U.S. troops in Poland are living in less than ideal conditions as a future force takes shape on a base there in the wake of a pact between Warsaw and Washington to increase the number of American soldiers, Stars and Stripes reported.
Troops currently at a base in Poznan live in a tent city – with spotty Internet service, water that trickles out of faucets – and are stuck eating field rations, the news outlet reported.
In summer, soldiers tell the news outlet they would rather be in the air-conditioned tents than the barracks building, which doubles as work space.
"In terms of living and working, it feels a lot like an immature deployment," Army 1st Sgt. Sean Jones to of Fort Riley, Kansas, told the news outlet.
"Of course, we are prepared to go to an austere environment and fight the enemy and train or whatever else," he said. "But this is a rotation, not a deployment."
Improvements to the areas temporarily hosting U.S. troops in Poland are slowly coming, but in the meantime, 80 soldiers live and work in an old concrete building.
Army Capt. Dustin Martin, the Poznan base head, said plenty of projects are underway, from improvements to the motor pool area to the front entry control point.
"But nothing to improve the necessities," he said.
Most important, however, U.S. troops are a strategic necessity, Stars and Stripes reported.
"The U.S. would be in position to introduce its forces into a crisis area and then Russia would have to make the choice of killing American soldiers if it wanted to go to war, and that would have huge political consequences," Michael Kofman, a Wilson Center fellow, told the outlet.
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