Now entering day III without running water.

[Pablo]

WARNING, BITCHING AHEAD


friday evening im walking home from the auto hobby shop using a shortcut through the hills and I notice an enormous mountain of water shoooting out of the ground, like 1000s of gallons a minute. I think Wow, thats not right... and i figure someones gonna fix it


I get back to my barracks room (this is on Camp Pendleton CA) and I notice the water coming out of the sink has a hint of brown and I think uh oh maybe its that huge water main that burst having to do with it (that no one was around even looking at in the hills I just walked by). Then again i had good water pressure and water comes out brown here all the time.

I take a shower anyway and that was the last shower ive taken here, friday evening. The water shut off shortly thereafter and has not come back on. I picked the next day to work on my car and get filthy thinking the water would be fixed like it would had this been any civilian neighborhood but I made the silly assumption that they would fix something for barracks marines as quickly as regular folks get their stuff fixed.

So i wait and wait hoping the water comes back on. Im covered in filth and eventually i pass out asleep. By now my toilet is starting to get full of rotting urine from my roommate and myself since it cant flush and its starting to smell really bad. Eventually I have to go to work so I take a shower at work.

I get back from work just now and guess what
We still dont have water and my toilet looks like its going to have worms and flies breeding in it despite the clorox we poured in there. Im nasty from work and I cant take a shower, or brush my teeth, or even wash my face.

Im so pissed off i cannot adequately convey how pissed off I am and its not because of just this, its because this is the culmination of BULL**** I, and other single marines living in the barracks have to put up with on a regular basis.

NEver in my entire life have i had such crappy service for basic utilities. Either the AC is stuck on freezing (i have no control over it I had to sleep in poly pro underwear, a jacket, and trousers with thick socks) or my room is a sauna

We have not had consistent hot water in over a year, the boiler keeps tripping the breaker and no one has fixed it. For weeks I basically was taking ICE cold showers every day. Now they have gotten around to flipping the breaker more often so id say i only take cold showers 3 times a week.
There was also little to no water pressure at all, like you could point the shower head parrallel to the floor and you still have to stand almost directly under it to take a shower. That changed like a day or two before the water outage... I was so shocked i couldnt believe it. Now im wondering if that increased water pressure out of the blue after a year of taking cold showers with a trickle of water had something to do with the bursting of that water main.

apparnently the natural gas pressure is too low too but no one has done anything about that either

The lights in the parking lot dont work, i cant even see where my damn feet are its so dark, those lights trip the breaker too

The food in the chow hall keeps getting worse and worse and their excuse is they cant serve up variety because they dont get enough visitors, well DUH if you serve CRAP no one is going to go there!

the thing that gets me the most is that all the people with any rank of course get their nice house out in town or in base housing and dont give a flying **** about the barracks and the base utility people know this so whats the rush in fixing our stuff.

Bout two years ago we went an entire weekend without any electricity whatsoever, total darkness for three days and you know what, in order to fix it they had to shut off electricity to the ranch house where the base CG was apparently having a get together so guess what, the power stayed off till his shindig was done.

I cannot count how many times the power has been out for a good 8 hours at a time since then.

Same F'ing thing with the water, i cannot believe this, I have stayed working on aircraft parts for birds that were downed and had to fly on TRAINING MISSIONS working for 20 hours straight to get these things in the air so that some douschebag with a degree in basketweaving can play like in his whirley bird
BUT
WHEN it comes to our water, the base utility guys call it quits at sundown and get "Right back on it first thing in the morning"

The barracks are overcrowded as hell too and they arent letting anyone move out in town

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR im going to lose my mind, Ive taken my fair share of ice cold showers that feel like you are taking a shower with a pressure washer dammit im tired of this bull****

 

[John Larkin]

Well at least you're not in Minnesota!

 

[galoush]

I hear you on the crappy Quarters , Im a Fireman in NYC and the cheap ass City of NY never fixes anything either . Or they wait as long as they can . We usually just do it ourselves . Hope things get better for you guys .

 

[n20junkie]

i just seperated from the army, single e-5 living in the baracks and i was at the SGM dest every week with a list of issues, always some bs, and to top it off i would get privates in that married thier 16 year old girlfriend and got a house and a garage, a garage is something i never had when i was in the service, i bought a 20 ft enclosed just for my race car, and these snot nosed privates got houses, its a flawed system indeed.
Grant Farmer
ps i would go to your first sergeants house at 8pm and tell him you need to use his shower cause yours broken

 

[bruce]

Ft Sill, and Ft Benning, in 68 didn't have A/C anywhere, other then in the NCO, Officers Club, and BOQ. Jul, and Aug were just lots of fun.

The camping trips out in the Boonies, of Southeast Asia, were alot more fun. They had this season called the Monsoon, it made up for alot of things....... LOL

I kept trying to tell myself, it built character.

Hang in there, it'll be alot of laughs in, oh, about 10 years.

But, I know exactly what ya mean.........

 

[Pablo]

The only place there is AC is in the NCO barracks, which is the one im in, and its not even worth having it because it sucks, it basically does the opposite of what you want or takes what you want to the extreme.

The other barracks I lived in for non NCOs damn near turned into a nudist colony in the summer it was so F'ing hot but thats only a few short months, southern california is always cold to me and especially at night which is where the winter cloting comes into play when your ac is stuck on.


N20Junkie you are so right on, you can be some busted down e1 retard 19 year old and you get a house, garage, no inspections , you get BAS and probably 100 other base services catered specifically to your "Special" needs. They wonder why the divorce rate is so high in the military too, well if you didnt reward 19 year old kids with a house once they get married maybe you wouldnt have such bad marraiges.


and bruce I know a little bit about southeast asia and the weather I lived in Okinawa for a year.. granted no combat but saw my fair shair of typhoons


Update to the water situation:
it has not been working now for around 68 hours, thats most of the way through day three. I suppose one positive note is that now im getting a brown trickle out of my sink from the hot water knob

 

[Pablo]

Im coming up on day 5 without running water and im considering writing my congressman. They have what looks like two flunkies standing around "working" on it.

Anyone ever do this? They say mission accomplishment and then troop welfare.. well the mission is getting accomplished, wheres the troop welfare.

I told my gunny i wanted to request mast to speak to the CO directly and he basically told me I was being a bitch and to quit bitching

Im sure is easy for him to say since he goes home to a hot shower every night and if his water went out you better believe it would get fixed in a couple hours tops.

 

[n20junkie]

every commander is required to have an open door policy, if your next senior doesn't fix the problem inform him that your going to hte next higher level and that he is welcome to come with you, but your entitled to go. water is a nessescity that if not fixed must be worked on till it is, and if it can't they have to pay tdy perdiem for you to go to a hotel or give you a room that has water, its cut and dry, this is total bs.
grant

 

[ncgreg231]

That's pretty much a bummer to hear all that...

write your congressman a letter, and invite him over for a "surprise" visit. Ask that you remain annonymous as to not detrimentally affect your military career (in the remote off-hand chance that you considered making the military a career). Maybe even have a videocamera onhand for the Officer cluster F*ck that follows elected officials showing up for a visit without warning

HTH & good luck!

-Greg

 

[Pablo]

Hahah I can see a bunch of captains running around like chickens with their heads cut off


I did one better than call my congressman today, I called my mom.

She will have the commandant on the phone by the end of the day.

I still dont have water, day 6 without water has begun.


Ill see if I have it when i get off work (im at work now... shhhh )