Fort Bragg, NC – Soldiers from the 4th and 8th Psychological Operations Groups living in the barracks faced a problem: getting fed. This barracks, different from many of the others on the installation, doesn't have kitchenettes in the rooms. Also, the building location makes it difficult to grab something quickly.
There was only a small stove available in a converted janitor’s closet to share between about 450 Soldiers. The nearest Army dining facility is about two miles away while fast food options are about a mile away. Many of these elite warfighters maintain performance diets, so the fast-food options aren’t always appealing.
So, when Col. Robert Cusick, 8th POG commander, asked what would make barracks life better, the response was to provide a real kitchen so Soldiers could prepare their own food.
Cusick reached out to the 1st Special Forces Command Engineer to help design a state-of-the-art kitchen and took the design to Fort Bragg’s Directorate of Public Works to build it.
Maj. Allen Wooten, senior project manager, took on the challenge. It took a couple of years, but it is now complete.
Wooten said, “We identified a central day room that had gone underutilized. It was also near a power source that would support the new equipment. We designed it to have a bistro atmosphere with bar seating and plenty of connectivity.”
Wooten worked with Steve Wykel, DPW housing chief, to coordinate the effort.
“Funding was the real issue,” Wykel said. “We tried to fund it using Sustainment, Restoration and Modernization funds by the garrison, but we couldn’t get it prioritized enough to get it done. The project was competing with HVAC and water heater issues.”
Wooten said he took the project back and found funds from 1st SFC and the POGs to get it accomplished.
“It took a couple of years, but here we are, and the project is finally finished,” Wooten said. “I think the Soldiers are excited about it. As we've seen, they've already started trying to use it before we could even sign the occupancy paperwork.”
Wykel adds that the Army is changing its approach for feeding Soldiers and eventually, all barracks will be renovated or replaced with kitchenettes in the rooms, but as a stopgap, he’s encouraging units with similar barracks to work with DPW and consider adding community kitchens to their facilities.
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