The best meal from Uncle Sam

[Nick Riviezzo]

Maury, I don't know where you were having to eat after the Officers and NCO's but I never in 23 years saw that kind of crap.If I had I would have been feeding some Officers and NCO's "C" rats. That's just the kind of BS a good officer or senior NCO wouldn't tolerate. The soldiers are the precious comodity. Short change the troops look for some severe guidance from any Commander worth his salt.Nick

[phil441]

Maybe not the best but the most unexpected. Goose Bay Labrador in winter of '62. We had been in white-out conditions for several weeks. I had noticed if you held up your bologna to the window a certain way you could see a green sheen on it. Didn't matter, we ate whatever was left in the fridges. No fresh veggies or fruit at all. A Canadian company had a contract to fly in only the true essentials and we could hear them coming in when we couldn't see 'em. Those guys were good!
Weather finally broke and a couple of days later when we entered the SAC chow hall we found the lights were all off with candles on each table. Great! we thought, now a power failure... Nope, the serving line was open and cooking steaks to order. Candle-light and steaks to order. The mess Sgt. went from table to table making sure everything was OK. He got several rounds of applause while I was there.

[BEAR]

Maury, I don't know where you were having to eat after the Officers and NCO's but I never in 23 years saw that kind of crap.If I had I would have been feeding some Officers and NCO's "C" rats. That's just the kind of BS a good officer or senior NCO wouldn't tolerate. The soldiers are the precious comodity. Short change the troops look for some severe guidance from any Commander worth his salt.Nick

I'm with Nick on this Maury. After 21 years I never saw anything like that. As an NCO in Airborne Infantry Battalions, the NCO's and officers played DRO and served our troops on Thanksgiving Day (Hmmmmm! just like GW). And we wore our Dress Blues (or Dress Greens) to boot. Never begrudged that duty, I was honored. One Thanksgiving, my wife and the other NCO wives in my platoon had a second TG meal at a community center for my whole platoon. Those guys packed it away at the messhall and then again at the community center also. No left over turkey sandwiches at my house that year. Good time was had by all.
I'm sorry your experience was so different.
BEAR

[BEAR]

Since I'm on here I'll give my best experience in a dining facility other than Army. My unit was undergoing amphibious training at Coronado, CA and we had just lined our troops up at their dining facility. True to standard we NCO's stood at the back waiting for our guys to go through before we went through. One of the Marine Gunny's was giving us the squint stare from a short line just opposite the main line. He then stalked over to the main line, unclamped the cigar from his teeth and told us NCO's that there was a line for us over where he was standing. He the told us that NCO's have too much to do waiting to eat chow after the troops. Well, we didn't want to argue with the bulldog on his turf so we followed him over. When we got inside we saw that the facility was divided into two different areas, one for enlisted and one for NCOs. The food was excellent and they had civilian dining room orderlies (DRO) that waited on us at our tables. Never had to lift a finger after I got my food. They even took our trays from us when we were finished. We thought that the Marines really knew how to treat the troops .... that is until we went to Pendelton 2 weeks later, then we realized that Coronado was a NAVY base.
BEAR

[Nick Riviezzo]

Hey Bear, I was DRO at the Last Supper! Nick

[Griff Murphey]

Three meals come to mind, the lobster at the Mau Camp at Cubi Point, Subic, in 1-4's mess hall 1975. Very good, and all you wanted. Since officers receive money to buy their own food, we had to pay something like $3. One night at the officers' mess at Camp Hansen, Okinawa, we had tacos. Not the best, sort of an Okinawan version, but for the Texans and Californians it was a long-overdue taste of home; everybody raved over them. Also will never forget pre-deployment mess night for BLT 1-4's cruise, great roast beef, quite a party afterwards.

I used to get tickled at the Okinawan cooks at Hansen. They would put out grapefruit cut in half, but they cut it bass-ackards, top to bottom, where you couldn't get to the fruit. One time they served oyster stew. There were so few oysters in it I recall one Marine Lt saying "I'm gonna see if I can snag the duty oyster as he swims by..." The ice cream machine was left on all the time. During movies (long before video!) we'd cut the tops off of beer cans and fill 'em up with ice cream for a snack. Then go to the bar for MORE BEER.

[Bill D]

Maury, I don't know where you were having to eat after the Officers and NCO's but I never in 23 years saw that kind of crap.If I had I would have been feeding some Officers and NCO's "C" rats. That's just the kind of BS a good officer or senior NCO wouldn't tolerate. The soldiers are the precious comodity. Short change the troops look for some severe guidance from any Commander worth his salt.Nick

Nick -

You are spot on with your post.

I spent a good many years as a platoon sergeant and it was ALWAYS my policy that my men went into chowline first followed by junior NCO's. THEN came senior NCO's and officers. I always ate dead last and if there wasn't enough food for me, the mess sergeant was going to have the seat of his pants in tatters.

Officers and senior NCO's eating first is disgraceful and reflects very poorly upon them.

Bill D

[UUURah]

BEAR reminded me of a time when TDY at Coronado, the Navy Base.

Every evening they had something really terrific to us Gyrines. We were in hog heaven. One evening we had Fried Rabbit. Man, it was sensational, better than any fried chicken I had ever had.

As I was cleaning out my tray into a garbage can near the door, a Navy guy walked up, he probably had half his meal still on the tray. As he was dumping it out into the can he remarked to us, "Same old sh*t every night".

[RED]

My worst was at Whiteman AFB. WE landed there to refuel one night at zero dark 30. We were on our way back to Oceana from NAS Moffet. I hadn't eaten since noon and my tummy was growling. Between me and my pilot we finally came up with enough change to get a sandwich out of the machine. When I pulled the handle, down came the package but when I tried to open the door it wouldn't move. Try as I might that damn door was stuck. Finally some young AF airman comes over and says "excuse me sir" and lifted the door and handed me the sandwich. It was molded!

[Bill D]

My worst was at Whiteman AFB. WE landed there to refuel one night at zero dark 30. We were on our way back to Oceana from NAS Moffet. I hadn't eaten since noon and my tummy was growling. Between me and my pilot we finally came up with enough change to get a sandwich out of the machine. When I pulled the handle, down came the package but when I tried to open the door it wouldn't move. Try as I might that damn door was stuck. Finally some young AF airman comes over and says "excuse me sir" and lifted the door and handed me the sandwich. It was molded!

Hey! Of course it was molded. You don't expect the locals to eat vending machine swill, do you. They have to wait until some dumb sh!t Navy aircrew come along and then have to show them how to operate the machine. Just kidding - I spent a few years in the Navy as an airdale dealing with Navy airplane drivers before I went over to "The Dark Side".