Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
NBC; CBS
April 30, 2008 By Jim Miklaszewski; David Martin
NBC Nightly News, 7:00 PM
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Back here on the home front, a father of the U.S. soldier has won his own fight. He did it with pictures that bounced around the internet, around the world, eventually back to the Pentagon where they forced the U.S. Army to act. He was outraged when he saw the living conditions at Ft. Bragg for his son and fellow soldiers who’d come home from the front lines in Afghanistan. He channeled his anger right onto the internet. Our Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski picks up the story.
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: After a 15-month combat tour in Afghanistan, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne received a most unwelcome home: deplorable conditions in their barracks at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Sixty-year-old plumbing that flooded floors with raw sewage, peeling paint from walls and ceilings, and mold seemingly everywhere. The soldiers may have been forced to suffer in silence if not for Ed Frawley, the father of Army Sergeant Jeff Frawley.
ED FRAWLEY:When you go into these barracks you’re embarrassed. It’s hard to look these guys in the eye.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Frawley was so outraged he took photos, then posted this video of the barracks on YouTube, complete with a scalding narration.
NARRATOR: The instant you walk through the front door you know you’re entering a building that should be condemned.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Frawley’s son says overall conditions in the barracks aren’t anything new. He says they are unacceptable.
SGT. JEFF FRAWLEY [U.S. Soldier]:I have personally painted these barracks myself at least three times. And it’s kind of – it doesn’t really fix the problem.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Most problems have already been temporarily repaired or patched over. At Ft. Bragg today commanders accepted responsibility.
BRIG. GEN. ARTHUR BARTELL [U.S. Army]:Could we have done more to ensure that this did not happen? Absolutely. We should have, could have done more.
MIKLASZEWSKI: But how could this happen? The barracks are old, built during the Korean War and due to be replaced in two years. But amazingly, the same soldiers who just got back from Afghanistan are also expected to maintain their own barracks. Army Secretary Pete Geren today called that unacceptable.
ARMY SEC. PETE GEREN: Soldiers look after soldiers. And to have a situation like this where we let some soldiers down, that has no place in this Army.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Secretary Geren says what’s needed is more money and more manpower and has ordered a thorough inspection of all Army barracks. Ed Frawley believes that’s the least the Army can do.
E. FRAWLEY:What matters here is that we as Americans owe these guys way better.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News, the Pentagon.
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Here on the home front, the secretary of the Army acknowledged today conditions at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina are unacceptable and he promised the barracks will be fixed up. The shoddy conditions were exposed in a video posted on the internet. Here’s David Martin.
EDWARD FRAWLEY [Father of U.S. Soldier]:The instant you walk through the front door, you know you’re entering a building that should be condemned.
DAVID MARTIN: An outraged father narrates photos of the conditions his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, and other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne found in their barracks at Ft. Bragg when they returned from Afghanistan. Yes, this photo shows what you think it shows.
FRAWLEY: The week before this soldier’s photo was taken, he was in a war zone in Afghanistan. And less than 12 hours after arriving in America, he was doing this.
MARTIN: After going without showers for weeks, they found showers that were unspeakable.
FRAWLEY: The dark spot behind the peeled paint is mold. This is right over the head of where the soldiers stand when they take their showers.
MARTIN: Sgt. Frawley’s father Ed was mad as hell.
FRAWLEY: Wouldn’t you do something if it was your son? Wouldn’t you get mad?
MARTIN: So he posted the photos on Youtube. In one week, he got a quarter million hits.
FRAWLEY:This is about being a parent, being an American. This is about Americans being embarrassed about having their soldiers come home and put in this.
MARTIN: The barracks were repaired immediately.
SOLDIER: Within two hours, we had installation management on site here to help us out with this.
MARTIN: Which only makes it harder to explain why it couldn’t have been done before the soldiers got home.
ARMY SEC. PETE GEREN: Well, we’ve got old barracks throughout much of the Army, but old barracks are not an excuse for not meeting the needs of soldiers.
MARTIN: The Army has barracks for 98,000 soldiers worldwide and it’s inspecting all of them to see if there are any more horror stories waiting to pop up on YouTube.
David Martin, CBS News, the Pentagon.
April 30, 2008 By Jim Miklaszewski; David Martin
NBC Nightly News, 7:00 PM
BRIAN WILLIAMS: Back here on the home front, a father of the U.S. soldier has won his own fight. He did it with pictures that bounced around the internet, around the world, eventually back to the Pentagon where they forced the U.S. Army to act. He was outraged when he saw the living conditions at Ft. Bragg for his son and fellow soldiers who’d come home from the front lines in Afghanistan. He channeled his anger right onto the internet. Our Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski picks up the story.
JIM MIKLASZEWSKI: After a 15-month combat tour in Afghanistan, soldiers from the 82nd Airborne received a most unwelcome home: deplorable conditions in their barracks at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. Sixty-year-old plumbing that flooded floors with raw sewage, peeling paint from walls and ceilings, and mold seemingly everywhere. The soldiers may have been forced to suffer in silence if not for Ed Frawley, the father of Army Sergeant Jeff Frawley.
ED FRAWLEY:When you go into these barracks you’re embarrassed. It’s hard to look these guys in the eye.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Frawley was so outraged he took photos, then posted this video of the barracks on YouTube, complete with a scalding narration.
NARRATOR: The instant you walk through the front door you know you’re entering a building that should be condemned.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Frawley’s son says overall conditions in the barracks aren’t anything new. He says they are unacceptable.
SGT. JEFF FRAWLEY [U.S. Soldier]:I have personally painted these barracks myself at least three times. And it’s kind of – it doesn’t really fix the problem.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Most problems have already been temporarily repaired or patched over. At Ft. Bragg today commanders accepted responsibility.
BRIG. GEN. ARTHUR BARTELL [U.S. Army]:Could we have done more to ensure that this did not happen? Absolutely. We should have, could have done more.
MIKLASZEWSKI: But how could this happen? The barracks are old, built during the Korean War and due to be replaced in two years. But amazingly, the same soldiers who just got back from Afghanistan are also expected to maintain their own barracks. Army Secretary Pete Geren today called that unacceptable.
ARMY SEC. PETE GEREN: Soldiers look after soldiers. And to have a situation like this where we let some soldiers down, that has no place in this Army.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Secretary Geren says what’s needed is more money and more manpower and has ordered a thorough inspection of all Army barracks. Ed Frawley believes that’s the least the Army can do.
E. FRAWLEY:What matters here is that we as Americans owe these guys way better.
MIKLASZEWSKI: Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News, the Pentagon.
CBS Evening News, 6:30 PM
KATIE COURIC: Here on the home front, the secretary of the Army acknowledged today conditions at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina are unacceptable and he promised the barracks will be fixed up. The shoddy conditions were exposed in a video posted on the internet. Here’s David Martin.
EDWARD FRAWLEY [Father of U.S. Soldier]:The instant you walk through the front door, you know you’re entering a building that should be condemned.
DAVID MARTIN: An outraged father narrates photos of the conditions his son, Sgt. Jeff Frawley, and other soldiers from the 82nd Airborne found in their barracks at Ft. Bragg when they returned from Afghanistan. Yes, this photo shows what you think it shows.
FRAWLEY: The week before this soldier’s photo was taken, he was in a war zone in Afghanistan. And less than 12 hours after arriving in America, he was doing this.
MARTIN: After going without showers for weeks, they found showers that were unspeakable.
FRAWLEY: The dark spot behind the peeled paint is mold. This is right over the head of where the soldiers stand when they take their showers.
MARTIN: Sgt. Frawley’s father Ed was mad as hell.
FRAWLEY: Wouldn’t you do something if it was your son? Wouldn’t you get mad?
MARTIN: So he posted the photos on Youtube. In one week, he got a quarter million hits.
FRAWLEY:This is about being a parent, being an American. This is about Americans being embarrassed about having their soldiers come home and put in this.
MARTIN: The barracks were repaired immediately.
SOLDIER: Within two hours, we had installation management on site here to help us out with this.
MARTIN: Which only makes it harder to explain why it couldn’t have been done before the soldiers got home.
ARMY SEC. PETE GEREN: Well, we’ve got old barracks throughout much of the Army, but old barracks are not an excuse for not meeting the needs of soldiers.
MARTIN: The Army has barracks for 98,000 soldiers worldwide and it’s inspecting all of them to see if there are any more horror stories waiting to pop up on YouTube.
David Martin, CBS News, the Pentagon.