One example of army barracks living condition

DVFlyer wrote: I saw this on another forum. The author's son is in the army and after his deployment in Afghanistan, he came "home" to these conditions.

Note- Because he's talking about his son, it's pretty emotional. It's about 10 minutes long and the beginning is about his son's tour then it leads to his barracks back home. We treat prisoners better than this.

Pitiful.

http://leerburg.com/barracks.htm

luvmykids replied: Deplorable and inexcusible

mckayleesmom replied: Me and my husband were just talking about Barraks the other day and he said they were all really nice when he lived in them. He wasn't where these were taken though.

I will say this though....Alot of these places have nothing to do with the miltary anymore....the people that own alot of the buidings are not military...Even housing is not always Military....some of them are realty and housing companies that own the properties now. They are the ones responsible for the upkeep and unfortunantly they usually take their precious time.

Also...if this guy really wants to make headlines...I suggest he gets some pictures of actual proof that these guys are living in this building.....I really hope they are not, but based on those pictures....the building looks abandoned. I didn't see any pictures of beds or people in the rooms besides the guy plunging the floor.

Usually the miltary and housing are pretty good about remodeling or moving people around if their quarters become to old or damaged.

MommyToAshley replied: My Dad was in the army, and this would have never been acceptable. In fact, the Army is known for their cleanliness and organization... inspections every weeek, etc. If this is the condition that soldiers are living in now, they sure have changed over the years. This never would have been acceptable in the army that I knew and I have been around a lot of barricks and base housing during the 20 years my Dad serverd. None of that would have been acceptable... from the mold right down to the the clothing and stuff thrown all over the rooms. In fact, soldiers had to remake their bed until the sheets were tight enough to bounce a quarter on it. There was the "white glove" inspection... where the slightest bit of dust above a door jam does not go unnoticed and toilet seats are scrubbed daily. I can't believe things have changed this much. If it is true, this is inexcuseable.

mckayleesmom replied: Also...I have never seen any this bad...When we were at Ft. Knox our housing was old, but not in bad condition and they were tearing it down and rebuilding that area. The barraks never looked like that, but there are alot of abandoned buildings they haven't torn down yet including housing and barrak buildings.


To be honest.....those pictures look like they came from one of the many abandoned buildings on every post......I hate to call his bluff....But they have cleaning inspections and such.....I also notice that he didn't show proof that people are living in this building....no beds were pictured, possessions, not even a roll of toilet paper on that roll.....

Jackie012007 replied: OMG my BIL was at Fort Bragg for basic!!! He never mentioned anything about the condition of the building though...

mckayleesmom replied: I just posted this at a website I go to for miltary wives....alot of them are at Bragg....I wanted their opinion....personally I don't think its true. No offence DvFlyer.

Although they are in housing...alot of them spend time in the barraks for school and training.

PrairieMom replied: My BIL was stationed at Bragg, and my SIL is still there. I had no idea. How sad.
On the same hand, anyone seen the conditions in some of the VA hospitals lately?
So sad.

mckayleesmom replied:
I just got a couple responses......Some said they were kind of outdated and bad, but those are just the ones that some of the guys are chosing to live in....The regular ones are overcrowded right now..... They did say the pictures look like an abandoned barrak.

But E4 and above have the option MARRIED or NOT to move into housing if they want instead...or to stay at the Airborne Inn...So anybody that is chosing to live in these conditions is doing it by choice.

mckayleesmom replied: Im getting different points of view.....some say not so bad....Some say they are gross.....


It is probably both......


Tara...I haven't seen the VA's, but the regular hospital at Fort Knox was ok....It was nice in the lobby and stuff, but the actual doctor rooms were pretty old fashioned still.....yellow tile... I think they are slowly trying to improve everything, but with so much $ tied up into the war...they have to do it slowly and when they can....That goes for housing, roads, everything is suffering.

Calimama replied: Wow. Some of our barracks look like hotels almost.

DVFlyer replied:
No offense taken. Maybe if it was "my son".....

In case you didn't catch it in the video, he took these pictures himself when he met his son there as he returned from deployment, so I doubt it's fake. Maybe an anomaly, but his point is that this is where his son has to stay and no one should have to live in those conditions.

From what I could gather, new barracks were supposed to have been built and this was sort of "temporary"... but the new barracks never got built, so they live there.

Calimama replied:
I believe it. When my husband got back from Iraq in 05 the barracks weren't ready for them. So what did they do? They put them in TENTS for 4 months. These guys had just gotten back from Iraq and they are still living in tents. Then it came time to move them.. they got the ugliest barracks that wasn't even a barracks building but an old office building. Luckily our base gets inspected often so they were moved out within 5 months and were placed in better barracks.

mckayleesmom replied:
From what I have heard....the guys are not forced to live there though, they have the choice to stay at the Airborne hotel or get their own housing, but some are chosing to stay in the yucky barraks because its probably cheaper in the long run.......in the barraks everything is paid for......On their own they would probably have to find housing off post and it would be rent plus utilities and stuff....

Im not saying the pictures are not real......but if he actually took some that shows actual proof of people living in those conditions...it would have a better impact.....

To me it looks like he took them in an abandoned barrak building.......which is what most others would assume too. I really hope that they are not that bad.....but I have gotten info on both sides of the fence...If it is true then it is sad.

DVFlyer replied: Definitely hard to believe someone would live in those conditions. The guy who posted them is the owner of the forum in the link. Not sure why he'd post pictures of an abandoned building with a fake narration about his son and others living there unless he had some other agenda, but I'd take him at his word that that is actually where is son is living. I don't know about the "choice" part of it. I'll scoot over to that forum and ask.

ETA- As I think about it more, the fact that they "could" live somewhere else- at any additional expense to them- is irrelevant. This is the housing the government provides for them as part of their service. They could go stay at the Ritz Carlton too......

Maybe Ed should go take a video of the prison and compare.

mckayleesmom replied: A lady on the forum I go to posted this.....so Im not sure what to believe...


This is what she said.
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I can promise you that they are doing TONS of construction around here. Alot of its going on here because of the whole BRAC thing. I have driven by some barracks that he is showing and the places are empty.
I think the guy doing this is overexaggerating some of this stuff. Also he has to keep in mind that there was some funding was not approved but they still kept building. That little bit of info was on the local news.
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DVFlyer replied: I'm sure *some* of them are empty.

As far as exaggerating goes, I get your point, but if it was your daughter or son, you'd probably take it more seriously than not too.

Just saw on that forum, that the barracks they are waiting for are not going to be completed until 2010.

mckayleesmom replied:
Ya, but taking pictures of empty barraks isn't right either. I wouldn't want my child living their either and agree something needs to be done....but bending the truth isn't going to help.......If they were going to take his concerns seriously..they aren't if they find out he lied and took pictures of barraks nobody lives in..kwim?

PrairieMom replied:
I worked at the VA in my town for a while, and I felt horrible the entire time I was doing it. The facilities really needed up grading, even the life support equipment we were using was out of date.
Many of the nurses that they hire are nurses that had been let go from the other 2 hospitals that we have in town, and the Dr's that so the majority of the care are residents. (student Dr's)
I felt so icky working there. Our Vets deserve so much better, and being there I felt like I was being part of the problem, not the solution.

A lot of it is in perspective tho. My mom is a vet, and she works at the same VA i worked at, and has an immense amount of pride about it.



ETA:
I forwarded this to my SIL, I wonder what she has to say about it. She's so busy tho, it could be days before I hear back.

PrairieMom replied:
IMO its not a question of if they are "forced" to live there or not, if that is what we as Americans are providing for our military, we need to change something.

mckayleesmom replied:
Dh looked at the pictures and said that no Army Barraks he has ever lived in looked like that unless they were vandelized when they got back....which was pretty frequent....he said that one time someone broke in and actually stole the toilets...


As for the paint peeling...he said that is common because people don't open the windows after showering and so much steam at the same time causes that pretty fast...as well as the molding.


Im not saying its right that they live like that...trust me, but taking pictures of empty buildings and passing them off as where these guys are living is wrong....Dh has been to Ft. Bragg and even named one of the buildings in the picture and its vacant....

Im sure some of his picture were real, but some weren't in my opinion and doing that isn't going to make the construction speed up if they don't have the money to do it. We are at war and the money just isn't there to do it.

People that demand these things get done are also the ones that don't want their taxes raised...and that is what would probably have to happen to make these conditions better......Since most people don't want that then its going to take time to get it done.

mckayleesmom replied: Ok...so here is another thing someone said...



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I know which building that is, my DH's friend lives there and he was just at out house the other day talking about it. That building is old and is pretty bad but not all of them are like that. He has a few more friends at other barracks on base and they are much nicer. Still not luxary but alot newer.

They are doing construction near that building and I heard that it was the new barracks. There is alot of construction going on so I think they're phasing out the old buildings.
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So they are working on them, it just takes time and money. Alot of units have moved to bragg too....so they are really crowded. My husband also said that sometimes things come up and the funds are not there to continue building so of course the contractors stop till more money comes in.....So the funds have alot to do with it.

luvmykids replied:
Even if they aren't all like that, the fact that someone who has just spent 15 months serving their country would have to spend even one night in those conditions once they are home is terrible imho. It's beside the point to me that they're temporary or whatever, I certainly wouldn't live in those conditions and wouldn't expect our soldiers to, either

Calimama replied:
I agree.

DVFlyer replied:
This is not meant to be argumentative, but I'm very curious why, from the beginning, you thought this person was being untruthful. Then, went on to explain why paint peeling and mold occurs.

Is it that you thought no one could really live in those conditions? And to explain why the conditions are what they are is to support what point?

And I'm glad "other" buildings are better than this one. I'm sure that makes these guys feel great that their friends/ fellow military are in better conditions than they are.

I've posted this on another forum (mostly a guy forum) and some of the replies were things like, "Just tell them to deal with it." Or, "When I was in the military, I was in worse conditions than that... stop complaining".

I've never been in the military and never lived in conditions like that, but the idea that THIS is where the government houses "these" guys is insane.

If they have great plans for new barracks, WONDERFUL, but put the guys up in something AT LEAST as good as the prisoners get.

PrairieMom replied: This is what my SIL said.

All the barracks have been or are being remodeled. Some people are living in ones that suck while waiting for new ones to be built. But they are trying to fix that by letting E-5s and above move off post to let younger single people live in new or remodeled barracks.



I don't really know what that means, I just think the whole thing is sad.

DVFlyer replied: This story made CNN already...

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/0...fort.bragg.wtvd

luvmykids replied: I think it's great that he wasn't going to give up until he got someone's attention. Did they really think they could make those improvements in time if the soldiers hadn't come home a month early? That's an awful lot of work for the Army to do in a month

DVFlyer replied: No chance of them making the repairs... but what else are they going to say, right?

On another forum, some guys were saying that because his father brought this up, his (the son's) life was going to be miserable now- hinting that the superior officers were going to come down on him.

luvmykids replied:
The thought crossed my mind....I'm curious how his son feels about all the ruckus.