Some of this is due to the fact that WRAMC is on the BRAC list and the medical treatment is moving to Bethesda. Funding for maintenance/upgrade becomes hard to justify. That said the Army deserves egg on their face for not budgeting for the facilities maintenance.
As far as being kicked to the curb, well when and where in the military did you not need someone to work the system. In this day of the internet it should be easy to organize resources amongst the mil bloggers. I don't remember that training included waiting for someone to load your weapon. You can be pissed, angry and feel deserted but in the end it's up to you and your buddies to drive on.
Reading the MilBlogs, I believe they were working on something along the lines of what your describe.