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THE UNFAIR TREATMENT OF SINGLE SOLDIERS: "The Army Treats All Single Soldiers As If They Were Children"By: SGT. I.T.A. March 09, 2010
I am a single, Noncommissioned Officer stationed at Fort Eustis. I was previously stationed at Fort Drum. Being that Fort Drum is a Combat Unit, and Fort Eustis is a TRADOC (Training Doctrine and Command) base. Such being said, comparing the similarities of both would cover pretty much the entire scope of the Army. This article will cover both the differences and likenesses of both units and their treatment of single soldiers compared to that of married soldiers. I came up through the ranks from Private First Class to Sergeant and am still single. This means that, by regulation, I am required to live in the Barracks. As with all single Soldiers, I am subject to the discrimination of a single Soldier, as to be stated in this article. The first thing I am going to start with is being chosen for details. The first place many leaders go is to the Barracks for last minute details. "I need someone to fll this spot on CQ," or "We need someone to do Post Police," and the such. The first place they go is to the barracks. God forbid you are standing in the hallway when it happens. They will grab a single soldier for these details in a hot second. Why not call a married soldier? What makes them choose the Barracks? First of all, I am fairly sure the first thing that is on their mind is, "What kind of excuse can PVT Joe have for not being able to do this duty today, he doesn't have a family." Reason number two? Easy access. There is always someone in the Barracks. It is like fshing in a bucket. I strictly recall a string of incidents when I was stationed at Fort Drum when I was a PFC where I had Staff Duty, which is a 24 hour duty, 8 weekends in a row. All of them Fridays and Saturdays with no compensation time because the day after was a weekend day. Only one of those duties was mine. The rest were when people didn't show up or gave some kind of "family excuse" that was never verifed and because I lived in the Barracks, I apparently didn't have a life. How can this be fixed? Keep a record of all the extra duties you have been singled out for as well as your fellow singled Soldiers at the last minute. All command policies I have come across strictly prohibit the use of the Barracks as a "duty hunting grounds." If it is an ongoing trend, contact your local Inspector General (IG) about the issue. I can guarantee that your chain of command and Noncommissioned Officer Support Channel will deny using the Barracks as such. Issue number two I would like to cover is the complete and total lack of privacy and the grip that the military holds on the life of a single Soldier. I would like to first point out that to join the service, you have to be a grown man or woman of legal age to sign a contract. This being said, the Army treats all single Soldiers as if they were children. Unexpected room inspections that are held at an entirely too high standard as well as the lack of comfort ability and quality of life. I would like to point out that I understand that if a Soldier is letting trash pile up in his or her room with dirty clothes hanging off of furniture and piled on the ground, that is a health issue and should be handled as such, but when a Senior Noncommissioned Officer comes into my room and tells me I have to GI my Barracks room because I have a pizza box sitting on top of a half empty trashcan and three articles of dirty clothes in a MILITARY ISSUE LAUNDRY BAG instead of a laundry basket, there is an issue. On top of that, God Forbid you have any swimsuit models hanging on your wall. Those could be offensive. I have never seen a house inspection for a married soldier. Does the Army seem to think that just because a Private is married, he has more "discipline" than a single Noncommissioned Officer? A married Soldier could be growing pot in their closet and never be caught but a single Soldier will get called out and tore up because they found a cigarette butt in their Barracks room. Everyone should be held to the same standards. Quality of life is one of the biggest factors that determines a Soldiers motivation and happiness. I would first like to discuss the topic of the DFAC (Dining Facility). The DFAC is open for an hour and a half for each meal, every day of the week. If you don't wake up before 0730 in the morning on Saturday and Sunday, or they keep you an extra 30 minutes after Physical Training in the morning, you don't get to eat. The Army doesn't give single Soldiers even partial BAS (Basic Allowance for Sustenance) to buy their own food in these cases. Fill out a missed meals form right? WRONG! They will just throw you an MRE and consider it a meal. By Army Regulation they can do that. On top of that, they don't even supply single soldiers with stoves to cook their own food and they ban the use of cooking utilities such as hot plates and boilers. What do they give you? A grill made of an old oil drum with some rusted metal welded to the top of it, outside. Who is going to go outside in the middle of winter because they want to cook some hotdogs or some chicken. The living conditions of the Barracks rooms is another thing that gets to me. When a Soldier clears the room, they must pay for any deficiencies in the room. Where does that money go? Just days pass between when one Soldier leaves the room and another enters. There is no repairs to the room. The walls are left looking like the DEA just went through it and the furniture dilapidated. Then when that Soldier leaves, he or she ends up paying for the same damages as the last one. In the end, the stuff never gets fixed. The Army has also decided to remove individual temperature controls from the rooms. They set a standard temperature of 68 Degrees Fahrenheit. During the summer months, this isn't a bad temperature. As for the winter months, you need several blankets for your bed just to sleep comfortably in your own "home" as the Army calls it. A single Soldier is also limited on what he or she can own due to the small size of the rooms. In one room, you can barely fit the bed and the dresser that come with the room and barely enough closet space to store your uniforms and issued equipment. If you have too much stuff in your room, it is considered cluttered and unorganized. As for the laundry, they complain about Soldiers having dirty laundry or not having a clean uniform, yet half of the machines are broken, so there are up to two hour waits before you can even get your clothes into a washer and another hour after that before there is an available dryer for the Soldier to use. This is the first of several Articles, and hopefully and on-going correspondence from myself. DIDN'T WE ALL TAKE THE SAME OATH? ` Comment On "The Unfair Treatment Of Single Soldiers"Traveling Soldier Editorial Board Every single soldier in the military is treated in much of the same fashion, and for good reason. The military is the most class-based hierarchy in American society. Married soldiers are treated much better because "family values" are highly encouraged by the chain of command. The military knows that if an atomized family life is rewarded and given fringe benefts, it will serve to encourage young troops to get married, have kids, own consumer goods, and pay off a lifelong debt. This results in a process of being dependent on the military, thus being trapped in an endless cycle of re�enlistments. Family life is one of the best ways to maintain retention, because not only will YOU depend on the military for your pay, food, housing, and health care, but so will your wife and children. The best way to avoid this prejudiced system is to get the fuck out! With a VA home loan you can own your own house, find a better job, and your children won't have to see Daddy go to a godforsaken war zone every three years. Page 2--> |
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