Army to Provide $7.4 Million for Barracks Improvements at Fort Lewis

Top Army Leaders forced to take action after YouTube video from Fort Bragg Soldier's Father causes nationwide outcry over poor barracks conditions

By Matthew Cox - Army Times

The Army has cut $248 million from other programs to make immediate fixes to barracks at eight installations across the country.

The move follows an Armywide barracks inspection ordered after the father of an 82nd Airborne Division soldier posted a video on YouTube that showed peeling paint, mold and a bathroom drain plugged with what appeared to be sewage in the barracks that paratroopers from the Fort Bragg, N.C., unit were housed in after returning from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Top leaders at all major commands walked through their barracks the weekend of April 26-27, looking for conditions similar to those identified in the 1950s-era barracks at Bragg.

The Army has not yet released the full report of the inspection, but eight bases were flagged for having barracks that needed repairs without delay, said Ned Christensen, spokesman for Army Installation Management Command.

The $248 million was “reprogrammed,” he said, meaning that it was taken out of existing Army programs. Christensen said he didn’t know which programs were affected by the shift of funds.

Of the eight installations identified for funding, Fort Polk, La., needed the most money, Christensen said, adding that Polk will receive $166.7 million to make repairs.

Most of the barracks identified “have issues with mold and moisture-related problems,” Christensen said, explaining that the barracks built in the 1950s “were not built for air conditioning.”

Leaking pipes and radiators led to mold problems every year, he said.

The Army has had to move 13 soldiers into other quarters to make some of the repairs, but in many of the mold cases, the fixes call for the areas to be washed down with chlorine bleach, Christensen said. Officials didn’t say where the soldiers are located.

In addition to spending more money on repairing barracks, the Army is revamping how it prepares barracks for units returning from deployments.

“For the long term, our big lesson we learned at Bragg was it was not a money issue, it was a timing issue,” Christensen said.

One problem was that maintenance and repairs weren’t complete because the soldiers in C Company, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment, came home three weeks ahead of schedule.

The barracks in question had had 40 work orders ongoing since January, Army installation officials said, describing how all but seven had been completed when the unit returned.

“We didn’t time that right,” Christensen said.

The goal is to develop a more efficient system for tracking repairs so that barracks will be ready for returning units “no less than 60 days out,” he said.

Normally, a unit’s rear detachment is responsible for ensuring that any needed repairs on a barracks are completed before a unit returns from deployment.

A new program known as “The First Sergeant’s Barracks Initiative,” will place this responsibility to the garrison command, Christensen said.

Army officials announced April 29 that they stood up a Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Facilities Forum to make a separate assessment of Army barracks conditions. The forum will meet monthly and be chaired by Command Sgt. Maj. Debra Strickland of Installation Management Command. It will inspect barracks from an NCO perspective, and make recommendations for correcting current problems and ensuring upkeep to avoid such issues in the future.

“The NCO forum is kind of another set of eyes on it,” Christensen said. “The senior NCO leadership in the Army will be reporting regularly to the Army senior leadership on the condition of barracks.”

REPAIRING BARRACKS

Here’s how much money the eight bases will receive:

• Fort Polk, La.: $166.7 million.

• Fort Gordon, Ga.: $49.7 million.

• The United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.: $9.3 million.

• Fort Lewis, Wash.: $7.4 million.

• Fort Stewart, Ga.: $6.2 million.

• Fort Bragg, N.C.: $2.9 million in addition to the $2.6 million already spent on the barracks that paratroopers from the 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment returned to from Afghanistan.

• Tripler Army Medical Center, Hawaii: $1.7 million.

• Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.: $1.2 million.