The Pentagon is set to create a new task force aimed at improving the notoriously squalid conditions at military barracks across the armed services, War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday.
The new task force will be created within the next 30 days to address the long-standing squalid conditions at barracks across the armed services, Hegseth announced Tuesday during an enlistment ceremony at Naval Air Station Oceana.
For years, the barracks’ quality has been a persistent issue in the armed forces, with Hegseth directly citing a 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report chronicling the substandard conditions, saying the Biden administration did not address the issues.
more
WHEN THE BUCK TOOTHED PEANUT FARMER WAS UN CHARGE, THE MILITARY WAS IN TERRIBLE SHAPE, TROOPS WERE UNDERPAID, MORALE WAS TERRIBLE
LIKE TODAY, REAGAN TOOK THE HELM, AND THINGS TOOK A SHARP 180° TURN
AMAZING WHAT LEADERSHIP CAN DO
I THINK CARTER LIVED TO BE 100 BECAUSE GOD HIMSELF FOUND HIM TO BE INSUFFERABLE AND ENDLESSLY ARROGANT
Get them something better than the terrible Camp Lejeune water contamination
The problem goes back a lot further than that. In the 1990s, a lot of military personnel were still living in “temporary” structures built during WWII. That was one of the projects I worked on. (Buildings designated as “temporary” are built to much lower standards than “semi-permanent” or “permanent” buildings.)
I’m halfway through this;
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0451235835/?bestFormat=true&k=brothers%20rivals%20victors&ref_=nb_sb_ss_w_scx-ent-pd-bk-d_k0_1_17_de&crid=QBUHD65E5XAE&sprefix=brothers%20rival%20vi
Patton was a romantic historian who believed great military leaders won wars. Eisenhower, the more pragmatic, believed that the army that was better trained, better fed and better equipped came out on top.
Both understood the importance of morale; shitty, dirty, mold-infested quarters ain’t good for morale.
One irritating disparity I noticed, military bases outside the states were in better shape, more modern, and better provisioned. I’m thrilled that Hegseth is changing that.
There’s also a decades-old problem with on-base housing. Congress has been “hearing” about this for just as long, but nothing has been done about it. This has been one of the issues with retention. Who wants to keep their kids in rat- and mold-infested, substandard living conditions?
Why haven’t base commanders seen to this and requisitioned funds to fix issues.
It’s not like they couldn’t get the labor to assist, some of whom living in barracks, and officers too, likely aren’t completely unskilled. Take a day or two or three.
Take the money being spent elsewhere. Take it from the landscaping, or the on-base hotel, or whatever.
How does this get to be a “decades-old” problem.
Every barracks and Navy housing unit I was ever assigned to I had to sign an acknowledgement form that I was willingly accepting sub-standard housing.
When I first got to NAS Miramar in early Jan.1973 the enlisted sailors were all housed in an old open barracks with cubicles separating individual living quarters for all the lower ranking sailors. When we got back from our 74 Westpac cruise the Navy had built brand new barracks with 4 of us assigned to one nice room with our own heads and showers and a coin operated laundry facility nearby. The base enlisted chow hall was a short walk away of less than 5 minutes. It was nice after being crammed into very tight quarters on the Kitty Hawk with 6 of us living in a small cubicle with 3 racks on each side and maybe a couple a couple of feet down the middle for access to our racks. I generally chose either the middle or top rack because it was safer when we were in port to keep from being puked on by other drunken sailors after a liberty call. We also had curtains for some privacy. All the enlisted sailors were crammed into tight quarters where about 80 or more of us were all housed together. In late 74 two friends and I moved off base into San Diego for the last year I was in the Navy except when were out at sea. I commuted by either riding my bike to work or after I came home on leave for the whole month of Sept. 1974 when I drove my old 56 Ford F-100 p/u truck to San Diego from Spokane which was a 4-day trip in that old Ford p/u which beat me to death with its hard seats and no power steering after 4 days by myself pretty much nonstop to San Diego. My next brother flew to San Diego and drove my truck home to Spokane after I left to go back on my 2nd Westpac cruise in May 1975. I can’t complain because the Navy back then treated us fairly well with our living quarters.