Importance of Barracks Cleanliness Essay

The Army has many standards that Soldiers must meet on a daily basis. Maintaining your barracks room to Army standards is a responsibility every Soldier must adhere to. It is extremely important to maintain the healthiness and cleanliness of one’s room.

Nurses faced great danger in hospitals because they were a breeding ground for disease. They were extremely over crowded, especially after a large battle, and because of these conditions, illnesses were spread very easily. Typhoid, malaria, and dysentery were the biggest diseases. Typhoid was the worst. One of the poorer facilities was named the “Hurly Burly House.” The patients here were enlisted men. Better quarters were reserved for sick and wounded officers. Most of the hospitals had bad ventilation, no provisions for bathing, and no dead house. Some of them had decaying wood and old carpets that were not removed. Kitchens and washrooms were described as “cold, damp, dirty, and full of vile odors from wounds.” The nurses quarters were not much better. Nurses would often work from 6am to 1am. These miserable accommodations combined with overworked and under qualified staff made hospital conditions adverse to patient welfare and therefore unsuitable for either dispensing or receiving treatment. The Sanitary Commission finally investigated and recommended

The men here hardly bath, and with 12 men in one small hut, it can get terribly nauseating. It reaks in all the huts in the camp. I, myself, have not bathed in about one month. Not to mention, our huts have terrible ventilation, that causes our huts to fill with smoke, making it hard to breath. It is not good when your own surgeons cannot see because of the smoke. We cannot open the door, for the weather outside is merciless and freezing. The terribly cold weather makes it especially hard, since about 20% of us have no shoes. Among us soldiers is also men who will assault you. It has happened to me on more than one occasion. Luckily General George Washington can break up fights easily. The water here is not good and probably causes many of the diseases that have taken some of my friends’

One of the most famous concentration camps, Auschwitz, had some of the poorest living conditions. In Auschwitz, the prisoners lived crammed tightly in small, brick barracks. Since the prisoners simply couldn’t all fit inside these barracks, they were also forced into basements and lofts, along with hundreds of others. The tight living quarters were a main factor in the spreading of diseases and epidemics. In another concentration camp named “Birkenau”, the barracks had two styles which included both brick and wood. The brick barracks were hastily built, and were very dangerous and unsafe. Even though these brick barracks weren’t fit to hold people inside them, more than 700 prisoners were assigned to each barrack. The barracks did not have any way to heat or cool the rooms, and also lacked any sanitary facilities. The second style of barrack at the Birkenau concentration camp was another wooden barrack, except these were made to fit approximately fifty-two horses, not hundreds of prisoners. These barracks had many rodents and vermin, and had no way to prevent the damp roofs from leaking on the prisoners. Also, the foul smell and prisoner’s diarrhea made the already difficult living conditions much

Unlike field hospitals they were very clean and always well-staffed. However, for those soldiers who did not survive the war they were often of times embalmed. Embalming was a new practice at this time and it allowed a way to preserve the soldiers to be shipped home to their families. “It is estimated that between 10,000 and 40,000 soldiers were embalmed during the war.”(www.civilwarmed.org) This is just one of the many new practices established during the war. Jonathan Letterman helped to establish an ambulance system and an evacuation route for the injured. William A. Hammond designed hospital layouts that helped care for the injured in a more productive way. These practices are still used today.

Sanitation was very important during the Civil War because if nothing was clean it was highly probable you would get sick and die of dysentery. They had no assistance in getting soap, clean clothes, toothpaste, and basic necessities to stay clean. “Civil War camps were often just as dangerous

Within the hospitals located in the South during the Civil War, cleanliness was basically unheard of. The quarters were cramped and closed and “the smell of human waste, unwashed bodies, and gangrenous wounds was so intolerable as to overpower healthy men.” In order to combat the stench, nurses were known to place within their nostrils cotton balls soaked with camphor. A number of nurses that volunteered their services succumb died due to their extended exposure to the ramped filth and contagious disease.

As previously mentioned, living quarters were horrific and everything that they had was low quality or shared in between a large number of other camp members. In article 7 Shameful Acts of Japanese American Internment Camps it said, “Internees were forced to share living quarters with strangers. They could not even get dressed in privacy. Since the barracks didn’t include toilets , everyone had to wait in line to use communal latrines, which did not include partitions.”, So just using the bathroom had a long line and if one person

Sanitary Commission Agents patrolled Union Army camps inspecting the living conditions and the hospitals, organized diet kitchens, made bandages, and in Cleveland, Ohio — conducted door to door "blanket raids" to prevent soldiers from sleeping on the ground at night. The Sanitation Agents were considered to be critical to the success of the Union Army during the Civil War (Lewis, 2013xLewis, 2013Lewis, J. J. (2013). The United States Sanitary Commission.

“The huts would be home for the next six months.” ( Rodin 141 ) Soldiers would live in small smelly huts for the next 6 months. It was very cramped and stinky. Since they have no food what they had was terrible there was no meat ( Waldo 151 ) Some died from starvation since there was no protein and the food is nasty. Even with their huts, the fireplace we built was built wrong, so smoke gets into our eyes and it hurts. If we stay in our tiny houses, our eyes get burned, if we went outside we froze .A lot of reasons are causing me to not re enlist because even with a roof over my head and a smokey fire I do not want to live in a tiny hut with other men and not have any food. One particular reason is making not re enlist, there isn’t enough food or a strong, cozy house, so most soldiers are

The living conditions in the barracks were terrible. According to The Los Angeles Times, the barracks had no running water. According to the Wikipedia each individual person got 50 square feet in the barrack. In conclusion, there was only 1 small window, 1 electrical socket, and 1 wood stove. This explains

The weather was different to what the soldiers were used to back under the hot Australian sun. Half way through the year the weather became hot. Plagues and diseases carried by fleas and flies, were spread around. Soldiers/Troops that arrived in perfect health conditions, were very soon seen developing and suffering from from health problems; dysentery, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis and infestations of lice. Water was supplied from Egypt, but it was never enough, therefore it was near impossible to keep clean, and stay hygienic. Germs, plagues and diseases were spread due to the lack of cleanliness. Toilets were large, deep holes in the ground. By October, troops experienced the harsh,bitter winter cold. This poor lack of hygiene, led to around 20% of the men sick from diseases. During the war the ANZACs had to face terrible conditions, from the constant noise of machine guns, bullets, cramped and dirty places, hunger, thirst, tiredness, deaths of soldiers, diseases, smell, unsanitary food.

Every morning, your room must be cleaned. Make your bed, dust, sweep, mop the floor, and sanitize the sink and toilet. Only towels and washcloths may be hung from designated hooks. Do not cover or shade lights, vents, windows, and doors. Keep all areas free of graffiti.

Respect can either bring a unit moral up or disrespect can bring the moral of the unit down. Respect is a word that holds a lot of weight with people. I have looked up respect but I have taken respect from the army value and broke it down into little pieces. Treat people as they should be treated. This part of respect is the backbone to me and is a very important part in the army. By treating people as they should be treated is what keeps us as soldiers and senior leader’s level. Yes, we do have to understand that there is a rank structure but we also need to know that we are people to.

Adhering to the laws of war and rules of engagement is the legal responsibility of all American service members; however these guidelines are rooted in morality and ethics. War is harsh and demanding on the human body and mind. Without a universal, moral guideline, the chaos of war often leads to immoral acts against the enemy.