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!
Donald Trump isn’t going to fix this. He has no clue. The only way to fix this is through Congress. When the post Commander of Ft Jackson comes before Congress to get his next star, the Senate needs to drop this incident in front of him and say, ” The forces under your command couldn’t fix a broke toilet. You don’t deserve the rank you got. Promotion denied.”
I bet things will start looking up across the board after that.
Sounds like a good idea but a bad plan, ANCRN. I got more curious about BB and did a Google Foo on them, and others that have the Military Housing Contracts. Talk about a rabbit hole! Seems like the way the Congress Critters set this up, the installation commander has little power to enforce these contractors and it is nearly impossible to cancel the contract. Much of it goes back to 1996 when the DoD pushed for placing housing under contract to “…save money…”
Wanna get more pissed about this? Check this linky out. Full disclosure…take your BP Meds. Grrrrr! Put Congress Critters quarters on this program. Betcha betcha it’ll get fixed.
https://www.pogo.org/investigations/from-toxic-mold-to-rampant-fraud-how-privatizing-military-housing-became-a-nightmare-for-soldiers
Well, I was half right, Congress is the source of the fix. Still think more generals need to be called on the carpet for this. The old “I am responsible for all my command does, or fails to do.”
Nearly everything that is “contracted out” end up working less efficiently, regardless of cost.
Mold at Ft.Bliss?? I always thought mold needed water to grow, and thee ain’t no water at Ft.Bliss. Even the Rio Grande ain’t so Grande.
Since this happened in 2022, that Commander has already moved on. Good news is, that he did not get his third star, and he retired.
Did Fort Jackson get its housing problem fixed? Nope.
Grab them by the balls, and their hearts and minds will surely follow.
Sounds like Balfour Beatty is about as ethical as APL.
The fines are probably calculated business expenses.
The millions spent in fines are less than the profit made from not fulfilling the contract.
Maybe this administration could send The Bobs on a DoD tour.
I meant incoming administration 🥱
I was the last occupant living on my street at Fort Ord before it closed. Inspector came to clear me but I first had to replace a pair of dead light bulbs.
-10/-20 standards, as always.
So sorry. $100s of billions sent to the Ukraine and Israel means YOU GET NOTHING.
GOOD DAY SIR.
I wonder if Balfour Beatty Communities LLC is a subsidiary of All-Points Logistics?
Someone should call The False Commander “Phony” Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics) and inquire.
Yes. On-post housing is garbage.
The projects…
Fire hazard. Inadequate electrical wiring, nsufficient water pressure, no fire walls between units. Rodents, insects. Nope!
The current administration takes better care of ILLEGAL ALIENS than it does our Military personnel.
It sure sounds like a blanket counseling session is in order for the BB boobs. (Isn’t that the cup size of their wives?)
Any discussion of housing is incomplete without mentioning the cash-suck that is the horror of maintaining the historic homes. I loved living in mine one time-actually my all-time favorite military housing area-but, man was it hard to maintain them. Add the privatized contractor plus low occupancy plus high costs required to maintain them to historical standards, and you get a nightmare.
Some families had horror stories of leaks and mold while I simply had bad plumbing which would result in a large brown monster trying to climb out of the basement toilet bowl and bathtub drain every couple of months, followed by the resultant week-long process of beating the creature back down into the pipes and then sterilizing the whole area.
Aaaah, the good old days!
I lived in Military Family Housing only once in 24 years. I lived in the barracks as an enlisted, but it was maintained by the Soldiers. DPW was actually Soldiers with a few civilian Wage Grade (WG) electricians and plumbers. I moved out as soon as I could in Italy when I became an NCO, not that I didn’t mind being in a room with six other NCOs (sarc)!
I lived in Housing on Fort Leavenworth. Since my wife and I did not yet have kids they were going to stick us in the bachelor housing (and foreign students)… boy was I happy they moved us to available family quarters right next to the school house. Yeah, so they had parking on the street (I got a ticket for not moving my corvette in the snow). Yeah they had narrow stairs (a lot of our bedroom set ended up in the living room because it couldn’t fit up the stairs). It was at least 50 years old, and had a little bit of lead paint under the eight to eleven coats (which is why they graciously let us move in with no kids…we had to sign a memorandum not to lick the walls). But hey it was nice being able to walk home for lunch every day!! Or to the golf course (two blocks)!
Broken AC?????
You mean, you guys get air conditioned barracks?
I’m jealous!
TBF….only the bases in Onterrible and Quebec need AC in the shacks.
I remember spending one awful summer in the shacks at CFB Borden. It was near 100F with about 90% humidity. This was back when smoking was allowed in the barracks.
At night, the concrete ceiling would often drip nic/tar infused condensation on us.🤢
Whatever happened to living off post and drawing a housing allowance?
I’d be surprised if current housing allowances come close to covering rent most places.
Local rents are generally based on BAH rates in military towns. And when I say “based on”, I mean “inflated to” in most cases.