The living conditions for U.S. military members are well documented and terrible. But when asked about the prevalence of mold in U.S. military barracks, a Major General for the Army said that soldiers just need to learn to be adults and clean up after themselves.
“I don’t have a mold problem, I have a discipline problem,” Major General James P. Isenhower III told a crowd during a discussion at the Association of the United States Army on Wednesday. Isenhower was there to discuss how best to take care of soldiers.
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U.S. military bases are famously filthy and disgusting. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office found barracks filled with sewage, squatters, disease and—yes—mold. During a question and answer session at the conference, a soldier asked about housing conditions on military bases. “There are some areas that are still dilapidated,” she said. “How do we avoid being on the Army Times—mold, asbestos, and so forth.”
Lieutenant General Omar J. Jones IV, a commanding general at Joint Base San Antonio, answered first. He explained that leaders have a duty to soldiers and shared stories about some of the horrible places the military had asked him to live, including one that had been condemned and was scheduled to be demolished after he left.
Isenhower concurred that leaders needed to take care of soldiers, then went on a rant about how young soldiers needed to learn how to be better at “adulting.”
“I do use this in a pejorative term and it’s ‘adulting,’” he said. “A lot of times we just need to teach young soldiers and young family members what is appropriate and what is part of their obligation and basic responsibility as an adult. I’ve got it good at Fort Hood compared to Fort Stewart or Fort Liberty. Mold really isn’t a problem for us and I will tell senior leaders that I don’t have a mold problem, I’ve got a discipline problem. Because of the lack of humidity, we’re not under the same conditions. We have had some mold problems but that’s from leaky pipes we didn’t discover until it’s too late.”
“At the end of the day we’ve still got young men and women who will call a hotline and say, ‘I’ve got black mold in my shower’ and it’s on the grout,” he continued. “It’s because they haven’t cleaned it. Leaders come in to solve problems … but that’s how we stay out of the Army Times, if you want to put it that way. In many cases they’ve either misdiagnosed the problem or they could solve the problem themselves.”
Isenhower is a West Point graduate who took command of Fort Bliss, Texas in 2022. He’d previously spent some of his career at Fort Hood, also in Texas, where he was the Deputy Division Commander for 1st Cavalry Division in 2019.
“When reached for comment, Isenhower said he misspoke. “I acknowledge I misspoke when I said ‘Fort Hood’ (Cavazos) when I should have said ‘Fort Bliss.’ I remain committed to the welfare of our Soldiers, DA Civilians, and Families at Fort Bliss,” Isenhower told Motherboard in an email.
Regardless, both Fort Bliss and Fort Hood have both been alleged to be hotspots for filth and mold in particular.
The problem at privatized military housing at Fort Hood was so bad that nine Army families sued their landlords in 2020. In 2022, one Army family told a local news outlet that they lived in their car because their home was so filthy. “We had a flood in our laundry room, and sewage water came up to about our calves and we had to scoop it out manually because no one came,” soldier Lily Kelly told KWTX. She cited mold as a major issue.
Fort Bliss, Isenhower’s current posting, is no better. Ten military families sued the private management company running their housing at Fort Bliss in 2021. Among the families chief complaints was “toxic mold.” A year later, the company pleaded guilty to defrauding the U.S. government and agreed to pay more than $65 million. There’s a similar lawsuit brewing at Fort Stewart, another of the bases namechecked by Isenhower. The lawsuit said that families were removing into homes “filled with mold, and lead based paint.”
As its barracks molder, the U.S. Army is facing a massive recruitment shortfall, expecting to fall 15,000 recruits short of its goal.
Update 10/16/2023: This story with a clarification from Maj. Gen. James P. Isenhower III.
