Newer buildings replacing plywood huts at Bagram

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The majority of troops stationed at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan will be living in a series of re-locatable barracks within two years. Metal containers are stacked up two or three stories high, as on the left, and gradually transformed into living quarters such as the one on the right.


Newer buildings replacing plywood huts at Bagram
By Kent Harris, Stars and Stripes
Mideast edition, Saturday, May 31, 2008

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — It’s the beginning of the end for plywood at the largest U.S. base in Afghanistan.

B-Huts — basic structures made of plywood that serve as living quarters and offices — replaced tents several years ago. Now they’re being replaced by more permanent structures.

"Bagram is a boomtown and bursting at the seams," said Air Force Lt. Col. Chris West, commander of the 755th Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron and the Facility Engineer Team.

The Army and Air Force have plans to get most of their troops out of the huts and into structures that are more permanent in the next few years. Many of the 18,000 or so people that call the base home will eventually be living in either brick-and-mortar structures or relocatable barracks made of metal containers. All the new facilities will have their own showers and toilets — another big change from the current setup.

Five of the brick-and-mortar structures are already completed. The two-story buildings, which house about 100 servicemembers each, are projected to serve as housing for 20 to 30 years.


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