{"id":43699,"date":"2022-02-05T00:17:52","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2022\/02\/05\/no-hot-water-ac-or-doors-with-locks-for-junior-troops-forced-to-live-in-hellish-walter-reed-base-barracks\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:54:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T19:54:00","slug":"no-hot-water-ac-or-doors-with-locks-for-junior-troops-forced-to-live-in-hellish-walter-reed-base-barracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/2022\/02\/05\/no-hot-water-ac-or-doors-with-locks-for-junior-troops-forced-to-live-in-hellish-walter-reed-base-barracks\/","title":{"rendered":"No hot water, A\/C or doors with locks for junior troops forced to live in hellish Walter Reed base barracks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story won the <\/i>2023 Society for Professional Journalists Dateline Award<\/i><\/a> for investigative journalism in a newsletter or trade publication and a finalist for non-breaking news in an online publication.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hundreds of junior-enlisted sailors and soldiers have gone for years without hot water in their barrack rooms aboard the Maryland Navy base that is home to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others have been left to broil in barracks with broken air conditioning during humid mid-Atlantic summers, or been assigned rooms without working fridges, thermostats or even locking doors, according to sailors who spoke with Navy Times and who voiced concerns to base leadership during a townhall meeting Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During that meeting, Naval Support Activity Bethesda\u2019s commanding officer, Capt. Scott Switzer, encouraged affected troops to keep submitting \u201ctrouble tickets\u201d for issues like hot water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he also admitted that those trouble tickets had been improperly handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe just discovered a problem with our reporting process from some of our people who were not taking care of these trouble tickets the right way, and we screwed that up,\u201d Switzer said in a recording of the townhall obtained by Navy Times. He took command of the base in May 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Naval Support Activity Bethesda commanding officer Capt. Scott Switzer holds a town hall meeting on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022, to discuss longstanding issues with hot water in two junior-enlisted barracks. (Jeremy K. Brooks\/Navy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The issues center around two barracks buildings housing nearly 500 junior service members, dubbed \u201cComfort Hall\u201d and \u201cSanctuary Hall,\u201d respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comfort Hall was built in 1986, while Sanctuary Hall \u201copened to occupants\u201d in 2014, according to base spokesman Jeremy Brooks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both barracks are mostly occupied by low-ranking Navy corpsmen and Army medical personnel who work at the massive Walter Reed medical complex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who spoke with Navy Times requested anonymity as they feared being punished for publicly speaking about their situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their experiences suggest the barracks have been providing neither the comfort nor sanctuary that their names promise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m not new to living standards in the military,\u201d one corpsman said. \u201cI\u2019m a military kid and I lived in base housing, but this is just ridiculous. We\u2019re not in the field and we\u2019re not on a ship. There\u2019s no viable reason as to why we should be forced to live without the basic qualities of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One corpsman said the substandard living conditions affect not only morale, but mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI already work super-long hours in a high-demand clinic with a huge patient volume,\u201d the corpsman said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been short-staffed for a long time and there\u2019s no telework for us. It sucks to have to grit your teeth through a cold shower and go back to the grind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey call Walter Reed the \u2018corpsman killer,\u2019\u201d a corpsman noted. \u201cYou come home after 10 to 12 hours and you can\u2019t take a shower after working in a hospital with constant germs, it doesn\u2019t feel like you\u2019re getting clean, and we\u2019re in a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One corpsman said they had been assigned to Walter Reed for 19 months and that the water in Comfort Hall has been \u201cconstantly cold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comfort Hall also went without air conditioning for several months last summer, and shipmates roasted in room temperatures that reached 95 degrees, which ironically made the cold showers a welcome reprieve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Base leadership put down cots in the lower-floor common areas for troops seeking relief, but no one took them up on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some said they expected a Walter Reed tour to be tough, with one recalling instructors at corpsman school telling them that Walter Reed \u201csucks and to be prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the whole mess has some young sailors questioning their plans to make a career in the Navy, and they wonder whether anyone in the sea service gives a damn about their well-being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that people like to try to lift up their junior sailors, but in this situation, if senior-enlisted people aren\u2019t directly affected by these issues, they don\u2019t care to put in the effort to fix it,\u201d the corpsman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both corpsmen and base leadership say the issues in Comfort and Sanctuary halls have existed for some time, and that leaders have previously promised fixes that never materialized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the issue took on renewed urgency this week, when one afflicted sailor posted about the problem on Reddit and how they had reached a \u201cbreaking point\u201d after more than a year without hot water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand the \u2018you\u2019re in the military, get over it\u2019 mentality but, holy shit, I don\u2019t think a warm shower is a whole lot to ask for at a shore command that calls itself \u2018the flagship of naval medicine,\u2019\u201d the anonymous post states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat can I do to get this fixed? Or is my only other option marrying a stripper to get out of the barracks?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A sailor living in barracks with no hot water aboard Naval Support Activity Bethesda, Maryland, posted to Reddit seeking help this week. (Screenshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Switzer soon convened the townhall with the junior sailors and soldiers and told them leadership had been working to fix the hot water issues plaguing Sanctuary Hall since 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Sanctuary Hall is less than a decade old, Comfort Hall has been around for 40 years, and aging barracks are not a problem unique to that installation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A January report by the Government Accountability Office<\/a> watchdog detailed how nearly one-third of Defense Department buildings worldwide have outlived their lifespan, creating a $137 billion \u201cdeferred maintenance backlog\u201d in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaintenance is most often delayed for lower-priority facilities such as living quarters and childcare facilities,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly 15 years ago to the day, The Washington Post<\/a> revealed black mold and other filth at lodging for the war wounded receiving treatment at Walter Reed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Not fair, I know\u2019<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Switzer began his 40-minute townhall session Thursday by acknowledging the frustrations of troops living in Comfort and Sanctuary halls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI understand you\u2019re not here because you\u2019re excited or happy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a nod to the Reddit post, Switzer also promised that his command \u201cwill not take repercussions against anyone who says anything or complains about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sounding sympathetic to their plight, Switzer cautioned the junior sailors and soldiers at the meeting that solutions won\u2019t come quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hot water issues at Sanctuary Hall have been known about for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Left unsaid was precisely why no one has bothered to fix the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A main issue there has to do with the building\u2019s mixing valve, which ensures that hot water is at the right temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were some engineering decisions that were made in that building that do not support the population that\u2019s in that building right now,\u201d Switzer said. \u201cThat\u2019s not fair, I know. And we\u2019re working to try and fix that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of the issue is capacity, he said, and the fact that most troops living in that building all shower around the same times.<\/p>\n\n\n\t