Installations Modernization, Quelling the 'Quiet Crisis'

摘要

United States military installations' infrastructure has reached an alarming state of deterioration. Resources since the end of the Cold War for installation upkeep have been unable to stem the inexorable decay of base facility infrastructures. Across the services, the Stars and Stripes fly over barracks, family housing, administration, maintenance, storage, personnel support, and operational facilities whose average age is 41 years old and increasing. A 'quiet crisis' has emerged. Unless immediate, diverse, measured, sustainable, and sufficient action is brought to bear, continued impacts on quality of life, health/safety, aesthetics, security, community relations, and training will worsen, threatening our military's most important necessity: readiness. It is unlikely that increased fiscal resources will be available as a long-term remedy. Nor is this solution a panacea for it. The strategic resource environment will be constrained. It is crucial that the best strategic planning efforts be applied to secure optimal and timely improvements, with limited available resources, that best serves our operating forces. This is especially applicable considering the recent budget-impacting events surrounding homeland security. This paper puts this problem in perspective, reviews current corrective policy, and suggests an augmenting holistic approach to the question: Can this quiet crisis be turned around.