Too bad R. Lee Ermy isn't around to help the troops with the cleanup.
Posted on 10/05/2023 7:47:49 AM PDT by Red Badger
The men and women who put themselves in harm’s way to keep America safe deserve to have clean, comfortable, sanitary barracks. That should be the bare minimum our military should be able to promise them.
Instead, according to a new report published Tuesday from the Government Accountability Office, inspections of 12 military installations found squalid hovel-like conditions — something that, according to Military.com, “confirm[s]] complaints made by many service members for many years.”
The report, which ran nearly 100 pages, detailed the grotesque conditions our troops face: mold, sewage, brown water, bedbugs and even squatters.
“Service members reported to GAO that the conditions of barracks affect their quality of life and readiness. However, GAO found weaknesses in the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to maintain and improve their conditions,” a summary of the report on the GAO’s website read.
“For example, DOD does not reliably assess conditions, and some barracks are substandard. DOD assessments of conditions are unreliable. GAO observed barracks that pose potentially serious health and safety risks—such as broken windows and inoperable fire systems—and that do not meet minimum DOD standards for privacy and configuration. Thousands of service members live in barracks below standards, according to officials.”
Furthermore, the GAO said, the Pentagon “does not have complete funding information to make informed decisions.
“For example, DOD requested about $15 billion for overall facility sustainment for fiscal year 2024 but could not identify how much of this total would be spent toward barracks. In addition, DOD did not know how much it spent on housing allowances for service members who would normally be required to live in barracks, but did not because of insufficient space or poor living conditions. Complete funding information would help DOD target improvements and provide the department with more visibility into full costs.”
On top of this, the GAO concluded, the Department of Defense “conducts insufficient oversight.”
“For example, DOD does not track information on the condition of barracks or facilitate collaboration on initiatives to improve barracks. Insufficient oversight hampers DOD’s ability to identify and address long-standing challenges in barracks conditions across the department.”
According to the U.K. Daily Mail, the investigation covered bases in California, Colorado, Texas and Washington, D.C.
In addition to broken air-conditioning units, black mold and all of the rest of the unsavory findings, the report also included a number of shocking incidents including service members being forced to clean up the room of an individual who had killed themselves.
“Officials at one installation told us service members are responsible for cleaning biological waste that may remain in a barracks room after a suicide,” the report read.
Also, “at one installation, we noticed a bad odor throughout the barracks. Installation officials told us the smell was methane gas leaking out of aging plumbing with sewage pipes that routinely crack and require replacement.
“These officials acknowledged that exposure to methane gas is a health risk,” the report added.
And if these conditions weren’t bad enough, there are often squatters sharing the barracks with enlisted members.
During one of the visits, investigators were told that, while attempts to remove squatters from one room had been made, they’d continually failed. One of the squatters was a discharged member of the armed forces, the report stated.
In another facility, security was so poor that “ex-spouse broke in and physically assaulted a service member in the barracks.”
Earlier this year, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth admitted in Congressional testimony that she wouldn’t want her children living in some of the military’s barracks, according to the Daily Mail.
“I’ve seen some of our barracks, frankly, that I wouldn’t want my daughters to live in,” said Wormuth before the House Armed Services Committee.
Who would, quite frankly? The United States is supposed to be the greatest fighting force on earth and yet, we can’t keep our servicemembers in accommodations that are safe and sanitary. This GAO report should be a wake-up call for all of us: Those who serve America deserve better.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
Too bad R. Lee Ermy isn't around to help the troops with the cleanup.
Let me guess:
Bioweapons research (Ft. Detrick, Wuhan, elsewhere)
Online influence programs
Under the table money laundering in Ukraine
Tranny training and grooming of the children of service members
Color revolutions
Pockets of Graham, McConnell et al.
Now this I remember:
America’s Missing Money
"On September 10, 2001, then U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld disclosed that his department was unable to account for roughly $2.3 trillion worth of transactions. The next day, the U.S. sustained the terrorist attacks that changed the world, and this startling revelation was forgotten."
Things sure have changed. When I went though USAF Basic in 1987, we cleaned our own barracks. Same when we went to our training locations. Hell, even when we got to our duty locations. We were always responsible for keeping things clean. Granted, at our duty locations, inspections were few and far between.
It’s been this way since the beginning. However, lots of money has been put into new barracks lately. Lots. I think this is just a cover story for that spending.
Yup...every Friday afternoon was a GI party.
They got on us for piles of empty pizza boxes and a cat hanging around. Homestead’82-85.
My wife grew up in the cleanest little house that you can imagine. Her dad joined the army in 1938 and retired in 1966 and followed the same cleanliness standards that he enforced in the army.
LOL, I was a Navy Brat.
I dreaded Saturday mornings because Dad would shout “Reveille!” at 7AM, and we would be stuck doing chores all morning.
When I was stationed at Ft Rucker Alabama in 1973-75 we lived in the old WW2 “temporary” barracks. When we first moved in the first official act was our Sargeant pull the “Condemned” sign off the door. There was no heat (this was December), no hot water, no water fountain, and about half the windowpanes were missing. It was so cold that the huge roaches would squeeze under you as you slept. It remained this way for about a month, gradually they replaced the missing glass, and they finally got the furnace and hot water heater working.
Same for the Marines at Camp Geiger next to LeJeune, same timeframe..................
The migrants Biden is shipping in get better accommodations in NY hotels.
This sounds very familiar. On Saturday my wife's dad would yell, “Get your butts out of bed! I want to hear your feet hit the floor!” They had 15 minutes to make their bed, get dressed and get their butts in their chairs for breakfast. After breakfast it was time for their chores. They had a rotating list of chores that all had to be completed before any of them were allowed to do things with their friends, watch TV, or even read a book.
Kids today think it is a horrible effort to put the dishes in the dishwasher. Every night after dinner my wife and her brothers and her sister had to clean and dry the dishes, scrub the white porcelain sink out, sweep the floor, take the garbage can out, clean it out, and then mop the floor.
I stated before when I was in we took care of our own barracks. We cleaned them, fixed them and had regular inspections and if they weren’t clean and functional you did it again.
We have few actual leaders in the military but overwhelmed with babysitters and managers and that’s the problem.
When I served (USN, 8/61-8/64) our recruit training barracks (and later my ship) were kept clean by...wait for it...US!
What? There aren’t any Sergeants any more? There are no mops and buckets and E-2s? They don’t clean their own quarters?
Rapidly becoming third world. This is a disgrace. The people that run this country make me sick.
This is what happens when you lower standards, from the top brass to the lowly inductee.
Bingo. so did Hub, and most were WW2. Even on shipboard it was expected, he didn’t have his own quarters till he reached CPO, 2 to the quarters. retired as SCPO. And as Avionics he did electronic shipboard repairs. Every ship was a Carrier. Shore duty he taught it. Double Shellback. 58-78.
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