What's the worst room anyone's ever seen during a room inspection?

SPC Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:18:24 -0500

What's the worst room anyone's ever seen during room inspection would it be lenient on a soldier whose leaving PCS for there room to be slightly messy if they are cleaning and making everything clean for clearing housing or no

Response by CW5 Jim Steddum made Jan 4 at 2015 9:26 PM

CW5 Jim Steddum — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:26:07 -0500

I inspected a Soldier room prior to a period of leave. Her room was fine, but the common areas were terrible. The laundry rooms were a complete fire hazard, never cleaned, never inspected. Actually just nasty. I had her moved to a different building upon her return from leave. And ensure the CSM was made aware of the conditions all Soldiers were subjecting themselves too.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 9:24 PM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:24:45 -0500

At LRAFB My roommates locker smelled so bad that you could smell it from inside the room in that locker... He got busted for that.

Response by TSgt Joshua Copeland made Jan 4 at 2015 9:27 PM

TSgt Joshua Copeland — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 21:27:48 -0500

Worst room was my good buddy's room. It got put in a PowerPoint deck and sent out to what seemed like every unit known to man.

Response by SGT Michael Glenn made Jan 4 at 2015 10:12 PM

SGT Michael Glenn — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:12:02 -0500

I was called into my commanders office with my PLT SGT and asked when the last time anyone was at PFC ---------'s house to check it, the response was never as we made it policy to leave our soldiers alone during their down time. Agreeing it was good practice the commander mentioned to us that we may want to swing by because his landlord had just brought a notice of eviction by for this PFC. Alarmed we both jumped into my POV and made our way out to his house.What we found...unreal !!! I do not know how they made it in and out of the house as garbage bags were piles at least hip high with rips and spilt trash EVERY WHERE !!!! when we knocked the young man refused to let us in saying it was his house and we had no right to invade with out a warrant???? What ensued is a massive ass chewing followed by Mp's having to show up and a lengthy discussion with him while we literally fought our way past mountain upon mountain of stinking trash that had just been tossed to the side for months????? The worst part is they had infants crawling through this mess. Needless to say the children were removed, she was sent home and he was reduced to a PVT and eventually received a BCD.

Response by SGT Michael Glenn made Jan 4 at 2015 10:26 PM

SGT Michael Glenn — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:26:21 -0500

How much of a mess are we talking??? ankle deep? Knee deep? minimum clutter??? Light clutter???How long has it been in this state and how long does he have before actually leaving. My soldiers had rooms that were trashed through the weekend but were squared away come 1st call Monday morning.

Response by CPT Chris Loomis made Jan 4 at 2015 10:34 PM

CPT Chris Loomis — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:34:00 -0500

Not really bad, just weird. I once had a Soldier that refused to actually utilize his locker. He never hung things. Nothing was folded. Everything was foul and in plastic trash bags inside his locker....

The mysterious thing was that one day he was just gone!

LOL!

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Jan 4 at 2015 11:02 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 23:02:43 -0500

OK, not an inspection story, but this is what happened to me in family housing. My upstairs E-5 neighbor had a water hose going up to his house in the dead of winter at Fort Drum. It hada foot of ice around it. At night we would have the chandelier shoke violently and heard saws. I kid you not, the man was slaughtering pigs in the kitchen and butchering the meat himself to save money. His reason...."I worked in a slaughterhouse as a civilian." You can't make this stuff up.

Response by SP5 Michael Rathbun made Jan 4 at 2015 11:08 PM

SP5 Michael Rathbun — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 23:08:10 -0500

The WWII-era two-story barracks we inhabited at Fort Gordon in 1968 had the usual large open troop bays with rows of double-decker bunks. There were NCO rooms on both floors. The one at the top of the stairs was the lair of an E-5 who was part of the staff at our mess hall. This NCO's quarters were notoriously below standard in cleanliness and order. (So was the mess hall, come to think of it.)

On a Saturday morning we saw the new 1SG, on his first inspection, exit our area for the upstairs and eventually heard some commotion when that upstairs room was found to be locked from the inside. Eventually the resident woke up and let the inspection party in. After a bunch of noises indicating some sort of tumult, the 1SG was clearly heard to say

"What is your excuse for this?!"

[3-second pause]

"SHORT!"

(Does anybody still say that?)

Response by PO3 John Jeter made Jan 4 at 2015 11:17 PM

PO3 John Jeter — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 23:17:18 -0500

One of the advantages of being in the Navy (shipboard) was communal berthing areas. Someone was designated as compartment cleaner every morning. The only "private" areas were our bunk lockers and sometimes we had a locker capable of handling our dress uniforms on hangers and maybe a few civilian items. Be that as it may, anyone who received PCS orders was required to field day the lockers and have them approved by our Leading Petty Officer (usually an E-6) prior to signing out. At the same time, if there was a "funk" coming out of your rack or even if it was simply messy in the locker you were certain to receive attention of an unpleasant sort. Most of my senior NCO's declared they could evaluate the caliber of a sailor by the condition of his locker and work spaces. When I was in 'A' school in Great Lakes, there was also a daily inspection Monday through Friday. The inspection of our rooms on Mondays was always a tougher one, so we never had things get out of hand really. My brother-in-law was Air Force and he told me some pretty horrific stories about base housing though (with fault in both directions).

Response by PO3 Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 4 at 2015 11:27 PM

PO3 Private RallyPoint Member — Sun, 04 Jan 2015 23:27:25 -0500

When I checked onto my second boat, I was assigned the second half of a two-man barracks room. As I opened the door to my new room, the first thing that greeted me was the overwhelming funk of forty thousand years. It was a smell best described as BO, Calvin Klein's Obsession, and death.

As I walked into the room, it looked like a laundromat had exploded mixed with several half-opened bags of fast food garbage.

However, my new roommate was nowhere to be seen. As it turned out, he was down on the boat for duty that day.

The next day, once I got down to the boat, I spoke with my COB (Chief of the Boat) as part of my check-ins and he asked me how things worked out with the barracks. I explained the condition of the room and he guessed my roommate right away.

I tried to get him to clean up the room after we went home for the night and he half-assed made an attempt (barely). The next day was a Friday room inspection, which we promptly failed. I again spoke to the COB about the situation and he told me "You're a Petty Officer, handle it!"

The next inspection saw my half of the room immaculate, a line of tape down the centerline, and my roommate's best impression of the city dump. When COB looked at the room, he decided my roommate wasn't ready to live in a barracks room, so that weekend he was made to clean up his side of the room, pack all of his belongings, and whatever wasn't issued went into a footlocker, then he was moved back to the boat for about 2 weeks.

Response by SSG Tim Everett made Jan 5 at 2015 10:42 AM

SSG Tim Everett — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 10:42:48 -0500

I was a billeting NCO during my final months in the Army. I "managed" an entire massive set of barracks for an entire MI brigade. My shop had keys to every single room in those buildings and frequently we had to go check on a room. I've seen things that would make your head spin.

I've seen a Command so far up a soldier's rear end that he had a room inspection during his packing-and-clearing phase. I can't even fathom that, and I privately expressed my dismay to his platoon sergeant.

I've seen a soldier running drugs out of his room. I've seen a soldier keeping a civilian wife in his room (lonely geo-batch). I've seen a guy who was sixty-something, retired for a number of years, recalled to active duty and forced to live in the barracks. Well not forced, but since he owned a number of rental properties, a farm, and a ranch, he didn't feel like getting a new place for his indefinite reactivation so he lived in the barracks a thousand miles from home.

The absolute worse was a room that was so bad, we had to strip the paint, rip up the carpet, remove all of the bathroom fixtures, and rebuild the entire room. Trash and unidentified fluids melded to the carpet. Dead bugs and live rodents, bags of trash, and a layer of grime on bathroom fixtures.

Response by CSM Michael J. Uhlig made Jan 5 at 2015 5:27 PM

CSM Michael J. Uhlig — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:27:48 -0500

So there I was, a new SSG (very young and motivated Platoon Sergeant) at Fort Hood, TX, eager to train my platoon and prepare them for whatever mission would lie ahead. So, I go through the ARTEP manual and brief the PL that I want to add "Health & Welfare Inspection" to the training schedule as a SGT's Time Training task....we add it, and throw the training schedule on the board in the platoon room....you all know the board, the board that nobody looks at.....well, six weeks later we call an alert and start off in the barracks, followed by our off post bubbas. Just outside the Rancier gate (I swear 15 people just squinted and shook their head no!) one of my Soldiers rented a shotgun home. It was disgusting and looked like an episode of hoarders, except his collectibles was garbage - like old pizza boxes/take out Chinese food, McD's and BK bags, dishes were re-bought instead of washed! The smell was disgusting. I moved his rump into the barracks while we (his entire squad assisted) got his place cleaned out. Mouse and rat feces were everywhere, wasp nests and there was even a dead bird (looked like it was a small crow or something)....by far the worst place I'd inspected.

Response by TSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 5 at 2015 6:06 PM

TSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 18:06:20 -0500

Dude was keeping and feeding a rat that had moved into his room. He had it in a wooden box at first, but it chewed it's way out. So he moved it to a steel box to prevent that. He would bring good back from the chow hall to keep it feed.

Response by Sgt Lisa Angelo made Jan 5 at 2015 8:38 PM

Sgt Lisa Angelo — Mon, 05 Jan 2015 20:38:14 -0500

My room was always super-clean. Matter of fact, the base commander was made aware of how awesome my room was so he and the entire staff at HQ building came by to see for themselves....ya, I'm pretty proud of that.

Response by COL Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2015 12:57 AM

COL Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 00:57:48 -0500

I don't know about the worst room, but I always remember the things that people "leave out" in the open. I've seen some weird stuff. By far the most gutsy/funny one I have seen was a Soldier who left their "bedroom implements" in an open drawer...many of them of all shapes and sizes. Thank the Lord it was my 1SG who was inspecting and not I. It was pretty funny though. This was in the days when there weren't any camera phones though...so no evidence was captured.

Response by SGT Charles Vernier made Jan 6 at 2015 1:04 AM

SGT Charles Vernier — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 01:04:38 -0500

As a former MP I can attest to going into governmet quarters that were piled up with trash, rotten food, animal feces, and such. It's hard to imagine anyone living that way, especially with children in the home. As for a barracks room I had a young soldier who forgot to make his bunk. He desperately needed to wash his sheets after his exploits.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 6 at 2015 6:57 AM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 06:57:03 -0500

Here is a twist to a worst room story: As a First Sergeant (early 90s) at Fort Bragg, I would walk thru my Soldiers barracks everyday day. Not at the same time, not every room, though I would go thru every room at least once a week. On one particular day, it was early afternoon and as I started to head to the barracks, I grabbed the unit commander and said, "Come on, lets go for a walk, talk and check the barracks!" Off we went. Upon entering the lobby (2nd floor), we could hear noises coming from one room, and being an outstanding First Sergeant I immediately recognized and knew those sounds!

Upon entering the room (using my master key) the Soldier and his very nice looking companion suddenly stopped, both jumped out of bed coming to "at ease" (yes naked)!
I slowly backed up blocking the door way before the commander could walk in and said,
"Nice looking room today SPC XXXXXX, carry on!" Gave them a nice hand salute as I backed out before the Commander had the chance to come in.

We continued on with the walk thru with no more surprises.

The good part to the story was that without having to say a word to that Soldier, he "like overnight", turned around from being a marginal performer to being an outstanding young trooper who went on to become Soldier of the Month, Quarter, and Promoted to Sergeant within 12 months ...............................and went on to become a Brigade CSM, retiring several years ago!

I did attend his retirement, and in case anyone is still wondering about the young lady, they have now been married soon to be 20 years.

Response by SFC Stephen P. made Jan 6 at 2015 3:52 PM

SFC Stephen P. — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 15:52:36 -0500

It has been many a moon since I dealt with troops in billets.

For run of the mill inspections, my favorite was the PVT with leftover pizza. I honestly don't know how long it had been on top of his wall locker, but long enough to turn blue.

Outside of inspection, there was the room I inventoried for a soldier gone AWOL. It was generally trashed, but included little gems like ammo, pyro, fireworks, and bottles of urine.

Response by CPL Rick Stasny made Jan 6 at 2015 10:00 PM

CPL Rick Stasny — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 22:00:37 -0500

Not that our room was trashed, but my roommate and I spent a holiday weekend drinking wiezen. The room was clean, but the air was so foul that even in the dead of winter with the window wide open, we could barely stand it ourselves. The inspection party got to the door and caught wind of us and just said that the room looked good and to get an air freshener. If I had known it was that effective of a deterrent, I would have done it sooner.

Response by 1SG Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 16 at 2015 9:58 PM

1SG Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 21:58:00 -0500

To answer the OP's question,

I would be OK with the room being in a state of moving if it was organized chaos. Having partially packed boxes, gear out while being cleaned, etc is fine. I would not accept basic unsanitary conditions with the excuse that "I am trying to clear housing" to cover trash, littered throughout the place.

Response by Maj Private RallyPoint Member made Jan 16 at 2015 10:47 PM

Maj Private RallyPoint Member — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 22:47:31 -0500

I wasn't inspecting the room, but I had to escort an airman to the chow hall and back due to legal issues he was facing. I've wrestled for 5 years in my youth, and I've been in locker rooms all over. I have three kids and have changed many messy diapers. But nothing ever prepared me for the utter rank that was this airman's room when he opened the door. I literally couldn't breathe. He had to be told to shower all the time, which no doubt exacerbated the issue as well. Trash, old food, etc littered his whole room. These were the dorms at Ft Meade that the AF had just dropped over a million dollars in restorations in as well, so it was not an inherited mess or smell.

Response by SGT Jim Z. made Feb 17 at 2015 1:48 PM

SGT Jim Z. — Tue, 17 Feb 2015 13:48:13 -0500

I was still a private but right before a CIP one guys in another platoon and his room mate got drunk and had a chem-light war. They got it cleaned to the best of their ability late in the night but you could still see parts of the walls and ceilings glowing when the inspecting party came through.

Response by SSG Russell Moon made Feb 27 at 2021 3:41 PM

SSG Russell Moon — Sat, 27 Feb 2021 15:41:15 -0500

I managed a barracks at a tri-service school with Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines. One day one of the Marine NCO’s walked in and asked to check if two Marines were in their rooms. They were outprocessing because they would graduate at the end of the week. We could not find them but their room was a mess. After this we inspected the rooms of the other graduates and the only room that was remotely standard was the one female graduate. The larger room occupied by two student squad leaders was the worst with pizza and Chinese boxes on the floor and a stack of about two-dozen porno DVD’s on the shelf of an unsecured desk. The master guns made all the Marines: students and staff, walk through the room as it looked with the two students at parade rest in front of their bunks. As the only Soldier on the scene, it was kind of watching a train wreck. Felt sorry, but couldn’t look away.