Soldiers Returned 3 Week Early on Short Notice
The Army is scheduled to complete a worldwide walk-through inspection of all barracks on more than 155 installations in early May to ensure that soldiers are not living in buildings that should be demolished and under conditions that could endanger their safety, life and health.
The inspections began April 26 and are being conducted by installation commanders and command sergeants major.
In the longer term, the Army will convene monthly a senior noncommissioned officers installation forum chaired by Command Sgt. Maj. Debra Strickland to ensure barracks standards are maintained.
Strickland is the command sergeant major of the Installation Management Command, which is in charge of Army facilities.
Brig. Gen. Dennis Rogers, deputy director of operations and facilities in the Installation Management Command, said, “I assume responsibility” for conditions in one of 24 Korean War-era barracks at Fort Bragg, N.C., that was the subject of a 10-minute video posted on YouTube by Ed Frawley, father of Sgt. Jeff Frawley, assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Frawley from Menomonie, Wis., narrated the video.
“We let our soldiers down,” Rogers said. “That’s not how we want our sons and daughters to live.”
The soldiers from the parachute regiment who were assigned to this barracks returned three weeks ahead of schedule -- with 72-hours notice -- from a deployment to Afghanistan. Another unit had been using the barracks while the first unit was deployed.
In the video using a variety of still images in a room, chipped paint is seen on walls, as well as mold.
Ceiling tiles are missing, and there is rust on fixtures. Sewage water is shown backed up in the communal bathroom.
Army officials said that the building had gone through a modernization process in 2006. Most recently 40 work orders had been placed on the building for work to be completed before the unit returned from overseas. About seven of those work orders are still incomplete.
Fort Bragg officials said that put the barracks in an amber condition – green being ready for occupancy and red not ready for occupancy.
“It may have happened at Bragg, but it covers the Army,” Strickland said. Adding that Sgt. Maj. of the Army Kenneth Preston is actively involved in addressing barracks issues now and in the future.
“Most of those shortfalls have been corrected” in recent weeks, Rogers said.
He added that the rooms seen in the posting now have been painted and outfitted with new furniture and the heating and air conditioning system and the ventilation system in the building has been replaced.
“All of [the Korean War-era barracks] are scheduled for demolition in the next five years” as construction proceeds on the installation.
This unit will be in new barracks, similar to those across the street from the older ones, by the summer of 2009. Barracks construction at Bragg is expected to be complete by Fiscal Year 2012.
Tom McCollum, Fort Bragg public affairs officer, said, “No matter how hard we try, we can’t put enough lipstick on this pig to make it look pretty, so in that process we are not meeting the expectations of our soldiers who live in those 50s-era barracks.”
Rogers said that if the commanders and command sergeants major across the Army find that needed repairs uncovered in their inspections cannot be carried out quickly soldiers will be moved to other facilities until the necessary work is completed.
“Our garrisons have sufficient funding and flexibility to address maintenance problems.”
He said that the amount of money needed for maintenance in coming years “would need support from Congress … to help maintain. It’s like with your house, your car, if you don’t maintain during a periodic time then you go into a deferred maintenance programs. [In that condition] sooner or later that radiator is going to go out.”
Rogers said that maintenance is based on the condition codes [C-1, C-2, etc] that measure levels of readiness. “Those condition codes are what we adjust and work with to the funding that we have. … [But] you don’t let funding affect the life, health and safety of the soldiers. If you have C-1, you may get everything you need. If you have C-2, you may not get everything you need.”
He said that there was one standard that applied to barracks, even if it was on installation that was to be closed under base realignment and closure or turned over to the German and Korean governments as American forces return stateside. “We’re not cutting pennies or anything on those soldiers.”
Rogers said that the process that the Army uses when a unit deployed is the rear detachment working with the installation’s department of public works is to make sure that maintenance is done and repairs made. And “identify by floor and by room those areas that are prepared to receive soldiers. "
He added that there can be another step in that process called “flagship” that includes major maintenance and remodeling done by the installation or contractors so “the buildings are better than when they left.”
Adding, “In this case, we didn’t do it right. … I don’t want my sons to live in those conditions. I hope it is an isolated incident, and we will figure it out.”
More than 10,800 soldiers live in family- and single-soldier housing on Fort Bragg; more than 51,000 soldiers are assigned to the installation.