Trump: DO Something Part 2

Did we mention quarters? I was going to but chow halls ran a bit long and I like to keep the articles somewhat succinct. Let’s talk about that “someplace to live” part.

We are seeing far too many articles about substandard housing. Poor maintenance, mold, broken unrepaired windows, broken A/C or heating – the list goes on. Think we read recently that Marines are having to fix their own barracks in California due to widespread issues? Let’s go to the other coast and visit Fort Jackson:

Travis Wilson, a military chaplain, and his wife Jaclyn signed the lease for a house on the Fort Jackson military base in December 2022 and moved in with their six children shortly after.

An upstairs toilet overflowed almost as soon as the family moved in. When maintenance workers arrived, they “simply locked the door to the bathroom and said they would return later.” While the Wilsons waited for the maintenance crew to return, sewage leaked through the ceiling and into the kitchen below, according to the complaint.

When the workers returned, they claimed to have fixed the problem. But in early March 2023, the upstairs toilet overflowed again, and again the sewage leaked into the ceiling and then the kitchen below the upstairs bathroom.

“Instead of fixing the problem, [maintenance crews] removed the toilet and put it in the adjacent tub for weeks,” the complaint continues.

During the time of the second sewage leak, the Wilsons’ children were living in the house. A child who was 4 years old in March 2023, identified in the complaint as M.W., contracted a dangerous bacterial infection that affects brain function and motor skills, which the Wilsons believe was caused by the sewage.

Now, the family is suing Fort Jackson Housing LLC and Balfour Beatty Military Housing Management LLC for a laundry list of causes, including negligence, false and misleading marketing practices and the infliction of emotional distress.

Providing safe living conditions on military bases has been a problem nationwide for years. In 2018 and 2019, the news outlet Reuters published an investigation that found military families were living in squalid conditions in privately-managed properties on military bases across the U.S. The report found mold, rodents, dangerous wiring and more problems.

Balfour Beatty has also been in hot water recently. In December 2021, Balfour Beatty Communities LLC pleaded guilty to defrauding the military and agreed to pay $65 million in fines and restitution. Balfour Beatty Military Housing Management LLC is currently being sued in Georgia and Texas for allegedly providing unsafe living conditions to military families on bases in those states. Military.com

Good thing Wilson’s a sky pilot, I suspect a combat arms NCO would have leveled Balfour Beatty by now. A little hyperbole there, folks, Ed gets upset if I advocate things like arson.

Back to the topic at hand. We all know what is at the root of this – BB is seeemingly like all the other MIC contractors, trotters knee-deep in the public trough. Charge the government the most while providing the least. Well, it’s screwing us and it’s screwing our kids.

The new Republican regime wants to earn my respect? Start taking care of our people! Start by addressing the current enlisted’s problems.  See why this bankrupt system of privatization isn’t working, ride the guilty parties out of town on a rail, put some teeth in government contracts, and make it right! Personally, I don’t really care about pardoning January 6 idiots, that is less than a thousand people. Obamacare actually seems to be helping some folks get some sort of coverage. Me, I’m selfish: I want to see these politicians who claim to love the military and veterans so much do one simple thing.

Prove it.

Category: Army, Congress sucks, Pentagon, Trump!