Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet movie, “The Battleship Potemkin” is not just required watching for anyone who loves cinema, it is a leadership movie. Based on the 1905 Russian Black Sea mutiny, the theme is rather simple;
Abuse of power is one of the main themes in this film. The mutiny gains momentum so quickly because the commanding officers have abused the sailors to such a degree that the men can no longer stand to be beaten down this way. They are served rotten meat with maggots crawling on it and when it’s inspected the ship’s doctor lies and tells them that the meat is fine. This treatment leads to the revolt aboard the ship.
One would think that even after the humiliation of their defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, the Russian Sailors on their remaining capital ships would be well cared for by their officers. They weren’t.
One would think that of all places, those Sailors assigned to the National Capital Region, especially those assigned to our premier health care center, would be well care for by their officers. They weren’t;
Hundreds of junior-enlisted sailors and soldiers have gone for years without hot water in their barrack rooms aboard the Maryland Navy base that is home to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
Others have been left to broil in barracks with broken air conditioning during humid mid-Atlantic summers, or been assigned rooms without working fridges, thermostats or even locking doors, … The issues center around two barracks buildings housing nearly 500 junior service members, dubbed “Comfort Hall” and “Sanctuary Hall,” respectively. …
Comfort Hall was built in 1981, while Sanctuary Hall “opened to occupants” in 2014, according to base spokesman Jeremy Brooks.
Both barracks are mostly occupied by low-ranking Navy corpsmen and Army medical personnel who work at the massive Walter Reed medical complex. …
“I’m not new to living standards in the military,” one corpsman said. “I’m a military kid and I lived in base housing, but this is just ridiculous. We’re not in the field and we’re not on a ship. There’s no viable reason as to why we should be forced to live without the basic qualities of life.”
One corpsman said the substandard living conditions affect not only morale, but mental health.
“I already work super-long hours in a high-demand clinic with a huge patient volume,” the corpsman said. “We’ve been short-staffed for a long time and there’s no telework for us. It sucks to have to grit your teeth through a cold shower and go back to the grind.”
“They call Walter Reed the ‘corpsman killer,’” a corpsman noted. “You come home after 10 to 12 hours and you can’t take a shower after working in a hospital with constant germs, it doesn’t feel like you’re getting clean, and we’re in a pandemic.” … “I think that people like to try to lift up their junior sailors, but in this situation, if senior-enlisted people aren’t directly affected by these issues, they don’t care to put in the effort to fix it,” the corpsman said. …
“I understand the ‘you’re in the military, get over it’ mentality but, holy shit, I don’t think a warm shower is a whole lot to ask for at a shore command that calls itself ‘the flagship of naval medicine,’” the anonymous post states.
“What can I do to get this fixed? Or is my only other option marrying a stripper to get out of the barracks?”
This isn’t the Navy we want, is it?
What, exactly, were the priorities of the leadership there the last decade if, as we tell ourselves so often, our Sailor’s are our top priority – our most valuable asset?
If we have time for our leadership to create an entire YouTube series talking, mostly, about themselves – then couldn’t we make a few barracks walk throughs?
It isn’t like there isn’t access to the chain of command in the NCR. You have the CNO, the MCPON, the SECNAV, SECDEF, heck .. the CINC, all right there.
Comfort Hall was built in 1981 and has been plagued by hot water issues for some time.
The building was constructed with no hot water loop to get hot water to the third and fourth floors.
Switzer told a town hall last week before the Navy Times report that fixing the problem will involve completely cutting off the water for five days.
In a release announcing the movement of affected troops out of the hot water-less barracks, the Navy said “the project was approved last year, and production work began in mid-December.”
41-years.
Sanctuary Hall opened to residents in 2014 and the Navy has been trying to fix that building’s hot water issues since 2015, Switzer said at the town hall.
That work involves replacing a temperature control valve and those repairs are expected to be completed in a few weeks, and new parts for the temperature control valve have been ordered, according to the Navy.
7-years. Almost twice the time it took the USA to fight WWII.
“These repairs will not be done overnight. It will take some time to do this right, but we will get there,” Switzer said in a statement. “Moving our effected (sic) population to suitable quarters will allow us to accelerate the repair process while ensuring our Sailors and Soldiers have adequate living conditions. In the meantime, we will continue to work with our tenant commands and ensure we take care of our service members.”
It should never take a story in the press to make us do the right thing for our Sailors. Perhaps, and I know this is a radical thought, before we invest more BA/NMP, travel expenses, and even more important senior leader time in trendy socio-political theories or boondoggle Capstone Seminars, we should back up a bit and make sure we are taking care of the fundamentals first.
You know, like making sure our Sailors are living in first world conditions ashore. Like we actually care.
When was the last time your command’s leadership did a barracks walkthrough? Not happy with the results, then what have you done?
Are you/we acting like a bureaucrat or a leader?
