Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer tapped as Barracks Task Force senior advisor

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appointed Medal of Honor recipient and U.S. Marine Corps reservist Dakota Meyer to the Pentagon’s Barracks Task Force .

Meyer will now serve as Hegseth’s senior advisor to the task force , which is tasked with addressing the military’s “unacceptable” living conditions , the defense secretary announced Monday in a video on social media.

“Our warfighters should be focused on training, readiness and defending this great nation,” Meyer said during the video. “They shouldn’t have to fight for basic living conditions when they come home at night.”

As senior advisor, Meyer will travel to installations across the country, looking at their barracks, meeting with service members and identifying how to curtail any issues blocking the resolutions.

The first group of installations Meyer is expected to visit are all located in California, with Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms on Thursday and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar on Friday.

If sticking to schedule, Meyer will have visited 21 bases across the country, with most along the East Coast, by the end of December, according to a map displayed during the social media video.

“I want you to ask this question for the next couple of months: Where’s Dakota?” Hegseth posed during the video. “Could he be coming to my base, to my installation, to my camp, my fort? Because he might be.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth taps the Marine reservist to serve as a senior advisor for the Pentagon’s effort to improve troops’ living conditions.

“He’ll be traversing the country on behalf of the Barracks Task Force, on behalf of me personally inspecting, holding town halls, getting real input, and then providing real solutions,” Hegseth continued. “Be on the lookout for him.”

Hegseth first formed the task force in October 2025 to be led by the assistant secretary of defense for energy, installations and environment. The group is meant to identify investment opportunities and create department-wide policies for barracks standards.

The One Bill Beautiful Bill Act, which was signed into law in July 2025, gave the Defense Department $1.2 billion for barracks improvement, with $230 million allotted for the Marine Corps Barracks 2030 initiative and $425 million for enlisted boot camp barracks and other related facilities, as well as $1 billion for Army, Navy, Air Force and Space Force restoration and modernization of military housing.

A Government Accountability Office report from August found that the Defense Department does not request enough funding to meet its installation maintenance and improvement needs, resulting in an estimated $285 billion of maintenance backlogs in fiscal 2025.

Previous GAO reports found that some barracks were “chronically neglected,” resulting in poor conditions that impacted enlisted service members’ quality of life. Thousands of service members lived in subpar barracks, with some having potentially serious health and safety risks, according to a 2023 report .

Recently, the Barracks Task Force funded various projects at installations across the nation, including modernized housing at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, and a housing installation at Naval Base Kitsap-Bremerton, Washington.

“From this point forward, there’s no confusion about who’s accountable,” Meyer posted on social media. “If we don’t get this fixed, there’s only one person to blame. Me.”

Former President Barack Obama awarded Meyer his Medal of Honor in 2011 for his service during the Battle of Ganjgal in Afghanistan in 2009 when he repeatedly entered an enemy ambush zone to rescue wounded comrades and recover the bodies of fallen service members. His actions were credited with saving 13 Americans and 23 Afghan personnel.

Meyer left the Marine Corps in 2010 and reenlisted in the reserves in April 2025, with his oath of enlistment administered at the Pentagon by Hegseth.

Cristina Stassis is a reporter covering stories surrounding the defense industry, national security, military/veteran affairs and more. She previously worked as an editorial fellow for Defense News in 2024 where she assisted the newsroom in breaking news across Sightline Media Group.

国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯任命荣誉勋章获得者、美国海军陆战队预备役军人达科塔·迈耶加入五角大楼兵营特遣队。

国防部长赫格塞斯周一在社交媒体上发布的一段视频中宣布，梅耶尔将担任赫格塞斯领导的特别工作组的高级顾问，该工作组的任务是解决军队“令人无法接受”的生活条件。

“我们的战士应该专注于训练、战备和保卫我们伟大的国家，”梅耶在视频中说道。“他们晚上回家后不应该还要为基本的生活条件而奋斗。”

作为高级顾问，迈耶将前往全国各地的军事基地，考察营房，与军人会面，并找出如何遏制阻碍问题解决的任何问题。

预计梅耶尔将访问的第一批军事设施都位于加利福尼亚州，他将于周二和周三访问彭德尔顿海军陆战队基地，周四访问二十九棕榈海军陆战队空地作战中心，周五访问米拉马尔海军陆战队航空站。

根据社交媒体视频中显示的地图显示，如果按计划进行，到 12 月底，迈耶将访问全国 21 个军事基地，其中大部分位于东海岸。

“我希望你们在接下来的几个月里一直问自己这个问题：达科塔在哪儿？”赫格塞斯在视频中问道。“他会不会来我的基地，我的驻地，我的营地，我的堡垒？因为他很有可能会来。”

国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯任命一名海军陆战队预备役军人担任五角大楼改善部队生活条件工作的高级顾问。

“他将代表兵营工作组，也就是我本人，走遍全国各地，进行实地考察、召开市民大会，收集民众的真实意见，然后提出切实可行的解决方案，”赫格塞斯继续说道。“请大家留意他的动向。”

赫格塞斯于2025年10月首次组建了该工作组，由负责能源、设施和环境的国防部助理部长领导。该工作组旨在寻找投资机会，并制定全部门范围内的营房标准政策。

《一票制美好法案》（One Bill Beautiful Bill Act）于 2025 年 7 月签署成为法律，该法案向国防部拨款 12 亿美元用于改善营房，其中 2.3 亿美元用于海军陆战队营房 2030 计划，4.25 亿美元用于新兵训练营营房和其他相关设施，另有 10 亿美元用于陆军、海军、空军和太空军的军事住房修复和现代化。

美国政府问责局 8 月份的一份报告发现，国防部申请的资金不足以满足其设施维护和改进需求，导致 2025 财年预计出现 2850 亿美元的维护积压。

美国政府问责局（GAO）此前的报告发现，一些营房“长期疏于管理”，导致营房条件恶劣，影响了士兵的生活质量。2023年的一份报告显示，数千名军人居住在不达标的营房中，其中一些营房存在潜在的严重健康和安全隐患。

最近，兵营工作组资助了全国各地军事设施的各种项目，包括佐治亚州斯图尔特堡-亨特陆军机场的现代化住房，以及华盛顿州基萨普-布雷默顿海军基地的住房设施。

“从现在开始，责任归属就一目了然了，”梅耶在社交媒体上发帖说。“如果我们不解决这个问题，只有一个人该为此负责。那就是我。”

2011年，前总统巴拉克·奥巴马授予迈耶荣誉勋章，以表彰他在2009年阿富汗甘杰加尔战役中的英勇表现。当时，他多次深入敌军伏击区，营救受伤的战友并找回阵亡战友的遗体。他的行动被认为挽救了13名美国人和23名阿富汗人员的生命。

迈耶于 2010 年离开海军陆战队，并于 2025 年 4 月重新加入预备役，他的入伍宣誓仪式在五角大楼由赫格塞斯主持。

克里斯蒂娜·斯塔西斯是一位记者，主要报道国防工业、国家安全、军事/退伍军人事务等领域的新闻。她曾于2024年在《防务新闻》担任编辑助理，协助Sightline媒体集团旗下新闻编辑室处理突发新闻。