HVAC problems, particularly air conditioning breakdowns, are not uncommon for U.S. soldiers residing in barracks.
This summer, mechanical problems with a water treatment plant in Hawaii left thousands of soldiers at multiple Army installations on Oahu without central air conditioning. Soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas, experienced five to six weeks of unbearably hot temperatures in their rooms last year before AC was restored.
And just last month, soldiers assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado, reported sleeping in their cars to escape hot barracks rooms, Stars and Stripes reported.
Now, Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle is attempting to do something about it. Telle announced Monday at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting the creation of an enterprise-level Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Task Force focused on soldiers’ quality of life.
The task force includes leaders from facility operations, contracting and military engineering who can “cut through bureaucratic silos,” the Army said in a Monday statement.
The announcement follows a directive from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last year to create another military-wide task force to improve barracks.
“Secretary of War Hegseth has said every service member deserves clean, comfortable, and safe housing,” Telle said at the annual meeting in Washington, D.C. “This has never been done before — we’re taking this for the first time to the national level, to deliver results across the country to soldiers.”
Jordan Gillis, assistant secretary of the Army for installations, energy and environment, said in a statement that HVAC is the top quality-of-life complaint that leadership hears from soldiers.
The Government Accountability Office reported in August that the Defense Department does not request enough funding to fully meet its installation maintenance and major improvement needs, leading to a backlog of deferred maintenance at barracks. Hundreds of thousands of service members live in military barracks, with concerns about poor living conditions and management going back decades, according to the government watchdog.
Before the end of the fiscal year in September, the Army directed $15 million toward 44 high-priority HVAC projects across multiple installations, the service said in a statement.
“While that effort brought immediate relief to specific facilities, the [task force] leaders recognized that one-time emergency funding cannot replace a comprehensive, proactive strategy,” the Army said.
Members of the task force will work directly with garrison commanders to find HVAC projects for 2027 and 2028, the Army said. So far, it has identified more than $100 million in projects to be awarded in early 2027.
“This ensures ready-to-award projects are pre-engineered and priced as soon as funds become available,” the service said. “Additionally, the [task force] will utilize regional contracting approaches, utility energy service contracts, and commercial best practices.”
Nikki Wentling is a senior editor at Military Times. She’s reported on veterans and military communities for over a decade and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.
