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Barracks at Ga. posts in adequate condition

FORT BENNING, Ga. — Fort Benning soldiers returning this month from Iraq will find new barracks waiting for them with fresh linens, flat screen TVs and semiprivate bathrooms.

That’s a vivid contrast to the video that surfaced online last month of moldy, unclean barracks for soldiers returning from Afghanistan to Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Both Fort Benning, on the Alabama line in western Georgia, and Fort Stewart, in the southeastern part of the state, are slated to grow as part of the Army’s Base Realignment and Closure program. At both posts, new construction and renovation work are in full swing to prepare for the new arrivals and to update or replace aging infrastructure.

Fort Stewart was stung by a housing scandal of its own in October 2003 after sick and wounded troops in the National Guard and Army Reserve complained they had to live in spartan barracks without air conditioning or private bathrooms while receiving treatment at the post hospital.

More than 600 ill citizen-soldiers lived in the cinderblock buildings dating to the 1950s — normally used for housing healthy reservists during training.

More than four years later, Sgt. Simona Jones of the Florida National Guard, recovering from a torn knee ligament at Fort Stewart, is living in a trailer shared with five other soldiers getting medical treatment. It has central air conditioning, high-speed Internet access and a flat-screen TV.

The soldiers keep their trailer spotless, cleaning it themselves at least once a week.

“It’s not that comfortable. For government quarters, it’s very comfortable,” said Jones, 32, of Jacksonville, Fla., sitting on the single bed in the room she shares with another soldier.

By fiscal year 2011, Fort Benning will add about 5,100 soldiers to its current permanent population of about 25,000, and Fort Stewart will add about 3,900.

At North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, a video posted online by the father of a paratrooper showed mold inside the barracks, peeling interior paint and a bathroom drain plugged with sewage. Officials in Georgia said they are constantly trying to upgrade soldiers’ living conditions at the state’s two posts.

“We’re very proud of what we’ve done here at Fort Benning,” Garrison Commander Col. Keith Lovejoy told The Associated Press, which toured both posts last week. “Would we like to have to have more money? Yeah. But at least all the money we do have is allocated the right way.”

New barracks built in recent years at both Georgia posts closely resemble college dorms arranged in suites. Each unit houses two soldiers — each with a private bedroom that includes a walk-in closet and wooden furniture — who share a private bathroom and kitchen area with a refrigerator, stove and microwave.

Older barracks, built 15 to 30 years ago, have been recently renovated at both posts.

The problem with those barracks is one of space rather than physical condition or cleanliness, said Col. Todd Buchs, Fort Stewart’s garrison commander. The rooms give soldiers just over half the 138-square-feet per soldier needed to meet the Army’s latest housing standards. At Fort Benning, that problem is solved by giving one soldier a whole two-bedroom suite whenever possible.

Fort Benning still uses some Korean-war-era cinder block barracks, but only for the Army Ranger training program, meaning no one lives in them for longer than eight weeks. Those buildings are considerably less comfortable than the permanent housing, with metal bunk beds and metal cabinets for their belongings.

During a walkthrough by The Associated Press last week, those barracks did show some signs of wear and tear, including stairwells in need of paint and broken or bent window blinds, but the rooms and bathrooms were clean and mold-free.

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Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Savannah contributed to this report