A new home constructed on Fort Huachuca was opened for display Thursday,
marking a departure from military housing of the past. (Ed Honda • Herald/Review)
Posted on 01/29/2010 4:19:31 PM PST by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — They are not small box homes.
They are for soldiers of any rank, no longer for noncommissioned officers and above as many old grunts would remember.
And, they are not cheek-by-jowl duplexes, fourplexes or sixplexes.
On Thursday, two soldiers, a junior enlisted woman and a senior male NCO, and their families got to see where they will be living.
Calling herself a military brat, Spc. Dana Payton said she has never seen such military family housing units like the one she and her husband, Jerome and their two children, Jerome Jr., and Nevaeh, will be moving into soon in the Gatewood area on Fort Huachuca.
The Headquarters Company, 11th Signal Brigade soldier, who has been in the Army for 17 months, said the only time she has seen such wonderful homes has been off a military installation.
Echoing her views was Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Roesel, a 20-year soldier assigned to Company A, Unmanned Aerial Systems Training Battalion.
The four-bedroom house he will be moving into in the DeAnza area is nothing like what he has had to live in with his family, wife Bobbie and three children, during his Army career.
While in the model of one of the senior NCO homes, he said his military housing allotment could never pay for a similar home off post.
During ribbon cuttings at the two housing areas, people were invited in to look at a typical junior enlisted and senior NCO house, both of which had been furnished as part of the display.
The two new family areas on the fort are like small housing subdivisions that can be found in any civilian community. They represent how areas of the fort will be developed with soldiers being put into individual homes.
The Gatewood area is being constructed by Castle & Cooke Arizona, while DeAnza is by R.L. Workman Homes.
Both contractors are working for Michaels Military Housing, a private company given the contract to develop privatized housing on the fort. The Army has left the old system of using appropriated funds to construct family housing.
Robert Greer, president of Michaels Military Housing, said the objective is to “make life better for our solders,” which he said is a big team effort using local contractors such as Castle & Cooke Arizona and R.L. Workman Homes, as well as subcontractors and other services.
The two prime contractors have subdivisions in Sierra Vista and continue to expand their work off the fort, Greer said.
Castle & Cooke Arizona Vice President Rick Coffman said the fort’s project was the company’s first military program.
“We’ve done work downtown but not on the fort,” he said.
R.L. Workman Homes President Bob Workman, who lived in older family homes on the post when he was in the Army, said he hopes the new homes will be a blessing to soldiers and their families.
Garrison Commander Col. Timothy Faulkner said it is important for soldiers who are asked to deploy “and get shot at” to be assured their families have good places to live while they are away.
A new home constructed on Fort Huachuca was opened for display Thursday,
marking a departure from military housing of the past. (Ed Honda • Herald/Review)
Why does solder care?
Thank God! Having lived in military housing all over this great nation, all I have to say is: It’s about time! :)
I lived at 168 Stedman Road in the NCO base housing at Ft. Huachuca. The typical duplex block construction with a small utility room just big enough for a small washer a dryer and a carport. @ bedroom, one bath, kitchen and living room/dining area.
These new housing units are built on the area where I once lived.
Amen to that! I’ve lived all over in military housing too, and in the old units on Ft Huachuca, I’m glad they’re gone, the new ones are much better!
“Everybody should care, even solder.”
I know I do...my old man, Master Chief Duntno, served in the Navy for 27 years...16 of them after I was born and that was a lot of real bad housing and even the odd Quonset hut growing up...and I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t have traded the people for the world, being raised around Sailors and Marines was the best, but some of the housing was so full of bugs and crawlers, leaky roofs and concrete floors...especially in FL...woof...wouldn’t have wished them on anyone...this is great news for the families...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Guess it was a guilt thing.
Naaaahhhh....
“...Spc. Dana Payton...
...in the Army for 17 months...”
I wasn’t aware that soldiers made E4 in 17 months.
Here's hoping Castle and Cooke doesn't screw up the works like they did here at Little Rock Air Force Base leaving unfinished homes to rot before it finally got contracted out again.OTOH, the new homes on Little Rock AFB are a true blessing.
Military families can finally have a beautiful home to be proud of & they don't have to worry about buying or selling it!
sw
You can start out as high as PFC if they want you bad enough. Ft. Huachuca’s for Intelligence types, so she’s either got college time or really high ASVAB scores, or both.
They need good housing to be able to solder on...
I was living in some of the older Huachuca quarters years ago, a neighbor wife was preparing for breakfast one morning and looked out her door window out to the back patio, there was a mountain lion walking by less than 6 feet from the door. Javalinas will actually rake the doors for handouts, they’re practically tame.
We lived in Air Force housing for many years and most of it was definitely better than what we could have afforded off base. Andersen AFB in Guam was probably in the worst shape (no air conditioning, no windows, just louvers and the walls didn’t go all the way to the ceiling) but they did remodel all the units while we were there. The oldest had to have been Fairchild AFB in Washington. The Air Force always had better housing than the Army and Marines. And I hate white walls to this day!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
My wife hates white walls to this day too!
Same here. I made my last move to Tinker AFB and we bought a very nice house about 25 miles from the base. We had a stack of curtains from floor to ceiling and none of them fit. Donated those to the Salvation Army. Also, the first thing my wife made me do was repaint all the white walls.
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