cool Fayetteville is right on coast and has a army or marine base in the area i believe (which makes sense with ya hubby in the service)

and myrtle beach is ok i guess if ya like nothing but over priced hotels tons of crowds and theme parks and lots of traffic all of which i hate in a beach (back in the 80's it was still cool)
now if i wanta go to the beach it's the isle of palms in north charleston area with mostly condos around and not many of them and a few restrants and one or 2 shops but mostly just the sand and the ocean and piers and more laid back
another good one is edisto island which is close to the hilton head area but very secluded and very family like with a ton of nice rental property in the area and always pretty cheap