CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — Marine Corps officers at Camp Lejeune broke ground Friday on the first of four new barracks for wounded Marines in a $25 million project at the base's Wounded Warrior Complex.

The facility will be built near Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune and feature 100 two-man rooms with a living area and kitchenette, fitness and physical therapy rooms and private counseling rooms.

Wounded Marines currently live in 1940s-era barracks that need regular upkeep.

The new barracks, expected to be completed in December 2010, are intended to provide the wounded with a "place to not only rehabilitate but also adjust to life in a compassionate environment," officials said.

"This is the best idea I've ever seen. It is the best thing they've done," said Cpl. Bobby Joseph, who was wounded when a roadside bomb in Iraq peppered his legs with shrapnel in 2006.

Joseph, 27, from Naples, Fla., suffers from severe nerve damage and other combat-related injuries.

Now assigned to the Wounded Warrior Battalion, he said the barracks currently used are across the base from the hospital, making it hard for wounded Marines to get back and forth to doctor appointments. The new location is next to the hospital.