I have come to the conclusion that most senior Army personnel don’t care to much about improving the barracks living conditions because they know that no matter how great they are the soldiers won’t appreciate them because they have no frame of reference. I have been in the Army for a while, not long enough for a career but long enough. When I joined the Army I was immediately given a solid frame of reference for the rest of my time as an enlisted man and as an NCO.

         I entered Basic training along with my wife (of two weeks) Xtine at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina in late June. After some initial processing time and a horrifying stint in a “Fitness Company” (more on this in another blog) I moved on with my newly formed platoon into Basic Training proper. 

         Our first stop was Tank Hill. We had to live here temporarily as our assigned billets had not yet been cleared by the outgoing Basic Trainees. These barracks (photo not of Tank Hill but the same style barracks)  were still standing from World War 2. Whitewashed wooden walls with 40 bunks to a building. Each of us got a bunk made from welded steel pipe with a grey prison mattress on it and a footlocker. We had no air conditioning in the barracks and for most of us it was our first time wearing full BDU’s and doing training. For a week we lived like this sweating every moment of the day and night and struggling to meet the demands of our Drill Sergeants.

         We knew that this place sucked compared to where we were supposed to be and we even heard story’s of the “Starship” barracks that had 8 man rooms! Such luxury was almost unimaginable after only a week of the DS’s tender ministrations. They had already succeeded in stripping away the vast majority of our civilian standards and expectations through non-stop activity and cruddy living conditions.

         Consequently when we did make the big move to our barracks we were overjoyed. Nice clean 60 man bays (same bunks), tiled showers (open bay), and honest to goodness wall lockers! Heavenly.

         Ever since then my standard of living in the Army has increased everywhere I have been. Even in Korea the barracks room I shared with EvilPidge was spacious, comfortable, and had both AC and heating. While I once helped the One-Eyed Nord scrape the mold off of his room’s (more like a one man oubliette) cinder block walls at least the room was his alone!

         Since those early days Army barracks have leapt forward (Ft. Gordon). Most now come with modern furniture (not a lot), a refrigerator, a full bathroom (shared by 2 normally), and a microwave. Despite this new soldiers constantly complain about their rooms. Why? Because they have nothing to compare it to! Basic Training nowadays puts nearly all of it soldiers in 8 man rooms or even less! This has led Army leadership to pay a lot less heed to soldiers complaints. It is not unjustified that they ignore them like this as many of our barracks rooms are a lot better than college dorms. It is just that our young and inexperienced folks don’t know it!

         This theory actually applies to a great many things in life Army or otherwise. Take today for example. Our platoon didn’t have it’s normal job to do (for reasons I can’t discuss) and so we did our PT during the time we normally work in the morning, had a break to take a shower and eat, came back to work and did a few hours of maintenance and cleaning, and then left 2 hours before we normally do. Great day huh? Nope, not for most of our whiners. They bitched and moaned all day! They simply were unable to place this event in the larger context. Most of them were not in the unit when we were on Mission Cycle last time and so they don’t know that even our “normal” days now are cakewalks compared to the 12-14 retardathons we engaged in 2 years ago. Of course if you try and explain this you just walk into the “When I was your age I walked 10 miles to school up hill both ways!” Thusly most of senior folks just ignore the whining. ME? I tend to trot out the phrase “It could be a lot worse!” About 10 times a day. Whenever someone actually asks me how it could be worse I explain. Sometimes it helps other times it doesn’t. Another day another 50 cents.