My Company Commander (= navy drill sergeant) was a submarine chef. He told how his boat’s CO wanted the crew fed only the best at the outset of the patrol. Problem was, the patrol long outlasted the best chow, and he eventually had to serve entire meals out of dry stores, and sleep on the deck of the locked galley to stay safe.
(Don’t ask me, I was in the amphibs. Our cooks served us dead seagulls that had washed up on the Silver Strand )
In the Navy they get steak, caviar and whipped cream cake
They have fancy cooks who know what cookin’ means
In the Army we get mess, and it really is a mess
Oh, the Navy gets the gravy, but the Army gets the beans
By the way, for those that do not know, ballistic missile subs are pretty far from Das Boot. According to the book, in exchange for his twentieth-century money, the officer in question “…sat in a private dining room with linen on the tables and cloth napkins and fancy silverware. A mess steward served him his plate and asked him if he wanted salad or soup.”
Enlisted men took their meals cafeteria-style in the spacious crew’s mess.
Technically everyone in the Navy pays for their meals, by law:
U.S. Code Title 37 requires that the Secretary of Defense “shall, by regulation, establish rates for meals sold at messes to officers, civilians, and enlisted members."
Enlisted rates have their mess pay automatically deducted, officers receive an actual mess bill to be paid monthly.
The only submarine I have ever set foot inside was the USS Pampanito museum display in San Francisco. That is a lot more like a Bas Boot boat - although twice the displacement of the U-96 depicted in the movie, the cramped space is not much different. The two boats were nearly contemporaneous. One thing that stuck in my mind (other than the pipe cots directly underneath the torpedoes for the sailors to sleep in) was a poster describing the personal storage locker. Not exactly large, but each sailor got one, and was allowed it to store personal belongings. Sailors would cut a deal with the cook, and would store additional food which would be used to improve the served meals. Sailors who bought into the scheme shared in the improved fare. It was apparently very popular. The display had a large poster with a picture of the cook in the galley noting that the submarine service provided the best food possible, and everyone aboard ate the same. (I visited in 1989, so a lot may have changed.)
Something of a jump to the extensive larder space available in the boat visited by Destin in the above video.
I toured an active boomer in Groton, way back in the day. It was huge. it had suspended ceilings. (I bumped my head touring a fast attack sub the same day).
And one thing it had, that stuck with me to this day, was a soft-serve ice cream machine in the enlisted mess (which was as good sized cafeteria). I wonder if the officers had access. “Excuse me, seaman, I need to inspect the quality of the ice cream. Only the best for you.”
We had the soft serve on the Carriers also. I think a lot of surface ships had them, but that I can’t be sure of. The carriers had the advantage of an actual butcher shop and better yet, bake shop. But the massive disadvantage of cooking for thousands in the galleys.
I’ll add my thanks, @Horatius . I saw that video a few years ago, and wanted to post it to this thread, but I could find it. “It was on YouTube” was the best I could recall. Glad you could find it, and thanks—I enjoyed watching it again.
I assume the military does not bother counting whether a person has actually dined or not, and charges them as if they have eaten all their meals at the mess? If so, then that would be a strong disincentive to eating anywhere other than the mess.
For the crew, I believe that’s correct. For officers, when underway, we got charged for all meals. When in port, we were charged for the meals we actually ate.
For shoreside installations of USAF & Army it’s simple. You pay for your meals just like in a restaurant. They ring up what you ordered and you sign a chit. Later you get a monthly bill to pay.
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