U.S. Army Inspections: Barracks Inspection

The third arti­cle in the inspec­tion series cov­ers tech­niques and guide­lines for con­duct­ing bar­racks inspec­tions. Frequent bar­racks inspec­tions pro­vide lead­ers the abil­ity to mon­i­tor the health and wel­fare of their Soldiers. Many Soldiers feel this inspec­tion is unfair as they are sub­ject to more inspec­tions than the Soldiers who live off-post or in post quar­ters. To some degree this is under­stand­able but Soldiers must also under­stand that unit lead­er­ship is directly respon­si­ble for help­ing to main­tain the bar­racks and there­fore must actively check the bar­rack to ensure proper main­te­nance is being con­ducted and that Soldiers are tak­ing care of the barracks.

Click to read Part 1 of this series: U.S. Army Inspections: The Basics
Click to read Part 2 of this series: U.S. Army Inspections: Planning & Preparation

Squad lead­ers should be check­ing the bar­rack on an infor­mal basis 2–3 times a week. The pla­toon sergeant should be con­duct­ing an infor­mal check weekly along with the First Sergeant. These checks should include spot check­ing rooms for cleanliness/neatness, phys­i­cal secu­rity com­pli­ance, equip­ment fail­ures, and main­te­nance issues.

Barracks equip­ment should receive prompt main­te­nance after a prob­lem is reported. If you expect to have your Soldiers to keep their envi­ron­ment to stan­dard, you must help them resolve the prob­lems that are out­side of their control.

One of the chief com­plaints I have heard from Soldiers is about unsat­is­fac­tory main­te­nance in the bar­racks. Soldiers find it can take days to resolve equip­ment prob­lems such as fail­ing air con­di­tion­ers or heaters after they report them. Leaders must make fix­ing issues in the bar­rack a pri­or­ity as it has a direct bear­ing on the health, wel­fare, and morale of the Soldiers liv­ing in the bar­racks. There is noth­ing more frus­trat­ing than being inspected on a fre­quent basis and report­ing equip­ment prob­lems only to have them ignored and being forced to live in an envi­ron­ment that is not up to stan­dard. It is con­tra­dic­tory. The com­mand must push bar­rack issues up the chain to get prompt repairs and resolve issues quickly.

If a for­mal inspec­tion is to be con­ducted the unit will pro­vide spe­cific require­ments about how to lay out equip­ment and pre­pare the room for an inspec­tion. Guidelines for bar­rack inspec­tions can be found in FM 3–21.5 and unit policy.

Entry into the Barracks

As the leader enters the bar­racks they should check for any signs of equip­ment fail­ure and inspect com­mon areas. If com­mon areas are not to stan­dard they should look for the com­mon area cleanup ros­ter. This clean up ros­ter should be read­ily vis­i­ble and avail­able to any Soldier liv­ing in the bar­racks. Some inspec­tion points may for com­mon areas could include:

• Is the floor clean and prop­erly main­tained? If not, do the Soldiers have the proper sup­plies and resources to do the job correctly?
• Are vend­ing machines in good work­ing order?
• Are there any indi­ca­tions that vend­ing machines are being abused?
• Is there any evi­dence to sug­gest that bar­rack areas are being abused or not prop­erly cared for?

WAR STORY

While inspect­ing a com­mon area dur­ing a pla­toon bar­rack inspec­tion, I noticed sev­eral small pieces of brown beer bot­tle glass in the cracks of the tile floor along the wall. It seemed a lit­tle strange, so I dis­cussed it with the squad lead­ers and we con­tin­ued the inspec­tion. Later in the inspec­tion I noticed a soft­ball in a Soldier’s room that appeared rather banged up (cut up to be exact). The Soldier and I talked about the ball a lit­tle and then I noticed a small piece of brown glass in the ball. I asked the Soldier if he knew how the glass got there and the Soldier said he had no idea. I found this inter­est­ing. Later that night while on post I decided to stop by the bar­racks to check things out. As I entered the com­mon area there was a large group of Soldier drink­ing and hav­ing a great time bowl­ing with a soft­ball and using beer bot­tles for pins. Oh, the Soldier who “had no idea” was about to bowl when I came in. Soldiers will be Soldiers but my point is: I saw some indi­ca­tors and decided to fol­low up on them. All lead­ers must be on the look out for indi­ca­tors “good or bad.” We can­not ignore them or we set our Soldiers and unit up for fail­ure. By the way, the Soldiers enjoyed some great cor­rec­tive train­ing after this issue.

Before enter­ing a bar­racks, you should develop a check­list to ensure you cover the essen­tials dur­ing every inspection.

Room Inspections

Once all com­mon areas are inspected begin inspect­ing rooms. Before you enter the room check to ensure the door is prop­erly marked in accor­dance with unit pol­icy and then exam­ine the door for any sign of abuse or wear.

Check the com­mon areas of the room such as the bath­room, cab­i­nets, etc. Any defi­cien­cies in the room should be anno­tated on a sheet of paper that stays in the room. This paper should con­tain all defi­cien­cies and the sta­tus of any work orders that were sub­mit­ted. Work orders over one week old should be reviewed with senior mem­bers of the unit in an attempt to seek res­o­lu­tion. While inspect­ing com­mon areas you should be alert for any unusual smells that could indi­cate faulty plumb­ing, mildew, drug or alco­hol use, etc.

Then pro­ceed to check each Soldier’s area. Check the lay­out for appear­ance, com­plete­ness, and to ensure it is in accor­dance with unit policy.

All equip­ment should be checked for clean­li­ness and ser­vice­abil­ity. When check­ing the Soldier’s wall locker look for unusual signs like worn out under­gar­ments or a locker that appears to be only for dis­play. These could be indi­ca­tors of other issues. For exam­ple, a Soldier could be stay­ing off post with­out autho­riza­tion or expe­ri­enc­ing finan­cial prob­lems that make it dif­fi­cult for him to pur­chase cloth­ing requirements.

Depending on how much time you have you may wish to pick a few things to check in each Soldier’s area and then check the same equip­ment on every Soldier only devi­at­ing when you see neg­a­tive indi­ca­tors that give you cause to check some­thing else out. This method ensures each Soldier get the same amount of atten­tion and is treated the same. If you try to do a 100% inspec­tion, some Soldiers may not get inspected at all. Just make sure you have a plan. The last thing you want is a Soldier to work hard prepar­ing for an inspec­tion only to not be inspected at all. This can quickly hurt morale.

Pick a hand­ful of impor­tant stan­dards to check. If you find trou­ble, inspect further.

While inspect­ing per­sonal areas look for any indi­ca­tion of unau­tho­rized equip­ment, illicit drugs, expired pre­scrip­tions, pre­scrip­tions with other individual’s names, weapons, etc. If you find any ille­gal activ­ity you should imme­di­ately secure the area and notify senior leaders.

The same pro­ce­dures can be used when con­duct­ing a health and wel­fare inspec­tion. These inspec­tions usu­ally require coor­di­na­tion with mil­i­tary police for drug dogs or other assets. If you use dogs in your search ensure the dog han­dlers use com­mon cour­tesy when allow­ing the dogs to inspect the area.

WAR STORY

During an inspec­tion, one of the drug dogs made a mess in a Soldier’s room and the MP began laugh­ing. We made the MP clean it up. Needless to say he stopped laugh­ing but this inci­dent was not a pos­i­tive one for the Soldier in the room. He felt as if his home had been invaded, his pri­vacy breached, and to top it off the MP found it all humor­ous. While there is noth­ing that can be done about the first two issues other than explain­ing the neces­sity for the inspec­tion, the com­mand could have had a dis­cus­sion with the MP prior to the inspec­tion about pro­fes­sion­al­ism and how the inspec­tion would be con­ducted. Bottom line if you bring in exter­nal agen­cies for an inspec­tion lay down the ground rules and ensure they treat your Soldiers with dig­nity and respect.

Once you have com­pleted the inspec­tion of the room you should review the defi­cien­cies and excep­tional per­for­mances with the Soldiers and come up with a plan of action to cor­rect the defi­cient areas.

If you run into a room that is extremely filthy it raises a few questions:

• Has the first line leader been check­ing this room?
• If he has, why is it this way?
• If they have not been inspect­ing, why not?
• Why does the Soldier believe this is an accept­able stan­dard to live with?
• Does the Soldier real­ize that his poor health habits could adversely affect others?

You must develop a plan of action to cor­rect the sub­stan­dard per­for­mance on the Soldier’s part and the leader’s fail­ure to ensure the Soldier main­tains a standard. The key to effec­tive bil­let inspec­tions is to treat your Soldiers with respect and dig­nity. Treat them as you would want to be treated.

Read The Trainer: A Training Guide for all ranks for more infor­ma­tion about Army Training tech­niques, tac­tics, and pro­ce­dures includ­ing train­ing best prac­tices and exam­ple scenarios.