WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | WIS News 10 tours Ft. Jackson after mold, asbestos found

WIS News 10 tours Ft. Jackson after mold, asbestos found

FORT JACKSON, SC (WIS) - WIS has learned that inspectors found mold and asbestos inside the Fort Jackson barracks.
   
Officials say the problems will cost a significant amount of money to fix.

But they don't consider the findings as serious as what they've seen at Fort Bragg. Earlier this week we showed you troubling images from the base posted online by the parent of a soldier.
   
Among the dismal conditions visible is a major sewage backup.  

The images prompted inspections by the us army, visiting bases across the country -- including Fort Jackson here in Columbia.
  
WIS News 10 took a tour of the base Thursday. Here's what we found.

It isn't exactly a five-star hotel, and Commanding General Jim Schwitters knows it.

"What you see here is 50 years old. We're not proud of the floor covering. but it is sanitary, it is functional and it is healthy," says Schwitters.

But keeping the barracks at Fort Jackson functional and sanitary is a challenge. About a third of them have eight beds to a room, stained walls, rusted tiles and chipped paint.
   
"This is one of six latrines in this barracks," says Schwitters during the tour.

The 1950's-era barracks are some of the oldest on base. Maintenance issues are expected when more than 50,000 soldiers come through each year.

"Keeping ahead of plumbing problems, we've all encountered overflowing toilets, blocked drains, we deal with that everyday," says Schwitters.

But what happens when conditions get out of hand, as they seemingly did at Fort Bragg, in North Carolina? Images there show severe mold and bathroom drains plugged with sewage.

The barracks at Fort Jackson are similar in age, but officials say they're already working on replacing them.

Then we saw one of the base's newer models.

"We call it the starship because if you were to look at it from a birds-eye view, it would like a Starship Galactica. A central hub with many appendages, fairly large," says Schwitters.

Fort Jackson is also in the midst of an eight-year, $1 billion renovation.

Officials hope to centralize soldier training and housing by building around what's called a star-base, where barracks hold about 50-60 soldiers, latrines look much cleaner, and old tiles are replaced by flooring that should last a bit longer.

In the meantime, thousands of soldiers will continue to live in older barracks, and equally simple, temporary trailers.
  
Officials say they may not be pretty, but they're functional -- for now.

Reported by Dan Tordjman

Posted by Logan Smith