What about chow hall food

Serving in both USAF and USA, never had a problem with chow hall food. . . until. . . services did away with mess sections and military cooks. Turned them into 'dining facilities' with contract food service personnel.

Always remember the good old days when both services had chin-up and pull-up bars at the chow hall exits. Quick way to get rid of those excess calories good chow food always had. . .

And, yeah, SOS was the best.
 
ArnoldC said:
Serving in both USAF and USA, never had a problem with chow hall food. . . until. . . services did away with mess sections and military cooks. Turned them into 'dining facilities' with contract food service personnel.

And, yeah, SOS was the best.
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Ft Ord basic training had military cooks(and KP!), but Ft. Eustis,Va where I did AIT had civilian cooks(1970).

ArnoldC said:
Always remember the good old days when both services had chin-up and pull-up bars at the chow hall exits.
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I'm sure glad I was 17, chin-up and pull-up bars were a piece of cake!
 

When I was in MP training at Fort Gordon GA we ate at a mess hall which served two training companies. We were so happy with the food we all signed a petition and sent it to the IG.
While an MP at Fort Knox I stopped a speeder and recognized him. I asked if he was still where I had taken basic and told him I had spent a day with him on KP. I told him I appreciated that he didn't jerk us around with a bunch of "trainee" hazing. I repaid his kindness with a warning about his speeding. About a week later he called the MP station asking if I could come by for dinner as they had STEAKS! After eating I thanked him and told him the steak was good but the baked potato was one of THE BEST I'd ever had.
 
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This is an isolated experience, not the norm in the USAF.

While stationed on the remote assignment in Alaska, most of the food was brought to the Island by barge.
In the year I spent there, we only had powdered eggs for breakfast and powdered milk.

We had one Cook at breakfast who always asked, 'how do you want your eggs?' and I would answer, 'Over-Easy, with the yolk unbroken'.
He would answer, 'No Problem...' and pick up the Ice Cream Scoop and deposit two yellow scoops on your tray.
When I was reassigned to a normal base, I would amaze people with the amount of real eggs and milk I could consume.

Ran into this again later in my career when stationed at remote sites.
Some of the Cooks could get pretty creative with the 'Stuff' they were given to work with.
 
Nathan said:
How was the chow hall food when you were in the service? What prompted me to think of it was a cartoon on Facebook that showed a rat throwing up outside a chow hall. I was in the Army but never ran into the stereotype "army chow" that has been a running joke for decades. Everywhere I ever ate while in the Army had great food.
Of course, being a young man 17 to 19 I was pretty easy to please. ;)
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Call me strange, but I loved eating in the mess hall.
 
Lewkat said:
Since the USAF is the country club of the military, the food was always top notch.
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Amen to that. No complaints whatsoever. What really appalled me was the first time I had KP in basic and I saw how much food some guys would leave on their trays. It seemed that a lot of guys threw away more than they ate. What a waste. Both my parents had grown up during the depression and in our house you did not waste food.
 
Nathan said:
How was the chow hall food when you were in the service? What prompted me to think of it was a cartoon on Facebook that showed a rat throwing up outside a chow hall. I was in the Army but never ran into the stereotype "army chow" that has been a running joke for decades. Everywhere I ever ate while in the Army had great food.
Of course, being a young man 17 to 19 I was pretty easy to please. ;)
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During my training periods the food wasn't to great, but we were really hungry and you ate in a hurry. In VN I rarely had a hot meal unless we were some where that we could heat up some water for an MRE. Explosive C4 was readily available, and a small chunk when burned could heat several canteen cup of water. It was a share and share alike atmosphere out in the bush. Have to admit the MRE's were better than the C's some guys were getting.
 
TennVet said:
During my training periods the food wasn't to great, but we were really hungry and you ate in a hurry. In VN I rarely had a hot meal unless we were some where that we could heat up some water for an MRE. Explosive C4 was readily available, and a small chunk when burned could heat several canteen cup of water. It was a share and share alike atmosphere out in the bush. Have to admit the MRE's were better than the C's some guys were getting.
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Yep, all we had was C's, although toward the end of my tour we got hold of some LLRP's from the rangers. They were good.


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911 said:
I agree, but then I learned we shouldn’t eat so much bread. In basic, we worked off everything we ate. I lost 7 pounds during basic.
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And I put on a little over 20 pounds. Went into basic at 112; came out at 135.

Kind of chow hall related story of 'the first micro-wave?' Back in the late 1950s USAF had a radar station at the highest point in the county. This was in Omaha and not far from where I lived. It's mission was radar overwatch for Offutt AFB, SAC HQ, in Bellevue. Anyway the radar crews would hang out at the local drive in when off-duty and talk of heating up their mid-shift snacks in the microwave 'tunnels' leading to the radar dish. Don't know for sure if that's true, but it makes for a good story. . .
 
ArnoldC said:
And I put on a little over 20 pounds. Went into basic at 112; came out at 135.

Kind of chow hall related story of 'the first micro-wave?' Back in the late 1950s USAF had a radar station at the highest point in the county. This was in Omaha and not far from where I lived. It's mission was radar overwatch for Offutt AFB, SAC HQ, in Bellevue. Anyway the radar crews would hang out at the local drive in when off-duty and talk of heating up their mid-shift snacks in the microwave 'tunnels' leading to the radar dish. Don't know for sure if that's true, but it makes for a good story. . .
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I was at Parris Island in July and I gotta' tell you, it was hot, damned hot. People don't believe me when I tell them I actually enjoyed most of my time there. I spent a lot of my free time in the weight room, but didn't put on any weight and in fact, I was losing weight. I thought I should be building muscle and gaining weight, but the trainer told me I was gaining muscle, but not very fast. I asked him how he knew and he said because he compared my measurements when I started until my last day in the weight room. My biceps and only my biceps went up 1 inch. I was really disappointed.

Our graduation was held in Quantico because we were told the power was going to be shut off for the weekend for updating. It seems now the water should have been shut off. My parents came down for graduation, which was a surprise.
 
No real complaints. I was told to try and gain some weight. At 6 feet 4 inches, they wanted me to be around 185-190 pounds. I arrived at basic training wright 177 pounds. I will admit I was a little on the lean side.
 
Navy chow???? I didn't lose a pound in 4 years, so it wasn't that bad.
BTW, I was stationed in the old Bethesda Naval Hospital in D.C., now Walter Reed. The Thanksgiving meal was famous. There were a lot of VIPs, who showed up for it.
 
Nathan said:
SOS is the best!
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I used to eat liver because my dad always told me how good it was for me, but then the doctor told me not to eat any organ meat. That was years ago. I quit that day. I used to really enjoy eating chicken hearts, but haven't had one in at least 45 years.

As for SOS, I gave that up when I had to diet. While I was still working, we would get fed by a lot of different restaurants for free. They liked to see us come into their place and the waitresses were happy to see us. I'm like a lot of other people. When you are offered free food, you will tend to overeat and I did that to the point I had to go up a size on my pants. So I went on an emergency diet because I had my annual physical coming up and I didn't want to be overweight.

I lost 40 pounds in less than 3 months. My wife was upset with me because I wouldn't eat much for dinner and she would end up throwing away a lot of food. I kept telling her to make less until I get off this diet. I weighed 235 and when I got back down to 195, I tried to stop the diet and eat normal, but I kept going and got down to 187. My wife called our doctor (he is also a friend of ours) and he called me and said what's going on with the diet? I knew immediately my wife had called him. He told me to stop now and get back to 195. So, I did.

Going through the diet was quite an experience. I felt terrible. Very tired and lazy. No energy and no desire to do anything. It was actually kind of scary. I thought I would end up having anorexia. I didn't have any desire for food. I went 180°. It was hard to start eating regular again.
 
@911, I'm fasting right now, in prep for tomorrow's colonoscopy(oh boy!), so everything sounds delicious, right now I would eat a flip-flop with the SOS on it.

When I worked for the Sheriff's Dept. I was in the Detentions & Corrections Division, as a building maintenance mechanic in the jails. We weren't allowed to leave the facility during shift, but there was a staff dining room, which was mostly smorgasbord style, plus could order burgers & fries from the grill. Lots of comfort food, including desserts, and it showed around the waistlines of the staff(deputies, custody specialists, nurses, fat maintenance guys) mostly were...I think it's accurate to say- very overweight to morbidly obese.

...all this talk about food's making me hungry, I think I'll go have a portion of yellow jello. 😑
 
I served as a 94B (food service specialist) in my first enlistment (1975-77). Specifically for the Army Security Agency Training Center and School at Ft. Devens, MA. Learned a lot, certainly cooked a lot, and did a fair amount of good eats. My last mess sergeant was SFC Walton, who worked the bejeebus out of us. He pulled out all the stops for the students. I remember peeling silver skin off of dozens of whole beef tenderloins, shrimp for those who enjoy those things. One thing I don't remember having despite the location of Ft. Devens (about 35 miles west of Boston) was lobster. Might've been a bit spendy, even for ol' Walton.

I reenlisted in the summer of 1977 as an Army musician and served the rest of my 20 in that MOS - 02C4L GM.
 
While in the ASA School Brigade at Ft. Devens, as an Army cook I cooked with a number of civilians. One of them (I forget his name) actually had retired as the mess sergeant out of the same mess hall we were working in. Mrs. Waterman was a kind, gentle lady who put up with a lot of good-natured shenanigans. Henry was another old-timer. Dave M. was a Vietnam vet who spent his tour with the LRRPs. This guy was addicted to garlic - he put garlic in EVERYTHING, including SOS. Joe was another semi-old timer. And there were probably 6-8 military cooks along with me.

The Army has what is called a master menu along with recipe cards that you're supposed to follow. I think I did one time when a couple of us, as the dedicated night bakers, decided to whip up a batch of cinnamon rolls. For the rest of the time, I emulated the civilians and once in a while, the NCO shift leaders.

We worked hard, but we played hard too. Then there was the fist fight on the chow line....and the time I had to testify at a court martial. Ft. Devens was a fairly quiet Army post, but that doesn't mean we didn't have our share of drama.
 
Another quick story - when I arrived at Ft. Devens' 2nd Battalion, ASA School Brigade, for duty within the dining facility, the mess sergeant was an old-timer named SFC Marvin. He wore his fatigues every day rather than cook whites because, hey, he didn't do any cooking. His clerk was an older gentleman named John. They both spent most of their time in that tiny little office. John ordered the food from the commissary and I, as the storeroom man, received it and stored it when it arrived. The only thing that SFC Marvin did, as far as I could tell, was hobnob with post engineers who were always in the mess hall filching food.

One of the shift leaders was SP6 Saldi. He was not a kindly guy. Very much a no-nonsense, get-it-done type, always dressed impeccably (he also didn't cook unless he absolutely had to). Saldi was remarkable in the sense that he decided one day to run off with one of the civilian KPs, going AWOL and running out on his wife and small child. (I told you there was a fair amount of drama. In one fell swoop, Saldi went from being a solid leader to being just some guy who followed the testosterone raging inside of him rather than common sense.)

Anyway, before Saldi performed his disappearing act, there was a problem that SFC Marvin had to address. I happened to be standing close to the open office door when Saldi, after trying to explain the problem to Marvin while Marvin was on the phone, heard this:

"G-damn it, Saldi, can't you see I'm trying to SELL MY BOAT?!!!!"

I never forgot that incident and I never forgot Saldi. Never knew what became of him.
 
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Ah, Midnight Chow.

Quiet time, no brass, mostly flightline people.
Just sitting with your crew talking about everything but the job.

Most times, it was the best part of the 'day'.
 
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