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Army Times tracked down and caught up with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade chief warrant officer 2 who masterminded the operation. The soldier is a former infantry NCO who once worked for an international luxury hotel chain \u2014 \u201cif it\u2019s not the Four Seasons, it\u2019s this other company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI used to regularly use a granite countertop bathroom with an individual stall that had linen towels and running water, you know, all those types of things that you take for granted working in a place like that,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I joined the [infantry].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The now-warrant officer, a Black Hawk pilot, asked during his phone interview that Army Times withhold his name so that a news article about his unit\u2019s bougie bathrooms wouldn\u2019t be the top Google result for his name. We reluctantly agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to be known as the bathroom guy for the rest of my career,\u201d he confessed. \u201cBut this whole idea of trying to make this place a little bit nicer each day \u2014 and maybe the next guys get to enjoy it after my group phases out of here \u2014 it\u2019s actually been a really cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He also noted that this wouldn\u2019t have been possible at his old infantry unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you were to do this in an infantry company, somebody would find a way to break everything in there,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The brigade public affairs officer, Capt. Kyle Abraham, gets no such anonymity, though, and will have to deal with this coming up in his Google history forever. He described the latrine as what can happen \u201cwhen soldiers have pride in the unit and pride in where they work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The project began last fall when the battalion\u2019s pilot mafia realized they\u2019d been spoiled by occasional visits to high-class facilities at other airports in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve got people flying in and out of there with private jets,\u201d explained the warrant officer. \u201cAnd then you got all these grubby Army guys coming in and out, drinking all their coffee and eating their snack stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A realization and two rules set the project in motion, he said: \u201cWe should have nice things, too…[but] everything that goes in the bathroom \u2014 it has to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second rule? \u201cIt has to be classy,\u201d said the pilot. He said he vetoed a few items that didn\u2019t \u201cfit that ambiance that we were trying to create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSomebody wanted to put a wicker chair in there, and that was absolutely a no-go,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt looked like cheap patio furniture, and we weren\u2019t going to have that in there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over time, giveaways on Facebook Marketplace and other sites coalesced into a coherent theme \u2014 \u201cAlaskan hunting lodge,\u201d as the warrant officer described it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The only enemy of the project? The brigade\u2019s former command sergeant major, according to the warrant officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe did exactly what you think a brigade sergeant major would do,\u201d explained the pilot. \u201cHe turned the [fluorescent] lights back on, and immediately within minutes, the next guy that walks in would automatically turn the lights off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That battle continued for about a month, he said. But every time he\u2019s entered \u201cin the last three or fours months…everything is just the way it\u2019s supposed to be \u2014 music on, lights off, lamps glowing and everything peaceful,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, the battalion formally appointed one of its standardization pilots as the facility\u2019s \u201cjanitorial executive,\u201d responsible for establishing the cleaning duty roster \u2014 which is dominated by the unit\u2019s warrant officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both the warrant officer and Abraham swore that soldiers actually use this bathroom on a regular basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hangar where the latrine is located is one of the brigade\u2019s newest facilities, Abraham explained, so it often plays host to standing meetings, special events and distinguished visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The warrant officer stressed that \u201canybody from the newest private on post up to the [I Corps] commander can use the bathroom \u2014 it\u2019s not a warrant officer-only lounge or anything like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that some of the general officers on post have visited, and his brigade commander gives the facility \u201ca rave review.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what the next target upgrade is, the pilot said that the unit is trying to build a collection of CDs for the clock radio and a small shelf to organize them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo anybody who\u2019s willing to donate a CD \u2014 maybe like an old Kenny G CD or something like that \u2014 that would be appropriate,\u201d he said. Army Times has not yet located a representative for Kenny G in order to facilitate the connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked if he had any moral confliction over sparking a possible bathroom arms race, the pilot noted he hasn\u2019t \u201clost sleep over this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere would be worse arms races out there,\u201d he said. \u201cIf anything, it\u2019s only going to have a positive effect on the…aviation community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Editor\u2019s note: The author of this story, Davis Winkie, initially wanted to say \u201cshit\u201d in the headline. He was overruled by his editors, but he wants all of you to know that he accepted the new headline under protest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Army Times exclusively interviewed the former infantry NCO who masterminded the luxury latrine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":85913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-observation-post","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":70,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[100,23,92,12,25,70],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3376],"class_list":["post-47828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-left-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-army"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ITIZULCOBZG67M557MSXAQ4CYI","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-army\/2022\/04\/21\/these-army-pilots-poop-in-luxury-at-joint-base-lewis-mcchord\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"observation-post","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screen-Shot-2022-04-20-at-4.17.09-PM.png.png\")
Seriously, how did this even happen?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Does anyone actually use it? (and can visitors?)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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