In the early 1960s...Barksdale AFB had a project where they were replacing all of the WW II barracks. There was a row of 12 buildings erected and completed around 1963.
When I got there in 1981...they were 18 years old. To be honest....they had serious problems by this point.
I probably killed at least forty cockroaches a week in my room (3rd floor). The AC marginally worked. The original carpet had a funny mildew smell. The mattress (original one) was crap.
Along about 15 months of residency there...I came 'home' one day around 4 PM, and was there to change clothing and get my book for the evening college class. Some disturbance occurred on the first floor....requiring a fire-truck/ambulance and the alarm was for folks to leave the building. I went to the two evening classes.....I didn't get back till almost 10 PM.
The building was dark. The normal door I'd enter was 'engaged' in some way, and I had trouble opening it.
Some guy came to the door and said there was a natural gas leak in the building. Some guy on the first floor had showered around 4 PM...come into the room to run his hair dryer, and lit a smoke....having this 'FLASH' of fire erupt (this was the guy who needed the ambulance).
So I was allowed to grab 2 days of clothing....and directed to the base hotel.
A week later....the word came down. The base refused to renovate anything more in this zone....everything was to be torn down within 18 months.
The $hit that hit the fan? Well...the AC was crap from that point on. The last 3 months of this era? Winter period, and the heat marginally worked. It was enough the final 4 weeks to keep the room at 45 F (yeah, brisk).
I was transferring overseas....a week or two after that...they moved everyone to a brand new building.
The new building? Well....I talked to someone who'd been there in the mid 2000s, and they indicated this entire row of new buildings (1984 finished) were crap by 2000 and they were already planning the next batch of new barracks.
