Housing For Soldiers Will Be Repaired

Army Takes $248 Million In Emergency Funding To Fix Up Decrepit Barracks

(AP)  Spc. Kaila Colvin is looking forward to getting married for the usual reasons, and for one more particular to a soldier: not having to live in Fort Campbell's decrepit barracks anymore.

Spc. Loren Dauterman, who trained at Fort McCoy last month with the Wisconsin National Guard, found something good to say about the falling-apart floors and ceilings in his quarters. Barely.

"It is better than sleeping out in the woods," Dauterman said last week, "but not a whole lot better."

Thousands of soldiers are assigned to barracks built for the GIs who fought World War II and the Korean War. The buildings are showing their age, and the soldiers are getting fed up.

After a soldier's father posted a video on YouTube last month showing the dilapidated barracks for paratroopers at Fort Bragg, N.C., Defense Secretary Robert Gates called those conditions appalling and ordered base commanders to ensure their troops have proper quarters.

The commanders have their work cut out for them.

A spot check by Associated Press reporters over the past week found many barracks plagued by recurring problems with mold, mildew and their plumbing and wiring.

In many cases, the wooden, cramped and outdated housing units were scheduled for destruction, but the space and economic constraints from the war in Iraq have again filled the old barracks with soldiers. Major installations like Fort Campbell and Fort Stewart, Ga., report pumping more than $100 million into barracks improvements in recent years to make room for the flood of recruits and brigades.

Army Secretary Pete Geren said Wednesday at Fort Bragg that the Army has inspected 148,000 rooms at bases worldwide since officers saw the video about two weeks ago. Only eight soldiers needed to be moved to make repairs or renovations, he said.

Geren also said the Army took $248 million in emergency funds from other priorities to fix problems found by the inspections.

"We ordered a look at literally every single room," Geren said. "We didn't find any looming danger to their health and safety."

Still, military leaders concede the housing situation as a whole is deplorable despite the millions spent over the decades to gut, retrofit and renovate the old structures.

At Fort Stewart the combination of a new combat brigade and ongoing construction has some soldiers sleeping and eating in large trailers until new barracks are built.

Soldiers at Fort McCoy, a sprawling World War II-era base in western Wisconsin now used for short-term Guard and Reserve training, stay in two-story wooden barracks dating to 1942. Fewer than half of the 276 barracks have been renovated or modernized.

Guard Master Sgt. Patrick Robinson, 55, of Wausau, Wis., saw peeling paint, missing floor tiles and clogged shower drains during his many training missions at the base. "You couldn't pay me to go into the shower rooms without shower shoes on," he said.

A few years ago Robinson, 55, refused to sleep in the barracks after opening a window and getting dead flies blown onto his bed. In 2006, he returned from Iraq to moldy barracks he said looked like a "pigsty."

Dauterman said she never complained about the Fort McCoy conditions. "We are in the Army and we accept many things about it. We are just accustomed to it," she said.

The Wisconsin Guard soldiers' commander, Col. Hillis Tinglum, said the barracks are acceptable given the short nature of training stays there. Compared with the conditions soldiers encounter in the Middle East, "We have nothing to complain about in staying in barracks like these," Tinglum said.

In 1994, the Army launched a barracks modernization program to replace all its oldest housing. Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining Army housing, said last week that besides poor physical condition, the old barracks offer too little privacy to meet the expectations of today's younger generation.

It was a frequent complaint from soldiers who talked to the AP.

"Privacy-wise, you can't hide anything," Colvin said. "It's definitely cramped."

About a third of Fort Campbell's single soldier barracks - serving some 3,300 soldiers - house two soldiers to a room. The 46 soldiers on each floor have to share two large bathroom facilities.

"It's kind of a pain," Colvin said. "There are only four showerheads in the bathroom."

Other soldiers are bothered by the buildup of grime.

Pvt. Chris Daugherty, a Guardsman from Shreveport, La., says no amount of cleaning could keep his Fort Knox barracks spotless.

"It was cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, but no matter how much you clean, the barracks have been used by so many privates that as far as the air ducts and the air systems, you can't get it totally clean," said Daugherty, who just completed combined basic training and advanced individual training.

The base is replacing heating and air conditioning systems to decrease mold in showers and living quarters.

The Army aimed to finish barracks modernization this year. But completion has been postponed to 2013 because of other requirements deemed more pressing, including a multiyear redesign of the way Army brigades - the main fighting units - are equipped and organized for war.

The Army aims to have new or renovated barracks housing for 147,700 enlisted soldiers within five years, according to Ned Christensen, chief of public affairs for the Army Installation Management Command. The Army doesn't have a total for all its barracks spending, but Christensen estimated that between 2004 and 2013, the construction cost for new barracks complexes will amount to $10.7 billion.

The Pentagon also gives troops more financial incentive to rent or buy housing in communities near their base rather than stay on base. Monthly allowances that vary according to a soldier's location, rank and dependents have been increased substantially in recent years.

But for those living on base, the conditions can be grim.

Ed Frawley, who shot the video of the Fort Bragg barracks after his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, came back from Afghanistan, said his son had lived in those barracks since he joined the Army in 2004. The Army said the younger Frawley isn't talking to reporters.

"He said it was depressing," the father said, "because you work all day and then you have to go back to these barracks."

[gce65]

the pentagon and leadership only do this when they get caught! they don''t care about the troops. what pieces of ***!

[michellem99-2009]

They join
They serve
Yet their quarters
And not fit
Yet they serve
They can do better
But won''t
It is the dollar
They rather use it
To buy the bobms that kill
From a daughter of a vet

[truthyness]

The BLACK DEMOCRATIC PARTY....Sounds good to me!!

[middleman8]

"greatest soldiers in the world "

How many world soldiers have you seen???

A soldier is a soldier no matter from where, especially soldiers that have to fight with mostly courage and not a excess of fancy equipment.

[true261]

the goverment need to stop and take a look at everything even the house''s were left in here in the home front we just left ft hood and that was bad and you tell the rental companys and they just dont care something needs to be done (besides move you go in paint the place and move new people in in less then 2 weeks)

[cyberus-2009]

Repaired by a Halliburton subsidiary on a no bid contract no doubt.

[samrensho]

Repaired by a Halliburton subsidiary on a no bid contract no doubt.
Posted by cyberus

And the construction site guarded by Blackwater to prevent theft of building materials. Good one. LOL

[cyberus-2009]

---
Repaired by a Halliburton subsidiary on a no bid contract no doubt.
Posted by cyberus

And the construction site guarded by Blackwater to prevent theft of building materials. Good one. LOL

Posted by samrensho
---

Don''t forget .. all building supplies will be imported from china.

[piercetheval]

...with apprx. 1 in 5 current soldiers experiencing PDST and the predicted length of the remaing "occupation" maybe we ought to be thinking of a "little" more than housing for or men and women in uniform.

[ramos937]

The Wisconsin Guard soldiers'' commander, Col. Hillis Tinglum, said the barracks are acceptable given the short nature of training stays there. Compared with the conditions soldiers encounter in the Middle East, "We have nothing to complain about in staying in barracks like these," Tinglum said.
-----------------------------------------------------

Well said by Tinglum who lives elsewhere. I wonder how much his men respect him now?

[nonayabiness]

Cyberus, Samremsho and Cyberus again at 1:21am said it all.

Therefore, I have nothing further to say on this topic.

[bluestardad]

SUPPORT THE TROOPS!

HEY REPIGS GIVE THEM ONE WEEKS WORTH OF IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION MONEY!

REPIGS GET OUTTA THE MENS BATHROOM STALLS AND START TAKING CARE OF AMERICA FIRST!

START WAR CRIMES TRIALS NOW!

AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!

[vozukl]

So what''s new? This outrage goes on administration after administration through both Republican and Democratic regimes. How many Congress or Senate Reps. have children serving in Iraq or Afganistan? They could care less if it does not affect their immediante families.

[mcvet]

So what''''s new? This outrage goes on administration after administration through both Republican and Democratic regimes. How many Congress or Senate Reps. have children serving in Iraq or Afganistan? They could care less if it does not affect their immediante families.


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Posted by Vozukl at 07:38 AM : May 08, 2008
+ report abuse

That is JUST not true... PERIOD!! Any Veteran who knows anything about history KNOWS that when it comes to taking care of VETS it''s ALWAYS been the Democratic Party that has done it. It''s also a FACT that NO Democratic President has EVER put someone in charge of our Defense Department who has turned a blind eye to these abuses. A FATHER had to put a video online to get THIS administration to act... A FATHER for God''s sake. Without a doubt THIS is the worst Government this nation has EVER had... bar NONE!! Sieg Heil Bush

[jersupporter]

That is JUST not true... PERIOD!! Any Veteran who knows anything about history KNOWS that when it comes to taking care of VETS it''''s ALWAYS been the Democratic Party that has done it. It''''s also a FACT that NO Democratic President has EVER put someone in charge of our Defense Department who has turned a blind eye to these abuses. A FATHER had to put a video online to get THIS administration to act... A FATHER for God''''s sake. Without a doubt THIS is the worst Government this nation has EVER had... bar NONE!! Sieg Heil Bush Posted by MCVet
---------------------------
What an idiot you are Wheelie. The story is not about Veterans. Continue your blinded political view.

[liberalme]

This government has the mindset of an alcholic or gambler--they will spend money (they don''t have) on anything and everything THEY want--but their own families go without.

It''s disgusting that the only reason repairs are being made is because they were "outed" by an attentive Dad.

We need to work on "outing" this government if it worked for them with Valerie Plame--it can work for us.

[last121868]

You, cornbiker, are an idiot!

[randynason]

The Feds don''t care about the vets until their failure to do right by them is exposed by the media. Then, they scurry to make it appear as though they care. I tend to think of government officials as ****** in smart suits, frankly.

[veteran72]

After a soldier''s father posted a video on YouTube last month showing the dilapidated barracks for paratroopers at Fort Bragg, N.C., Defense Secretary Robert Gates called those conditions appalling and ordered base commanders to ensure their troops have proper quarters.

The commanders have their work cut out for them.

A spot check by Associated Press reporters over the past week found many barracks plagued by recurring problems with mold, mildew and their plumbing and wiring.


Once again, the Bush/Cheney Crime Cartel only acts in Veterans and Soldiers interests when caught Red Handed by the public.
These Scumbags are about to be removed from America En Masse come November.
Sorry Neocon Nazi Cheerleaders and Apologists.