Army General Says "Moldy Barracks = Discipline Problem" 

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Seeing how officers and the higher-ups behave makes it clear why we have a dropping recruiting rate.

Army Leadership 101 - How to camouflage shifting blame so well the victim questions their own responsibility.

During my last deployment to Afghanistan in 2011, I was an E5 Aid Station NCOIC. My Medics and I were living in a wooden shack next to my Aid Station. We moved in in December, and it was cold as fuck. Our heater shit the bed after the third night and even while we were sleeping in full sleep systems, we were getting mild cold injuries just sleeping at night. Two nights after sleeping like this, I put in a work order (our unit mechanics couldn't fix it). Four days later, no one had fixed our heater, so I walked into the building to talk to the civilians that handled life support maintenance to complain. They told us our building didn't exist on their density roster, even though we had moved into the exact same building the previous Medical Platoon had lived in for the previous year. The lady I had been talking to showed me a map of all the buildings on the FOB and said they said they couldn't fix anything that wasn't on their density roster, pointing out the fact that our mini barracks wasn't on it. I said, "Cool, I'll be right back". I walked back to my Aid Station, printed out the Alpha Roster for my Squadron, then walked back. I handed the list to the lady I'd been talking to and said, "This is a list of all the Soldiers for whose lives we're responsible for. Do you see your name on it?" She said, "No." I said, "Exactly. If our barracks building doesn't magically appear on your density roster and you don't fix the heater within two days, next time any of you are injured by a rocket or mortar, we won't treat you because you aren't on our Alpha Roster". Shit got fixed the very next day.

When you can tell an officer has never slept in the barracks

Let's not tell people that Soldiers can be trusted to be in charge of millions of dollars of equipment and be mostly unsupervised, but god forbid, they have a $20 toaster in their room

After my first deployment to Iraq, I came home to my dorm room. The entire thing was covered in mold. It had gotten into my picture frames, grew in my bed, and was even in my clothes. Had to throw everything away. Thank goodness for that hazardous duty pay I got to replace everything. 🙄

My MSgt would always say if you dont like something call your congressman. They moved us into condemed barracks with the works, black mold, ants coming out of the sink, just laughably poor conditions. I took pictures, wrote a report and sent it to my congressman. I dont know if they actually looked at it but we moved out of that barracks shortly after. Thanks MSgt.

I’m convinced that as soon as an officer hits O-5 they become completely oblivious to anything happening underneath them

The Army: We'll spent 30 million to rename Forts to be more inclusive! Me and the boys taking the same moldy ass shower every day during 12+ Hour PMT days: 😶

I’m just confused why we’re using so many contractors to manage this stuff instead of having the Quartermaster and Engineer Corp handle our housing. It all seems to boil down to “someone else’s job”. We’re the Army and we should be able to build and maintain our own stuff.

I remember barrack being moldy everywhere I went for the 10 years I was in. The issue wasn’t soldier discipline, NCO’s like me would inspect their room every day. The issue was that the barracks were 30+ years old. ANY drywall that gets damp/wet immediately starts growing mold. Now put 200 or more people in one building and see how much humidity is there. But I guess an officer wouldn’t understand that. Lol

What’s interesting is, I dealt with mold every single day in Fort Stewart. But then I bought a house off post and never saw mold again. Crazy.

You know, I've never understood why, as an LT, I've had NCOs come up to me and tell me that I'm one of the good officers for doing things like "getting out from behind the desk and joining my platoon in the field when there was shit to do", "going to the CO or XO with issues I can't fix the moment I'm informed of them and keeping them up to date on what's going on", or "asking where the leadership was when a newly enlisted soldier is being fucked over by a shitbag NCO to the point the soldier was actively looking to get out of the Army" as I've always viewed those things as the minimum standard for an officer and that just by meeting that standard, I was nothing special... I'm starting to see why now...

I can’t imagine why people don’t want to join the military

“When soldiers lack discipline, the fault lies with their commander!” -Tywin Lannister

They’re 100% right though, the rusty brown water I was told not to worry about at Polk was my fault, so my bad on that. I should’ve looked ahead at my duty station as an E-2 and made sure there were plumbers ready to fix the whole plumbing of Fort Polk if not figure out how to do it myself. After all these years I doubt it’s fixed and that’s on me, real blue falcon here, I’ve learned the errors of my ways.

Spent five years in the Marines. Our Barracks was without hot water in winter for around 6 weeks. Numerous complaints and work orders put in. It wasn’t until I wrong in the discrepancy log book “ No hot water, F*CKING fix” in it. More effort was put into disciplinary action towards me than actually fixing the hot water issue.

The best part is elites talking to elites to inform people about how the common folk are living

He is FOS, I had to live in a barracks room with black mold. Numerous “leadership” came and put eyes on the mold. This was on Ft.Jackson. I was active duty at the time. The barracks was civilian run and neither them or uniform did 💩 for 4+ months. When I submitted a formal complaint after becoming ridiculously sick is when I was moved. The room was still not gutted and you have to realize that the vents are all shared throughout the building so you do the maths.

I like the "privatization fixed these problens" line of BS from the General. I'm gonna guess that someone has his retirement board seat lined up.

I was in from 04 to 11. Told my platoon daddy about pior barrack condition he said "I lived in them, they're just fine. " I got pissed and said "That was 20 f ing years ago. " Nothing followed.

I served from 1986 to 2015 and at NO time in those years would I have considered ANY of the housing I was offered (barracks and family housing) to be up to the standards I expected for my family. And I was quite aware that I would have to make major adjustments to live in those places. From housing so old there wasn't even cable in the whole housing area, to "new" housing in which literally NOTHING worked. Lights, appliances, outlets, plumbing, you name it. At Fort Hood, I was shown on post housing--mind you I was a Sergeant Major--a duplex with a PFC and his family in the other side. What PFC would want a frikken Sergeant Major living next door? WTF were they thinking? From black mold, to no heat at all in the barracks. From leaking roofs, to windows with no blinds or curtains in the barracks. From barracks rooms with no doors to rooms designed for two people with 6 people living in them. I've seen it all. And what happens? NOTHING! Nothing gets fixed until the General is being dragged by the NY Times. Family housing built by privatization programs where the garage door literally falls off first time it is opened. Kitchen cabinets falling down. Leaking plumbing. And the best I've see...a family housing area built on an old landfill. Guess what happened? That's right, methane leaks. Only an idiot would certify that kind of crap. The bottom line is this. It IS a leadership problem. But it is not a 1SG or CSM problem. It is a GENERAL Officer problem and always has been.

I get so mad over the way our boys are treated when they are deployed or at home. There is far too much money that goes toward our defense that our solders have to live in a moldy home.

Literally moved into the barracks right before deploying, took pictures of the mold, had a work order for the mold. Higher ups just said “it’s your room, clean it” had me trying to clean the mold out of my fridge, shower, air vents and the corners with a Clorox wipes

Un-friggin believable. As a retired E7 I am ashamed of what the entire military has become. They know there’s a problem but they are so worried about their next star that they are afraid to do a damn thing about it.

We had some fun black mold in our barracks. I guess I should have buckled down more. Also, the building settled in its foundation and cracked in half while we were deployed. I guess we were all just too lazy.

I lived in a condemned barracks at Ft. Hood for over a year. It was not good living. A couple years later when I was married and had a kid, I had to file a complaint to have the mold issue dealt with while living at ft. Knox. They refused to fix it, or move me until that complaint was filed. Then right away they moved my family. This was all before 2010. This mold issue is as old as time. To say it’s cause by a lack of discipline is astonishing.

My barracks fllood with sewage on the first floor and was condemned temporarily until we had to use it due to having no more room on the upper floors. We also had thenpower go out during a snowstorm so we all (male and female) slept on beanbags in the MWR huddled up just to keep warm. This was in Washington DC

Sounds like the “General” is the type who made rank by throwing people under the bus and placing blame on others. When my family moved into new base housing in Idaho run by Balfour Beatty, a family down the street had to move out because the upstairs waste water line from their toilet was leaking inside the wall down to the first floor. Was that their fault, or half assed construction and inspections?

"Whose fault is it that the Army has the worst living conditions in the military, General?" "Well, clearly it is the lack of discipline of the soldiers who I force to live in subpar housing not complaining accurately or in a timely manner." This right here is the single most damning issue of the army. The incapability for the leadership to take responsibility for the state of their subordinates at almost EVERY level. And they ask why no one wants to join.

It blows my mind how much of a South Park running joke our government is

Privatizing facilities maintenance took away a whole set of transferable skills a soldier could learn and use to prosper after their discharge.

As someone who has worked alongside the construction industry, discipline can't fix fundemental problems of bad architectural design or old crumbling buildings. Cleaning mold and sealing leaks isn't going to bring those buildings magically up to code, they'll always be a hazard. It's a gigantic waste of money to skip out on making damn sure it gets done right the first time. What incentive is there for private companies to do it right if they can just squeeze money out of every problem they can create?

It's a leadership problem. They make the rules, budget, and put off maintenance to look good for superiors. I'm not even military and know this. It's common knowledge...

I can't imagine why recruiting and retention problems exist. Seriously though I served in the 80s and early 90s and I was told listen son you have some great points but the US Army has been in operations for over 200 years and I believe we have the formula for success. Thank you General Parker Ft. Rucker, Alabama.

I ETSed a few months ago and I was at Schofield for three years. Schofield is moist, yes. The barracks did have some discipline problems from time to time, yes. But EVERY barracks building I ever saw there including my own had black mould in the vents. This was pointed out to multiple SGT Majors including by me to my SGT Major. The response I got from my first SGT Major was that the buildings were historic (because many of them actually housed soldiers in the Second World War.) Then a new SGT Major came around and I showed him my personal vents, he said it was bad, told me to clean it. I cleaned it, but I made sure to show him that it was literally coming out of the air conditioning ducts. Then later in a sensing session I addressed the mould coming out of the vents with that same SGT Major. I will not name names. But this man straight up gaslighted me and told me that they had no proof that it was black mould and he made it clear that nothing would be done about it. This is not an isolated problem. This is an army wide problem. People are aware. All my NCOs had the same problems at their prior postings in Bragg, Bliss, Polk and several other posts. Leadership doesn't want to acknowledge the existence of this problem and would rather let shit roll down hill and put it on privates, specialists and soldiers living in housing. When the real problem is that the Army has done everything it possibly can to just keep using ancient facilities and not spend money to renovate them or build replacement facilities. This is why people leave the Army and then talk shit to their younger friends and try to convince them not to join. Because the Army is treating their soldiers like shit.

Former barracks manager from jblm: holy shit. Everything is now online and the civilians can pause the work request. They have 72hrs to check the issues. They can pause them so they don't "exceed" the 72hrs and not do it for one whole month, then delete it. I lost my mind on these civilians. I feel sorry for these soldiers. I really do.

When I was very young, 18 years old, I worked on a staffing assignment moving furniture into Army barracks after opening the boxes for the parts. I mainly stayed outside and broke the giant boxes down before sorting the parts, because I obviously wasn't the muscle on the job site and the foreman needed me to do something to keep me fully occupied. I was inside the barracks a couple of times, and once I saw a dark patch along one of the wall corners. At first I thought it was mold, but when I looked closer I realized it was a bedbug nest. I told my foreman, who promptly drove to a nearby staffing office to speak with someone. He came back with a Captain following him (I wasn't sure what his specific job was), and after spending a whole 5 seconds in the room, he returned to our foreman and just waved it off. From what I overheard of the conversation between them, the Captain "reassured" our foreman that the issue was being resolved and all of us could finish our job, that day. The Captain also looked like he was packing an extra 20 pounds around the hips, back in the late 90's while that was much less common. Especially in the military, but that's neither here nor there. At least he had the right size uniform. So we finished the job, I grabbed my time slip from the foreman, and I quickly went home to dispose of the set of clothing I was wearing along with my shoes. Luckily I had a spare pair. I never saw any signs of bedbugs in my car or home, and fortunately the barracks room in question was actually left empty and unoccupied. But those little fuckers spread like wildfire if no measures are ever taken to eradicate the original nest, and I wonder how far this infestation had actually spread.

They’re quickly condemning the dorms at ADAB because of some genius budgeting. Basically it’s all drop ceilings in an 80% humid environment. There’s a central air conditioner/dryer that died a long time ago. The rooms have their own A/Cs. So what’s happening is you have hot humid air on one side of a thin corrugated plastic ceiling tile, and cold dry air on the other. Resulting in so much moisture condensing in the attic that water would begin to leak from the ceiling. We were emptying 2 one gallon buckets twice a day. After 4 months of sleeping in mold, they finally condemned just a few of the rooms, even though they all share the same attic. Then someone’s ceiling caved in while they were sleeping, and the whole bay was condemned.

This dude really said THIS in a recruiting crisis. HOW is this dude a general if this is his decision making?

I was in 04-09, and the barracks at fort polk were mostly condemned, but they still made soldiers live in them, regardless of the asbestos and 1/4” of mold growing out of the walls.

I'm glad i stopped pursuing becoming a career officer. Once, I saw this level of corruption and knowing I would have to play the game if I wanted to advance, I just dropped it. The officers in our military are a disgrace to the uniform.

I went to A and C school in Virginia Beach for the Navy back in 2013. In my METAL lockers, I was advised to cover my uniforms and everything in plastic wrap.... And if this was 10 years ago, I can only imagine what kind of absolute crap those sailors are dealing with now!

The TAD barracks at the Yokosuka Naval Base was built in the 80's and its still in better shape than the barracks built twenty years ago. One of the maintenance guys straight up told me that the reason we couldn't cook in the community kitchen on each floor was because they were terrified of the stove spontaneously combusting if it was turned on or triggering a fire in the walls.

My “discipline issue” came when when I was moved from one condemned building to another condemned building a week before being sent to Germany for 6 months for Ukraine. After coming back all of my personal goods that I had locked up in the closet, like I was told to do, had mold on it. The bed, pillow , clothes, tv, everything thing, if I couldn’t save it I had to throw it out. Cost me hundreds of dollars to replace items I brought it to my leadership and never heard anything.

I'll never forget the two dead mummified squirrels hugging each other we found when trying to clean the mold from the abandoned barracks we were forced to move into after they had been condemned. We literally had to cut the condemned tape and sign off the doors to get into. The Bronchitis we all developed after living there for a month was pretty rough. Took me 6 months to get over. Ft Leonard Wood. Fun times.

At fort Campbell they moved us out of our company building to work on it…. It took 3 years for them to change all the windows and fix the AC they did nothing about the mold or the basement being flooded

Every barracks I was ever assigned to had an, "asbestos hazard" placard by the front doors. Wonder if that's a discipline problem too?

As a veteran and a father with with a son in the military dealing with this very issue, this really pisses me off. There is no reason the military should be using contractors to take care of military problems.

Our barracks were abysmal and the officers knew it, yet still they talked smack about people being constantly sick. We had days when more than half of the company was sick. I was sick for 5 of the 9 months I spent in there. From what I heard, on paper it was not good for living, but by the army logic we didn't live there, we were merely housed there.

Marine Veteran here. Anyone remember the "new" barracks that had a/c and plumbing issues in MCAS Beaufort? The black mold that was on those walls from the a/c was something else. Some dude, in a full hazmat suit, came in my room when I was just sleeping in my P.T. gear, to test it and clean it. We had to move out when the results came back. 😂 that was after the plumbing issue where if you flushed a toilet it would come out of the first floor bathrooms. Ask me if I re-enlisted.

My company was lucky enough to have a 1SG who actually took care of us when it came to living spaces and housing. It was one of the first things he took care of when he took responsibility. He even got one of my buddies, E-2 at the time, a house in the E-6 - O-3 housing neighborhood. He was always checking on the barracks constantly as well

I remember talking to a retired engineer in the Royal Air force about how a sergeant would walk around family barracks with white gloves to make sure they were being left spotless for the next family. When they started complaining the families were being put in substandard homes they immediately went into action. They fired the sergeants.

Man this triggers me a bit. I served in Ft. Hood where we had a mold problem, and I looked into it, as I had worked on AC units before I served. The AC units on the roof had never been properly serviced, the drip pans were completely full and not draining properly, there was corrosion, and water damage around all of them, they looked like they had never been serviced properly much less had any shock tabs in them to prevent mold. The filters were never changed, and they are supposed to be chaged at the most every 4-6 months. I submitted a complaint about the mold, to the company office that was supposed to be in charge of maintain everything for our buildings but their office was always locked up and never used so I bet the stupid complaint was sitting in there even after I left a few months later. I did this all after I got laid into during a room inspection for the mold all over the vents, and covering almost everything else after the room was opened while I was on leave and not there to try and clean it. Even after I took pictures of all the damage, and tried to explain how much we were being shafted to my chain of command nothing was done until a few weeks before I left, when they finally did a mold test and freaked out. Half the building was shut down and they spent probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to go in and remove the mold from several buildings. The stupid thing about all of that is that they could have prevented all of that if they would have done a bare minimum of maintenance on the AC systems. And not blamed the soldiers for having "dirty rooms".

As a wisco nasty girl, the old ft mccoy barracks used to be pretty brutal. They're being redone right now, but the new barracks... are... awful. Was there for a course this spring and the upper floor bathroom/shower room didn't have operating drains. That's right. Every time anyone showered, the floor flooded. I mean inches of water if it was more than one person. I had 2 E8's in that class with me. One of them ended up paying out of pocket for a hotel room off post. Shit was wild.

The only way the housing/barracks problem is going to get fixed is if Congress steps in and these General Officers are made to fear for their jobs. And I have no confidence that will ever happen.

I was in literally Condemned Barracks for C School in Cherry Point in 2010, we had to basically mustard gas ourselves every field day trying to get rid of the black mold on the ceilings.... only worked for a day later and it was back, and even failed some inspections because the mold just KEEPS. COMING. BACK.

It's the internal politics of the military that have convinced me to never shoot for E7 or higher in my career. Those E7's and up are always looking for an E4 and below to use as a scapegoat for their screwups because God forbid an E7 takes accountability. One of my former supervisors said I won't get a retirement ceremony or any respect if I retired as an E6. Dude why would I want that when I'm just an introvert who joined the military to pay the bills and survive? I didn't join for the free education, nor did I join to satisfy a sense of patriotic duty. I do it for the paycheck so I can stop living under my parent's basement. Survival is all I care about and I am not going to survive as a freeloader. Plus it would be hypocritical of me to retire as an E7. Why would I want to foster that E7's are superior mentality with a retirement ceremony when I very much disagree with it? You don't promote to E7 or higher without having some degree of bloated, power hungry, ambitious ego.

This is the reason I got out and the top reason I tell potential recruits not to sign up.

Two words that can never go together in the military. Leadership and accountability. They always pass the blame.

Nothing like the Army shooting their own foot

"There are no bad teams, only bad leaders."

I was in basic training starting august 10, 1965 at Fort Polk, LA. Heavy rains caused the cesspool to back up into our barracks. We were punished for this with extra duty and had to walk around in about six inches of sewage when using the latrine.

Yeah, the dicipline problem starts at the top with leadership (upper command) not giving a fuck about their troops, pushing the buck off onto someone else, and not taking any accountability for issues that they now are responsible to rectify. Also, seems like everybody in any position now just bends over and takes it without question. I guess this is what happens when you allow physical and moral standards to degrade, just so everybody can 'feel' better I'm lucky I was in a newer barracks when I was stationed at Ft. Stewart from 04-07. I had buddies that were in on base housing because they were married and they lived in older homes - Constantly heard about mold issues, among other things in the on base housing. Edit: To add on to this logic these dipshits seem to be using... If it's a dicipline problem, and mold has been happening at on base housing for 50+ years... Then all of the officers who have been in the military 20+ years are by their own definition - Undiciplined. Edit 2: LOL at 13:06, it's a 3rd ID dress uniform! Ahhh hahaahhaahahahah.

Something that I think is fairly common amongst the services is this: Leadership above the Battalion/Squadron/Ship level is extremely rare and even at these levels is 50/50. Neither of those men are leaders. They are managers.

The building I work in on JBAB took 3 years to get heat/AC… I was a leader and got talked to about continuing to bring up the issue. It just got addressed in Nov. so finally good.

Holy cow! Black mold?! That is one of the most dangerous "things" you can have in your house. Get out of the barracks immediately. 😵 Don't you even breath!

High ranking officers being completely out of touch id never have guessed.

LMAO at this! "Were you in the room?" 😂🤣😂🤣😂 I'm glad RU-vid let this one slip through. 🖖🏼😎🤙🏼

Ahh, Ft. McCoy, I was there in 91. We had what must've been WW2 barracks, ate at a different area that seemed concrete and crazy with all the units returning from the Gulf. Best memories were in the field, sleeping under the stars except for rain when we slept in or under the vehicles. I remember old barracks at Ft. Sill, seeing old barracks at Great Lakes as a kid, old barracks in Asia and Europe and I don't remember much about the insides. Ft. Sheridan isn't even there anymore, either.

I remember actually having mold in my barracks before I got out. I didn't even eat in my room or store food in it. The first person I went to was my 1SG, who said to put a work order in. I had 2 work orders in for it already, but I never got called back for those. Months go by, and now it's spreading from a chair, to my bags. I brought my 1SG with me to housing, and they said they'd have someone there in a few days. No one showed. Then, it came time for everyone in the B's to get moved out to another B's while ours had to get cleared of mold, since the mold was in the ac and the vents, and I wasn't the only one with mold issues. I remember sgm for the BN acting like I was dishonest and didn't tell anyone, and getting looked down on like it was my fault that there was mold in the first place. Even though, they knew there were multiple reports of mold.

From 1982 to 1985 I was stationed in Germany on a command sponsored tour. Since the number of Government owned units were insufficient, the Army contracted a German owned 23 floor highrise. My unit was on the 11th floor. Fantastic quarters, clean, close location, outstanding view of the German countryside. When I went to clear those quarters, I got "gigged" for not vacuuming out the window sills and for not cleaning off the motor under the refrigerator. Sounds to me like the civilian contractors are just sucking off Uncle Sam and the taxpayers. This shit didn't happen then.

We had these issues in the Air Force. I can't imagine how bad it is for the Army

I worked for a large installation's DPW for a couple years specifically on renovating barracks. Our ARMY standards, if followed, would keep the barracks immaculate. Our civilian/military contracting oversight, however, dont always care that much, so when the contractor screws up or something goes wrong, it is a really hard fight to win. Some of us civilians really do try and care though, we love you all, thank you for the sacrifices yall make every day! Oh, and I can't say specific numbers and it really varies installation to installation, but 1 mil is maybe enough to do a nice pretty little facelift, not actually fix the HVAC and electrical issues that CAUSE the barracks to suck! Think $7-15 mil per and then we can get some shit done right.

In 2003, I was on Ft Dix. There was a street with Army housing down one side and Air Force down the other. Army was all single sorry cinder blocks built in the 60s. Air Force was all brand new split level that anyone would be proud to live in. Best Air Force Recruiting poster ever

here is the entire video posted to FB. fb.watch/nZ0qXA_7IP/

Glad you reacted I was raging at this but I’m just a salty vet couldn’t imagine for the dudes still serving

A garbage can lid? Oh no, thats an alarm clock

Ah yes, my first deployment to the Middle East. I was about to learn that not only was I issued a moldy, roach infested, humid barracks room (Bahrain is insanely humid and hot), but I was also responsible for it being in that condition. Before anyone blames the Senior Chief in charge of those barracks, I'll say that many work orders and requests are put out. He's doing his job very well but nothing gets done about it. My DD-214 blanket is sooooo soft =)

Our military has become extremely tyrannical. I really dont understand how our lower ranks can be demoted or even dishonorably discharged for just criticizing their superiors. The stories tell of american soldiers being crazy and showing feats of honor and bravery, but now all i see are creeps at the top dictating what can and cant happen at the bottom

Back in '09, there was still bullet holes in the walls of my barracks from WW2

Never been military but when I lived in SC i saw my buddy's barracks, he kept shit clean and so did his neigbor on the other side of the bathroom and kitchen and it was shocking how bad the mold issue was, it genuinely made me angry the conditions they lived in especially when i saw the thermostat which was just a mechanical dial on a screw, no wires or anything. Which is hilarious considering how at the time they were promoting mental health because of how high the suicide rates were on base. Absolutely sad.

Just as a personal example, 2003, USAF tech school at Sheppard AFB, ground maintenance training dormitory, I decided to spend my weekend FIXING the black mold in the shower. Went to BX, bought cleaning products with my own dime, and went back and SCRUBBED. Hours on a Sunday. I was written up for it, actually got in serious trouble. Went I was put up for early promotion to E4 my leadership found my write up FOR CLEANING THE SHOWERS and my 1SGT actually tore the pages out. Literally I just wanted to fix the problems and got in trouble for it. Technically the "trouble" was because some of the cleaning products contained bleach, which I knew was prohibited, and I used it anyway. I think it was prohibited merely because of PPE and training requirements. But goddamn those showers hadn't been cleaned in YEARS, I was scraping layers of black mold off. Those dorms were the nastiest fucking place I have ever been in my life.

Our armory has had mold, broken overhead doors, rusted through walk-in doors, leaking roofs, inoperative heaters, busted showers and short circuiting light switches. For 5 years there has been maintenance tickets on all those issues. Nothing ever gets done.

I was stationed in JBLM in 2019. Well after I PCS’d from Hawaii. I ended up getting stuck in moldy barracks along with the rest of our company. Well, is joes did while our NCO’s got nice barracks that were recently built. We had no hot water for two or three weeks and everyone of us complained. They didn’t do anything at all to fix the issue. I ended up saying fuck it and asked one of my buddies if I can stay in his house on post till I ETS’d. I ended up staying with him till my last day there.

I loved breathing in all that discipline for 15 weeks at Fort Sill Basic/AIT

Seen rooms with fuzzy mold on the walls and holes in the sheetrock. On Camp Pendleton I heard stories about tubs falling through the floor and knew someone who found black mold after the water heater leaked and had to fight housing to get it taken care of.

No matter how hard you clean the Latrines, the mold will NEVER go away. Gotta love Fort Benning.

This mold and not taking care of the active members properly is a decades old habit that’s not just an Army issue but all services. I remember when I got stationed on the Frank Cable in Guam back in 2007/08 there weren’t hardly any barracks because they were finally rehabbing them out of necessity due to mold and all number of issues. So all the junior enlisted and unaccompanied Sailors were spread out in a section of condemned family housing buildings. Why were they condemned because of age, mold, broken things, and typhoon/flood damage. Which is somehow ok for those without families or wives but completely unacceptable for officers and anyone that had a dependent of any kind with them on post.

I was in bliss not too long ago.. actually housed in ft McGregor and the paint was peeling off the walls... i guess that paint needs to reach deep inside and find that discipline.. the thing about the shower vents.. yes totally, but at least the windows opened, and AC worked very very well lol

This should help recruitment and retention.

As a former Structures Journeyman stationed at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, “Discipline” isn’t the reason why mold starts growing or the fact that most buildings are barely surviving as it is, and that’s not even accounting for where you live in the world (Hawaii’s a rather humid climate so mold grows like wildfire). Most base housing is barely holding up and some didn’t even have working AC, and the contractors are either buried in work orders or just don’t do what properly needs to be done. I’ve had to go back to work orders that were closed years ago because the problem keeps happening. This General is so out of touch it’s just sad.

Thank you for being a voice for us brother. It really means a lot 🤙

I've stayed in this McCoy barracks a bunch and I'm baffled by the lack of ventilation in the bathroom. By the second day everything is wet and will stay wet unless you prop open the door to the hallway. How was this overlooked in design and inspection and keeps going year after year? But yet, they got all their green building certificates so everyone can pay themselves on the back.

I remember my battalion moved to a different area and my company went from a new barracks to an old shitter barracks. First morning in the new room me and my roomie wake up to 8 cockroaches scattered throughout the room, one of my friends woke up in his room with one on his head. Brought it up to our battalion CO and SGTMAJ when they came through for the first field day of the new barracks when they asked “how’s the new barracks” and they told me, “well marines you just have to learn how to clean better”. Turns out the vent system in our barracks was infested with cockroaches and it wasn’t until every platoon commander was complaining to the company CO that they got an exterminator crew to come out while we were in the field over a month later. And they wonder why people don’t re-enlist.

General, Sir, you do realize mold is a living thing that grows, yes? Shouldn’t it be because of a housekeeping company quality problem? Am I thinking too hard?

Always a head turning moment to hear my duty station mentioned in an AC video (Fort Bliss, TX)

I let one of my Soldiers borrow a dehumidifier like 6 months ago because his hanging uniforms would get mold on them whenever he went to the field and couldn't open his doors to let out humid air from the AC ducts. He still has it 6 months and 3 DPW work orders later. Also DFAC apps won't help a Soldier without a car drive across post to a different DFAC because theirs closed down for renovations for the second time that year.

Sounds like they have not changed in the 15 years since I was in. It is never the CO's fault.