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Army to dole out $248M for barracks repairs

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

The move follows an Army-wide barracks inspection senior leaders 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 recently after returning from a 15-month deployment to Afghanistan.

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Geren at Bragg after barracks criticism (The Associated Press, May 7)

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 the reprogramming effected.

Of the eight installations identified for funding, Fort Polk, La., needed the most money, Christensen said, adding that Polk will receive approximately $166 million to make repairs.

Here’s a look at how much money the other seven bases will receive:

• 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 that was 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.

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 PIR, 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.