Posted on 01/22/2012 12:57:42 PM PST by concentric circles
More than 650 1940s-era buildings — once noisy and alive with the comings and goings of U.S. troops — will be demolished beginning this summer in a $20 million project that will clear away years of now-silent history
Brig. Gen. Keith Jones gazed through the worn windows on row after row of battered and broken World War II-era barracks left standing at Camp Roberts and recalled their better days.
“You were glad to have a roof over your head and shade from the sun,” he said.
For years, motorists on Highway 101 have seen the jarringly empty ghost town on the camp’s west side and wondered what the buildings were and why they’re still around.
Decades ago, the post was alive with 50,000 incoming soldiers preparing for war. But this summer, 658 of those old buildings will be torn down in a three-year process to finally clear the camp just north of San Miguel of structures that have not been used in more than 30 years.
The $20 million project will go ahead after the California National Guard, which runs the camp, found a way to demolish the barracks and other structures while reducing costs associated with storing the old boards, beams and rafters permeated with hazardous lead paint. Its solution: build its own hazardous waste landfill. Under construction since 2009, it’s expected to be ready in March.
If the buildings were to collapse, they could compromise the soil should the camp get the opportunity to build new structures. About 160 acres will go back to native landscape.
But even though the buildings will soon be gone, the memory of what once was will live on.
“There’s a lot of history,” Jones said. “An old facility like this touched a lot of souls.” Wartime construction
The buildings at Camp Roberts housed America’s soldiers after the boom of wartime construction that started in 1940 and finished in 1941.
The units were built hastily — bringing thousands of jobs to the area — and followed the standard construction style as other posts took shape across the country.
A total of 741 buildings went up at Camp Roberts. They were simple buildings built to last five years — but some remained in use until the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The Army turned some buildings of this type into a museum at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri to meet historical preservation requirements so their replicas across the country could be taken down. Although plain, the buildings represented better craftsmanship than modern buildings, some say.
“There were no nail guns back in those days,” Jones said, pointing to rows of nails visible along the wood siding and pointing to the perfect symmetry. “I used to look at these when I was a private.” Jones arrived at Camp Roberts in 1971, when the National Guard took over the 42,000-acre camp.
“The craftsmanship required … what an extraordinary workforce,” he added.
Each of the hundreds of two-story barracks buildings housed 80 soldiers and were accompanied by mess halls, chapels, supply rooms and administration offices.
“They were just wooden buildings. You scrubbed the floors and dusted down the walls,” said John Harris, 80, of Bradley.
He came to Camp Roberts as a colonel in 1950 when the post was reactivated for the Korean War. Harris slept away from the privates’ barracks in a different set of buildings that offered him an individual room rather than the two rows of double stacked bunks most men got.
The privates’ barracks also had a ground-floor latrine with toilets and showers, all in one open room.
“I don’t know why they called us privates; there was no privacy,” said Phil Dirkx, a Paso Robles resident and Tribune columnist who trained troops at Camp Roberts in 1952 and 1953 as a lieutenant.
Although the barracks were basic, Dirkx said he appreciated small luxuries such as the gas furnaces. At Fort Dix in New Jersey, Dirkx recalled its messy coal furnaces.
“Smoke would blow into the barracks and we would wake up with black noses,” he said with a laugh.
In general, Army barracks were used to instill discipline.
“The bed had to be made just so,” Dirkx said. “You learned how to make hospital corners. They supposedly threw a dime or quarter on the bed — and it better bounce. Those blankets better be tight.”
Eventually, Camp Roberts no longer had the troop population to support its original buildout. Many buildings fell into disrepair. One brigade of buildings was torn down on the camp’s east side in the 1970s while its buildings to the west were condemned.
Harris remembered moving to the east side shortly after arriving at the camp.
“We ran off the jack rabbits and rattlesnakes and settled in,” he said.
Buildings on the north end were demolished in the 1990s. Others were kept for today’s troops. Buildings left without care on the west side now stand wearily amidst blocks of dusty streets, barred from access. White paint peels from dark walls. Insides were gutted for usable materials.
“Quite a haunting scene,” Jones said.
Black-and-white photographs from the camp’s early years show men in crisp uniforms seated on benches inside a mess hall, ready for a meal. Rows of wooden tables were draped in cloth under bright bare-bulb lights overhead.
On a recent afternoon, a similar setting was transformed by the penalties of time. The few tables that remained in one mess hall stood cracked and slumped into flooring that lay in torn pieces. Tidy plaid curtains no longer hung from the windows, whose panes were missing or broken into shards. Hunks of ceiling were gone, the building’s dusty wooden rafters exposed through gaping holes.
“The problem is the government didn’t maintain those structures and couldn’t afford to,” said retired Army Reserve Col. Kerry Diminyatz, chief of facilities operations and maintenance at the California National Guard.
Today, about half a dozen have caved in. The structures were initially boarded up, but moisture got trapped inside and caused more wood damage. The coverings were removed in the 1980s.
Harris said he visited Camp Roberts recently and was mostly unfazed by seeing the old buildings again.
“I don’t get funny feelings,” he said. “It’s just another Army camp.”
Officials had originally planned to demolish 160 of the old buildings in 2005 — and reuse the wood, which was kiln dried, rather than air dried, making it more solid than most wood used in construction today.
But the original craftsmen used gasoline, the product available at the time, to thin the lead-based paint on the boards. The process drew the lead so deep into the wood, it made them unusable under today’s state lead standards.
“It’s really sad because if you’re any kind of woodworker, the lumber used in these old buildings is just beautiful,” Jones said.
The camp conducted a field test in 2005 where crews tried to strip the paint from the boards using a machine. They hoped that the wood could be reused and the hazardous paint chips could be combined with other materials to make electronic equipment.
But Diminyatz said the test failed because it was too costly and labor intensive. And, once the lead was removed, the wood was so whittled down it became unusable. The plans were scrapped and most buildings remained.
Other supplies and materials have been removed over the years for reuse. Metal ductwork was salvaged. And padded chairs and a metal wash bin have also been re-purposed from an old mess hall into a new laundry room, for example. Plans also call for the concrete foundations to be taken out for use on roads.
There’s no way to recycle the window glass because it’s encased or broken, so that will go to the landfill, too, Diminyatz said.
Without the landfill, the demolition project would require about 900 truckloads of debris to be transported to the nearest commercial landfill in Kettleman City, costing taxpayers more, officials say.
Storing the waste on-site reduces an approximately $50 million to $60 million project to about $20 million, Diminyatz said.
The demolition, which includes the cost of the landfill, is being funded by National Guard federal maintenance dollars. The Army hadn’t made the old buildings a priority because it placed supplies and equipment for soldiers ahead of demolition spending, Diminyatz said.
About $5 million has been allocated for the first phase of demolition.
The camp is also getting $12 million to further modernize the roughly 106 original barracks kept for current use, giving the camp 4,200 usable beds for troops. The post has additional housing for other purposes.
In 2010, the camp housed that many troops at its peak, readying them for deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Other troops remain on reserve to train for natural disasters and other missions.
The usable buildings received new aluminum siding in the 1980s, changing their face from the WWII-era look of white and green to a mustard color.
“They are the same old buildings but with just a different skin and a different surface,” Jones said. The efforts are part of an ongoing project to bring the camp up to date. Fourteen barracks are receiving upgrades, and an additional six barracks are slated to undergo fixes in the spring.
Among the changes are adding electrical outlets so soldiers can charge cellphones and laptops. The old barracks only had four electrical units, two upstairs and two downstairs to power a floor buffer.
“Times certainly are changing,” Jones said.
You should have been at Fort Ord in February of ‘68 with meningitis control. Every other window was open all night.
Just a wee mite coooool!!
I grew up in Mineral Wells. My father was a helicopter instructor there from '63 till it closed. He worked for Southern Airways. He was a retired Air Force Captain. We were on base all the time. I learned to swim in the base pool. A lot of those old buildings still stand.
I stayed in those Lowry barracks for 2 weeks in 1978. They were temporary until rooms in the newer dorms opened up.
Ahh, the memories.
I was at Ft.Ord in 1961, that’s when I spent a couple of weeks at Camp Robrets.
My father-in-law served at Camp Roberts as a reservist after his service during WWII.
I served at Ft. Ord (1969) up the coast, north of Camp Roberts.
I remember those wood barracks so, so well. They were called the “old” barracks, because there were newer ones, of concrete construction.
I visited Ft. Ord days after 9/11/2001 and saw some wood barracks, still standing, because of the same concern about lead in paint. The old base has been transformed into a state university campus, to teach all about things of interest these days, in a dumbed down society.
Back to Roberts, this is beautiful California country, with golden grass and oak trees in summer, and green grass during a spring after the rains.
State highways 41 and 46, between Highway 1 and Highway 101 offer California scenes most don’t expect, pastures, farmhouses, wineries, coastal views, etc.
I you visit and have time, try this area. Highway 1 between Cambria and Carmel. Big Sur. Unmatched beauty.
I’m pretty familiar with that area, I have two daughters who graduated from Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and one is currently in graduate school there.
I was there for a visit last weekend and saw this story in the Sunday paper.
The hills are green now after recent rains and in just a few weeks the trees and vineyards will start to burst with buds and it will be absolutely gorgeous.
I have a couple landscapes done in watercolor that were painted from scenes in the area. The artist lives in Cambria.
Freepers on your ping list may be interested in this thread.
Ft . Ord is still used for family housing these days for people stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. They’re slowly tearing down the older houses and replacing them, but there a fair number of older houses left, mainly for junior enlisted and their Families
“Ft . Ord is still used for family housing these days for people stationed at the Presidio of Monterey. They’re slowly tearing down the older houses and replacing them, but there a fair number of older houses left, mainly for junior enlisted and their Families.”
I first visited Ft. Ord about 1958-59 when my Uncle was stationed there, as a then Captain in the Corps of Engineers. They lived in office family housing near the golf course. I think those structures are still there, on the edge of Seaside.
Back to Ord, myself, to do basic and AIT in 1969.
I’ll look for the fellowship hall next time I’m in SLO. My daughter lives in the neighborhood northwest of the intersection of Foothill and Santa Rosa so I pass by there frequently when I’m in town.
Building material standards in California are more stringent than any other state. (Damn liberals, tree-hugging green-weenies and EPA.)
FYI...Camp Roberts still operates a couple of satellite dishes for tasking of Army satellites. I was responsible for managing the retrofit of the control, server and command center. Very interesting work. At that time (2001), some of the equipment they were using was from 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. I was appalled when I saw that, but am pleased to report that GWB ensured that the equipment was completely upgraded with cutting edge technology. (No thanks to Billy Jeff. Gawd, that guy sucks b@lls!)
Was there multiple times from 2004 on.......place was interesting.
It wasn’t that bad,I just never payed that much attention to my surroundings when in garrison not quite like I did in Iraq.
Otherwise Camp Roberts was a fun place to train.
Still in use when I went through basic training at Lackland AFB in 1971. They were all pre-fab buildings. The Army had a standard design for barracks, 1 for the Chapel, 1 for a dining hall, 1 for the theatre. I guess that’s why all the buildings on military bases all looked the same.
“You should have been at Fort Ord in February of ‘68 with meningitis control. Every other window was open all night.
Just a wee mite coooool!!”
I understand completely. I was at Ft. Jackson in mid January and the windows would never fully seal. We even got snow there that winter and the snow blew in and drifted inside the barracks. The windows would even just “drop” open intermittently. The good thing was that the DI’s actually let us use our “walkmans” as a way to distract us from the cold....that is also when I learned how functional the sleeping bags actually were!
Hooorahh!
I remember Tank Hill fondly. I too was up the hill and if memory serves, we were the second (or third) from last class to go through any of the old WWII barracks on the hill. We were quite envious of the recruits in the new barracks, in fact we used to march by the “starships” in VERY loud cadence. The drills used to really play up the “rivalry” for us...kind of made us feel tougher..
Hahaha....
That reminds me, I remember the first time I heard of a “Police Call.” The Drills asked for volunteers and I tought, “wow, that sounds awesome,” so I enthusiastically volunteered. Imagine my dissappointment when I was told to pick up trash......
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