Jackson unaccompanied housing is Installation Management Command’s roadmap for success, housing officials said.
Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Adelmann, the Fort Jackson Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion Facility Manager since May 2019 remembers the conference call.
“IMCOM used Fort Jackson as a road map for others since we got to 100% among the first.”
He credits that accomplishment to teamwork, and to one housing official in particular.
The housing office made sure everyone was trained on the Enterprise Military Housing, or eMH, the housing operations web-based application, Adelmann said. “Tina (Barnes) trained us and certified all of the Soldiers so we could quickly use the management system which really streamlines the process.”
Tina Barnes is the installation’s Unaccompanied Personnel Housing program manager.
Emma Watson, Fort Jackson Housing Division Chief agreed. “Tina works hard to ensure the installation maintains its full operating capability status. She works with brigade, battalion and company commanders and sergeants major and first sergeants to ensure barracks managers are fully trained on the Enterprise Military Housing System.” The eMH is the Army’s only authorized data base for housing management and actively monitors and tracks all certificates of nonavailability. “She spearheads monthly training on unaccompanied housing (assignments, terminations, inspections, furnishings management, and property accountability), and plans the quarterly stakeholders meeting with the enlisted leadership and barracks managers to ensure everyone is up to date on all unaccompanied housing issues.”
In December 2017, Installation Management Command revised the barracks program and gave Army installations time to phase in and prepare for the new change.
“The Army Barracks Management Program for Unaccompanied Personnel Housing replaced the First Sergeants Barracks Program and Fort Jackson obtained fully-operational status in July 2019,” Barnes said. “We were one of the first training installations to achieve this standing.”
Adelmann said one of the reasons for the new program was to get more Army involvement.
“Barracks now are managed at the company level versus the brigade level,” Barnes said. The Army Barracks Management Program empowers Army leadership at the company level with full responsibility for day-to-day barracks operations with brigades providing oversight.”
“Headquarters and Headquarters Battalion Command Sgt. Maj. Wille Grandison wanted a primary person on the ground to make things better and improve the oversight so my office is at the single soldier complex,” Adelmann said.
Another changes is having a crew work on barracks work orders weekly.
“DPW has done a great job. Before, there were a lot of back orders and now on a weekly basis, we have people working on minor issues,” Adelmann said. “Right now we don’t have any open work orders and that is because of the excellent job of the preventive maintenance teams who knock out the small issues before they become bigger.”
The Preventive Maintenance Team consists of Ardanies Bradley, Jennifer Ray, Kenny Redden, Hideki Tsuboi and Zachariah Stroman. “I give them a list of issues and for example, if the work order is Category 3, it can get knocked out timelier while the preventive team is already in the area.”
There are three different work order categories: Emergency, Urgent and Routine and each has a time limit of when they need to be completed.
“I don’t hear Soldiers saying they have outstanding work orders,” he said. “As a team, the civilians at Housing, DPW and Soldiers are trying hard every day to make the barracks better for the Soldier.
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