By Rob Evans
It’s an open secret that military barracks across the Department of Defense (DOD) are inadequate and underfunded. Junior enlisted soldiers often struggle in obscurity, with their leaders half-aware but unable to affect change. I possess firsthand experience: in 2003, as a junior enlisted soldier, I lived in converted barracks—originally condemned housing—with festering mold. It seems the issue has only gotten worse with time.
Then in September 2023, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report finally shining light on inadequate living conditions for service members. The report states in the opening remarks:
Service members reported to GAO that the conditions of barracks affect their quality of life and readiness. However, GAO found weaknesses in the Department of Defense’s (DOD) efforts to maintain and improve their conditions.
Several critical findings emerged from this report:
- DOD does not reliably assess conditions, and some barracks are substandard.
- DOD does not have complete funding information to make informed decisions.
- DOD conducts insufficient oversight.
These revelations were not surprising to many service members, including the lower enlisted. But the GAO report is serving as a catalyst for the conversation about the military community’s quality of life. In fact, Congress is holding hearings on January 31, 2024 with the senior enlisted leaders of each service branch to discuss deficiencies in living conditions, dining facilities, and healthcare.
To enable candid feedback on military living conditions, I developed the Hots&Cots app, which is a platform for service members to honestly review their living conditions, dining facilities, and various aspects of military installations. Hots&Cots aims to empower military personnel to share their experiences transparently and foster a collective effort toward improving the quality of life for our service members.
Moreover, Hots&Cots (H&C) serves as a valuable tool for military leaders all the way up the chain of command to gain insights into the daily experiences of their service members. It allows leaders to identify and understand areas of improvement. They can also confirm what is working well, and actively engage with the feedback of their team. The app promotes transparency, accountability, and collaboration for the betterment of the military community.
Below, I will explore how Hots&Cots came to be, how service members can benefit from the app, and how leaders can use H&C to generate much-needed change.
Hots&Cots Is For Service Members—and Leaders
I concluded my service with the Army National Guard in 2014, marking the end of a twelve-year military journey. Despite my departure from the military, I sustained my involvement in the military community as a moderator on Reddit’s r/military and as an active member in the r/army subreddit.
Well before the GAO report brought attention to the substandard conditions, Soldiers shared images of unpalatable dining facility (DFAC) food and deplorable living conditions on platforms like Reddit. A friend and Reddit co-contributor suggested I leverage technology and my software development expertise to document the living conditions service members face. This incepted the idea for a Yelp-like app to review barracks and dining facilities. Hots&Cots was born.
Developed by veterans, the H&C app reflects a deep understanding of the intricacies of military life. We also understand the need for a dedicated space for transparent communication. For junior enlisted service members, we know, having a fully honest conversation with an NCO or superior is challenging, and so anonymity was a key aspect of the design. And while the military has taken commendable steps towards digitalizing Soldier services with the MyPCS app, My Personally Owned Vehicle App, and Digital Garrison App, these apps do not provide opportunities for Soldier feedback. Furthermore, they are focused on pushing information top down, while H&C is designed to capture insights from the bottom up, ensuring that Soldiers have a platform to share their perspectives on what is working and what needs improvement.
H&C helps military leaders too. Beyond recognizing the need to communicate junior enlisted Soldiers’ challenges, we knew the feedback needed to be constructive, to facilitate real-life improvements. We therefore crafted the in-app questions in line with the DOD Housing Manual, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. For example, the “sleeping quarters” question directly corresponds to the manual’s policy:
Service members with ranks of E1 to E4 will share a bedroom and bathroom with at most one other person in a configuration that includes a living room and kitchen. In addition, service members in a shared unit without a living room will have private bedrooms and bathrooms shared with no more than one other person, and such units will include a kitchenette.
To protect all those involved as well as the constructive forces of the site, we emplaced additional safeguards to ensure quality outcomes and prevent possible damage. For example, we chose a limited freeform text feature to mitigate service members inadvertently revealing their identities. We also employ a team of moderators, and access to the data is restricted to a single authorized individual. Finally, app users may report content for our moderation team’s review that may be irrelevant, misleading, or containing content that violates operational security requirements.
H&C’s first real-life proof of concept came in November 2023. A new Soldier found themself in an assigned room with significant mold at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The Soldier reported the problem through conventional channels, but there was no timely response from the chain of command. The Soldier then used Hots&Cots to communicate their substandard living conditions. News of the situation quickly reached JBLM garrison-level leadership. This resulted in a resolution within 24 hours—while preserving the soldier’s anonymity, as detailed in a recent Task&Purpose article. This proactive approach aims for a faster response and resolution to service members’ critical concerns. And unlike other platforms, Hots&Cots transparently indicates when issues are addressed and/or rectified.
A similar scenario recently played out at Fort Eustis. We expect these are just the first of many H&C success stories. While the GAO report (page 43) notes a lack of hard data on how quality of life impacts reenlistment, it’s highly likely that low-quality living facilities correlate with lower retention and re-enlistment rates. This open communication loop between service members and leadership is crucial for informed decision-making, ensuring that the concerns of those on the ground are actively considered in improvement initiatives. Hots&Cots serves as a dedicated, centralized platform to bridge these information gaps, offering a valuable resource that empowers military personnel with insights into the living conditions, dining facilities, and overall amenities available at various installations.
An Advocacy Platform for Service Members and Their Families
Hots&Cots started out focused on assessing “three hots and a cot”, the age-old metric of the good life for enlisted soldiers. But it’s clear our platform is an opportunity for transformational advocacy across all facets of military life. Since launch, H&C has significantly expanded its scope to include comprehensive evaluations of fitness facilities, Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) facilities, and even recreational amenities. Recognizing the importance of healthcare accessibility, the app has extended its reach to include clinics, allowing users to evaluate medical facilities on their installations. Most recently, H&C introduced a section dedicated to reviewing lactation rooms. This allowed us to address the needs of service members with children while emphasizing the app’s commitment to inclusivity and thorough consideration of all facets of military life. Our team has likewise expanded, welcoming a Public Affairs Officer (PAO), an Army entomologist, and a diverse cast of service members and veterans.
As the app continues to grow, it remains committed to its core principles: fostering communication between service members and leadership, enhancing the overall quality of life for military personnel, and promoting accountability. Beyond merely spotlighting issues, Hots&Cots encourages a constructive dialogue by allowing service members to acknowledge commendable practices and leaders to identify areas for improvement. H&C can and should serve as a vital tool for communication, advocacy, and improvement within the military community.
Robert Evans is a former Army sergeant with 12 years of service. With over 10 years in IT he now works as a software developer and lives outside of Charlotte, NC with his wife and two boys.
