Laughlin AFB Famcamp is an RV Hacienda You Won’t Forget

Laughlin AFB RV Famcamp is located in Del Rio, Texas on the Rio Grande. Across the river is the old Mexican cowboy town of Acuna. The cowboys used to herd their cattle across a low shallow place in the river here on their way to market. Before I get to the particulars of the campground let me tell you what the town of Del Rio has to offer. If you are an angler you probably already know about the great fishing here. History buffs will be pleasantly surprised by the Whitehead Memorial Museum. This is one of the best museums in south Texas and it’s free. The oldest building in these parts anchors the museum. The Old Perry Building was erected in 1871 before Del Rio was even a city. It was the largest store between San Antonio and El Paso and also served as a church, courthouse, and public gathering place. There are other old buildings in Del Rio including Texas Historic Landmark Sacred Heart Catholic Church built in 1891. There is also an old winery here as well as other very interesting historical sites. Be sure to head across the Mexican border and take in some shopping, dining and sightseeing.The campground in on base six miles east of Del Rio. Just go through the main gate and drive straight until you dead end in the campground. The 20 huge pull through sites have full hook-ups, a patio, table and BBQ. Each site has 50 and 30 amps and 110, water, sewer and free cable TV. In 2008 the rates were around $10.00 a night if you stay a week or longer and $15.00 per night otherwise. The rules don’t allow washing of vehicles in the RV sites, but there is a coin operated car wash nearby. For a complete overview of this campground be sure to watch the video below.

The Exchange and Commissary are medium size but well stocked. Please note the Commissary is closed on Monday. XL club serves a mean Mexican buffet but you’ll need to pick up a base newspaper to find out what is being served and when. The bowling ally has a nice cafe and there is a Burger King in the Exchange. The Base Chapel has a full range of services and the gymnasium is the best I’ve ever seen on a military installation. A nice walking and biking trail passes through base housing and by the gym. The Silver Wings cafe serves great sandwiches and you can eat your lunch while watching flight line operations from the second story observation lounge. Since this is a pilot training base it can be somewhat noisy, but you’ll get used to it after a few days. Weekends are usually quiet. It’s windy in this part of Texas, in fact, it’s frequently windy in Texas period! So please don’t put your awning out and leave for the day.

I highly recommend making advanced reservations. You may reach the reservation desk by calling (830) 298-5830. If you arrive without reservations, be sure to check in with the campground host before you pull into a site.

Oh, did I mention they have the best store bought ice cream in the ENTIRE world here in Texas? If you’ve had it, you know what I’m talking about. Bringing you the scoop - Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

Luke AFB Gila Bend Family Campground In Serious Disrepair

RVers love Arizona in the winter because of the warm weather. Gila Bend Famcamp is owned and operated by Luke Air Force Base. Located on the Barry M. Goldwater bombing range you will see several types of aircraft “shooting transition” which is aviator talk meaning they are doing approaches and touch and go procedures. We’ve stayed in this campground a couple weeks each winter over the past four years. It’s a great place to relax and do nothing because there isn’t really much to do. The Organ Pipes National Monument is worthy of a visit as well as the Painted Rocks State Park where you will see petroglyphs. Contact the Public Relations Department at Luke AFB to go on an organized tour of the bombing range. Many retired military RVers like to camp here a few days before and after returning from campgrounds in Mexico. There are minimal facilities at this campground. There are no showers and the nearest bathrooms are located in the billeting office. Since the campground is at the auxiliary airfield, there is no exchange, gas station, commissary, or coke machines. There isn’t even a mailbox, but there’s lots of desert. If I were the base commander, I would be embarrassed by the condition of this campground (especially given the fact that next door Davis Monthon was voted the best military campground for 2007). There are nine broken and unusable sites at Gila Bend. In February I counted ten RVers camped in the dry camping area because the campground was full. This famcamp is on a bombing range with over one million seven hundred thousand acres of land - you would think something could be done to accommodate more campers - like fixing the broken sites. The tap water here is unsafe for human consumption so they were forced to install reverse osmosis water filtration systems at every camp site and in each room at billeting. They are making some progress because they added a laundry room last year which is free for registered campers. The back row has cement pads and 50 amp service. The rest of the sites are mostly 30 amps with a few 50 amp sites scattered around. If you don’t like bare bones, no frills camping this is not the place for you. Private contractors run the auxiliary field and could care less about the condition of the famcamp and so it continues to fall apart. What a shame! I sure hope Luke AFB is taking better care of their aircraft because they sure don’t know how to run a family campground. Jim Twamley, Professor of RVing

I wrote a letter to the Base Commander and this is a response dated 25 March, 2008 from Brigadier General Noel T. Jones, Commander, 56th Fighter Wing concerning the broken sites at Gila Bend Famcamp.

Dear Mr. Twamley

Thank you for your letter regarding the suggestion to expand the RV park at Gila Bend AFAF, AZ. We appreciate comments such as yours as it helps us develop strategies to better serve our customers and make the best use of the facilities we have.

The sites you identified do not currently have utilities connected to them. At one time they were part of a mobile home park but the utilities were disconnected when the park was closed many years ago. The existing infrastructure in the RV park is in need of upgrade, and we believe the first priority is improving the electrical service, however, the initial estimates from our engineers place the cost of the electrical upgrade above the threshold for local funding. Therefore, an Air Force level project is needed. We’ll continue to pursue that large upgrade project, however, austere funding and restrictive criteria may well hamper our efforts. In the meantime, we’ll continue to make small improvements such as the recent addition of the laundry facility, and additional new washers and dryers for our customers.

Thanks again for the suggestion. We welcome your future comments and suggestions as well as those from other customers who use the facilities at Gila Bend.

Sincerely

NOEL T. JONES
Brigadier General, USAF

Should you like to write to him the address is:

Brigadier General Noel T. Jones
Commander, 56th Fighter Wing
14185 West Falcon Street
Luke AFB, AZ 85309-1629