THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510200546
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
Two-thirds of military housing is ``unsuitable'' for its residents - a problem that would cost the Pentagon as much as $30 billion and take up to 40 years to solve, according to a new study of life in uniform.
The answer: create a military housing authority to recruit private know-how and money to get the job done at lower cost and in less than 10 years. No estimate of the cash savings was available.
That is the major recommendation of a Pentagon task force that has spent the past year studying the living and working conditions of the all-volunteer military, including the amount of time troops spend away from home, and the services offered to their families.
``I don't think we can count on the (forces') morale staying high forever in the face of these problems,'' Defense Secretary William J. Perry said at a briefing Thursday. ``We have to address them.''
It is a central tenet of current defense policy that if the forces are not paid and treated properly they will quit, threatening the military's combat readiness.
Noting that quality of life, pay and housing topped a list of 53 reasons soldiers gave for leaving the Army last year, the report, issued Thursday, said: ``No American can afford to ignore this unbreakable link between readiness and quality of life.''
The Pentagon owns or leases 387,768 family units and 465,363 bachelor units. The task force says that almost two-thirds of each category is ``unsuitable.'' The reasons range from poor construction and inadequate space to lead-paint hazards and faulty plumbing and appliances.
The task force recommended that the Pentagon hand over the challenge of providing affordable and adequate military quarters to a quasi-government housing authority to be led by a private developer.
The nonprofit corporation would manage the entire military housing system, constructing new quarters and repairing old ones through contracts with local private industry.
The task force studied two other areas:
The time troops spend away from home.
The task force recommended streamlining training schedules, increasing use of the reserve forces, and putting more non-combat operations out to private contact.
Community and family services for the military, including child care.
The Pentagon currently meets 57 percent of the demand for child care, and the task force endorsed the goal of increasing this to 80 percent by 1999. It also called for better financial advice for military families, increased use of reserve chaplains for family counseling, and provision of better fitness facilities for the young. by CNB