Headquarters Marine Corps is funding a multimillion-dollar project to renovate all barracks at Iwakuni Marine Corps Air Station, Japan, and install new furnishings in an effort to raise the quality of life for Marines on base, officials said.
The effort is part of the commandant of the Marine Corps’ Whole Room Concept, “driven by the Commandant’s Campaign Plan for Bachelor Housing,” said Suzanne Kear, director of military housing on the base. “The idea is for the Marines in barracks to be housed using a two-plus-zero formula, or two per room sharing a bathroom.”
Currently, barracks accommodations vary; in some, four Marines may share a bath; other older buildings have communal bathrooms on each floor.
The renovations, costing from $1 million to $4 million for each barracks, are slated for completion in 2008, Kear said Wednesday.
“The first thing we do is empty the buildings of all the furniture … then contractors come in and do work such as new flooring, walls and electrical work,” she said. “Then all the facilities get new fixtures. Finally, we come in and place all new furnishings in all the rooms.”
The barracks finished so far are those used by personnel in Iwakuni for only six months at a time through the Marine Corps’ Unit Deployment Program.
Marines who moved out of barracks to be renovated, Kear said, have left Iwakuni before the renovations were complete.
In addition to the inconvenience, UDP and regularly-assigned personnel have expended plenty of labor and sweat on the project.
“The commands are moving all the old furniture out and new furniture in the renovated barracks,” Kear said. “The various commands have been excellent in giving us people to do this within the schedule we have. That’s work in addition to whatever regular jobs they have.”
