Thousands of soldiers are assigned to barracks built for the GIs who served during 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In many cases, the wooden, cramped, and outdated housing units were scheduled for destruction, but space and economic constraints from the war in Iraq have again filled the old barracks with soldiers.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 yesterday 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 that 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.
