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Exclusive: Army secretary hits Georgia barracks for feedback
U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll this week kicked off a quality-of-life tour, consulting soldiers about food access, housing and more.
Why it matters: Living conditions influence military morale and readiness; horror stories hurt recruiting and retention.
Driving the news: Driscoll spoke with dozens of troops Monday at Fort Stewart, Georgia, where the situation in 2022 was so dire that reported on "Operation Eradicate Mold" and "disgusting conditions that would get an apartment or restaurant in the civilian world condemned."
"Fort Stewart is renowned for bad barracks," Driscoll told me after touring a few rooms, including one in a building that was shuttered and is now years into a renovation.
Some of the issues that 3rd Infantry Division soldiers brought to the secretary's attention:
Long walks to get food and odd hours at dining facilities
No ovens in some rooms, and other appliance issues
Too few trashcans, leading to garbage pileups and litter
Bug infestations requiring pest control
Larger common areas, so visitors aren't crammed onto beds
Zoom out: The Government Accountability Office in 2023 issued a damning report on military housing, documenting instances of hot-water outages, unusable elevators, broken locks and methane leaks.
"We found that living conditions in some military barracks may pose potentially serious risks to the physical and mental health of service members, as well as their safety," the watchdog said.
Thirty-one recommendations were made. The Pentagon concurred with 23.
"When I was in the Army … the same problems existed," Driscoll told Axios. "The sinful part of that is we knew they were problems in 2009, and now it's 2025."
Driscoll told multiple 3rd Infantry Division soldiers that they had raised good points. He committed to investigating them.
"Until we're able to fix how we, as an Army, structurally accomplish big goals, we will continue to let them down. I hope that we are able to succeed in the things that matter most to them," he said in an interview.
"I am very optimistic that … we're about to take a sledgehammer to all of the providers of our dining services."
