Do other branches have health and comfort inspections in their barracks or is it just the Marine Corps?

2021-06-25T09:59:02-04:00

Health and comfort inspections are when MPs and your command search the entirety of the barracks for "contraband" I.e drugs, guns, knives and worst of all hot plates & blenders.

Response by Lt Col Charlie Brown made Jun 25 at 2021 9:59 AM

2021-06-25T09:59:33-04:00

They just call it something else.

Response by SFC Michael Hasbun made Jun 25 at 2021 10:03 AM

2021-06-25T10:03:38-04:00

We all have them. The Army calls them "health and welfare" inspections, but it's the same thing.

Response by Maj John Bell made Jun 25 at 2021 10:14 AM

2021-06-25T10:14:16-04:00

It's not "just" for the items you mentioned. Back in the days of Quonset huts and squad bays you'd be shocked at how often you could walk into the squad bay and it smelled like rank cheese. Some service members go straight from Mom's house to the recruit depot, to MOS school, and then hit the fleet. They literally don't know how to use a washer dryer. They don't dispose of uneaten food. And Mom scrubbed their toilet and shower. Until they acquire the necessary habits, what gets inspected gets done.

Unless something (usually an odor or something to mask an odor) started coming from the room, the CoGy and 1stSgt let the NCO's alone, except for quarterly "junk on the bunk" inspections.

Response by SSgt Christophe Murphy made Jun 25 at 2021 11:43 AM

2021-06-25T11:43:06-04:00

It's not uncommon in all branches. Marines don't have the market on barracks shenanigan's or contraband.

Response by MSgt Don VandeBogert made Jun 25 at 2021 12:40 PM

2021-06-25T12:40:56-04:00

We've had a few in my time. At least in the AF they can be difficult to authorize. One base we had idiots storing firearms amongst other things in their rooms. That gave the Wing a reason to perform one but JAG still had.to sign off on it and a large group of SNCOs had to be brief on what we could and couldn't do.

Inspection you got a knock on the door. No answer, we went in 30 seconds later, annonced. If you answered the door stayed open and you vacated. Locks were to be removed from anything in the room. Totally fine if you didn't want to remove them. We had bolt cutters and you were left a note authorizing reimbursement of any we cut.

Ive seen motorcycles stored and engines torn apart. Those are fun. One room had a locker stacked with dirty dishes from the DFAC. So many he had to go back to the DFAC and get a dish rack to put it all on. Quite a few had knife collections, ammo, bows, etc. Multiple rooms had unauthorised pets, including one with squirrels. Thankfully we had gloves...the amount of sex toys was ridiculous. For the love of all that is good in the world...when your done at lease clean them. Yuck.

As a norm, most of our inspections were announce in advance and done during the day. Kept most of our folks up to standards and rooms cleaner doing that which in turn made supervisors and leaders lives a bit easier.

V/R
Bogie

Response by SPC Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 25 at 2021 2:19 PM

2021-06-25T14:19:07-04:00

Army does it too, health and welfare. Sometimes it's based off of a random barracks inspection and they see things are subpar, other times there's indications that they should check on someone.

Still remember my favorite though from a MSG after they reported a coffee maker in a Soldiers sleeping area, "I'm not going to tell my Soldiers to not have a coffee pot in their room so long as the DFAC serves that swill they confuse with coffee". Funny thing is the housing policy didn't forbid it and the CSM and commander didn't care either so long as they kept things neat and were safe with the extension cords.

Pretty much a don't screw this up pass, definitely loved that one.

Response by MSgt Steven Holt, NRP, CCEMT-P made Jun 25 at 2021 2:29 PM

2021-06-25T14:29:05-04:00

We used to have "Health and Welfare" checks periodically when I was a young Airman in the barracks. Usually only had them about once/twice a year unless problems had been recently noted. Later, as an NCO myself, I had occasion to accompany the 1st Sgt during a few inspections.

You could really learn a few things about your troops during those times.... lol

Response by MSgt Don VandeBogert made Jun 25 at 2021 5:37 PM

2021-06-25T17:37:22-04:00

I'm suprised noone mentioned unauthorized personnel yet.

Korea it was Juicies found in the dorms. Germany a few newly weds with local ladies.

The fun ones were the underage girls. The unfortunate part it was often an officers daughter. I was a Bay Orderly and had master key to open some doors for Security Police (back in the day) and OSI and finding girls.hidding in lockers...or under the covers. Fun times.

V/R
Bogie

Response by Sgt Dale Briggs made Jun 29 at 2021 5:24 PM

2021-06-29T17:24:27-04:00

They called formations then the MPs ran dogs thru our rooms looking for contraband, only once in a blue moon though, they probably don’t really want to catch anyone to begin with or they'd do it on a payday Saturday morning.

Response by SPC Richard DiCristi made Jun 30 at 2021 9:01 AM

2021-06-30T09:01:50-04:00

You could always tell if the Health and Welfare inspection was just a random one or pretty much targeted on one person or room. Plus keeping your area squared away kept whoever was doing the looking around from ripping everything to pieces unless they were a real jerk. My fun story was when the new Company Commander, CPT Leon Huskey (Nice guy and a good Officer) had one and had his "Ah HA!" moment when he had me open my foot locker ($5.45 at Clothing Sales) and it was full of all manner of extra TA-50 items , a CVC helmet, strobe light, and a few other things not on general issue, but not illegal. He thought he hit a jackpot but I hauled out a folder with receipts from Clothing Sales and various surplus stores in the area of FT. Hood. The PL and the PSG, who had already gone through it with me when they did their inspection a while before this one just kind of shook their heads a little. I ended up being his APC driver a couple of months later.

Response by MSG Private RallyPoint Member made Jun 30 at 2021 4:05 PM

2021-06-30T16:05:14-04:00

i used to go thru the barracks weekly as the corpsman in charge of health and sanitation, i found better bars than off base, cockroaches the size of soft balls in the laundry rooms, 2 chicks making out not mouth to mouth, crazy world

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made Jul 13 at 2021 11:39 PM

2021-07-13T23:39:45-04:00

Yep. When I was active in the Corps (short timer 6672 air wing supply from 2013-2017) we had a few. What I remember most was this one time when I was nightcrew and had gotten maybe 5 hours of sleep when a health and comfort was called. Of course PMO had the dogs sniff about and we dumed as ll our drawers and open the wall lockers and after we had nothing to be found, our MGySgt took issue with the rubbery stuff between the tiles and thought the tiles looked dirty, so me and the other guy spent a good 8 hours hacking at the floor with crack knives. (Crack knife is a garbage folding knife that we could requisition, i forget the nsn) We really only succeeded at scratching up the floor. It was a huge waste of time.

Long before this incident, when i was still in the schoolhouse on NAS Meridian, we got nailed. At the time I didn't realize the weapon policy and had spied me a kabar at the 7 day (nex for you navy cats, px for you army dogs, no idea what flyboys call it) and figuring that they wouldn't sell me something I couldn't have, I bought it. So lo and behold we get a health and comfort. My kabar is found, still in the box. I get told by the lead that it's going into storage and at the end of training I'll get it back. Me being the stupid boot I was, believed him. When training ended and we were being shipped to the fleet, I asked the duty to check any lockers for contraband was told nothing is in there matching my description. I learned that day to never give anything up without a legibly signed receipt. When I got to my duty station, I found that even in the fleet, at least in MAG31, combat blades are still too dangerous for Marines to possess. This was a huge reason for me deciding not to reup, the lack of trust in us.

Something I noted was a few years after I EAS'd I saw an article where the very same MCAS I had been had an accidental shooting in one of the barracks. A lower enlisted had a handgun in the bricks, got drunk, and shot his roommate dead, thinking it was unloaded. Only now, do I realize why the military has to be the way it is. There's always the one who has to screw up, and he did. I can only imagine, I bet they were doing a health and comfort every week for 6 months. But it wouldn't bring that Marine back. Some parent just lost their kid, for what?

In my limited and inconclusive experience, people in the military are somewhat competent at life and I cannot give a good reason for why hotplates were contraband in the barracks FOR THEM. But the truth is, the military is, or was anyway, a place where everyone is treated the same and given the same opportunities. When PFC Schmucatelli decides to piss on the extention cord and start a fire in the barracks, the military cannot treat snm differently and will instead opt to prevent the brks from burning down by preventing everyone from using what the normal average human being has no issue using. It is what it is.

I know it was a bit long winded, but there, now you have my green two cents, too bad you were asking for non Marine Corps examples. Semper Fi