Staff Sgt. Terrell Pinkston inspects a dorm room at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Oct. 2, 2025. An Air Force directive requires the service to certify by Oct. 29 that 100% of all living areas for unaccompanied airmen are "clean, comfortable, and safe." (Samantha Melecio/U.S. Air Force)
Airmen living in base dormitories will have their rooms inspected within the next seven days as part of a new Pentagon push to tackle widespread problems with service members’ living conditions.
An internal directive dated Tuesday requires the service to certify that 100% of all living areas for unaccompanied airmen are “clean, comfortable, and safe.”
The document was posted Wednesday on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page. A spokeswoman at the Pentagon’s Air Force press desk confirmed its authenticity Thursday.
The servicewide inspection will have to move at lightning speed, with major commands given a deadline of Oct. 29 to meet Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s time frame, the memo says.
Hegseth unveiled a new Pentagon barracks task force Oct. 7 and gave the group 30 days to develop an investment plan to improve troop housing.
“It is simply unacceptable that in some cases, our warriors continue to live in substandard housing,” Hegseth said in an address to new recruits at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia.
Airmen play games in a dorm at Kadena Air Base, Japan, July 19, 2025. An internal directive dated Oct. 21 gives the Air Force eight days to inspect dorms and certify that 100% of all living areas for unaccompanied airmen are "clean, comfortable, and safe." ( Amy Kelley/U.S. Air Force)
The majority of Air Force junior enlisted service members without dependents are required to live in “unaccompanied housing” on base, also referred to as dorms by the service.
The new Air Force order directs the heads of major commands to work with wing commanders to ensure that any airmen found to be living in unsanitary or unsafe dorm rooms are immediately relocated.
Improvement projects are to be submitted for prioritization and funding to the Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Detachment, which manages installation and mission support programs at 83 installations across the Air Force and Space Force. In-house labor should be used where possible, the memo says.
Commanders are to evaluate the barracks in four distinct areas: building exterior, including the grounds; common areas, to include kitchens, laundry rooms, and storage and entertainment areas; mechanical, electrical and janitorial rooms or closets; and all unaccompanied housing rooms for both permanent residents and airmen in training.
“Leaders should use professional judgment during inspections as the chain of command has discretion to determine whether areas do or do not meet clean, comfortable and safe criteria,” the memo states.
In his speech announcing the creation of the barracks task force, Hegseth cited a 2023 report by the Government Accountability Office about the atrocious conditions of some military housing facilities.
GAO investigators detailed an array of problems such as raw sewage overflows, mold and rodent infestations, saying that poor living quarters undermine quality of life and overall troop combat readiness.
All the military services use the same health and safety checklist for barracks, the report noted. But service members may be assigned to barracks rooms that have failed the inspection checklist, which is not the case with privatized family housing, service officials told the GAO.
The Air Force’s standards incorporate more DOD standards than any other service, and the Army incorporates the least, according to the GAO report.
In Europe, many U.S. soldiers have long been dissatisfied with living conditions on garrison installations.
The 2025 Army tenant satisfaction survey found that soldiers and their families in Europe were the least satisfied across the service when it comes to government housing.
Concerns reported by soldiers living in barracks worldwide included mold and pest infestations, cramped living conditions and security breaches, leading to theft and privacy invasions.
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