As someone who’s spent my fair share of training exercises in WWII-era barracks that are slowly falling apart due to black mold, I feel these places can be retrofitted as training and proving grounds. Then when the day is done, you hunker down in a massive silo that once housed a nuclear missile aimed at the Kremlin. I’m sure they’re absolutely safe, and there’s no residual radioactivity from when high-yield atomic bombs were just hanging around.

Why are we letting civilians snap up these prime real estate deals and not using them as barracks for the influx of troops we’ll need? Beats the hell out of the condemned 20th century barracks.

Francis Horton is a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, and has stepped foot in a dozen countries to work public affairs for the military. When not trooping, he can be found raising a daughter, being a husband, fixing computers and chasing his dogs out of his garden beds. Follow Francis Horton on Twitter @ArmyStrang.

This article originally appeared at Task & Purpose. Follow Task & Purpose on Twitter.

Image: Wikimedia Commons