by njb902 » Fri Jun 21, 2013 7:36 pm
Read this on cnn. I'm not really sure how I feel about it.
By Barbara Starr
Napoleon Bonaparte is credited with the
battlefield adage: “An Army moves on its
stomach.” That, of course, means there’s
nothing like good chow.
For the thousands of U.S. troops who will
fight in Afghanistan for another 17 months, it
is not just the quality of the food they have
to consider. Now there will be a bit less of it.
U.S. troops in Afghanistan for years have
been fed four hot meals a day, including what
is fondly known as “mid-rats” or midnight
rations.
That is a meal for troops headed back and
forth from the field or pulling a midnight
shift on base.
Those meals are served in cafeteria-style
dining halls — sometimes little more than a
tent — where troops can select items from a
buffet.
But as the United States winds down its
combat operations in Afghanistan, so, too, will
it wind down its food operations.
The Defense Department is cutting back to two
hot meals a day, most likely just lunch and
dinner.
The reason: the Pentagon is trying to scale
down the number of contractors needed to
cook and serve meals and run dining areas.
Its all about getting ready to pull troops,
equipment and everything else that supports
the war.
“We will significantly reduce contractor and
supply chain requirements,” said David Lakin,
a spokesman for U.S. Force in Afghanistan, in
an e-mail exchange with CNN.
Commanders insist, however, that the troops
will not go hungry.
Packaged foods will be available. But breakfast
and the midnight meal will now be mainly
“meals ready to eat.” Those are the bagged
rations known as “MRE’s.”
Large-quantity rations packages, which feed
multiple troops at one time, also will be
available.
The military believes “most soldiers don’t
consume the midnight meal and breakfast is
also a low attendance event.
Putting the two hot meals together through
lunch and dinner also allows for removal of
an entire dining facility shift, Lakin said.
This will put troops in the position of eating
rations for at least 17 months until the United
States ends its combat presence.
Individual commanders will have the
flexibility to make some changes in the meal
plan. But in the meantime, what are the very
top senior military officials eating, especially
those from NATO, which does not fall under
Pentagon rules?
Well a letter is being drafted to NATO
headquarters asking them to go along with the
same plan, and that means Gen. Joseph
Dunford, the four-star Marine who runs
Afghanistan operations, may soon find himself
ripping open a ration bag just like everyone
else.
