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Senators outraged by testimony about living conditions on military bases
By Jan Crawford CBS News February 13, 2019, 6:35 PM
Quote:
Washington — The Senate Armed Services Committee got an earful Wednesday from military families who are forced to live in unhealthy conditions. The plague of problems on bases across the country includes mold, lead paint and even rats.
Senators were outraged to hear testimony about the conditions in some of the 200,000 homes that are on military bases and managed by private contractors. Marine spouse Crystal Cornwall spoke of issues she had at Camp Pendleton, as well as issues other families had at Camp Lejeune.
Cornwall helped organize a Facebook group that now has nearly 2,000 members who have shared their horror stories. Airman Josh Saindon and his wife, Lacy, have lived in a house at Ft. Meade in Maryland for over two years.
"We started noticing issues from almost the very beginning," he said.
Appliances started breaking and siding on their eight-year-old house was warped. They suspected mold growing on the floor and walls was affecting their children's health.
Makes me wonder if it would be safer and cheaper for the base to buy mobile homes and set up a trailer park. Home deteriorated beyond a certain point then replace it. A well maintained mobile home can last more than 20 years, cost less to build than traditional homes, and are easy to replace.
It's kind of stupid for housing to be built out of wood that's meant for thousands of transplants that only live in it for 4 years. Build it like the Asians or Germans out of masonry. If they don't have to take care of yard work, why even provide a yard to begin with? So the kids can play? Why provide parks or playground facilities then?
This is an interesting thread to me -- I was never in the military myself but I grew up in the Air Force. We lived in France, England, Arizona, California, England again, Texas, California again, and New Hampshire -- and for most of that time we either lived on the base OR (when we were in England from '67 to '70) on a Peterborough UK dead-end city street with housing on it was "leased" by the Air Force (my family was actually the first to move onto that street but we were quickly followed by other military families stationed at Alconbury, where there was a housing shortage).
I don't remember any horrific problems in any of the base housing we lived in, but this was '60s and '70s BEFORE privatization so maybe it wasn't as much of an issue back then? In Texas in particular (Bergstrom in Austin), we had to live in an apartment first (2 adults, 5 kids) but got base housing after about 6 months (IIRC we kept getting "bumped" by higher-ranked families who moved to Bergstrom after us -- finally we made it to the "frozen" list, which was maybe numbers 1 to 15 on the list? does that sound familiar to anyone?). The on-base house was a single-family detached house, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage or carport (can't remember) -- it was VERY nice. WAY better than a family of 7 living in an apartment!
At Pease in New Hampshire, we had a 3-bedroom house (by then, 2 adults and 3 kids). Wasn't quite as nice, but we had an end unit (a 4- or 8-plex, IIRC). Lots of cockroaches, but that wasn't really the base's issue, it was living in such close proximity to others.
Bergstrom's housing was the best, but I don't recall huge issues anywhere. And we were in the ENLISTED ranks, not officers -- THEIR housing was much nicer (all single-family, bigger, larger lots).
This is an interesting thread to me -- I was never in the military myself but I grew up in the Air Force. We lived in France, England, Arizona, California, England again, Texas, California again, and New Hampshire -- and for most of that time we either lived on the base OR (when we were in England from '67 to '70) on a Peterborough UK dead-end city street with housing on it was "leased" by the Air Force (my family was actually the first to move onto that street but we were quickly followed by other military families stationed at Alconbury, where there was a housing shortage).
I don't remember any horrific problems in any of the base housing we lived in, but this was '60s and '70s BEFORE privatization so maybe it wasn't as much of an issue back then? In Texas in particular (Bergstrom in Austin), we had to live in an apartment first (2 adults, 5 kids) but got base housing after about 6 months (IIRC we kept getting "bumped" by higher-ranked families who moved to Bergstrom after us -- finally we made it to the "frozen" list, which was maybe numbers 1 to 15 on the list? does that sound familiar to anyone?). The on-base house was a single-family detached house, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, garage or carport (can't remember) -- it was VERY nice. WAY better than a family of 7 living in an apartment!
At Pease in New Hampshire, we had a 3-bedroom house (by then, 2 adults and 3 kids). Wasn't quite as nice, but we had an end unit (a 4- or 8-plex, IIRC). Lots of cockroaches, but that wasn't really the base's issue, it was living in such close proximity to others.
Bergstrom's housing was the best, but I don't recall huge issues anywhere. And we were in the ENLISTED ranks, not officers -- THEIR housing was much nicer (all single-family, bigger, larger lots).
Have things really gotten this much worse?
When the housing was the responsibility of military commanders, then military commanders kept it maintained (at least Air Force did...Navy could be pretty damned shoddy).
Privatization moved it out of military accountability.
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