The Army Needs a Lot of Money for Barracks, But It's Fighting for Pocket Change

Military.com ^ | 10/19/2023 | Steve Beynon

[Seruzawa]

I think that one of the main reasons the Russian Army performs so poorly is the lack of an experienced NCO cadre. Having a corps of experienced NCOs has been recognized as necessary to have a functioning military since before the Romans. That changed for the Russians after the 1917 revolution. They changed to using junior officers after that and have continued on that way. Stupid. A good Platoon Sergeant is irreplaceable.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Exactly. Poor ventilation due to poor construction is the main cause of mold. The troops can only clean what they can get to.

[Blood of Tyrants]

What if the mold is in places you can’t get to?

[Night Hides Not]

The Army needs to let its butterbars multiple chances to “step on their ‘members’. That’s how you learn your job as a Platoon Leader. The best learning experience I had was during my first ARTEP, which I flunked. I learned what I could do and what I couldn’t.

18 months later, I was acting XO for our battery level ARTEP. The first two days were a disaster, highlighted by an egregious error by the CO: he encoded the coordinates for a mission incorrectly. That evening, I lit into the Platoon Leaders for their performance. I told them exactly what they needed to do the next day, what their soldiers would do, just as I had trained my squads to do.

I bumped into the Chief Evaluator as I left the tent…I thought, oh crap, he heard EVERYTHING! He smiled and said, “LT, that was beautiful!” We barely passed, and I was soon kicked up to Battalion HQ, on the recommendation of my first Platoon Sergeant.

I was there for two more years, ending as the Battalion S4 (supply officer).

[Seruzawa]

Drill holes and spray. Jeez, do I have to think of everything?

None of this would be an issue if the spaces were kept clean in the first place. Like we had to when I was in the military.

They are overweight and they don’t keep their spaces clean. WTF?

[The Sons of Liberty]

I was at Ramstein 78-81 in the 86th Civil Engineering Squadron - the largest Civil Engineering squadron in the Air Force, 1859 personnel. EVERYTHING, including our budget, went into refurbing and upgrading the facilities the Army had left behind.

[Night Hides Not]

Spent quite a few days at Ramstein/K-Town, about the same time you were there. My Group HQ was at Kleber Kaserne.

[FlingWingFlyer]

We didn’t have those problems at Fort Sill.

[dljordan]

“We didn’t have those problems at Fort Sill.”

This was 1968. The WWII barracks I lived in at NAS Alameda were much nicer. You can still see them on Google Earth.