Fort Devens is a former US Army base that is located between the cities of Ayer and Shirley in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. The base is 5 miles away from the center of Shirley, and 2 miles away from the center of Ayer. The closest major cities to the base are Worcester and Boston, the most and second-most populous cities of the state. The base is 30 miles northeast of downtown Worcester, and it is 45 miles northwest of downtown Boston. Nowadays, the base is a US Army Reserve installation, and it is used as a training area of the Reserve Forces.

Since it is a training area rather than a fully-fledged military base, there is no on-base housing available, privatized or not. If you are assigned to Fort Devens on a long-term basis, you would have to look for housing in the community. The nearby town of Ayer has a population of 8,500, and the town of Shirley houses 7,400 residents. Military families must take into consideration that the area has one of the highest costs of living in the entire country, however, both Ayer and Shirley have considerably lower costs of living than the state average.

As expected, there are no schools on base, DoD or non-DoD. Children of service members are served by the Middlesex County School District, which offers a lot of schools in the surrounding area.

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