Quality-of-life amenities were built to retain expensively trained personnel.

Evidence

“Commanders realized they needed to pay attention to quality of life issues in order to retain expensively trained personnel,” explains Anni Baker, a historian who has lived on bases abroad as a family member and civilian employee. Otherwise, troops “would desert the military for better opportunities in the civilian world.” Because of the changes initiated in the early 1950s in Germany and elsewhere, family members once dismissed as “camp followers” are now described by the military as “force multipliers” who contribute to “overall readiness.” — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 125