# What is this grey slab (USN dinner)?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Tags:** food-cooking\
**Created:** [April 18, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372 "2026-04-18T23:41:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 47

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**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\
**Post date:** [April 26, 2026, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-grey-slab-usn-dinner/1029372/47 "2026-04-26T23:37:41Z")

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> [@robby](#):
>
> As an officer on a 688, I was required to eat in the wardroom. Even junior officers were absolutely prohibited from eating in the crew’s mess. Which we definitely would have preferred because meals in the wardroom were a slog.
> 
> **This was because lunch and dinner were always formal affairs with separate courses. Soup, salad, main course, dessert. And you couldn’t arrive late or leave early. If you were late, you didn’t eat. And if you didn’t want a course, you just had to sit there. At least breakfast and midrats (midnight rations) weren’t formal. You just told the mess attendant what you wanted (out of what was available).**

Bolding by Tripler

I have _so many questions about this_ borne out of:

- Being Air Force EOD, serving as XO of a US Navy Staff (and part of the ‘Wardroom’), in a Marine Corps battlespace (2 MARDIV) in Afghanistan overseeing an Army Platoon & Air Force Flight;
- I visited the _Nebraska_ in port, for a ‘walk-through’ tour, a couple of years ago, and walked through the _actual_ Wardroom where the junior officers were doing their paperwork between patrols. There was an obvious air of formality, even while at berth.

Now, I _get_ the tradition of the Officers’ Mess, but the Navy seems to take it to the “nth degree.” But what do I know? I’ll take it to another thread . . .

Tripler  
My usual messing: “Hey Mike, huck me an MRE, woudja?”

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