Barracks that house service members undergoing medical treatment at a Texas military hospital lost heat during frigid temperatures throughout the region last week, Military.com learned.
Liberty Barracks, located on Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, serves troops who are being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center. The heating stopped Jan. 15 in several rooms, and was out for a week, exposing vulnerable patients to unseasonably cold temperatures.
“The cold snaps that hit much of Texas over the past week or so have strained the heating systems in a number of JBSA facilities, and some, including portions of Liberty Barracks, did lose heat,” Rob Strain, a spokesman at the base, told Military.com in an emailed statement.
Read Next: Knocking Down ‘Crappy’ Barracks: Marine Enlisted Leader Says Housing Needs to Improve
The heating issue marks one of the latest quality-of-life issues for Liberty Barracks, which had to relocate building residents for nine months as the base worked to rid the plumbing of a pneumonia-causing bacteria called Legionella detected in 2022. It also comes as Congress prepares to question the service’s top enlisted leaders later this month about quality of life for troops across the military.
Military.com received a tip this week that residents were reportedly using their stoves to keep their rooms warm in the absence of working heat. While Strain did not comment or verify that claim, he advised…
