Food in the Military

mmarsh

mmarsh

Active member
Napoleon once said "an army marches on its stomach". I am starting a new topic on food in the military what you think of it. I'm curious how what meals are served in foreign armies as well. Please feel free to post thoughts an ancedonts. Bad or Good. Are MRE true to their reputation or are they not too bad?

Im tell a story I got a big kick out.

My mom used to work at the French Consulate in NYC. During about 10 years ago the French Helicopter Carrier Jeanne D'Arc paid a visit to New york Harbor. We were invited for a tour by the head Chef. Now the thing that kicked me was when he showed me the wine celler. Now as you know France makes some of the best wines in the world, but inside this ship was the largest wine celler I had ever seen. Not to mention the fact there was alcohol on board a military ship.
 
Well, I have been on courses at three different bases here in Aus, RAAF Bases Willianmtown and Wagga Wagga, and Lone Pine Barracks Singleton. We ate at the Airmens/Soldiers messes respectivly, and I had no problem with the food. It is some real high quality stuff.
 
the MRE ive had wasnt that bad....it took a long time to warm up the food though since i was at school and couldnt use alternative means than the water/chemical mix that heats it and even then it was still kind of cold, but not that bad...
 
I don't know what u get served in the mess hall when ur in the army but i do have a mate whose dad is in the army and he gets ration packs. The ration packs are some really nice stuff.

My cousin said that when he was doing his basic training for the airforce that the stuff the had in the mess was absolutely fantastic.

Rich.
 
in the USMC the food isnt that bad in the chow hall, im at Camp Pendleton 24area isnt to bad but if you go to the 22 area its horrible :). at New River air station the chow hall was also pretty damn good, i liked the hours there too and how close to the barracks it was :). but when i was at pensacola NAS (a navy base) that chow was pretty disgusting, didnt like it at all. MRE's are pretty good till youve eaten every single kind, then its starts getting very boring. if it was up to me i would never have a MRE again but i know when im gonna be hungry ill be VERY happy to have one. thats my take on the different chow halls ive eaten at.
 
I can only judge the food we had to eat while I was in the Army, and all I can say it was bloody awful, which the cooks managed to make even worse. The RAF Station were we did our Parachute Training seemed like a luxury hotel rather a military base to us lads from the army. Tables with clothes on them, cereal and toast on the tables and as much as we could eat, my did we make up for lost time. We ate so much that they made the Army set up their own camp down the road as reckoned they could not afford to feed us.
 
The standard of food in the Army (UK) is very poor imo, thats why when soldiers (especially Scottish ones!) go mad in other services/Nations cookhouses.

24 hr cookhouse in Doboi, Bosnia I was filling my Daysack with Bottles of Gatorade and ice cream bars Young american cook comes out from the back "Dude , No need to Steal its free!!"

"Aye , But it tastes Better big man"
 
I never had MREs but C rations weren't bad. To quote Mick Dundee," tastes like s**t but you can live on it."
 
In the regulars food varied daily it seemed. Just your luck of the draw.

In my old Guard unit the battery I eventually commanded (but later left for battalion staff) was renowned as having the best cooks around. We ate well most of the time. On rare occasions though (usually due to sudden increases in unit strength) we'd run short of enough food to feed everybody. I can only recall one occasion it was so bad the First Sergeant joined the officers in skipping the meal, but so too did the Chief of Smoke and the Gunnery Sergeant.

One of my fondest memories of those days actually involves such an occasion. It had been a very long day for me and one filled with many things gone wrong. I was new in the saddle as BC and sweating bullets over the state of affairs. I came up to mess and was told that the food was gone and the men fed. The XO and the FDO had missed chow due to running short. So resigned to have no meal I headed for my tent to drag out the can of peanuts I had stashed there. On my bunk neatly wrapped was a meal of meatloaf on bread and some salad and fruit. A note was with it from the mess sergeant. He had given me his meal.
 
Since the 1970s when I started working in the field, I've been to some of the boonies where testing of equipment is done. About ten years ago, I was on a program in New Mexico and the younger soldiers would open an MRE, eat a certain part that they liked, usually meat, and throw the rest away and keep this up until they were full. I got a kick out of watching this until I had to use one of the portable latrines they had set up. Man! Talk about laying wolf bait! I would hold my breath as long as possible but you've got to breathe. Jeez, was I glad when the laser was packed up and we headed for town so I could go use the head in peace.
 
I don't know what u get served in the mess hall when ur in the army but i do have a mate whose dad is in the army and he gets ration packs. The ration packs are some really nice stuff.
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LOL! Try living on them cold for weeks at a time. Don't get me wrong they serve their purpose well, but i wouldn't touch 'em if i didn't have to.

I've eaten at about 8 Army bases and 2 RAAF bases and for a majority of the time most of them served great food, with a lot of variety and always good quantities. By far the worst mess i've eaten at is the recruits mess at Kapooka. It was still eatable more often then not, but if you got in late the food was cold.

The best mess i have ever eaten at was RAAF williams, it is a dieing base, slowly being sold off. There wasn't enough people there to keep the 3 messes going so they closed the OR's and the Sargeants mess and everyone just ate at the officers mess. :D

On a side note, army cooks are fantastic at what they do, and i don't fully understand why they use civillians in our messes.
 
Food during my military service wasn't bad but no Alcohol due to stupid islamic rules

Breakfast: Tea, Coffee, Cheese, Butter, Different jams, bread

Lunch: Chicken, Rice, different stews, Tuna, Soup, Salad & coke

Dinner: Cutlet, Beef, Soup, Rice, stews

My father (Lt. Col) who served both under the Shah and the new govt believes that the food under the Shah was the finest in the world.(atually he had a British instructor who told him, Iranian Army serves the best type of food).

I miss those stews and soup when I was in the army!
 
phoenix_aim54 said:
Wine in an aircraft carrier? I cant believe it. Why?
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Food+Drink is a important part of French culture.

France is a wine and bread country. Missing either is like not having a knife and a fork. French People are accoustomed to wine with means so drunkness at mealtime is not common, unless you starting adding in aparitifs (pre-meal cocktails). I only saw table wine and Champagne, I didnt see any Hard licqor or even beer.

Incidently, the head chef of the Jeanne d'Arc before starting his naval career had graduated from a prestiguous culinary school in Paris. He said this was standard for French military cooks. I am curious if cooks in other countries get schooling or is it on the job training?
 
I've had a couple of MRE's, and while theyr not bad, i wouldnt want them every day. I've had the chicken tetrazinni and the chicken and potatoes. I'm still afraid to eat the meatloaf one that i have stashed somewhere. :D
 
Best 3 places I've eaten. Keswick Barracks officers mess, and Lewin Barracks officers mess, and the Duntroon Officers mess.
I've also eaten at RAAF base Edinburgh (but that was grabbing a quick meal in the OR's with a mate from the RAAF), so I don't really count that.

As for OR's messes. The Keswick OR's is good, but Enogerra barracks OR's outclasses for the food, but not the service or the building. At Keswick it's a case of all you can eat. Enogerra they watch you don't take more than your rationed 3/4 of a slice of bacon.

Generally the mess food is really good, but that's to make up for the ration packs.

LOL! Try living on them cold for weeks at a time. Don't get me wrong they serve their purpose well, but i wouldn't touch 'em if i didn't have to.
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Damn right. They can be alright if you've got time to heat them properly, maybe add some tobasco to the spaghetti and meatballs, but since 99.99% of the time it's a case of suck 'em down cold it's not so good. They've got a lot better than they used to be. I'll give them that much.

Aparently the Aussie Rat Packs are more paletable than the US MRE. A sig I know who went to Somalia said they did regular swaps with the US forces there, they liked the Aussie ones supposedly. But I reckon it'd be a case of a change is as good as holiday.
 
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