Latest news with #Barracks2030
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Guam barracks conditions spur Navy-wide housing inspection
Mold-infested walls, exposed electrical wiring and other subpar living conditions at Andersen Air Force Base's military barracks in Guam prompted a recent Navy-wide review of all unaccompanied housing, according to a new investigative report from an independent government watchdog. After Navy Secretary John Phelan saw Andersen's Palau Hall barracks during a May 2 visit, he immediately ordered sailors and Marines to be moved out within 10 days, according to a report published by the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, last week. Photos of Palau Hall barracks obtained by POGO show exposed wires, walls with mold that had been painted over and damaged plumbing. 'I actually thought the buildings were condemned,' Phelan told POGO. 'When we pulled up to them and saw what shape they're in, I was shocked.' By May 22, three weeks after Phelan's visit, 25 Marines and 48 sailors had left the barracks. About 21,000 people affiliated with the U.S. military live in Guam, a U.S. territory that houses Andersen Air Force Base, Naval Base Guam and Marine Corps Base Camp Blaz. The report claims Phelan's move to open new barracks at Camp Blaz ahead of schedule last month was, in part, a response to the lackluster conditions he witnessed at Andersen. After Phelan's visit, Vice Adm. Scott Gray, commander of Navy Installations Command, sent a scathing email to Navy leaders May 5, describing 'clearly unacceptable living conditions' at the barracks, according to an email obtained by POGO. Gray's email ordered inspections of all barracks housing sailors to be conducted no later than May 27 and demanded service members be moved to more livable quarters if their barracks were found to be poorly maintained. In the email, Gray instructed inspectors to use the 'Washington Post' test, in which those looking at living conditions should ask themselves whether they could defend the state of the barracks if a report in the legacy paper were published, according to the report. In an interview with POGO, Gray acknowledged some Navy barracks could be classified as being in poor condition and pledged a 'colossal effort' to improve sailors' quality of life. 'I'm not going to let up until we get to where we need to be,' Gray told POGO. 'Where I can say I am proud of every barracks that we have.' Conditions in other barracks at Andersen were not markedly different from those of Palau Hall, according to an Air Force spokesperson who spoke to POGO. There are five permanent party dormitory facilities at the Guam base, according to the Air Force. When reached for comment, the Air Force reiterated its commitment to providing safe and adequate living conditions for airmen. Barracks 2030 isn't a 'fix it and forget it' effort, USMC leaders say 'We prioritize permanent party unaccompanied housing requirements with dedicated facility sustainment, restoration, and modernization funds in accordance with our 4-year Dorm Master Plan,' an Air Force spokesperson told Military Times in an emailed statement. Dorm leaders inspect facilities daily, and if degraded conditions are observed, immediate repairs, as well as long-term investments, are provided, according to the spokesperson. The spokesperson identified damage from Typhoon Mawar in May 2023 as a contributing factor to barracks conditions and said the service was prioritizing funds for renovating dorms and providing alternate housing options to service members. The Navy also pledged its unwavering dedication to service members. 'Sailors' well-being is a priority for the Navy and it's critical to their wellness to have a safe, comfortable place to call home, whether they're staying on a Navy base or in barracks belonging to another Service, such as with Andersen Air Force Base,' said Destiny Sibert, a Navy spokesperson. POGO interviewed a Naval officer, who spoke under the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, about their experience being stationed on the island. 'Anybody that's been to Guam can tell you … if you're living on base, you're going to be in crappy quarters,' the officer told POGO, according to the report. Subpar living conditions in military barracks have long been a problem for many junior service members, and the services have taken steps in recent years to address them. The Marine Corps has pledged nearly $11 billion to overhaul its barracks as part of a massive housing renovation effort dubbed Barracks 2030. The program, which Marine Corps leaders said won't officially start until 2026, will add new furniture to housing and repair rooms. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's recently introduced 'Big Beautiful Bill,' which passed the House on May 22 and is awaiting confirmation in the Senate, includes $1 billion in barracks maintenance for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force, the report said. The report's author, René Kladzyk, told Military Times over the phone that she was still receiving anonymous tips regarding the Guam base's poor conditions after the report's publication. While sailors and Marines had been moved out of the barracks, 430 airmen and soldiers remained, according to Kladzyk. 'I think that it's important to emphasize that although we saw a pretty sweeping response from Navy officials to learning about these conditions at Andersen Air Force Base, we didn't see the same response from Air Force officials who I reached out to over email,' Kladzyk said.
Yahoo
02-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Head Navy officer lists top tasks for service, eyes 2027
The U.S. Navy's highest-ranking officer detailed the service's priorities in light of projected adversarial timelines at a Washington defense conference Thursday. Adm. James W. Kilby delivered a state of the Navy address at Modern Day Marine, where he spoke of fortifying the naval service through recruiting efforts and investments in emerging technology, among other goals, in an effort to prepare for China's alleged military readiness goal over the next two years. 'Our focus is 2027, and I want everyone's focus to be on 2027,' Kilby said. 'We are responding to a call from our adversary China who said, 'We want to be ready in 2027.' Therefore, the United States Navy, and I would argue our military, must be ready in 2027 across all our platforms.' Preparation for the goalpost year was broken down into several parts. The first was to ensure that 80% of aircraft, submarines and ships were combat-ready. Kilby said that resources not undergoing maintenance needed to be 'ready to go' and available for fleet commanders responding to battle. The Navy would continue to incorporate robotic and autonomous systems into the fleet, achieving a hybrid fleet of manned and unmanned systems. He identified the need for recruiting to fully stock ships with sailors, especially with 23,000 manning gaps at sea. 'I want to burn those down as quickly as possible so that ship is ready and able to perform its mission,' Kilby said. Quality of service investments were integral, too, a sentiment echoed by Marine Corps leaders earlier in the week. Kilby specifically mentioned the Barracks 2030 initiative, a nearly $11 billion effort to renovate Marine Corps housing, and promised better Wi-Fi and parking for sailors. Top Marine calls for affordable, lethal and autonomous systems The chief naval officer lastly emphasized the importance of warfighter competency — investing in technologies like live virtual constructive training to better prepare sailors for adversarial encounters — and restoring critical infrastructure, such as piers and runways, as the service focuses on strengthening its presence in the Pacific. Kilby provided a backdrop for the Navy's efforts, contextualizing the global landscape. 'We are now in a contested environment,' he said. This was a break from years past, when the service had waded through a more uncontested environment, according to Kilby. Key tenets of naval operation, such as communication, radar and interactions between sailors and chain of command, are more important than ever, he said, especially in the increasingly hostile Indo-Pacific region with adversaries like the Iran-backed Houthi Rebels wreaking havoc in the Red Sea. The Navy's major mission for a long time had been power projection, the practice of transporting a mobile airfield to a location and using destroyers to launch 'power ashore,' according to Kilby. In the uncontested environments of yesteryear, the feat was relatively easy, he explained. Now, the script has flipped. With the way things have unfolded in the now-contested environment of the Indo-Pacific, it's imperative to assert control of the sea from a multitude of domains, including air, space, surface and subsurface, Kilby said. Traditionally, the Navy adopted an approach of bringing Marines from sea to shore. However, there are new opportunities to invert that dynamic and bring Marine power from shore to sea. The ability to fire an anti-ship missile from shore at a choke point, or the ability to operate G/ATOR on the ground, achieved newfound significance and importance as a result of this new dynamic, according to the chief of naval operations.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Barracks 2030 isn't a ‘fix it and forget it' effort, USMC leaders say
Improving barracks conditions and investing in personnel quality of life is paramount to maintaining Marine Corps readiness, service leaders said Tuesday at a Washington defense conference. Panelists at Modern Day Marine — including Lt. Gen. James Adams III, Maj. Gen. Ryan Rideout, and Maj. Gen. Jason Woodworth — vowed to forge ahead with the massive Barracks 2030 overhaul in order to fix dilapidated Marine Corps housing. 'The idea is not to fix it and forget it,' Adams said. 'It's to fix it correctly and then maintain it, because, quite frankly, we got ourselves into the position we're in now because we didn't fix it and we did forget it.' Barracks 2030, announced in early 2024 with a target completion date of 2037, is a nearly $11 billion overhaul of Marine Corps barracks that primarily house unmarried troops. The plan promises to repair rooms, update furniture and professionalize housing management. Marine Corps barracks have come under fire in years past for documented problems with mold, broken appliances and vermin. Adams said Barracks 2030 sat firmly at the top of the Marine Corps Commandant's unfunded priority list, which is a wishlist of necessities that fall outside of the service's budget. The program doesn't officially start until 2026, Woodworth clarified, so a portion of the renovations and revamping won't apply to service members leaving before then. However, the Marine Corps had already installed new furniture in 109 buildings since the program was announced and spent about $125 million in 2024 on renovation and repairs, according to Woodworth. The Marines' unmanned ground vehicle will look a lot like the Army's It was revealed at Modern Day Marine that the renovation plan had run into a slight hitch, but the goal remained the same. Leaders agreed the investments were desperately needed to revive the declining conditions of the housing facilities. 'I grew up — my first duty station was Camp Pendleton back a couple years ago — and I didn't even recognize Mainside because the buildings and facilities had fallen into such disrepair,' Adams said. But he had reason to be optimistic. When Adams met with new Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, he said he expected Feinberg to focus on designs and weapons systems. Instead, he went a different route. 'He wanted to talk about Barracks 2030,' Adams said. Demolition would also be an integral part of the 2030 initiative, particularly for cost-saving measures. Woodworth pointed out that the service currently had enough barracks to accommodate about 200,000 Marines from the 2012 era when the service was growing. But he said they needed to scale that down to align with the smaller service size of 2025, which he said was closer to 175,000 troops. The price of maintaining those rooms — even unoccupied ones — tallied close to $2,500 per year for keeping on power, lights, water and fire systems, among other costs. 'We really need to be very focused on taking down as much as we put up,' Woodworth said.
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Rooms for 4,200 Marines improved as part of barracks overhaul
Over the past two years, the Marine Corps has refurbished 11 out of its 109 barracks, improving living conditions for about 4,200 Marines, said Maj. John Parry, spokesman for the deputy commandant for installations and logistics. These efforts began after a wall-to-wall inspection of all Marine Corps barracks last year that 'ensured Marines across the service were living in safe, healthy, and clean conditions,' Parry told Task & Purpose on Thursday. The inspections were announced after the Government Accountability Office issued a report on poor living conditions for U.S. service members and found that 17,000 Marines were living in substandard barracks. The report identified numerous problems with barracks on 10 military installations, including mold, cockroaches, bed bugs, rodents, and issues with sewage as well as water quality. 'We acknowledge GAO's report; however, it was only a sampling of our barracks rooms,' Parry said. 'We have since inspected 100% of our barracks with a wall-to-wall inspection in early 2024, which provided actionable, comprehensive data and findings.' In addition to the inspections, the Marine Corps is also implementing Barracks 2030, a plan to refurbish its barracks, Parry said. As part of those efforts, the Marines have spent $20 million on new furnishings for 109 barracks, funded more than 232 building manager positions, and obligated about $723,000 to replace locks, he said. With an estimated cost of $5 billion over the next five years, Barracks 2030 is 'the most comprehensive and ambitious infrastructure plan in the history of our Corps,' Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith said on Thursday. Eleven major renovation projects are currently underway, and 12 more are planned, if funding comes on time and on budget, Smith said during the annual Modern Day Marine exhibition in Washington, D.C 'But I'm not going to sugarcoat it: Fixing 20 years of deferred maintenance won't happen overnight,' Smith said. 'This is going to take time. We're going to do it the right way, not the fast way, just like Marines always do.' One factor that can delay the Marine Corps' effort to repair barracks is when Congress passes temporary spending bills known as continuing resolutions instead of approving defense budgets, Smith said. In March, Congress passed such a bill for all of fiscal year 2025, which ends on Sept. 30. When lawmakers pass temporary spending bills, the Marine Corps gets its funding late in the fiscal year 'and you can't spend it all,' Smith said. 'It takes years to lay out a contract for a new barracks and obtain the workers,' Smith said. 'In coastal North Carolina, that is a challenge. In southern California, that is a challenge.' Historically, one of the biggest causes of problems within the barracks has been a lack of funding, said Eric Mason, the unaccompanied housing team lead for Marine Corps Installation Command. 'The barracks have unfortunately been at the bottom of the totem pole, meaning if there was a problem at a hangar or a problem somewhere else, that money would get pulled from the barracks,' Mason said on Wednesday at Modern Day Marine. 'Now the commandant has said that barracks is the No. 1 resourcing and funding priority.' Mason also said that Marines need to be trained on how to maintain their rooms the same way they take care of their weapons and vehicles. When asked if he believed barracks issues were the result of a discipline problem — as an Army general claimed in 2023 — Mason said 'I don't think it's what [is] causing it. It does contribute to it.' The Marine Corps launched a pilot program in 2023 in which eight staff noncommissioned officers moved into barracks at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, to serve as 'barracks resident coordinators,' based on the Navy's resident advisors program, to ensure Marines were taking care of their rooms, but Mason said that effort has run into legal challenges. 'It seems that our Marine Corps legal team doesn't see things the way the Navy sees it, meaning that if we have a senior or staff person that lives in the barracks that are getting [Basic Allowance For Housing], it requires them to have two entitlements, and we couldn't get behind that,' Mason said. 'So, our legal team is still looking at how we do this. So right now, we're still in the works, still in the process. Once we figure out the legalities of it, we may push it.' Marine in top enlisted spot leaving the Pentagon after just 2 years Army sergeant found guilty in spree of barracks break-ins and attempted murder End of the 'yeet': the standing power throw is out as new Army fitness test goes 'sex-neutral' for combat jobs Good luck figuring out the Air Force's algorithm for shaving waivers Army cuts athletic trainers from fitness teams, with medics to take up slack
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Marine Corps Faces Initial Hurdles in Long-Term Vision to Upgrade Barracks
The Marine Corps touted its ongoing barracks improvements on Tuesday but acknowledged the effort has hit some early snags -- and uncertain funding from Congress threatens to extend the already far-off expected completion in the late 2030s by nearly a decade. The improvement effort, known as Barracks 2030, is a top priority for the commandant, Gen. Eric Smith, and has added furniture, renovations and big-ticket items such as air conditioning to the on-base housing, which is home to more than 80,000 Marines. But at least one pilot program is at risk of fizzling out for legal reasons, and the Pentagon's ongoing hiring freeze has delayed bringing on more than 100 civilian housing specialists. Meanwhile, funding may be the biggest challenge for the initiative, according to presentations this week at the Modern Day Marine expo in Washington, D.C. If Congress does not allocate enough money in the next several years -- a total price tag of roughly $11 billion -- Barracks 2030 could get pushed into the 2040s, long after most current junior Marines have left the barracks. Read Next: GOP House Chairman Asks Justice Department to Investigate Top Biden VA Officials "There are still many areas where our Marines -- for the next year or two -- will not live in conditions that we want them to, but we are actively getting after," said Maj. Gen. Jason Woodworth, head of Marine Corps Installations Command, or MCICOM, who also oversees the service's facilities. "That's why it's going to take us to 2037 if fully funded" to get facilities where they need to be. While Marine Corps officials said barracks conditions were improving, they have not been adequate homes in recent years for Marines. As of March 2023, 17,000 Marines were living in substandard housing, according to a Government Accountability Report that year, citing information from service leaders. reported early last year that Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, had a pilot program where eight staff noncommissioned officers moved into the barracks "for the purpose of advocacy, mentorship, and the maintenance of good order and discipline for all residents," Maj. John Parry, a spokesperson for MCICOM, said at the time. It was likened to a resident adviser program, such as those common at universities, and mirrors a similar Navy program. But more than a year later, that program may be in jeopardy because of a legal issue revolving around how many entitlements those staff NCOs would receive under the initiative. "We ran into some legality issues," Eric Mason, the unaccompanied housing team lead for MCICOM, said Tuesday during a presentation at the expo. "It seems that our Marine Corps legal team doesn't see things the way the Navy sees them, meaning that if we have a senior or staff personnel that lives in the barracks that are getting [basic allowance for housing], it requires them to have two entitlements. And we couldn't get behind that. So our legal team is still looking at how we do this." Another such initiative was to replace Marine barracks managers with trained civilians. Previously, young Marines were charged with handling barracks, from managing repair requests to in-processing newcomers into housing, juggling those difficult responsibilities with their military duties. Now, Mason said the service has hired and trained 347 civilians across the fleet whose sole focus is to manage the day-to-day operations of the barracks. That took 532 enlisted Marines off the hook for those responsibilities, according to Mason's presentation. The Pentagon's recent hiring freeze under the Trump administration has delayed the staffing of 115 of those civilian barracks managers who were supposed to be onboarded in February, Mason said. He said the service plans to hire those individuals once the freeze is lifted. "How do we measure success at the end of 2037, or 2045, or however long we go to, how do we measure if [the] Barracks 2030 initiative was successful?" Mason said. Tracking progress data was one way to identify the program's outcomes, Mason said, but he added that another litmus test will be to gauge how Marines feel about the barracks being their "home." "No Marines identify barracks as home," he said. "When you start hearing Marines say I am going to my home, and they're referring to barracks, I think that's a great way to measure" the program's success. Mason could not provide an exact number of how many Marines are currently living in substandard housing, but said "that [17,000] number has decreased and will continue to decrease" as the service works to fulfill its initiative, hopefully by the mid-2030s. Much of that progress relies on steady funding from Congress. Mason said that "if, for some reason, God forbid, we don't get all the money we're asking for, then we have a backup plan, an alternate plan, which takes [us] out to about 2045, 2043, depending on how much we end up getting." Meanwhile, the service has poured the facilities money it currently has into barracks renovations as well as programs and systems in the near term. In 2023, MCICOM saw to it that installations began using QR codes to generate barracks maintenance requests. By the fall of that year, the division began developing a program called QSRMax that is meant to institutionalize the practice. Now, the system is getting 1,000 requests per week, officials said. Officials added that a pilot program at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina, will begin soon allowing Marines to use their Common Access Card, or CAC, to enter their barracks instead of having to rely on key cards that may get lost more frequently. Last spring, the service completed a massive wall-to-wall inspection of more than 60,000 barracks rooms around the world. A year later, the Marine Corps has not released the results of that effort, but Maj. Jose Castillo, an official with MCICOM, said it has directly informed their efforts. Common trends that officials saw included "water intrusions," meaning plumbing issues and leaks, ventilation and security concerns regarding broken locks, for example. Castillo and other officials said the Marine Corps has contracted the Urban Collaborative LLC design firm to collect data on the entire Marine Corps portfolio of unaccompanied housing and provide the service with data in the next year or so. "This is going to tell us what barracks we need to keep, what barracks we need to refurbish or renovate, and what barracks we simply need to get rid of," Mason said. The company did not immediately return request for an interview on Wednesday. Service leaders have admitted barracks fell by the wayside during the Global War on Terrorism. Poor conditions such as squatters, mold, vermin, ventilation issues and general dilapidation became common. "The idea is not to fix it and forget it. It's to fix it directly and then maintain it," Lt. Gen. James Adams III, the deputy commandant for programs and resources, said on Tuesday. "Because, quite frankly, we got ourselves in the position we're in now because we didn't fix it and we did forget it." Related: Marine Corps Says Half of Barracks Had Issues, Though Only 118 Marines Moved, After Worldwide Inspection
