Posted on 03/28/2011 10:18:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
In Building 4001, service members routinely see raw sewage bubbling up from shower drains and toilets and spilling onto the floor, according to a February report by Sgt. Dustin Shepherd, noncommissioned officer in charge of camp operations.
Building 6038, where soldiers check in for training, recently lacked heat despite temperatures dropping to 30 degrees, and had no air conditioning for blazing summer days.
"I am literally sick over this," Shepherd wrote to superiors in a February e-mail obtained by The Bee, "and completely disgusted with the lack of soldier care."
Scores of buildings created as temporary structures during the urgency of World War II are still in use with jury-rigged plumbing, missing floor coverings and peeling paint. Some are falling apart.
Yet a Bee investigation found that millions of dollars in building materials, appliances and other supplies sit unused or ruined in Camp Roberts warehouses. Inventory controls are so poor, according to internal Guard reports obtained by The Bee, that officials don't know what they have or what is missing. Meanwhile, the camp routinely orders dozens of unneeded items.
The decrepitude of what Guard officials call a "State of the Art Readiness Center for Deploying Soldiers," say service members who know the camp well, stems from decades of deferred maintenance and neglect. Other state facilities – including nearby Camp San Luis Obispo, which boasts a well-appointed officers club and picturesque chapel with gazebo – have been updated and expanded.
Camp Roberts is by far the largest of the California Guard's three major training camps. On average more than 1,100 soldiers train here per day. Counting salaries for 560 full-time employees, modernization and federal stimulus funds, camp officials project its annual economic footprint at $58 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
Priorities. That money is desperately required to fund union pensions and bennies for illegal aliens.
The War on Terror post 2008 in Afghnaistan and Iraq is no mission. A waste of time, lives and money. Their is no objective. Afghnaistan has been like this for 1,000 years. nothing will change there. Tens of billions wasted but the defense contractors like it. Bring the troops home.
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Bring all the troops home world wide.
Full time Guard clearly need a Union....
Did my basic training and leadership at Camp Roberts in 1951 then on to OCS and Korea. The place was in good shape in those days.
My father trained there before deploying to engage in some kinetic military action with the Japanese. He would recognize the place. I have been to many state NG training facilities, Camp Roberts is clearly the worst that I have seen.
Sounds to me you’re talkin’ Hunter-Liggett. Haven’t been there since 1971. Wondering if they still have the nude swimmin’ hole on the Camp side to the South of Nacimiento just before going over the mountain to 101?
Back then, they were trying hard to maintain the post, but they did tear down the old hospital.
In those days, we were lucky to get any building materials. When we renovated a small building for our mobilization center, we would spend weekends doing the work ourselves as there were no funds to have outside contractors do the work.
It is sad to see Camp Bob in this light.
All those Series 700 buildings should have been torn down decades ago. If the State can’t afford to build new ones, put the troops in tents. That’s how they’ll be living once they deploy (if they’re lucky), they should start getting used to it right from the start.
I heard the buildings have not been torn down because the San Joaquin kit fox has dens under the buildings and the San Joaquin kit fox is one of the most endangered animals in California. I went by there 10 years ago and the post looked terrible.
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