When I was a kid, we lived on an AF base for about 5 years (2x 2.5 yr) In between those, we lived in Pensacola, and got to see a bunch of Navy air traffic. For about 18 years, I lived near a base on the SE side of Houston, but there wasn't much activity. It was mostly used by NASA. I'd see a lot of Nasa T5s. I'd occasionally see a Super Guppy as well which was really amazing to see. Once a year, we'd get more traffic when the air show came to town. They'd practice for a week or two.
I really miss the traffic on the air base.
The first time that I was in Japan, even though it was an AF base, the flight line was Navy, so I remember seeing lots of P-3 Orions. We'd get planes doing touch and gos that I believe were from ships that were in port. We'd get some sort of (I think) prop type plane with a big disk on top (always called them AWACs). The second time I was there, we still saw a lot of the Orions, but we then got an F16 squadron/wing, so that was pretty exciting.
When I was there, where my dad worked, "echelon".
transition period
today the "elephant cage" or "dinosaur cage" seems to be gone.
