BALTIMORE (Map, News) - Mold covers pipes and grows from walls, while pipes leak and paint peels from 1950s-era barracks housing service members stationed at Fort Meade.

“One way to look at barracks is if you would let your children live there,” said Marine Maj. Danny Chung, commanding officer of 130 Marines at Fort Meade.

“I wouldn’t let mine live here.”

More than 300 service members from the four military branches attending the Defense Information School live in barracks in need of repair, said Col. Kenneth McCreedy, Meade’s commanding officer.

“Because of the growing needs of the military ... money for these improvement projects were” deferred for years, McCreedy said.

The concern over the barracks came after an Army soldier’s father videotaped the poor conditions of his son’s barracks at Fort Bragg, N.C., and released it to the public.

As a result, the Army has examined its barracks worldwide for similar problems.

McCreedy gave The Examiner a tour of four barracks, from the newest built in 2003 to the barracks in the worst conditions, including the one housing the Air Force students in the Defense Information School, the military’s journalism school.

Tech. Sgt. Keith Choate showed mold on a wall separating the main corridor and the bathrooms that resulted from deteriorated shower pans leaking.

“Some don’t spend enough time here to care about it, but others have expressed concerns about living with mold,” Choate said.

The Marine Corps barracks are also in poor condition with mold growing around overhead pipes; one room called the “Mold Room” is uninhabitable, because mold continues to grow despite efforts to curb it.

The Army’s barracks are in better shape after renovations the previous year. Before that, its conditions were the worst on the fort, McCreedy said.

The barracks were built in the 1950s and have leaky pipes and moisture problems that cause mold. They need modern piping and HVAC systems, officials said. More than $50 million is slated for improvements at the four barracks.

Inspectors were on site Monday to determine the damage and potential health risks.

But if the barracks have to close immediately, not enough space to house the displaced service members would be available, and the fort would have to shuffle people around and lease space, McCreedy said.

The hope is that two empty barracks being renovated will be ready by July 2009 for service members.

“We can’t do everything at once, and we’d have to play musical chairs,” McCreedy said.

jflanagan@baltimoreexaminer.com