Barracks

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Barracks are a type of military housing. It is typically very plain and all of the buildings in the housing unit are often uniform structures. The term can also be used to describe the building(s) in which convicts are housed. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests that the term 'Barrack' is derived from the French 'baraque' or Italian 'barraca' and originally meant a temporary hut or cabin. It was not until 1690s that the word was used to describe a place of lodgement or residence for soldiers.

1 History
2 Military
3 Worldwide
- 3.1 U.S. Armed Forces
4 External links

[edit] History

There are a number of remains of Roman army barracks in frontier forts such as Houseteads and Vindolanda. From these and from contemporary Roman sources we can see that the basics of life in a military camp have remained constant for thousands of years.

Before 1780, these types of dwellings were not widely known in Britain.

Barracks blockhouses were used to house troops in forts in Upper Canada.

[edit] Military

NCOs and enlisted personnel will frequently be housed in barracks for service or training. Lower level NCOs will be housed in larger numbers where as higher ranking NCOs or officers will be housed in fewer numbers. "Garrison town" is a common expression for any town that has a military barracks, i.e., a permanent military presence.

[edit] Worldwide

[edit] U.S. Armed Forces

While in basic training and sometimes follow-on training, military members live in barracks. The U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Air Force (except band members and officer trainees) have gender-separate basic training units. This differs from the U.S. Army, U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Navy, where male and female recruits train and share the barracks during the basic, but are separated during personal time and lights out. However, all the branches of service integrate male and female members following boot camp and first assignment.

The modern-day trend in the U.S. military is to house only the lowest-ranking bachelor enlisted in barracks unless required for reasons of military necessity. Unmarried NCOs and the highest ranking junior enlisted are generally expected to find off-base accommodations. Those that do reside in barracks are now generally housed in individual rooms conforming to modern U.S. Department of Defense guidelines. The Marine Corps is often the exception to this practice.

Unlike the other services, barracks in the U.S. Air Force are officially referred to as "dormitories."

During World War II, many U.S. barracks resembled Native American long house (being semi-circular but made out of metal).