How the Marine Corps’ barracks got to be so bad, according to 2 generals
By Irene Loewenson
May 1, 02:57 PM
WASHINGTON — Now that the Marine Corps is engaged in a sweeping effort to fix problems in its barracks buildings, Marine leaders have offered some explanations for how the barracks got to be substandard in the first place.
As the Marine Corps’ budget chief sees it, one reason was years of spending more on weapons systems than on quality of life.
“For too long, because we were taking risk in those types of initiatives in order to buy the weapons systems, they became more and more in disrepair,” Lt. Gen. James Adams, the deputy Marine commandant for programs and resources, said about the barracks at a panel discussion Wednesday at the Modern Day Marine conference in Washington.
As the land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were ending, the Marine Corps began to prepare for the next big conflict, which it anticipated might be a faceoff with the powerful Chinese military in the Indo-Pacific. In 2020, then-Commandant Gen. David Berger launched the Force Design initiative to update the Corps’ structure, training and platforms for that potential fight.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2024/05/01/how-the-marine-corps-barracks-got-to-be-so-bad-according-to-2-generals/
