Posted on Nov 26, 2013
Has anyone here ever lived in a World War II barracks?
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In 1974, Sheppard AFB had them as well as Lackland, and Chanute AFB. No kidding but I would actually dream about them. One colonel said he never saw a barracks as clean as he saw ours and he sent me to leadership school and made me a Yellow Rope.
Posted >1 y ago
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Ft. Gordon, GA; Ft. Drum, NY; Camp Smith, Peekskill, NY; Fort Indiantown Gap, PA
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Maj Michael StClair
Yep - when I went to MP Supervisor Course at Fort Gordon in 1971, and Intel Analyst at Fort Holabird in 68.
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Pre deployment training at Ft. Bragg, NC in 2007. The barracks we were assigned to were built in 1943. I think they are still there.
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I basic training at Ft. McClellan, Alabama and Camp Forsyth, Ft. Riley, Kansas during ROTC advanced camp.
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CPT(P) (Join to see)
We currently have them at Camp Roberts, CA. This is the main training base for the California National Guard. They are getting refitted currently, now that we have funding, but there is still a old section where you can even see the graffiti and markings from the WWII vets that went through there for Basic Training.
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LTC Martin Metz
Nothing like WWII wood to suffer in. My first exposure was during ROTC Advance Camp at Ft Riley in 1972. The most intense experience was at Ranger School at Ft Benning in 1974. Reserve and National Guard still suffer their use for this diminishing species and still contributes for us feeling a bit 2nd class sometimes. When I deployed overseas in 2006 at Fort Bragg, the installation brought whole sections of condemned WWII back into use to accommodate Reservists who sometimes had to stay in substandard housing for many months. As a facility manager of the 500 Area at Fort Lawton (in Seattle) in the mid 1990s, I had to find some way to keep the lights and roofs on 30 old wooden buildings that were the garrison homes for a number of Army Reserve units. Some posts such as Fort McCoy have been very successful in maintaining and improving the old WWII legacy buildings. Most Army installations were given an incentivizing credit towards constructing new buildings by receiving credit for the amount of old wood buildings that were knocked down.
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All the time, Ft Benning, Ft Stewart Ft Hood and Ft Knox. Few other places that I am sure I missed.
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SFC James Baber
Sir, I forgot to add your current location for myself, when I was stationed there in late 1980's we still had some for our barracks and then we moved into the newer ones that had been built in the mid-70s LOL, and this was 1987.
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Fort Knox until recently still had WWII barracks that were the ones the movie Stripes was filmed in. Every summer West Point cadets head to Fort Knox to learn about Armor and every year those barracks, marked as condemned the entire rest of the year, would miraculously be deemed livable and we'd occupy them. Good times!
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LTC Martin Metz
I did ROTC Basic at Ft Knox in 1971. We were assigned to the newer cinderblock open bay barracks that were the same as what were used for basic / AIT trainees.
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SSgt (Join to see)
I always wondered what facility that was in Stripes. I also do not like the idea that they will be torn down. Call it silly sentimentality.
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Absolutely - Ft. Carson, Colorado, 1972 - 1974. We lived in what was called the Mule Barns. It was the old part of Ft. Carson. They were the only remaining WWII barracks on post. They were 2-story 40-man open bays - open showers and open toilets. Absolutely no privacy ever. There was one private room, normally reserved for the platoon sgt, but typically the senior unmarried person occupied that room. Had a single wall locker and a foot locker per person. In 1973 they upgraded us to a double wall locker and the foot locker. That's when the Volar Army began. I was assigned to the 1/10 infantry attached to the 6/32 armor battalion. We had a quardrant with 4 of these barracks and 1 single story building that served as the orderly room/day room. Mess hall and supply rooms were down the block in single story buildings also.
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SSG Mark Payton
my wife and I lived in Colorado Springs for 12 yrs - we left there 4 yrs ago - those barracks were still there when I was last on base about 5 yrs ago
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SSG Mark Payton
Thought you would recognize this scene I created(I'm an artist) since you were stationed near there(Garden of the Gods w/ Pikes Peak in the background)
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1SG Frank Boynton
I grew up in Security, Colo. I'm a military brat as well as having served for 20 eyars. In 1964 my dad was stationed at Ft. Carson and did a rotation to Korea. While there he had a couple major heart attacks and was sent to Fitzimmons Army Hospital in Denver to recover. He was in the process of retiring when he had his fatal heart attack. He served in WWII and Korea. I went to Widefield High School and we use to drag race out at the Garden of the Gods. I spent many many hours in that park. I served from 72 to 74 at Carson and then went to Ft. Lewis, Wash. Never went back. Family still lives there, but I've never even visited the base. Hard to believe the Mule Barns are still there.
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Why yes I have! Three different times all at the same base, USCG Training Center Petaluma (1989, 2006 & 2008). The TRACEN is a WWII Army communication station north of San Francisco which the Coast Guard initially converted into a school house for radioman, and telephone techs. By the time I got there the first time in the late 80s, it also housed the instructor development program, the corpsman schools, personnel and admin schools, some leadership training and some law enforcement training. Cold, drafty, dirty....large cockroaches playing cards at the table in our room when we returned from class in the evenings. Giant rats rifling through our sea bags while we were out. Everything painted the same drab military required color; walls, ceilings, floor, doors. It was great!! Surprisingly enough the classroom facilities are now some of the most modern in the Coast Guard, and the barracks have steadily been replaced over the last generation. Last time I was there was for instructor development training around 2008, and it was much better living. Almost as good as Motel 6. It is now also home to the food services school which means it is the best galley in the Guard.
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SSgt (Join to see)
You would think all that relative privation would be a minus, instead I dream of the places. In some strange way I want to live there. lol.
But thanks, because this is what I wanted to hear and know that I am not the only one who finds them quaint and cozy.
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SrA (Join to see)
Yes, in Kitzingen, Germany while I was stationed there with the U.S. Army, Delta Company, 17th Signal Battalion, 22nd Signal Brigade. They were open bay barracks, but we used wall lockers to make walls between roommates. This was authorized as part of the "Single soldier quality of life program", which was supposed to give us the same freedom in our living spaces as married people off base. We could have any type of furnishings we wanted and alcohol in our rooms. It was actually a disaster because we still had to have "health and welfare inspections" due to some young soldiers living like slobs.
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SSgt (Join to see)
Been there and done that in Germany. They might have been WWI they were so different.
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