Warriors in Peace Operations - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

for our initial 100-person contingent. We were all pleasantly
surprised. Although the building was physically in poor
shape, it had heat, hot and cold running water, six male
shower stalls, and three female shower stalls. We were
fortunate to have not only these luxuries, but also to be
afforded the opportunity to billet in a permanent structure
with concrete floors. There was no complaining heard from
any of our soldiers.
We spent the next hour unpacking the buses and moving
all the packs, weapons, MREs, and water into the barracks.
We immediately established an arms room in a caged-in
area that appeared to have been an arms room during the
Russian occupation. After everything was removed from the
buses, I told everyone to break for lunch. A mess facility was
located across the street from our barracks. Although there
was no food being provided at this point, it was a great place
for our soldiers to be able to sit down at tables and have hot
coffee or juice with their MREs.
After lunch, we formed back up at the barracks. The
First Sergeant had located a large number of metal bed
frames to the rear of the building, and one of the other senior
NCOs had discovered a number of old mattresses in a
storage area in the building. We immediately identified
teams to clean rooms, carry metal bed frames, carry
mattresses, and assemble the bed frames in the rooms. The
First Sergeant, the Chief Wardmaster, and I then went
around the barracks, identifying how many soldiers would
be billeted in each room. The space available was extremely
limited, thereby requiring us to double-bunk in every room.
In addition, we needed to include, and establish beds for, the
nearly 60 additional members of our unit due to arrive
sometime during the day.
By 1630, the entire barracks was cleaned and the beds
assembled. We formed up the soldiers, congratulated them
on their efforts thus far, and announced (per guidance from
the Medical Brigade staff) that all protective masks would
be checked in at the weapons room and that, for the time
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