[Slight aside]
It’s not just limited to anything tangible, nor to NCOs. I’ll sometimes “trade” a rented roller for a borrowed grader for a week, if we both need each other’s piece of equipment for just a short while. I’ve even set up favor jobs for other organizations, and they’ve helped us when we needed it too. . .
[/Slight aside]
Tripler
KBR made some fairly decent chicken today! A bit dry, but tasty!
The story I heard from people in New Orleans was that the last bit is actually NOT a goal of MREs: that they’re designed to, uh, slow down your bowels. The idea being that the military thinks when you’re in a situation where you’re eating MRE’s, a (or a lot) little slow down there is way better than too fast, as far as accomplishing your mission goes.
Just saying that’s what I heard.
I think ours were a little old.
MRE type meals are difficult to digest because they need to last 10+ years on the shelf, resist freezing and heat, and contain huge amounts of calories for a given mass. You don’t want to be lugging around celery sticks and flax in the field.
In adverse conditions constipation is a much worse problem than the runs. Often toilet facilities are primitve and uncomfortable, discouraging their use. Adrenaline and stress serve as natural inhibitors to the digestive proccess, which is why there is no “tactical” reason to make MREs hard to digest - your body will take care of that naturally, and will shift priorities when bullets start cracking overhead.
One of our wise old NCOs once summed it up thus: “The first rule of winter warfare: If you don’t SHIT, YOU DIE.” Few people can truly appreciate this without spending a week or two outside in -40c conditions. Same goes for pit latrines in very hot climates. Taking a dump becomes more chalenging when you have to worry about falling and drowning in the cesspit after being overpowered by fumes, or getting frostbite on the pink bits before you can “squeeze the coil off”. 
Well yes, Australian food before, say, the 70s was absolutely dire, just like the worst stereotypes of English food. Only the Italian and some of the Chinese restarants were any good and the Italian ones were post WWII anyway. American food of WWII is certainly going to have been better; less processing and over-sweetening than now, and of course no rationing.
But with the huge influx of Vietnamese, Thai, Indian, African, Lebanese, Greek, Japanese and other ethnicities since then, the average Australian now probably eats more varied food than any other country. IOW Australian food has got much better since WWII and US food much worse.
“C/O Postmaster”?
Don’t have it with me, and can’t remember the title offhand, but sounds like it could be right…some cute stuff, but odd for what we think of as a war book, since at the end he hasn’t even seen any combat?
In my experience (just returned from the previously mentioned far out FOB’s in Iraq) the food went from good/ok to SUCKS when the chow hall switched over from the Army cooks to KBR. No matter how bad chow was the Army guys always had a crispy hot pizza of at least two styles at lunch and dinner. I survived at least 3 weeks on that and was sorry to see it go.
Our cooks did this well (with help from some Nepalese food service guys who did most of the cutting etc. type stuff) while being called on to go on patrol at times. I know when we first got there EVERYONE patrolled at least once a day and still did their ‘normal’ job afterwards; this is why most of the REMF’s in my unit have a Combat Action Badge.
Generally speaking the chow halls at the HUGE bases in Baghdad etc. have wonderful chow where you have to squeeze by the line for milkshakes (the best I have ever had) in order to get to the pizza/steak/sandwich bar.
When we were stationed at a Marine post the food was TERRIBLE and most of us ate MRE’s instead, a major no-no for a soldier with any self respect.
I do have one other thing to mention and it concerns the Air Force. I once trained at an AF base and ate at their chow hall… Having completed basic and AIT just 2 years before I remembered clearly how the only thing that wasn’t guarded on an Army base is the desert. Oh the things I used to have to do to get enough meat and potatoes (for Dan) to meet the caloric needs of my paratrooper self who was PTing 2x’s a day. Well back to the AF, I walked in, grabbed a plate (per Army SOP) and went past the rabbit food for the meat. Well it was hard to know where to go, an Army DFAC is like a cattle chute until you move into the seating area, not so in the AF, the place was nice and wide open and this little infantryman was at a loss for what order I was supposed to do things in (insert joke here).
I finally find the meat and pasta bar and spy a candied spiral cut ham, with an airman in full chef’s regalia (like eating at the Holiday Inn), and get myself some. Then I move over to the pasta and the airman asks me what I want; I was a bit confused, they had THREE types of partially cooked pasta. I told him I’d take the tortellini and he spooned a large helping into a sieve and place in his little pot of boiling water. When it was al-dente he called me over gave me my tort and then asked me what kind of sauce. I couldn’t believe it.
Then I noticed as I walked out the ice cream bar was out of rainbow sprinkles (we don’t even HAVE an ice cream bar, much less sprinkles!!). To top it all off the napkin dispenser had a little sign on top that said “Hungry? Please go back for seconds!” Right then I knew I had joined the wrong service. To this day after I tell someone to go into the AF and they ask why I say “because, they have sprinkles.” My wife knows what I mean right away. PS- if there are any AF recruiters out there, do you need a prior service officer with combat experience who is willing to do ANYTHING??? (seriously though, anything…)
I absolutely agree that KBR food suxs beyond belief.
When I was stationed in Hanau-Fliegelhorst, I received BAS (food money) instead of chow hall privleges. Now I could have paid the $3.55 for dinner (or whatever) and filled up, but it was still better to go to the AAFES-run pizza/sub place and spend $5 (at the time) for a sub, chips, and sody-pop. The thing is, for the most part the dining facility didn’t even check for meal cards (your eatin’ pass), and I could have eaten for free, and still chose the pay-your-way route.
What really sucked was being stationed in Ft. Hood in a crummy tactical unit, losing my BAS, and still preffered paying for my own outside food. That also coincides with my pizza-delivery job to maintain my lifestyle (that the time “living big” was a Honda Civic EX and a Mac Color Classic II).
On the other hand, I recently very happily paid $100 (inc. shipping!) on eBay for a full collection of current series authentic, militray MRE’s (I want it all, damnit). I’d always loved those things, and was sad to see that the heavily, dense, cake-things are gone as are the oatmeal bars and authentic Tabasco sauce. I’m glad to see the corned-beef hash gone, but I’ve yet to try some of the new dishes because I bought the things for camping.
Three weeks ago, I was eating US military food in Baghdad. It’s not bad – there’s plenty of it, it’s fresh, and there is surprising variety. (This was chow-hall food, not MREs – I had less than a dozen of those in four months, and while they weren’t bad, three a day would get old fast).
But it’s very processed, with a lot of sugar added. And there’s a congenital dullness: the one time they served Thai food (a chicken curry dish), it actually tasted… bland.
I didn’t know you could make Thai food taste bland.
Sorry for the highjack, but Shakespeare are you in Baghdad? We should have a Baghdad Dopefest. I’m in the redzone, but I can get to green zone some weekend.
While we’re on the subject of food and Air Force chow halls (thanks **Chouinard Fan
**), I’d just like to toot my own horn for a second.
If you eat in the Manhattan Dining Facility at Al Udeid AB, realize one thing: I built that place. [sub]Well, not me literally, but I was project engineer for the first half of the construction, up until we rotated out in the summer of '04.[/sub]
Tripler
I built a bar on that base too–shhh!
No, madmonk28, I’m back in the states now. Wish I’d known there was a fellow Doper nearby.