Michael Guest Questions Military Official About Improvements To Service Member Housing

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) questioned Sergeant Major Carlos A. Ruiz of the Marine Corps about improving service member housing.

Transcript

00:00Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Gentlemen, thank you first for your service. Thank you for joining

00:06us today for this important oversight hearing. Master Chief Honi, Sergeant Major Ruiz, I am

00:14proud to represent the Meridian Naval Air Station. Sergeant Major Ruiz, I understand that you have

00:20recently visited the Meridian Naval Air Station. At the base, it has both a Navy and Marine

00:29mission. Last year in the FY25 budget hearing, I raised the fact that there was an important

00:38barrack repair project there on the facility. I'm proud to say that based upon calling attention

00:44to that, the project has been moved up into the FY26 budget cycle. Planning is already underway

00:52for that. My question is, not just for the project there at the Meridian Naval Air Station,

01:00but for all of our military installations. How do we ensure that the throughput of students

01:06at those facilities is not adversely impacted during times of major repairs, during times

01:14of renovation, particularly where we have facilities where things such as temporary housing, modular

01:21infrastructure, the renovation of other buildings are not either able to take place or not able

01:28to take place easily? And so I just wanted to get from both of you your thoughts on, again,

01:36making sure that we're not throttling the throughput of students during these times of major renovations

01:44operations. Congressman, yes, thank you for that. I did visit down there and I absolutely loved it.

01:52And I loved it because it doesn't, I'm just never, I guess I'm just tired, I'm not going to be surprised

01:58anymore of what Marines can do with so little, really. They just really get after it. Although this is a

02:05Navy project, we're working very close with our shipments to ensure that those buildings get

02:11refurbished. What I would hope, like we have in other places, is that we have the ability today to

02:17not just stop the entire building from being lived on and wing by wing we're able to work by refurbishing

02:26room by room and therefore reducing the stress on the Marines, moving them to an even worse place

02:32while the entire barracks gets rebuilt. I've seen it done in Camp Lejeune, I've seen other places where the

02:38modular structures come into play and we move Marines there while we do the entire building.

02:43So I will work closely with our Navy shipmates here to ensure that hopefully we're able to do that

02:49so we don't lose track and momentum on those young folks who we desperately need in the fleet Marine

02:56Forces today. Those gaps are real and we are not any less easier than we ever have been before. So the faster I can get

03:04into my formations, the better we can get after war fighting.

03:07Mr. Chief. Congressman Guest, so we use data

03:13and analytics to help us solve our recruiting problems. We'll continue to use data and analytics

03:20and mitigations to make sure we're getting all those people as we recruit through Recruit Training

03:26Command and then pushed on through the rest of their session training. So Naval Education Training

03:31command is use data and analytics to understand what that throughput needs to be, where we need to

03:36increase capacity in those schoolhouses, increase capacity in their living accommodations, anything

03:43necessary so that we do not end up with a bottleneck. Wherever they find problems, we come up with

03:50mitigation strategies. As much as Sergeant Mary's Marine Corps was explaining, if we need to, we'll move

03:56over into other facilities, we'll take over permanent party housing if necessary and move permanent party

04:03personnel to another location, wherever we have to to make sure that we accommodate our session training

04:09and we don't end up with a bottleneck, you know, back to Sergeant Major's point. So we get them back out to

04:14the fleet as quickly as we can. Yes, sir. Last question for you, Sergeant Major. The Marine Corps has the

04:21Barrick 2030 initiative and one, just want to ask if you can just generally talk about that initiative

04:29and then also and a little bit more in-depth talk about how the Marine Corps is working with Navy

04:35leadership to improve housing that may not be necessarily on a Marine Corps installation but where

04:43Marines are being housed at Navy installations. And so I will ask you if you would mind answering that

04:50question and then once we have that answer, Mr. Chairman, I would yield back. Congressman, thank you

04:54for that. Barrick 2030 is the Commandant's vision. Although it's labeled Barrick's, sir, it's about

05:01infrastructure and it is about, I think what the GA report did for us is we were able to start from a

05:09place of data that I know exactly where in the globe I need to put the funding that we get from you

05:15and use it effectively and more efficiently. And so because we know exactly our problem areas and we

05:25can we can more intelligently put it to work in anywhere that Marines live. We work hand in hand

05:33with our with our Army buddies or it doesn't matter because the senior enlisted leader and the commander

05:39of those spaces, they're responsible. And so they get after ensuring that the overall bid overall well-being of

05:45those service members under their command does not matter what uniform they wear, because from that

05:51it produces a better version of that soldier, airman, whatever you have it, because all of us are in one team.

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