At the Air Force Student Detachment barracks at Fort Meade, almost every room contains mold. Water drips from leaky pipes into buckets on the floor. Shower water seeps down a hallway wall.
Forty-seven airmen live in these half-century-old barracks, among the worst on the Army installation in western Anne Arundel County.
"I think we've gone beyond the point of saying these barracks are unsuitable," said Maj. Danny S. Chung, commander of a Marine Corps detachment at Fort Meade. "I think many people in the chain of command have realized that."
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's Maryland section on housing conditions at Fort Meade misspelled the last name of the installation's commander. He is Col. Kenneth O. McCreedy.
THE SUN REGRETS THE ERROR
Yesterday, as Col. Kenneth O. McGreedy, Fort Meade's commander, gave a media tour of barracks, contractors worked briskly to make repairs in the wake of an uproar over deteriorating housing conditions at Fort Bragg, N.C. Fort Meade commanders say it will be years before permanent repairs are made to some barracks and others are replaced."This is a persistent problem with these buildings, and we keep fighting it and jury-rigging it," McGreedy said.
Last month, housing conditions on Army bases came under scrutiny when the father of a soldier at Fort Bragg posted on the video-sharing site YouTube a clip of mold, peeling paint and other problems in his son's barracks. Responding to the ensuing uproar, Army officials ordered an inspection of all barracks worldwide.
Officials say poor housing conditions have persisted for years on installations such as Fort Meade, where some soldiers live in quarters built more than 50 years ago without modern ventilation and plumbing.
The 5,400-acre installation contains 21 barracks that house men and women enlisted in all military branches during training, as well as unmarried soldiers stationed at the post.
Fort Meade's barracks have some of the same problems found at Fort Bragg: mold-covered walls, peeling paint, leaky pipes, and deteriorating shower pans that allow water to seep through floors.
Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford County has done work on several soldiers' rooms, including removing mold, but the problems are relatively minor, officials there said.
Fort Meade is about to spend $52 million renovating four barracks over the next several years as part of projects that were planned before the Fort Bragg problems came to light. Two of those barracks, each housing 166 soldiers, are scheduled to reopen by 2010. The other two could reopen by 2012, officials said.
