Posted on 04/29/2008 5:10:33 PM PDT by oneolcop
Army widens probe after finding bad conditions at Fort Bragg By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 31 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Army officials said Tuesday they are inspecting every barracks building worldwide to see whether plumbing and other problems revealed at Fort Bragg, N.C., last week are widespread.
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Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, who is responsible for maintaining barracks throughout the Army, told reporters at the Pentagon that most inspections were done last weekend but he had not seen final results.
While not providing specifics about problems discovered during the weekend inspections, Rogers indicated some deficiencies were corrected. In cases where extensive repairs are deemed necessary, the soldiers in that housing would be moved elsewhere until the fixes are completed, he added.
Rogers said it was too soon to know whether the Fort Bragg problem was an isolated incident. He acknowledged the revelations from a video shot by the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier showing poor conditions such as mold inside the barracks, peeling interior paint and a bathroom drain plugged with sewage.
The soldier's father, Ed Frawley, said he was disgusted by the conditions that greeted his son and the rest of his 82nd Airborne unit that returned on April 7-8 after a 15-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.
"We let our soldiers down, and that's not like us," Rogers told reporters. "We let our soldiers down. That's not how we want America's sons and daughters to live. There's no good excuse for what happened."
He said the problems in that building have been fixed and that a final paint job is in the works. It is one of 24 barracks at Fort Bragg that were built in the 1950s and are scheduled for demolition by 2013. The barracks singled out by Frawley had been remodeled in April 2006, Rogers said.
Rogers said the Army's standard procedure is to inspect a barracks building to verify that it meets Army standards before it is occupied by soldiers returning from an overseas deployment. For reasons he was unable to explain, that apparently did not happen in the Fort Bragg incident.
A spokesman for Fort Bragg, Tom McCollum, told the same group of reporters that the post, which is one of the Army's largest with a population of 51,000 soldiers — including more than 12,000 who live on the post — is saddled with 1950s-vintage housing that is not popular with soldiers.
Of the more than 12,000 in barracks at Fort Bragg, about 2,500 are in those built in the 1950s, Army spokesman Paul Boyce said.
"Are soldiers happy with living in the Korean War-era barracks? No," McCollum said. They do not meet the expectations of today's troops, although the Army has done what it can to improve living conditions, McCollum said, speaking by telephone from Fort Bragg.
"Today, no matter how hard we try, we can't put enough lipstick on this pig to make it more pretty," the spokesman said. "So are there soldiers complaining? Yeah." He said they've been complaining for decades.
I wonder how the general's housing is...
Guess who has IDIQ contract to fix the barracks??? URS! Guess who the Chairman of URS is married to????
Who?
Diane Feistein.
Here is the link to a Fayetteville Observer story with a little more detail.
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=292425
That whole section of Fort Bragg is under renovation and the old style barracks as shown in the video are being pulled down and replaced by new ones.
This has resulted in a bit of musical barracks for the units who are coming and going.
With their early return their barracks was not ready.
52 posted on Tuesday, April 29, 2008 4:02:07 AM by PeteB570
ping
These buildings are pretty bullet proof, uber basic. There is no reason, frankly, that they can't be super nice. What they need is me, beer, a checkbook and a bunch of illegal Mexicans.
Instead, we'll get four Colonels, eight Majors, seven Captains, two Lieutenants, eight civilian engineers, five architects, seven mold remediation expert, fifteen union pinky ring guys with Cadillacs, and one fat, elderly union mason with a mortar pan. It will take $2,000 per square foot, and 18 years, where upon it will be condemned.
Who?
Whomever let this happen (like maybe the garrison commander & post engineer) should have a boot in the @ss.
"The new barracks have tile floors and recessed lighting in the lobby. A pool table and a ping-pong table sit in the center. A kitchen area is off to the side. Soldiers’ rooms are spacious and well-appointed, nothing like the conditions of the old barracks."
It's good to know we are doing something about this. I think we should double up on construction efforts and gets these guys into some new barracks.
No one is responsible.
What a way to treat the troops.
My brother is stationed on Guam, but lives off-base in a beautiful little bungalow with a gorgeous yard and garden. For that I am very thankful.
The base CO is ultimately responsible for this mess. He needs to be shown “early retirement” and allow someone to take the reins and drive the team to a better place.
It isn’t like they have a dirth of labor available to correct the situation. What has been shown could be corrected by 5 motivated individuals in a week with 2 days reserved for partying.
Many senior NCO’s, whom I know, have told me that the wood used on those 50’s style barracks was contracted for by civilain contractors to be used to build high end homes for the private sector some 20 plus years ago.
I would love to have that wood. Perhaps we should blame the civilain contractors. Hell, the military is not even required to clean their quarters prior to transfer anymore.
Commercial cleaning companies bid on the work.
When I was on the USS JFK back in the Seventies, I remember walking into the head, towel around my waist to shower and shave.
There were a few inches of water on the floor up over my flip flops and toes, and at first I didn’t think much of it, but as I prepared at the sink, I looked over and saw a porcelain bowl broken in half.
Then, as my eyes followed the sloshing water, I saw...toilet paper and what looked like...er...a “Baby Ruth” floating in the water.
Disgusting. Point is...it happens. If I recall correctly, the barracks had been vacant for 15 months. I hope they do get it cleaned up soon.
Interesting.
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