@yaujj48 Well, you’re writing the story, so you can make up whatever you want. The actual answer varies widely depend on the base, location, country of origin, branch of the military, strategic importance, and geopolitics. For example, in Japan, there will be a relatively small US army presence but a huge US naval presence.

It really does depend on the base, what it is used for, etc. The size of the base matters quite a bit. It could range from a few hundred (a friend of mine was stationed in Antarctica) up to tens of, and possibly hundreds of thousands. And generally there are a load of civilians at every base as well.

This can vary widely based on location and level of peacetime.
Fort Bragg currently has about 60,000 military personnel. The current smallest base has less than a dozen personnel.

There are a couple of training bases in Georgia and the Carolinas that have 20–30,000 people year round. But these are not just active-duty bases, they train soldiers in all sorts of skills and duties.

For the purposes of your story, you need to be a more exact about the type of bases and its role.

Depends on the base. Some bases are small like the Navy base north of Memphis, TN, some are very large like Fort Bragg. They vary around the country and the world.

Many bases now are combined, like MacDill in Tampa is an Airforce base, but also has Navy and Army stationed there.

What city is your base near?

Sorry for the late reply. For my story, it is more or less a regular base. It does hold a division size (10–30k) but since it is during peace time, the active duty size may need to be reduced. It is mostly an army base in the mountains.

I don’t know the exact answer, but bases do get realigned and closed. So, some bases get completely emptied out and the bases that stay put I’m guessing many of them keep their populations. During war-time there is more troop movement, or I think there is, because flying Space A it seems there are more flights, but that probably depends on the particular base. My parents fly out of Andrews and Dover, so it probably doesn’t really represent all bases around the world and country. Servicemen and women are moved plenty during peace too.

Peacetime operations, basic training, and retired military, continue to use base facilities, but retired military are not actually living on base nor assigned to one obviously, and many soldiers assigned to a base live off of the post or base. Army it is often referred to as a post, it’s interchangeable.

I’ll send your Q to @blackberry, he left the service less than ten years ago I think and was in the army if I remember correctly.

Edit: Maybe you can look up the history of the population of some bases to get some answers.

What is peacetime?

Is the world in June 2024 at peace?

Seems like the US military is doing all sorts of un-peacetime activities even if there aren’t US soldiers dying.

Define ‘peacetime’.

@elbanditoroso Truth!

In that case, my definition of peacetime is more of minimal activity of military. More focused on border patrol and defense than any active military operation.

I know there is no true peace. Sorry if I insulted you.