My Old Barracks at Fort Ord, California

Tags [Edit]: None When my son Robert and I were on our trip recently, we drove by my old barracks at Fort Ord, Building 4556. Fort Ord was closed years ago and many of the former army buildings are now gone. However, some have been given at least a temporary reprieve, for how long who knows. Building 4556 is located on a part of the former Fort Ord that is now the California State University Monterey Bay. This building is not in use and may never be but for the moment it still stands with others in a rectangle of similar structures that were built around 1953.

At left, the company street area between two buildings.

This view shows the entrance to the mess hall up the stairs, with the supply room below.

This picture was taken in about the same location, with the entrance to the mess hall behind.

This picture shows an empty company street as it appears today.

The following two pictures were taken at approximately the same place 46 years earlier.

The mess hall entrance taken from another angle.

The next two pictures show one of two main entrances, this one near the orderly room and it was the entrance my platoon always used.

This view shows the north side of the building, which we seldom saw because the area adjacent to it was the company street of the building next door. The squad room I was quartered in was on the third floor, on the far left with now mostly unbroken windows but one is boarded up. Most of my platoon was in a large squad bay but it was a large one and overflow went into a couple of squad rooms. The latrine was next door where the now boarded up windows are with one vent. These buildings are empty and run-down now. But in their time, they were the scene of thousands of dramas played out day in and day out.