I've lived in worse, but it was temporary, and the new barracks weren't without problems of their own. So, with respect, I can't get too outraged on the basis of one, highly emotional slide-show.

Then again, this father claims a three-year delay for repairs... and that's pretty bad. Do you know of any corroborating evidence? I'd happily write a letter if someone could confirm a three-year delay.

In the end, it's the all on the head of the CO. Perhaps it's time for a change.

The fact that the Army is giving a $145 a month "hardship" bonus for living in those barracks is pretty damning.

When I was in the Navy (a very long time ago) we lived in temporary WW2 wooden barracks that were a very frayed around he edges but always in good repair.

The question in my mind is: where did the maintenance money go and why wasn't the base commander on top of the contractors who were building the new barracks?

Another question is why doesn't the Army have 3 or 5 standard designs for barracks (depending on climate) and have them mass produced with standard parts. Like rifles or radios.

I spent nearly 9 years in the Army and just ETS’d in March. I was an Infantryman – just like this guy’s son - and have done countless barracks inspections to ensure that my Soldiers were maintaining their living areas, that here were no fire hazards, no health hazards, and everything was in order. For 90% of the crap in this video, NCO’s should be rounding up all of the guys living in this barracks, put into their hands some scrub brushes, paint scrapers, paintbrushes, and other supplies and put them to work for a day and correct these problems. That is how we maintained our barracks and that is how most, if not all, of the Army does it and it works fine – except in this video, apparently. And how did the barracks in this video get into this condition? There weren’t Soldiers living in pristine barracks and then – surprise! – the building is suddenly a dump. That building is the product of years of neglect by the Soldiers living in it and their successive chains of command who apparently did not feel the need to maintain the building. Possible exception: someone else lived in it while the unit was deployed and they somehow trashed the place in that 15 months without repercussion – this strains my credulity.

This video is not a documentary of our government failing our Soldiers. It is a documentary of the lowest members of the chain of command failing them. Kadnine is exactly right and hit the nail on the head regarding the Company Commander (the CO signs for barracks and their furniture on the installation property book, just like he signs for the weapons in the arms room - if he doesn't know about this or isn't attempting to correct it, then there's your culprit).

Regarding the "hardship" allowance, give me a break; the Air Force gets a hardship allowance for living on Army installations.

Soldiers are not helpless, like their civilian counterparts. They don't need you to call your congressman on their behalf.

Joe,

Thanks! I had wondered about that. I was Navy so I didn't want to criticize the Army without knowing what was going on. We never got a living on base allowance (40 years ago) so that seemed like an admission of guilt.

Every week we did maintenance and about once a quarter we did painting. The Navy loves scraping, sanding, and painting.

Removing the water fountains and not replacing them is another command function that seemed screwed. Not maintaining the plumbing (drain backup) is another command dereliction.

I could see cutting back on maintenance if new buildings were in the offing. That begs the question of why they were not completed in a timely fashion.

The fact that these guys were Airborne seems really odd as well. I would expect them to be doing everything in a neat and orderly military fashion.

Re: Regarding the "hardship" allowance, give me a break; the Air Force gets a hardship allowance for living on Army installations.

Every one know Air Force guys are pussys. :-)

Again. Thanks for the input!

I think all three of us are on the same page. And this Marine can't resist piling on the Air Force. It was on an AF base in TX where spent some time in sub-standard barracks, but I have to say that the chow hall was 5 star!

I especially liked hearing my AF brothers and sisters complain they were getting fat even though they only ate the butter-drenched veggies! No hamburger bar for them!

Up front, I will say that our AF JTAC's and the AF pilots who supported us were complete pro's and this comment has nothing to do with them.

I, too, cannot resist the urge to pile on. I worked with a few Air Force folk (besides those mentioned above) who complained that their mattresses were worn out while we were in Iraq. A mattress only gets worn out if you use it too much. And who even expects to have a mattress in a combat zone? And how do you even complain about such a thing without feeling like a complete retard?