at more than 35 Navy installations worldwide.

Like the Army and Navy, the Air Force, Marine Corp, and Coast Guard also operate campgrounds and RV sites on military installations throughout the United States. Sometimes called FamCamps (family campgrounds), these range from bustling villages with full RV hookups, bath and laundry facilities, and amenities that rival luxury commercial RV resorts, to rustic outposts that offer no water, electricity, or trash removal.

But there are a few key things that all these military campgrounds have in common: their daily rates can be close to half the cost of public campsites; their maximum length of stay is generally longer than permitted at local- and state-regulated RV parks; and not just anyone can stay at their campground.

Because the military campgrounds are relatively inexpensive, campground discount programs, like those offered by Good Sam and others, are not accepted. As to the length of time that campers may remain in the parks, this depends on the active duty or civilian status of the RVer and whether it is peak or off-season. The maximum stays vary among the different military branches and even in the different regions of the country.

Camp Meade allows relatively long maximum stays, according to Steve Orcutt, Manager, Outdoor Recreation, who has worked on the base for 12 years. During peak season (April 1 -Nov. 15), active-duty members can stay for 120 days, leave for 5 days, then return. Retired or civilian RVers can stay for 60 days. Both increase during the off-season when more of the park’s 54 RV sites are available.

What constitutes being “authorized” to stay in a military campground is a lot more complicated. In general, trying to access a campground that is “behind the gate” of a military post requires military IDs for all active-duty service members and dependent IDs for all family members. The Purple Heart and Disabled Veterans Equal Access Act of 2018 extended campground privileges to National Guard members, Reservists, retired military, 0-100% Disabled American Veterans, Purple Heart recipients, former POWs, veteran caregivers, and DoD civilians. Additionally, some military campgrounds include honorably discharged veterans, surviving un-remarried spouses of members killed while on active duty or married for 20 years to an active-duty spouse, cadets of service academies, and some other government agency personnel.  

Military campgrounds not located on bases may have more lenient access policies, but it is important to note that what is permitted one day could change the next due to threat conditions, mission requirements, state or local ordinance changes, or even overall policy adjustments by the DoD or area commanders. 

Despite the complexity of these regulations, Camp Meade maintains 90-100% occupancy during peak season with weekends booked months in advance. In the off-season, the park remains 70-80% full of RVers of every age and demographic.

“We have RVers who come here on business or vacation, and RVers who stay here while they’re looking for on-base or off-base housing,” said Orcutt. “The vacationers tend to own travel trailers or Class C RVs, but retirees typically travel in their own Class A motorhomes and they tend to stay longer.”

Some of the RVers are contractors, who are among the 63,000 people employed by Ft. Meade. Others are active-duty members stationed at the base with their spouses and children, who can attend one of seven public schools on base during their stay. And some of the Disabled American Veterans RVers come to the campground during their treatments at nearby Walter Reed or Johns Hopkins medical facilities.

Camp Meade provides many types of amenities and access to recreational facilities both in the campground (moon bounces, camp store, canoe and kayak rentals, etc.) and on base (bowling center, auto craft shop, ball fields, etc.). Ft. Meade also provides inexpensive storage for RVs, an amenity so popular that there are now nine lots for this around the base.

The one amenity that Camp Meade does not provide is Wi-Fi service throughout the campground. This will become available for the 30 new RV sites and bath house that will be completed this winter.

“The Wi-Fi system needs to be included during construction process,” said Orcutt. “Even though it will be a private network, there are still security concerns associated with being on a military installation.”

A state-by-state listing of Army-owned campgrounds is posted on the Army MWR website. Campgrounds operated by the Navy can be found on the Navy MWR site, which lists them by region of the world then by individual base or Naval Air Station.

Blue Angel Park at Naval Air Station Pensacola is one of the Navy’s premier camping facilities. BAP offers two RV campgrounds, 158 RV spots with water and electrical hookups, boat launch ramps, a 35-acre paintball field, three 18-hole disc golf courses, hiking/biking trails, a fishing pier, children’s playgrounds, beaches and picnic areas, pavilion rentals and sailing classes, among other amenities.

Boneyard Vista/Agave Gulch FamCamp is located on Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, AZ. It offers 197 full hookup sites and many amenities.

The U.S. Marine Corps owns Onslow Beach Campsites and Recreation Area in Camp Lejeune, NC. In addition to a vast number of on-base amenities, the 33 RV spots with hookups are in close proximity to both the New River and the Atlantic Ocean for surfing and other water sports.

The RV park on US Coast Guard Base Cape Cod is both small (5 gravel sites) and extremely popular, so its maximum stay is only 14 contiguous days and 28 days in a calendar year.

While campgrounds on Army bases are easy to learn about on the Army MWR website, locating the other branches’ campgrounds can be challenging. Two of the best resources are the DoD-funded Military One Source site, and US Military Campgrounds and RV Parks, a site operated by Larry Farquhar, a private citizen who is proudly retired from the U.S. Air Force. This latter site provides basic information and reviews for approximately 400 campgrounds, listed by state.

The following apps also provide information on a limited number of military FamCamps: Allstays Military FamCamp Campgrounds (Apple) and Ultimate US Military FAMCAMPS (Google Play).