How to List Military Addresses on Your Resume (All Branches)

Your military career took you to bases, ships, and installations across the country and overseas. Now you need to list where you worked on a resume — and military addresses don't look like civilian ones. APO boxes, ship hull numbers, and installation names confuse employers who expect to see "Company Name, City, State."

I dealt with this after separating from the Navy. My service record included naval station, ship assignments, and overseas tours. None of it translated to a standard resume format. The fix turned out to be simpler than I expected, and it's the same advice we give every veteran who builds a resume through BMR.

This guide covers the exact format for every branch — Army posts, Navy ships and stations, Marine bases, Air Force and Space Force installations, and Coast Guard stations. You'll learn how to handle overseas duty stations, APO/FPO addresses, and the differences between federal and private sector formatting.

The short answer: use your installation name and city/state. Skip unit designations, skip APO codes, and make it look like every other employer address on a civilian resume.

Should You Use Your Military Base Address or Home Address?

Two different things serve two different purposes on your resume. Your contact address at the top of your resume should be your current home address — or the city you're targeting for jobs. Your employer address in the work experience section should reflect where you were stationed.

Your contact address tells employers where to reach you. If you're still on active duty at Fort Bragg but job hunting in Dallas, list Dallas, TX as your contact city. Employers assume you'll relocate from your listed address, and a local address gets more callbacks than one 1,200 miles away.

Here's how it looks on an actual resume:

John Smith
Dallas, TX (your contact address)
(555) 123-4567
[email protected]

EXPERIENCE
Operations Manager | United States Army, Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC | 2020-2022
(your employer address)

For work experience, list each duty station under your employer line.

Clean, professional, and immediately recognizable to any recruiter or ATS system.

How Do You Format Army Duty Station Addresses?

Need installation-by-installation Army addresses? Our Army base address guide lists every major post with the exact resume format.

Army addresses are the most straightforward. Use the post name and its city/state:

• United States Army | Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC

• United States Army | Fort Hood, Killeen, TX

• United States Army | Fort Campbell, Clarksville, TN

• United States Army | Fort Benning, Columbus, GA

• United States Army | Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, WA

Don't include your unit designation. "1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division" is clear to you, but a civilian employer needs to see where you worked, not your unit lineage. They need to know where you worked, not which unit you belonged to.

If you held multiple positions at the same installation, list them under one employer entry with separate role descriptions. If you PCS'd to a different post, that becomes a new entry with the new location.

For overseas Army installations, use the country instead of a state abbreviation:

• United States Army | Camp Humphreys, Pyeongtaek, South Korea

• United States Army | USAG Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany

• United States Army | Camp Arifjan, Kuwait

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How Do You List Navy and Marine Corps Addresses?

Navy veterans can grab the address for every major command in our Navy unit address guide.

Navy addresses get complicated because you might have served at a shore command, on a ship, or both. Here is how to handle each scenario.

Navy Shore Commands

Shore commands follow the standard format:

• United States Navy | Naval Station Norfolk, Norfolk, VA

• United States Navy | Naval Base San Diego, San Diego, CA

• United States Navy | Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL

• United States Navy | Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, Virginia Beach, VA

Navy Ships

For ships, use the ship name and homeport city:

• United States Navy | USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), San Diego, CA

• United States Navy | USS Bataan (LHD-5), Norfolk, VA

Include the hull number for specificity, but it is optional. What matters is the homeport — that is the location a civilian employer understands. If you deployed, list the homeport, not the deployment location. Deployments are temporary assignments, like a civilian employee traveling to client sites.

Marine Corps

Marines follow a similar pattern — base name and city:

• United States Marine Corps | Camp Pendleton, Oceanside, CA

• United States Marine Corps | Camp Lejeune, Jacksonville, NC

• United States Marine Corps | MCAS Miramar, San Diego, CA

• United States Marine Corps | Marine Barracks Washington, Washington, DC

For overseas Marine installations:

• United States Marine Corps | Camp Hansen, Okinawa, Japan

• United States Marine Corps | MCAS Iwakuni, Iwakuni, Japan

What About Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard Addresses?

Air Force

Air Force addresses use the base abbreviation civilians generally recognize:

• United States Air Force | Eglin AFB, Fort Walton Beach, FL

• United States Air Force | Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, TX

• United States Air Force | Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, OH

• United States Air Force | Ramstein AB, Ramstein, Germany

Include "AFB" or "AB" in the name — it adds context and most civilians understand "Air Force Base."

Space Force

Space Force follows the same pattern since most installations were previously Air Force bases:

• United States Space Force | Peterson SFB, Colorado Springs, CO

• United States Space Force | Vandenberg SFB, Lompoc, CA

• United States Space Force | Buckley SFB, Aurora, CO

"SFB" stands for Space Force Base. Since the branch is newer, some hiring managers may not recognize the abbreviation. Writing "Space Force Base" in full is a safe option.

Coast Guard

• United States Coast Guard | Station Cape May, Cape May, NJ

• United States Coast Guard | Base Seattle, Seattle, WA

• United States Coast Guard | Air Station Clearwater, Clearwater, FL

• United States Coast Guard | Coast Guard Island, Alameda, CA

For Coast Guard cutters, use the Navy ship format with the homeport:

• United States Coast Guard | USCGC Bertholf (WMSL-750), Alameda, CA

How Do You Handle APO/FPO and Overseas Addresses?

This is where most veterans trip up. APO (Army Post Office), FPO (Fleet Post Office), and DPO (Diplomatic Post Office) are mail routing codes. They exist so the postal system can deliver to military installations overseas. They are not physical locations, and they do not belong on your resume.

If you're currently stationed overseas and don't have a stateside civilian address yet, use your installation's city and country on your resume contact section instead of the APO/FPO code. For example, at Ramstein Air Base, list "Ramstein, Germany" instead of an "APO AE" code. This gives hiring managers a clear geographic reference point.

Here is what to use instead:

If you cannot remember the city name for an overseas base, a quick search will turn it up. Every installation has an associated city.

For deployments to forward operating bases or temporary locations, list your permanent duty station — not the deployment site. Your employer was the military branch at your home station. The deployment was an assignment from there, the same way a consultant would not list every client office as a separate employer.

How Do You Handle Joint Base and Multi-Branch Installations?

Joint bases host multiple branches at one installation, which creates a common formatting question. The rule is straightforward: list your branch as the employer, and the joint base as the location.

• United States Army | Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Tacoma, WA

• United States Air Force | Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, San Antonio, TX

• United States Navy | Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, HI

• United States Army | Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Anchorage, AK

The "joint" part matters less to employers than the city and state. A hiring manager in Seattle recognizes "Tacoma, WA" — they do not need to know that JBLM combines a former Army post and an Air Force base. If the full joint base name makes your resume line too long, abbreviate to "JBLM" only if you spell it out on first use.

A tenant unit is a small military command stationed at a major installation run by a different branch. For example, a Navy command might operate out of an Army post. In these cases, always list your branch and the installation where you actually worked, even if the combination looks unusual on paper. The installation name tells hiring managers where you were stationed, which is what matters.

Say you were a Navy Sailor in a tenant command on an Army post. You might list "United States Navy | Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC." It looks unusual, but it is accurate. A brief parenthetical naming your command can add context if the assignment seems incongruent with the base.

Installations That Changed Names

Between March and October 2023, the Army renamed nine installations on the Naming Commission's recommendations. In 2025, the Army restored all nine original names. Fort Bragg came back first, in February 2025. Fort Benning followed in March 2025. The last seven came back in June 2025. Use the current name on your resume, no matter when you served there. That holds even if your records show the 2023 name. Civilian employers search for current installation names.

Fort Liberty is Fort Bragg again, Fayetteville, NC

Fort Cavazos is Fort Hood again, Killeen, TX

Fort Moore is Fort Benning again, Columbus, GA

Fort Walker is Fort A.P. Hill again, Bowling Green, VA

Fort Gregg-Adams is Fort Lee again, Prince George, VA

The other four are Fort Gordon, GA, Fort Polk, LA, Fort Rucker, AL, and Fort Pickett, VA.

Does Address Format Change for Federal vs Private Sector Resumes?

The address itself stays the same. Federal resumes through USAJOBS require more detail than private sector applications.

Private Sector Format

Keep it clean and simple:

United States Army
Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC
[Job title, dates, bullets]

City and state is all you need. Hours per week can stay off a private sector resume.

Federal Resume Format (USAJOBS)

OPM's guidance for USAJOBS resumes asks for a few details on each position:

• Job title and employer (include series and grade for any federal position)

• Start and end dates with month and year (for example, 05/2019 to 08/2022)

• Hours worked per week

• A description aligned to the job announcement

OPM does not ask for a street address or ZIP code for each position. City and state, or city and country for an overseas tour, shows where you worked.

Supervisor names and phone numbers are not on OPM's list for federal resumes, required or optional. That space is better spent on your qualifications. If an announcement asks for supervisor or reference contacts, follow the announcement.

Conclusion

Listing military experience on a resume is simpler than most veterans make it. Use your installation name and city/state for work experience entries. Use your current home address or target city as your contact address. Skip unit designations, skip APO/FPO codes, and format it like every other employer entry a civilian recruiter would see.

If you worked as a contractor or Department of Defense civilian on a military installation, list the contractor or employer name instead of the military branch. For example, use "RTX, Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, NC" rather than "United States Army, Fort Bragg, NC." This makes it clear you were an employee of the contractor, not active military.

For federal positions, add month and year dates and weekly hours for each job. For private sector, keep it minimal — installation name, city, state.

If your base was renamed, use the current name. If you deployed, use your home station. If you served on a ship, use the homeport. These rules apply to every branch, every rank, every duty station.

Whether you use BMR's Resume Builder or write it yourself, the principle is the same. Make every location readable by someone who has never set foot on a military installation.

For a complete guide on listing your service, see how to list military service on a resume. Also check out our work experience section guide for formatting tips.

Related: How to write a professional summary that gets you hired and how to write work experience sections on your resume.