US Military Bases Are Falling Apart

While the US has some of the world's most state-of-the-art equipment, it's military bases are another story. Many are falling apart, and the repairs are only getting more costly. In this episode of America Uncovered, we look at the dilapidated conditions at some of the bases, why repairs have been deferred for so long, and what's being done to fix them up.

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[Cris-xygi]

Our defense budget is approaching 1 trillion dollars, and only a minuscule faction of it goes to military infrastructure. Incredible.

[Mrdsmith]

I was a commercial building automation technician for over 30 years. I worked at many bases in so AZ. I did some work at fort Huachuca, an army base. The control system in a main building was hanging by a thread. It was a Johnson Controls system installed in the mid '90s. It had a backup for the code running it inside the cabinet. A floppy disk. No one would be able to install it anyway, the software is long gone, unsupported for almost 20 years now. No one has it. Once that controller goes, that's it. The chillers, pumps and everything mechanical is really old and band-aided. No private business would try to use such outdated equipment as parts are near impossible to find and the equipment is very inefficient and costly to operate.

[VoodooLegacy]

And they wonder why no one wants to join the military. The contractors get rich, and the actual service members get nothing.

[stacceyes]

Was more important to kick out over 8, 000 for refusing the vaccine. Housing and infrastructure takes years to get approval. Even to replace carpet takes years!

[tanksouth]

A city I used to live in had several military bases. I worked for a general contractor. 90% of our work was on the bases. It was nonstop. Mainly renovations.
It completely dried up with President Clinton.

[peppolobuondelmonte]

But because military institutions have become completely curropt and far removed from the ancient ways...
-Machiavelli, Niccolo The Art of War Preface

[shawnespinoza]

As a soldier who has been in the Army for nearly 20 years I can say there are several factors contributing to this dilemma.
1: The contracting system is ridiculous. If the military enumerates what will be the responsibilities of the contractor the contractor usually waits till something is a problem or makes inferior repairs. Contractors do the absolute minimum to adhere to the contract. Any money they can save by mowing the lawn less frequently or deferring a repair is pure profit. Also, many contractors will subcontract some of the responsibilities so there is less direct control of maintenance.
2: The army, in its infinite wisdom, will spend thousands of dollars earmarked for repairs and maintenance just before tearing the building down. If you know you are replacing a building save the money. I understand that is not how budgets work, but still.
3: And this is a big one that I am also guilty of- soldiers do little to no maintenance or upkeep because we always assume there is a highly paid civilian that will do it for us. We do not clean or treat facilities well because it is always, “someone else’s responsibility “. If we are not directed to ever do something we tend to not do it or do the least amount possible.
In your episode you mentioned how the Army set its lifecycle for buildings at 36 years and when you went over the Air Force had theirs at 18 years and complaining about their poor state. This leads me to my final point the Pentagon likes to complain about something so the can ask for more money to fix a problem they neglected and or spent the money elsewhere. They know the public doesn’t want our military to live in low quality buildings so the would readily want to spend more to bring them up to standards. When the money isn’t spent the way it should have been they then go back to congress and say it wasn’t enough. Like when there is a budget crisis in a city or state and they threat to cut spending on education and public safety FIRST, because they know people do not want to see those budgets cut. In reality there is plenty of waste or pet projects that could be cut but the public wouldn’t want to fund those… I digress.
The reality is I have been in brand new barracks that are amazing, and in buildings that had mold everywhere in the latrines and you did not want to touch the walls or anything you didn’t have to (Fort Polk).

[NuclearWinter]

They have the money but fixing infrastructure doesn’t help the generals friends at Lockheed. If you can’t fix plumbing and mold with 1 trillion dollars you should be dishonorable discharged and stripped of rank

[jamoecw]

actually the reason why facilities are falling apart is because of government contracts keeping the military from maintaining their own facilities. they are required to pay private contractors to do so, but they have to train troops to do the same job who are not allowed to do that job since it was given out to contractors. in other words the military when faced with budget cuts need to determine if doing their job where they are required to do it or to pay for some contractors to do their job at home is more important. anything that has a government contract with the military has this problem.

[yato]

as somone who lived in barracks that were at least 60 years old on camp Lejeune, i can confirm. it was quite common for the water heater to break so everyone had to shower with cold water and the power would go out about every 2 months.

[algernoncalydon]

One of the problems is that the government has regulated construction to the point it can't afford it anymore. Then there is the environmental impact statements, etc. Instead of building a facility for 9 million, it costs 90 million. There's a point at which the government regulations get so burdensome that it starts to seriously affect itself. Take the local border station coming from Canada to Alaska. To provide housing facilities for a half dozen border personell it is expected to cost $750, 000, 000. That's nearly a billion dollars. Why? Regulations, environmental impact, remediation, tearing down old buildings with asbestos, having to dig down to bedrock 40 feet to support the two foot thick concrete walls of the facilities, etc.

[paulmcdonald]

As a Veteran & DOD Contractor, this has been true for the last 30 years. At one base, the GIs named one of the Barracks "Beruit." Three to four men squeezed into a room for two. Also, the first-floor common latrine would flood every time a toilet was flushed.

[algernoncalydon]

One example why. At Eielson Air Force Base they planned on expanding a building. After they dug into the ground to prepare to pour the foundation everyone in the vicinity got terribly sick from the fumes that rose up out of the very polluted ground. So they just put the dirt back in the hole and forgot about it.

[algernoncalydon]

Makes me want to sign up. Moldy living quarters, moldy rat infested schools, facilities that are held together with ducks tape, gastrointestinal distress, etc. Sounds good. Hey, they could just round up the homeless and put them in the army, air force and navy, they'd be used to those conditions.

[matthewhodge]

3:15 quality black screen advertisement. Incredible product. I need this in my life. Everybody needs one.

[Acda-cs]

As a current service member I can tell that in all honesty, they just don't care that the bases and infrastructure is falling apart.

[PhoenixRCCrawler]

When I was in, everything was old and broken. Some of it was left over from the Second World War and Korean Conflict. If you think these guys have it too soft go live that way for a month.

[adamcavanaugh]

Me, who lived in WWII barracks in 2008. I'm shocked.

And didn't you know? Every soldier's secondary MOS *is* Janitor.

[ZenThruAnger]

I can attest to that hard fact. Proper maintenance not a high priority, and with temporary fixes being the normal, they go by the mantra "If it's still usable then it ain't really broken." Also, if it's broken there is nothing else, so make do with it anyway. But this seems selective only to certain departments while other groups get new plush leather chairs and office furniture that get used once in a while.

[rustyshackelford]

My grandpa passed away last year from Gleoblastoma, water is life, and death. Thanks uncle sam.