Roughly 5,200 enlisted medical service members assigned to a healthcare education facility in Texas are being moved out of their dormitories due to “systemic infrastructure failures” stemming from the buildings’ construction, a base spokesperson said.
KSAT-TV first reported on the issues affecting Army, Navy, and Air Force enlisted medical students assigned to the Medical Education and Training Campus at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Each year, about 16,500 enlisted medical service members take academic courses on medical specialties at the campus, according to the installation’s website.
Since July 11, about 2,000 of the students have already moved out of the dormitories as a result of “persistent issues with the buildings’ climate control systems,” a Joint Base San Antonio spokesperson told Task & Purpose.
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The spokesperson did not specify what those issues with the buildings are, but KSAT-TV and the San Antonio Express-News have reported that problems with mold and faulty construction have prompted the students to be relocated.
Because the dormitories’ “foundational defects” can not be fixed through routine maintenance and other repairs, the buildings will be demolished, the base spokesperson said. In the meantime, students in the dormitories are being moved to temporary on-base lodging.
“Students will move back onto the campus once the facilities have been replaced,” the spokesperson said. “Coordination is ongoing to minimize the timeline for the construction while also ensuring the facilities are built to the standards required.”
Base officials hope to begin construction on the new facilities by the end of the year, said the spokesperson, who did not specify how long the process of moving the students into new living quarters might take.
The U.S. military has long been plagued with health and safety problems in barracks and other living quarters. A 2023 Government Accountability Office report identified numerous problems with barracks on 10 military installations, ranging from mold to infestations of cockroaches, bed bugs, rodents, and issues with sewage as well as water quality.
The Defense Department has asked Congress for $57 billion in next fiscal year’s budget for military facilities, a substantial portion of which would go toward fixing barracks problems. Separately, a Pentagon barracks task force is investing $1.2 billion to improve barracks across the services.
But the quality of life issues facing U.S. troops are not limited to barracks. Troops have also had problems getting access to on-base dining facilities, sometimes due to maintenance issues.
Junior enlisted service members who live in barracks often rely on these chow halls for their meals, and a portion of their paychecks is withheld to pay for the facilities’ operating costs.
Most recently, a dining facility at Fort Hood, Texas, was closed on Wednesday after video circulated widely on social media showing cockroaches crawling on the walls of a food preparation area in the chow hall. That dining facility was closed after Fort Hood officials became aware of the video, Stars and Stripes reported.
