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Some soldiers went a year without hot water. Others sleep in their cars to escape barracks without air conditioning. And some require little more than drywall, putty and paint so they can make repairs themselves.
Those are some of the conditions Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer says she encountered while touring military installations as part of a mission from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth: repairing a barracks system plagued by decades of neglect.
“I would tell you I’ve only seen a few that are good,” Meyer told Fox News Digital in an interview Thursday.
Meyer, who serves as senior advisor to the Pentagon’s Barracks Task Force, has visited more than eight installations across the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps since accepting the assignment and plans to visit 30 before the end of the year.
“What I thought was going to be professional work very quickly turned into personal work,” Meyer said.
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Extensive apparent mold and water damage covers walls and a closet inside a military barracks inspected as part of the Pentagon barracks overhaul. (Courtesy of Dakota Meyer)
Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Sgt. Dakota Meyer listens to remarks during a reenlistment ceremony at the Pentagon April 17, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
During one installation, Meyer remembers asking a 19-year-old soldier what she would change about her living conditions if she could “wave a magic wand.”
“If only she could take a hot shower,” Meyer recalled. “It’s absolutely heartbreaking.”
The problems at the Pentagon barracks long predate Hegseth and have survived repeated attempts at reform.
A wide-ranging 2023 investigation by the Government Accountability Office documented serious health and safety risks and found that the department lacked reliable information on the condition of its own barracks, could not determine how much of its facilities spending went to them, and did not provide sufficient oversight.
Congress and the military services have since committed billions to improvements, including initiatives ranging from the Marine Corps’ “Barracks 2030” to an overhaul of the Navy’s unaccompanied housing. Yet serious problems persist. This year, 12 of GAO’s 31 recommendations remained outstanding.
Hegseth sought to centralize efforts within a departmentwide task force and accelerate improvements, with Meyer saying the secretary had made it clear that identifying problems was no longer enough.
“The secretary has made it clear to me that he does not expect me to observe it, study it or improve it. He expects me to correct it,” Meyer said. “And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.”
A damaged ceiling hangs above a bed in a military barracks visited as part of the Pentagon’s efforts to assess living conditions for service members. (Courtesy of Dakota Meyer)
Meyer, the only Medal of Honor hero to re-enroll after receiving the award, said one of his first requests was that Hegseth give the task force a “role of authority,” rather than simply creating another level of oversight.
The goal, he said, was to give the team the ability “to make decisions, to have impact, to make changes and to be able to direct where that funding goes and how quickly it gets to our military.” »
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Meyer argued that the problem was not simply a lack of money. Funding shortfalls, lingering resolutions and years of deferred maintenance have all contributed, he said, but so have contract rules and bureaucracy that can slow down even relatively basic repairs.
A separate study by a watchdog found that the Pentagon faces a $285 billion maintenance backlog across its entire portfolio of military installations, underscoring the scale of the department’s infrastructure challenges.
“When you look at the contractual aspect, it’s easier for people to say no,” Meyer said.
Funding is also part of the problem, according to Meyer, who pointed to Congress’s failure to pass full-year defense appropriations for fiscal 2027. The Pentagon is currently operating under a continuing resolution through Dec. 11, which generally funds current programs at prior year rates while lawmakers negotiate a broader spending package.
“When you can’t get a budget, when you’re waiting for Congress to pass a budget, to be able to get the funding, I mean, that’s a huge problem,” Meyer said.
A barracks room shows a sink without a sink and makeshift lighting installed around the ceiling of a bathroom during an inspection of military living conditions. (Courtesy of Dakota Meyer)
But he also argued that the Pentagon has too often measured progress by the amount of funds committed or contracted, rather than by the extent to which soldiers actually see improvements in their living conditions.
“Our military does not live within our budget lines,” Meyer said. “They live in the rooms that these budget lines are there to impact.”
For Meyer, that meant leaving Washington and hearing directly from the troops suffering the consequences.
“You can’t solve these problems or understand these problems by getting on the carpet at the Pentagon,” he said. “You need to go out there and talk to those soldiers.”
What he heard, Meyer said, was striking in part because of how few troops were requested.
“They’re asking for a hot shower. They’re asking for a place to wash their clothes. They’re asking for a door that locks. They’re asking to be able to sleep in a mold-free place. I mean, they’re asking for light bulbs.”
“They are ready to be part of the solution,” he added.
Meyer didn’t place blame solely on installation commanders, saying many wanted to improve conditions but were constrained by a system that has normalized poor barracks quality for years.
“I think this is a multidimensional and complex problem,” he said. “I think there are commanders who want to take care of their military. I’ve seen that everywhere. But… they still have to have the ability to do that.”
Meyer was far less forgiving of previous Pentagon leaders, arguing that years of investments and reform initiatives had failed to translate into adequate living conditions for troops.
“Don’t have any illusions,” Meyer said. “In the past, this was not a priority for leaders.”
A window air conditioning unit and apparent mold and water damage are found during inspections of military installations as the Pentagon works to improve living conditions for service members. (Courtesy of Dakota Meyer)
Previous administrations and military leaders launched barracks improvement efforts and spent billions of dollars on construction, renovation and maintenance, even as government watchdogs continued to document serious deficiencies.
Meyer said Hegseth has made the issue a personal priority.
“We have the Secretary of War who puts people first, and he doesn’t just say that, he does it through his actions,” Meyer said.
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Meyer put his own name behind the success of this latest attempt, previously saying that if the barracks are not repaired, there is “only one person to blame”: himself.
When asked what “fixed” would actually look like, Meyer offered a simpler standard than any Pentagon measure.
“People live in places where I would be fine for my daughters to live,” he said.
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