Under the Rubble

fighting demands. The number of The Navy recently spent $3 mil- substandard facilities grew by 10 lion to repair the roof of an aging Leaking roofs, crumbling runways, percent in just one year. The report airplane hangar at NAS North Island, was among the first to link the Calif. The repairs should have only broken sewers, and more add up to a military’s decision to spend money cost a third of that, but the Navy $60 billion military maintenance backlog. on new weapons systems, training, delayed maintenance for years and and operating costs—rather than on did not start fixing the roof until large facilities and maintenance—to a de- chunks of it began to fall on mechan- cline in the military’s ability to mo- ics and aircraft inside the hangar. bilize for and fight wars. Army reserve soldiers who wait Raymond F. Dubois Jr., deputy at Ft. Bragg, N.C., before deploying undersecretary of defense for in- to fight in the war on terror are stay- stallations, underscored the report’s ing in dilapidated wooden barracks findings and told the House appro- built for temporary use in World War priations military construction sub- II. The Army has not been able to committee in April that installations find the extra cash to replace the are an integral part of military readi- unair-conditioned quarters. UnderUnder thethe RubbleRubble ness and key to executing the mili- Marine and civilian personnel at tary’s diverse missions. Not only do Camp Pendleton, Calif., are using con- those poor conditions affect readi- verted World War II Quonset huts for ness, but also they directly impact administrative offices. Summer tem- the services’ ability to attract and peratures can top 100 degrees. Other retain both military and civilian per- wooden buildings at the Marine Corps’ sonnel, he said. premier West Coast training facility “Many surveys have shown that are being eaten away by termites. poor quality facilities are a major source of dissatisfaction for family Readiness Suffers members and service members alike,” Pope Air Force Base has become said Dubois. “Our aging and dete- the Air Force’s poster child for what riorating infrastructure has a direct happens when maintenance and con- impact on retention.” struction accounts are repeatedly shortchanged. The North Carolina Much Needed Boost base is rated among the lowest in the As a result, Dubois has proposed Pentagon’s recent review of facility spending $5.6 billion on sustain- readiness. DOD rated the base C-4, ing, restoring, modernizing, and de- which means the facilities and infra- molishing buildings and other in- structure on the base are not ad- frastructure on military bases in equate to support the Air Force dur- By George Cahlink Fiscal 2003—a $579 million in- ing wartime. crease over such spending in Fiscal Air Force officials say an addi- 2002. The increase will allow the tional $208.5 million would be nec- military services to meet 93 percent essary for the base to meet minimally of their maintenance requirements. acceptable go-to-war requirements.

USAF photo by SrA. Edward Braly In recent years, only about 75 per- “What you have here is a phenom- cent of those repair needs were enal Air Force doing the job with funded. limited infrastructure,” said Col. S OPERATIONS unfolded in Af- Gulfport, Miss. The base’s 48 A-10 problem, but it’s a matter of where behind in repair and renovation work Those dollars cannot come soon Gerald J. Sawyer, commander of the ghanistan, the Air Force was attack aircraft were flown to Seymour you put scarce dollars.” on infrastructure across all bases. enough for the services that are fac- 43rd Support Group at Pope and the AA forced to shut down one of the Johnson AFB, N.C., and Nellis AFB, Indeed, years of putting off basic The Air Force is not alone. The ing a myriad of maintenance prob- person responsible for maintaining main runways at Pope AFB, N.C., Nev. repairs, skimping on scheduled main- military services face a combined lems, including: and improving base infrastructure. for 30 days. Years of underfunding Air Force officials say they did tenance, and not building new infra- $60 billion backlog in maintenance Almost every day at Langley AFB, “We have not put anyone at risk, but and putting off maintenance work not calculate the cost of the runway structure—so the service could pay work at military facilities. The work Va., airmen walk up and down the people are constrained,” he said. had left the runway cracking and shutdown, but undoubtedly the clos- for new weapons systems and flying ranges from patching up leaking roofs runways looking for and picking up Fleming Hall, headquarters for the crumbling to rubble in some areas ing put an additional strain on air- hours—means maintenance bills are and sewer lines to repaving roads loose pieces of concrete. Without ex- 43rd Support Group, was built in where airplanes touched down. men and airplanes already stretched long past due. Air Mobility Com- and runways. Without an increase in tra money to repair runways, the walks 1933 and appears every bit a build- The Air Force performed a logis- thin to support the war on terror. mand faces a $100 million backlog in current maintenance spending, it are critical because if a piece of debris ing that has not had a major overhaul tical ballet to ensure that closing airfield repair work at its bases. Air would take DOD 192 years to get its is on the runway, it can be sucked into since Franklin D. Roosevelt was down the strip did not directly affect “Shock Absorbers” Combat Command buildings need $70 facilities up to a level that would an airplane engine and potentially cause President. All of the building’s wa- the ongoing war on terrorism. “Our infrastructure accounts have million in roof repairs. Air Force satisfy current requirements. hundreds of thousands of dollars in ter fountains have been removed The service moved Pope’s 32 been shock absorbers for a lack of weapons storage facilities need more A 2001 Pentagon report based on damage. “That’s not the best and high- because rust from 50-year-old pipes C-130 aircraft, along with the 500 defense spending [over the past de- than $60 million in repairs and im- a survey of major military commands est use of a mechanic,” concedes contaminates the water. There are personnel who fly, maintain, and cade],” said Maj. Gen. Earnest O. provements. The average building on found that more than two-thirds were Robbins, adding that foreign object no elevators in the three-story build- support them, from North Carolina Robbins II, USAF’s top civil engi- an Air Force base is 45 years old. All either listed as having serious defi- debris walks are the service’s cheap- ing, a violation of the Americans to an Air National Guard base in neer. “The Air Force knows it’s a told, the service is about $18 billion ciencies or as unable to meet war- est maintenance option. With Disabilities Act.

64 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 65 fighting demands. The number of The Navy recently spent $3 mil- substandard facilities grew by 10 lion to repair the roof of an aging Leaking roofs, crumbling runways, percent in just one year. The report airplane hangar at NAS North Island, was among the first to link the Calif. The repairs should have only broken sewers, and more add up to a military’s decision to spend money cost a third of that, but the Navy $60 billion military maintenance backlog. on new weapons systems, training, delayed maintenance for years and and operating costs—rather than on did not start fixing the roof until large facilities and maintenance—to a de- chunks of it began to fall on mechan- cline in the military’s ability to mo- ics and aircraft inside the hangar. bilize for and fight wars. Army reserve soldiers who wait Raymond F. Dubois Jr., deputy at Ft. Bragg, N.C., before deploying undersecretary of defense for in- to fight in the war on terror are stay- stallations, underscored the report’s ing in dilapidated wooden barracks findings and told the House appro- built for temporary use in World War priations military construction sub- II. The Army has not been able to committee in April that installations find the extra cash to replace the are an integral part of military readi- unair-conditioned quarters. UnderUnder thethe RubbleRubble ness and key to executing the mili- Marine and civilian personnel at tary’s diverse missions. Not only do Camp Pendleton, Calif., are using con- those poor conditions affect readi- verted World War II Quonset huts for ness, but also they directly impact administrative offices. Summer tem- the services’ ability to attract and peratures can top 100 degrees. Other retain both military and civilian per- wooden buildings at the Marine Corps’ sonnel, he said. premier West Coast training facility “Many surveys have shown that are being eaten away by termites. poor quality facilities are a major source of dissatisfaction for family Readiness Suffers members and service members alike,” Pope Air Force Base has become said Dubois. “Our aging and dete- the Air Force’s poster child for what riorating infrastructure has a direct happens when maintenance and con- impact on retention.” struction accounts are repeatedly shortchanged. The North Carolina Much Needed Boost base is rated among the lowest in the As a result, Dubois has proposed Pentagon’s recent review of facility spending $5.6 billion on sustain- readiness. DOD rated the base C-4, ing, restoring, modernizing, and de- which means the facilities and infra- molishing buildings and other in- structure on the base are not ad- frastructure on military bases in equate to support the Air Force dur- By George Cahlink Fiscal 2003—a $579 million in- ing wartime. crease over such spending in Fiscal Air Force officials say an addi- 2002. The increase will allow the tional $208.5 million would be nec- military services to meet 93 percent essary for the base to meet minimally of their maintenance requirements. acceptable go-to-war requirements.

64 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 65 tal at Ft. Bragg, which has more room to X-ray patients. The clinic’s pharmacy is not much bigger than the X-ray room. Drugs and pharmaceutical supplies are stored on wheeled shelves to make room for the pharmacy’s workers, who spend the day saying, “Excuse

USAF photo by SSgt. Raheem Moore me” to one another. “You should have seen what it was like when one of us was pregnant,” joked one of the pharmacy workers. Equipment is available to do anthrax tests at the base, but there’s no space at the medical clinic for storing it, so patients requiring those tests would have to go to Ft. Bragg, too. Renee Otto, an environmental en- gineer at Pope, is not looking for a million-dollar fix for the base’s ag- A-10 II Thunderbolt aircraft from Pope AFB, N.C., stand on the ramp at Sey- ing sewer system—just $140,000. mour Johnson AFB, N.C. Pope A-10s were moved to Seymour Johnson and Last spring, Pope’s sewer system Nellis AFB, Nev., during runway repair work. failed and dumped more than 15,000 gallons of wastewater into surround- The building also houses the base’s used for repairing aircraft, is also ing rivers and streams, in violation courtroom. There, space is so tight, regularly left exposed to the ele- of both federal and state environ- defendants cannot even see those ments at Pope. Most of the equip- mental laws. “At any time, we could testifying against them. ment is designed to operate outdoors, receive a violation and be fined,” Throughout Fleming Hall, nearly but year-round exposure means more said Otto. 20 layers of lead-based paint peel routine maintenance and shortens the Additionally, Pope lacks money and flake from walls that are insu- equipment’s lifespan. to put alarms on the sewer system lated with cancer-causing asbestos. The base has about 15,000 square that would alert Air Force officials Sawyer said the service cannot pin- feet of warehouse space for storing to leaks. Without alarms, leaks can point the asbestos for removal be- and repairing AGE—about half of go undetected for hours and even cause there are no architectural draw- the 30,000 square feet required. Those days. ings of the building. Nor, he said, warehouses and sheds were built in Pope firefighters are quick to boast can the Air Force simply put a wreck- the 1950s and 1960s without air-con- that they are among the busiest in ing ball to Fleming Hall since it is ditioning. They do have plenty of Air Mobility Command, with nearly listed on the National Register of duct tape and plastic tarps hanging 2,000 annual calls, but they are not Historic Places. Instead, the base is from the roofs and windows to pre- proud of their station which was built hoping the Air Force will pay for a vent the facility from flooding during in the 1950s. It is about half the size nearly $5 million renovation. a heavy rain. Consolidating the build- of a standard service firehouse. Seven “We’ve done a good job of putting ings into a single, 30,000-square-foot fire vehicles are regularly parked lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” facility would cost $6.4 million. outside the station because there is said Sawyer, pointing to curtains that no room to park them indoors. Mean- office workers have made to cover The List Goes On while, poor ventilation inside causes exposed fiberglass in an office wall. Pope Medical Clinic officials say diesel fumes to leak into the fire- Pope has been waiting nearly a the Air Force has already promised fighters’ sleeping quarters. Renovat- decade for military construction dol- to construct a new, multimillion-dol- ing the fire station would be more lars to build a storage facility to house lar medical facility at the base in expensive than spending about $10 more than $60 million of classified 2006. In the meantime, the base million to build a new firehouse at countermeasures equipment used by makes do with a series of 1970s Pope, fire officials said. A-10 aircraft. Currently, the equip- modular buildings and attached trail- Pope Library Director Faye Cou- ment is stored in a tin shed that does ers to care for patients who range ture would like to put more books on not meet DOD security requirements. from sick babies to pilots getting the shelves—including many of those Because of limited shed space, some their eyes examined. that are recommended reading by of the equipment must be stored out- Upon walking in, patients elbow the Air Force—but cannot because side. And there is no backup location against 16,000 medical records for the base’s library is less than half the in the event of a hurricane, which is space in the waiting area. Patients 12,000 square feet of space needed not uncommon in that region. Base needing an X-ray must squeeze side- and authorized for Pope. Often, she officials said they need $5.5 million ways through two bookcases into a said, new books only go on the to build a secure facility for the gear. small X-ray room. If patients cannot shelves when damaged books get Aerospace Ground Equipment, walk to radiology, they are sent sev- thrown out. Last year, Couture said, such as generators and light carts eral miles away to the Army’s hospi- she had some openings because she

66 AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 tossed out about 100 reference books that were infested with mold because, like the fire station, the library has inadequate ventilation and air-con- ditioning systems. Pope officials are not only wor- ried about the base’s infrastructure meeting current requirements but are increasingly concerned about whether it will be able to handle USAF photo by TSgt. Dave Ahlschwede new demands. Beginning in 2006, Pope is slated to serve as a beddown facility for the Air Force’s new C-130J-30 cargo aircraft. The new mission will re- quire an additional flight simulator, more Aerospace Ground Equipment, new two-bay and one-bay aircraft hangars, technical and fuselage training facilities, and consolidated maintenance centers. The flight line at Aviano AB, Italy, a key base for USAF operations, under- “Pope’s current infrastructure is not goes major renovations. Servicewide, the Air Force is about $18 billion capable of meeting the demands of behind in repair and renovation work. the new C-130J-30 beddown mission,” according to an Air Force informa- costs—and more savings—through property to San Antonio, which will tion paper. “Upgrades to area infra- reduced maintenance bills. maintain and, in some cases, over- structure are necessary to ensure the The Air Force alone expects to haul base facilities. San Antonio’s C-130J-30 new mission is a success.” eliminate another four million square Brooks Development Authority will Those upgrades will cost at least feet of space over the next two years endeavor to make the base a technol- $16 million, including putting in by either tearing down facilities or ogy and business center. The Air more robust water and electrical dis- giving old buildings to local com- Force units at Brooks, including the tribution systems and expanding the munities. service’s human systems research capacity of the base’s sewer system, The Defense Department expects wing, are now tenants of the BDA. Pope officials said. to free up money for maintaining and Los Angeles Air Force Base, on improving infrastructure by closing the other hand, is pursuing a deal Relief in Sight? military bases. Pentagon officials have that would transfer underutilized land Robbins said increased defense repeatedly said there is as much as 25 at the base to a commercial devel- spending in Fiscal 2003 will begin percent excess infrastructure at the oper. In exchange, the developer to cut the maintenance backlog and military’s 398 bases. They maintain would build the service a new make long overdue facilities upgrades that shuttering those bases could free 580,000-square-foot office building. at bases like Pope. But, he said, the up as much as $3.9 billion annually. Ultimately, however, DOD’s abil- Air Force needs consistent long-term Last year, Congress approved a ity to upgrade bases will rely mainly funding for those accounts. new round of military base closures on Congress’ willingness to fund By 2007, the Air Force and other for 2005. The Pentagon had been repair and maintenance accounts. services hope a steady funding stream pushing for 2003. Last summer, several lawmakers on will have cut from 192 to 67 years Meanwhile, the services are look- the House Armed Services Commit- the time it takes to replace building for other ways to lessen their tee spent three days visiting more ings. Philip W. Grone, Dubois’s top infrastructure load. For instance, than 20 bases across the country and deputy and a former staff director of Robbins said Air Force base manag- came away vowing to improve them. the House Armed Services Com- ers have been told that they should “What we have seen can only be mittee’s military installations and only hire contractors who have ideas described as outrageous,” said Rep. facilities subcommittee, said 67 years and strategies that will keep down Curt Weldon (RÐPa.), who chairs is still longer than the private sector, long-term maintenance costs to de- the House Armed Services military which upgrades buildings every 30 sign, build, and refurbish facilities. readiness subcommittee. to 55 years. However, getting to 67 Additionally, he said Air Force Since then, lawmakers have pro- years, he said, would meet military bases are being encouraged to pur- posed adding nearly half a billion to readiness requirements. sue creative partnerships with local maintenance accounts—and have The Defense Department also will communities, so bases can be up- promised that’s only the beginning. ■ spend substantial dollars tearing graded without additional dollars. down buildings it no longer needs. Brooks Air Force Base in San An- George Cahlink is a military corre- Since 1998, the military services have tonio is the first to launch what the spondent with Government Execu- demolished 62 million square feet of service terms a cityÐbase approach tive Magazine in Washington, D.C. excess facilities at a cost of $900 to cut Air Force operating and main- This is his first article for Air Force million. They expect to recoup those tenance costs. Brooks transferred its Magazine.

AIR FORCE Magazine / November 2002 67