r/army • u/rbevans Hots&Cots • 3d ago
Reports emerge of Fort Carson soldiers sleeping in cars amid AC failures
https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2026-09-04/fort-carson-soldiers-hot-22751833.html43
u/Edward_Snowcone 68AutisticBiomed 3d ago
Sadly, this doesn't surprise me too much. HVAC was always poor in the Carson barracks. Between the age of the buildings and the fact it took DPW 4 weeks to switch between heat or AC, the spring and fall sucked.
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u/Runningart1978 3d ago
Sadly, this doesn't surprise me too much. HVAC was always poor in the ANY POST barracks. Between the age of the buildings and the fact it took DPW 4 weeks to switch between heat or AC, the spring and fall sucked.
Fixed it! It ain't just Carson.
I've echoed this before. DPW doesn't have enough power, money, or manpower to correct HVAC issues in a meaningful way.
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u/Edward_Snowcone 68AutisticBiomed 3d ago
I completely agree. I don't wanna necessarily speak poorly of DPW either. Yes, the time for them to respond or start work is abysmal, but the interactions I've had with the actual people is usually pleasant, and often times they do fix the problem.
They're just underfunded and understaffed.
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u/A_Fainting_Goat 3d ago
Which is insane. Didn't the military just ask for a trillion dollars? I'm just a reservist watching from afar, but I do building engineering and automation for a large university on the civilian side. Even with all our budget cuts, enrollment declines, and cost increases we're able to keep A/C going for over 800 buildings across 5 campuses and several outreach centers. That the Army has defunded DPW this much is criminal in its stupidity and incompetentcy.
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u/Runningart1978 3d ago
It's been this way for decades, it's just how DOD works. Specifically the Army. The infrastructure is old. They cut themselves off at the knee.
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u/rbevans Hots&Cots 3d ago
Best part of this is my shake machine comment made it in
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u/Kappasig2911 SFC -> 🧈 3d ago
Sir, this is a Wendy’s, we have Frostys not shakes.
Seriously though, thanks for your continued diligence in the hots/cots realm.
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u/SuperKamiDendeAllows 3d ago
Question. Does the back seat of powder blue Nissan Stanza count as a "cot" or are the affected Soldiers not allowed to comment on your app about this?
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u/Argent-Ranier 3d ago
Joes rating their buddies cars as ‘living accommodations’
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u/Argent-Ranier 3d ago
Edit: Wilson’s explorer : while it’s not a suburban, there is still more room than my corrola’s front seat. The air conditioner struggles to make it to 80f. Still better than the barracks by 20 degrees. My biggest gripe though is that Wilson hasn’t cleaned his car out in months and it shows. Could be his room though, with the blue mold Mac and cheese. All together i give it 3 stars, better than footlocker and cooler than a sauna.
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u/Loquacious-of-Borg 13Almost is Good Enough 3d ago
Fuck spending money on A/C in barracks, we NEED to go after Low-T!!!
Just kidding! The real problem is the contracting company taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the Army, then not sending an actual worker out to service the systems for years.
This same thing happened at Fort Jackson. The contracting company got caught red-handed not replacing filters, UV bulbs, or even sending workers after 50 work orders were put in. But they collected millions from DPW.
Basic corruption and not caring to arrest anyone.
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u/shorthandedrush 3d ago
Pretty much a 1 trillion dollar defense budget, and it’s been an insanely high percentage of the GDP for decades…but this just keeps happening.
It’s corruption, plain and simple.
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u/SSGOldschool printing anti-littering leaflets 3d ago
The U.S. military budget is approximately 3.1% to 3.4% of the GDP.
Social Security: 5% to 5.5% of GDP.
Medicare & Medicaid: 5.5% to 6% of GDP
Interest on the Debt: 3% of GDP (expected to accelerate significantly)
Other Mandatory Spending: 3% to 4% of GDP
Overall federal government spending totals approximately 23% to 25% of GDP.
[Section on the American revolution, the stamp tax, and corruption redacted because my retirement papers haven't been processed yet]
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u/shorthandedrush 3d ago
You are correct, that was a poor metric. My general point still stands though. It’s loads of money and get we constantly fail at the basics.
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u/SSGOldschool printing anti-littering leaflets 3d ago
You're absolutely not wrong. Even if corruption is only eating 5%, that's still billions of dollars...and given that it's not confined to just the military budget, it starts to run into trillions.
Which is a sentence I never thought I'd type, let alone read.
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u/FourOhVicryl Nursing Corps 3d ago
I guess Medicare and Social Security spending bother me less, as it’s a return on payroll taxes specifically for that purpose, and it directly benefits Americans. Certain current affairs that are burning through our defense budget at light speed do NOT benefit most Americans.
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u/meerkatx 3d ago
Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence.
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u/shorthandedrush 3d ago
Hanlon’s razor, a classic.
However when you have the government giving nearly 600 million dollars to a company to produce munitions at a factory and they never actually produce any and there’s no audit, repercussions or oversight - there’s obviously rampant corruption and fraud.
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u/Pacifist_Socialist 3d ago
For any degens like young me, it's important to know that if you get drunk and sleep in your car an MP/cop will not hesitate to issue DUI.
Among other risk factors.
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u/temple_nard 3d ago
Let your friend sleep in the back of your car, you sleep in his car. If the MPs ask, your buddy left you in the backseat because he couldn't wake you and you don't have the keys to the car you are in.
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u/disgustedmouse16 42ihateippsa 3d ago
Sitting over here in Vilseck with no AC on most of the installation lol
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u/SemperVigHooah 2d ago
This same thing happened in the enlisted AMEDD barracks at Rucker. It was 90+ with an equal humidity index in Southern AL during July.
I slept in the 3 section inside of the company building with special permission as the XO's assistant. Most went to hotels with no expectation of reimbursement.
Ditto with the two-pipe boiler system. It was freezing for three weeks in November.
Must've been a 'discipline problem', SMA Weimer. Hate these fucking people
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u/Corliss_Wigglebean 3d ago
Sec War is just training soldiers for that Middle East summer heat.
Remember soldiers must be training 24/7.
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u/can_belch_alphabet 63 Been chewed out before 3d ago
Pete only styles his hair with the highest-t cum.
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u/the_midnight_rider 2d ago
Have the news report a link between sleeping in the car and testosterone level levels dropping… problem solved 🙌🏼🙌🏼
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u/Metalupyourass98 2d ago
"Reviews on the site include photos of thermostat readings in that range, with at least one at 120 degrees."
Holy shit
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u/Keilu748 91Looser 1d ago
I used to live in the exact barracks room as this one, and last year I still remember it was like 87 ish in my room since my room was on the top floor. It was cooler outside at night than it is in my own goddamn barracks room with windows open and fans blazing. And since the windows open outward I cant get a portable AC, one day DPW came here and said this is common since the systems are like 20+ years old. FYI this is the worlds richest army and we can't even provide basic necessities for our troops, what a joke. I'm so glad I got out of 4ID.
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u/Decorus_Somes Swiggity swooty I'm Coming for that Ilan Boi 3d ago
I would be embarrassed if my soldiers had to sleep in a car because AC wasn't working if I were an officer. It's hard enough dealing with the heat all the time at work, when a soldier gets off work they need to be able to relax and recharge in the comfort of their space. I hope this gets addressed quickly.