YouTube video raises concerns about Bragg barracks

YouTube video raises concerns about Bragg barracks

www.fayobserver.com

Published on Friday, April 25, 2008

YouTube video raises concerns about Bragg barracks

By Greg Barnes
Staff writer

spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said Dole’s staff is contacting Fort Bragg and Pentagon officials today in response to a just-posted YouTube video that depicts soldiers living in deplorable conditions in a base barracks.

The spokeswoman, Amy Auth, said Dole’s office was unaware of the video until The Fayetteville Observer asked for a response this morning.

(visit the link for the full news article)


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This is insane! Ed Frawley, the soldier's father, created a video about this decay of fort bragg barracks that you can find here on youtube:
www.youtube.com...

www.fayobserver.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It's sad that soldiers that serve your country get worse treatment than prisoners in your country. I feel bad for these people, I hope that this is just a bad example and not the typical treatment of your troops.

man my air force base was better then that as it was built around the same time. I remember the hangers being the dirtiest.

Our dorms were rebuilt brand spankin new. this is sad.

WTH! ;p

Get with the program US Gooberment, treat our soldiers right. they are living worse then the migrant slave camps in the south .

When I was in the Air Force I remember the buildings always being really nice except for when I was in Tech school. Our dorm building had been built in the early sixties but was still remarkably better than these.

On the CNN video I posted there is the commander trying to explain why it happened but his excuse really doesn't make sense nor does it explain why noone was making sure the dorms were safe or in decent repair. The crap and piss that probably still fills up the bathroom is 3 inches deep! That isn't just a cleanliness/maintenance problem but a contamination problem. The CNN video goes on to say that attention has been focused on the new dorms which have been being built and will soon house the troops but that isn't an excuse either. So far no explanation or excuse has really accounted for this.

When I was stationed at Eielson AFB we had a guy who was so trashy he literally stacked up trash in his dorm room in piles. He was probably the grossest guy I've ever seen. He ended up getting kicked out for being too overweight but during a dorm inspection his room was discovered like that and the first sergeant took photos of his room and sent it out to everyone in the squadron as an example of what can happen if you don't care about cleanliness.

Now you have these guys who have been in Afghanistan (who are sergeants no less) serving our country honorably who are coming home to their dorm and finding crap and piss 3 inches deep and sewer gases entering the building which is supposed to be on a respectable army base(noone knows how long it had been going on). Inexcusable. It will be interesting to see what happens now that the politicians are getting involved.

-ChriS

[edit on 28-4-2008 by BlasteR]

I can't speak for the unit living in these conditions, but as a former Marine, I would rather go back to the field (its cleaner) than live in the barracks shown in this video.
The excuse that they arrived 3 weeks early, doesn't wash as the base had 15 months to take care of the problems and/or build new barracks, as they said they would.
We need to stop spending money on Dubya's war and aid to countries like Egypt (2 Billion per year, as of 2005), and start giving our troops clean safe living conditions and (Blasphemy) a living wage.
While I'm at it we could use our National Gard for what they were intended for, National Protection, bring them home and use them to assist the Border Patrol.

Edit for spelling

[edit on 28-4-2008 by RedmoonMWC]

This is disgusting.

Hopefully the major news networks will pick it up and a General will be looking for a new job.

That is just horrible. How can the US military allow such disrepair to continue, and how on Earth would they think it's ok to put men in these conditions? This is hazardous, they need comfort, not more danger. They deserve it after being sent into war to collect a debt for the US corporations. The least they can do is FIX this or get these men new accommodations NOW!

this is a Command problem, there is ONE person responsible for this, they had to sign off on those barracks, so there is a paper trail.

I am going to bet it is some one the has politically ties, this type of incompetence smells to much like government lacky's work.

who wants to bet this is a "future" president at work.....................


"the futures so bright, I gotta wear shades...

Oh please, I've lived in worse, yeah someone should do some repairs, but common, this is a little silly to me.
Pealing paint? Rust? Mold? that's normal living conditions for me, I've lived in apartments that were worse cause I couldn't afford any better, these guy's have it easy compared to what I've went through.
How about waking up with cockroaches crawling all over you, or no heat or air and the landlord won't pay for it to be fixed, flushing the toilet is a gamble cause the piping is screwed up so you have poop sitting in the toilet for weeks, so you have to go to a gasstation to use the bathroom, how about not being able to take a hot shower in the winter and and having to warm up water in a pan over the stove and pouring it in the tub, man I've had it much worse than these guys and it's not that big of a deal to me.
It looked kinda funny that one guy standing in a sink trying to planger the drain lol, millitary folks have no sense of fixing problems.

-Jimmy

Originally posted by jimmyjackblack
Oh please, I've lived in worse, yeah someone should do some repairs, but common, this is a little silly to me.

Pealing paint? Rust? Mold? that's normal living conditions for me, I've lived in apartments that were worse cause I couldn't afford any better, these guy's have it easy compared to what I've went through.
How about waking up with cockroaches crawling all over you, or no heat or air and the landlord won't pay for it to be fixed, flushing the toilet is a gamble cause the piping is screwed up so you have poop sitting in the toilet for weeks, so you have to go to a gasstation to use the bathroom, how about not being able to take a hot shower in the winter and and having to warm up water in a pan over the stove and pouring it in the tub, man I've had it much worse than these guys and it's not that big of a deal to me.
It looked kinda funny that one guy standing in a sink trying to planger the drain lol, millitary folks have no sense of fixing problems.

-Jimmy

Great one-up-manship. It is illegal for building to have those conditions for a reason. Just cause you don't mind doesn't mean the rest of us don't.

Simply ridiculous, but I can't expect anything else from our Gov't at his point in time. And didn't this get brought to their attn. years ago? I think the vid backed that up.

I wrote my 3 congressmen, basically thanking them for 'doing such a fine job of taking care of the well-being of our troops' and sent the Ytube link. Do ya' think they'll understand my sarcasm? I wouldn't count on it.

I lived in these barracks from 1986-1990 and they were almost as bad then the thing is,that the video doesn't mention is that unless things have changed the barracks are sealed shut during extended deployment. Now as for the peeling paint and the missing fountains I'm pretty sure that didn;t happen in just the 15 months they were gone last. When I was there "we" as in the guys living there had to fix and clean the building unless it was electrical or structural so unless these guys are given no supplies to do maintenance with it's their job to fix it up, it was ours when I was there, but we weren't spending a year and a half in a foreign country either.We always envied the guys who got BHS and lived "off post" but only the married guys or E7's or higher get BHS. Ft Bragg is building new barracks of course as usual the infantry guys get theirs last.
They deserve better no doubt, but I don't think it is a travesty or anything.

I suppose the militairy has gone soft on everything ... just like our government schools... we cant have our soldiers cleaning and painting now can we.. that would be to much of a hardship... when I was in ... someone would of gotten shot for letting conditions get that bad... we cleaned and scrubbed and painted all the time... you could of eaten out of the urinals.. everything was spottless..

When the Berlin Wall came down, I recall similar images of military bases in the eastern block.

If ever there was evidence of our continuing decline, this is just as good.

What a freakin' disgrace.

It seems clear to me that history will re-write the ending of the Cold War and speak of our own subsequent implosion.

:shk:

[edit on 29-4-2008 by loam]

reply to post by projectvxn


Yeah no kidding! I understand that some people are forced to live in conditions like this but noone wants to live like that. The bigger point is also that this is the U.S. Army on a well known respectable Army base in Ft. Bragg.

They just put millions of dollars into building new dorms for some of troops at Ft. Bragg. For the military, quality of life is extremely important. The problem is that the current building that these troops lived in was ignored and fell into disrepair probably even as troops complained. How it could possibly go this far is a clue to the degree of negligence and ignorance of the commanding officers who failed to get the job done. The only reason we are even hearing about this is because one of the troops' fathers was made aware and went public.

Just because you have lived in conditions or don't mind living like this doesn't make it right.

From www.cnn.com...

Dad: 'Good things are happening' after Fort Bragg video

Edward Frawley said Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Dick Cody called him on Monday to say that he shared his anger and that there was no excuse for soldiers living in such conditions.

"He talked to me for 30 minutes, and I believe what he said," Frawley told "American Morning." "He said he wouldn't want his sons coming back and going into these kinds of living conditions, and he just said somebody dropped the ball and they're going to fix it."

Frawley said the Army had promised to have new barracks ready when his son's unit, part of the 82nd Airborne Division, returned from Afghanistan.

"The conditions depicted in Mr. Frawley's video are appalling and unacceptable, and we are addressing the concerns he expressed," Maj. Tom Earnhardt, spokesman for the 82nd Airborne, said in a written statement.

"Our paratroopers are our most valuable resource, and our commitment is to their well-being. Our actions now must represent the best we can do for our soldiers."

He added, "Fundamentally, we acknowledge these conditions are not adequate by today's standards. The images in Mr. Frawley's video are alarming, and our soldiers deserve the best conditions we can provide as an institution."

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina is among government officials who have responded to the video. In a written statement, she called living conditions in the barracks "unacceptable" and said the situation "must be immediately corrected."

A group of congressional staffers toured Fort Bragg on Tuesday.

(CNN's Mary Lynn Ryan)

-ChriS


[edit on 29-4-2008 by BlasteR]

I'm not going to say that those conditions are hunky-dory, or that they should be living like that, but I have lived in far worse conditions for a lot more than the $145 that father was talking about. Try and find an apartment in NY for less than a grand. At least you can eat the rats if you get hungry enough I suppose though.

Not to mention the fact that there are many Americans who live in far worse conditions than that, and they also have to pay taxes to support these troops who volunteered.

Please don't misunderstand me, I don't agree that these troops should be living like this, but let's put some objective perspective on this. Notice how the guy's son went out and got a Spongebob toilet seat. The other guy could have done that too, instead of the cardboard rig. Painting, cleaning, I'm sure the Army would give them the stuff they needed to clean the place up if they filled out the requisition.

The biggest problem I see is the septic problem. It happens. It should be fixed certainly, but stuff like that happens when building set for a long time.

This is hardly the travesty that is being portrayed.

[edit on 4/29/0808 by jackinthebox]

reply to post by jackinthebox


Yeah, my rathole appartment cost $375, sucked, but it was a roof over my head, at least I wasn't homeless (at that time).

reply to post by jimmyjackblack


My last place was more than half a grand every month and included nothing. I had to pay for my own heating oil even though there was no storm door or windows, and the place was like a wind tunnel because of the huge hole in the bathroom where the wall never got replaced after the tub fell into the non-insulated basement. Also in the non-insulated basement was the hot water tank that ran constantly in the cold weather, on my bill, as well as the well pump that was on my electric meter, that pumped water contaminated by sewage and the gas station next-door that shut down after their tanks began to rupture. I could go on of course.


EDIT to add: And I can't even afford that castle now, and am living out of my car.

[edit on 4/29/0808 by jackinthebox]

I can see why the building is falling into disrepair since they are building new barracks.
It doesn't excuse why soldiers have to live in dorms like this.The biggest issues I see are the peeling paint,the sewer gas leaks and the mold.These are real health issues and I'm surprised that the building hasn't been condemned.
It's really nice that some fancy ass brass has commented on this.It's funny that he comments after the video was posted and didn't take care of things sooner.
I see lots of back pedaling here.