A sniper takes out a leader of American troops. He writhes on the ground, while another soldier stands nearby videotaping his dying comrade.
Army Master Sgt. Lance Milsted stops the training exercise and speaks to the soldier journalist about the most important lesson he would learn.
“You have to learn when to stop shooting video and start shooting bullets,” said Milsted, an instructor at the Defense Information School at Fort Meade.
This is the kind of tutelage more than 3,500 journalists, broadcasters and public affairs officers from all five service branches receive at DINFOS, the military?s journalism and communications school.
The Department of Defense is pushing for more DINFOS graduates, but is straining the 50-year-old barracks, plagued by mold and leaky pipes, that house the students.
“With a continuous student population, you can?t just shut down the showers,” said Col. Kenneth McCreedy, fort commander.
The demand is so high, DINFOS cannot meet the requested allotment of graduates in 19 of 26 courses. The Navy has doubled its requested graduates in the past year, and the Army is offering bonuses to recruits who graduate, officials said.
Meanwhile, the DINFOS barracks have moldy rooms and aging pipes. Army officials are working to renovate the barracks where students live for three to nine months during training.
“When you enlist, you know you?re not getting put up in the Ritz, but you also don?t expect to live in black mold,” said Airman Chris Jacobs, 24, of Texas, who lives in the Air Force barracks ? considered the worse at Fort Meade, according to fort officials.
Sgt. Gina Vaile, 26, of the Kentucky National Guard, said she was moved from the Army barracks to newer barracks, because she had an allergic reaction to the mold.
