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Knox working to improve housing conditions

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Not everything at Fort Knox shines like gold.

A few of the house units have problems, including mold growing near the showers, but officials at the central Kentucky base say they’re working to resolve those issues.

Army barracks around the United States are under scrutiny after a man posted a video on the Internet showing the unsanitary conditions to which his son arrived at Fort Bragg after returning from Afghanistan. The video showed mold, peeling paint and broken plumbing fixtures in the Korean War-era barracks.

The main housing problems at Fort Knox, home of the Unites States’ gold repository, have been in three barracks built in the 1950s, which are used to house soldiers during basic training, said spokesman Ryan Brus.

“That’s getting fixed,” Brus said. “We’re not sugar coating anything. ... If we have problems, we’re fixing them.”

Ventilation is a problem in some buildings, said Army National Guard Pvt. Chris Daugherty, who was heading home to Shreveport, La., after completing combined basic training and advanced individual training at Fort Knox.

“It was cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, but no matter how much you clean, the barracks have been used by so many privates that as far as the air ducts and the air systems, you can’t get it totally clean,” Daugherty said.

Daugherty said he got sick several times during his four months of training.

“No matter how many times you clean the barracks you’re still going to have that because of how many privates have stayed there previously,” he said.

The post is working on improving air quality in base housing, according to a statement from spokesman Pat Walsh.

“There has never been a report of mold or infections being transferred within the barracks through the ventilation system,” he said. “In the past year we spent over $5 million removing mold and improving the HVAC and ventilation in trainee barracks to prevent mold from forming.”

Army National Guard Pfc. William Beck of Bozeman, Mont., who completed training at Fort Knox in April, said he didn’t see any need for major repairs where he lived during training.

“It was clean when we moved in. It was clean when we moved out,” he said. “It was pretty professional there.”

The barracks with problems are scheduled to be demolished in three years as Fort Knox prepares to house a war fighting unit scheduled to arrive in the summer of 2009, Brus said.