In a dormitory there are common areas such as hallways, outside
areas, and day rooms. Service members must pitch in and share
the responsibility of keeping these areas clean "bay
duty." Occasionally a commander of First Sergeant may
get all the service members in the dorm, "dorm rats"
to pitch in and clean up everything.
Dormitories are inspected. There are periodic inspections
for which you may or may not have notice. In this type of
inspection the commander or First Sergeant will inspect your
room. Some of the things they will be looking at include is
the bed made, trash emptied, and is the room clean and neat.
There is another type of inspection called a "Health
and Welfare Inspection." You have no notice and it is
usually conducted at odd hours like 2 or 3 AM. In this inspection
your quarters will be inspected for any articles that are
contraband such as drugs, guns, knives, etc. Not only are
the quarters inspected, its occupants may be required to take
a urinalysis to determine drug use.
For the most part most service members look forward to moving
out of the dormitory.
Moving Out. Most bases will allow a single service member
to move off-base at their own expense. In this situation you
will not receive BAH or a food allowance.
By law, the services cannot allow single members to move
off base at government expense, unless the base-wide dormitory
occupancy rate exceeds 95 percent.
Dormitory or barracks are usually assigned to specific units
(squadrons, divisions, companies, etc.). Commanders typically
do not allow members of their unit to live in another unit's
barracks or dorms. The result is that sometimes a unit has
to deal with overcrowding issues. Usually this means that
you would have a roommate. In order for your commander to
authorize you to move off base at government expense the BASE-WIDE
occupancy rate must exceed 95 percent.
If Base Wide occupancy rate exceeds 95% the opportunity to
move off base is usually given to those with higher rank.
That doesn't mean the highest rank in your unit but rather
the person (base wide) with the highest rank is offered the
chance to move out first, followed by the person (base wide)
who has the next most rank, etc., until the base-wide occupancy
rate falls below 95 percent. So, your particular dorm may
be overcrowded but the person given the opportunity to move
off base may be from another unit that occupied a dorm that
is not as crowded as yours. To solve this problem dormitory
space is periodically reallocated. This process is a major
hassle and it isn't usually done often.
