U.S. Troops denied hot breakfast in Afghanistan?

This is quite a story to come out. Troops are apparently being told they can make do on MRE's on base for their breakfasts. It's being done, according to this, in the interests of drawing down forces and logistics, not budget concerns. Personally, when it can be planned out specicially to numbers of bases and dates the meal service is cut off for so many at once? This isn't a mere quirk related to draw down, IMO. It's a slap in the face and insult to the men fighting and dying in a place I'd be happy to see them ALL come home from.

On January 17, Congressman Bruce Braley wrote to Secretary of the Army John McHugh to express his concern. According to Jeff Giertz, Communications Director for the United States Congressman's office, he was prompted to do so after being contacted by the mother of one of his Iowa constituents who is serving abroad in Afghanistan.

Colonel Joseph Wawro, the commander of the 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, said breakfast and the midnight meal are now MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) at the affected bases, while lunch and dinner are still served hot. He also noted most dining facilities have take-away items like cereal, granola, energy bars, milk, juice, fruit, etc. for supplemental snacking.

This is just flat wrong, in my opinion. If hot meal service is available AT ALL in these locations, why specifically cut breakfast and leave the others? Why this one meal to give morale a swift kick? It is extensive though and dated for impact.....

Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01) today wrote Army Secretary John McHugh to express “growing concern” regarding Army actions that have ended service of breakfast to American troops serving at 17 US military outposts in Afghanistan.

Braley has also been informed by the Army that this policy will be expanded to more locations in Afghanistan beginning on February 1st.

Source

Perhaps someone with deployed time over there can help explain and shed some light on any reasonable explanation a person like me or this family member wouldn't understand for this?

Has pork can't leave it behind and don't want to spend the money to ship it back. Can't throw them away and contaminate the soil

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Soldiers these days are so damn spoiled.

Wah, I can't have my hot breakfast anymore.

In my day, we were just happy to have something that would fill the stomach. Taste and heat was optional which is probably why every MRE came with hot sause which we put on everything.

There's an old saying, "War is hell."

There's hot breakfast here in the States every day.

Decisions decisions...

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Ya know..

I just can't find myself feeling anything about this story. So you don't get a hot meal for breakfast.

Suck it up soldier, welcome to the army. I wonder how many kids in those countries we are occupying get a warm meal 3 times a day.

~Tenth

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


This is actually quite common for the more forward bases. (called COPS, the bigger ones are FOBs and the ones with airstrips are COBs, at least two years ago they were)

The COBs and some FOBs have Hot-A's (a actually meal) available all day. It is a matter of logistics as well concerning the COPs as they are usually well out in the middle of nowhere and often the only way to resupply them is by air. Sometimes by Chopper, sometimes by parachuting (airdrop) in supplies. Fuel, Mail, ammo, etc, etc make for limited space on a aircraft.

The military also has a supplemental to go meal called T-RATs. (Tray Rations). But the menu is limited. But you do need water to heat them up in. They're just plain nasty cold. During one deployment the only T-RATs we recieved one time was Lasagna. After three weeks of that we were eager for MRE's just for the change of pace.

But I haven't seen T-RATs for some time...do they still use them?

Originally posted by FortAnthem
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Soldiers these days are so damn spoiled.

Wah, I can't have my hot breakfast anymore.

In my day, we were just happy to have something that would fill the stomach. Taste and heat was optional which is probably why every MRE came with hot sause which we put on everything.

Some of the MREs are good too... (Chicken Noodle is the best)
But I usually talk to a Vietnam vet that was in a unit just like mine (only I was in around 06)
--He talks about how they ate C-Rations almost all the time. Never hardly got a hot meal. More often than not they were on LRP patrols.

So yes indeed, the soldiers now in days are a bit spoiled.
They actually cut alot of difficulty in Airborne school since Vietnam era.
Girls were actually allowed through the course and they passed if they fell out of runs or not.
-There were no more requirements for pull ups at all anymore (probably because the women)
--Airborne was cake.
But apparently VERY different back in the day.

Thank you to all the older soldiers.
TRUE MEN
(Not many TRUE MEN left in this world. Especially my generation)

I think the main point here that gets me isn't the lack of a hot breakfast in and of itself.

I listened to my own Dad go on at length about the "sissification" of the modern Military as opposed to what existed when he served in Vietnam. I was particularly amused at his reaction early in the wars to reports of Taco Bell and Burger King franchises on some of the largest bases as well as Lobster being served in a couple specific cases that made the news. I imagine the troops were lucky he held no power at the time to decide their menus or I believe they'd have gotten balls of rice and cups of water for a week after the lobster story.

What catches my eye here is that something given and for so long taken for granted is now taken away with odd circumstances for the official explanation vs. the way it's being done and the methodical approach being taken to do it.

Far better, it's said, to have never had something than to have had it, then lost it.

These guys are already in a place where official directives have been handed down on such petty issues as whether they should be allowed to fart and if so, in which direction and around whom such a thing should be allowed to pass. I wish I were kidding, but it's how this has come to develop. (For Marines in Afghanistan: be careful where you fart)

It's in that setting of increasingly petty and trivial insult added to the injury of being where they are, asked to do the job they are and essentially rejected by a good % of the nation for doing it ...I found the cut in breakfast service to be rather cheesy.

Originally posted by tothetenthpower
reply to post by Wrabbit2000

 

Ya know..

I just can't find myself feeling anything about this story. So you don't get a hot meal for breakfast.

Suck it up soldier, welcome to the army. I wonder how many kids in those countries we are occupying get a warm meal 3 times a day.

~Tenth

I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I don't always eat a hot breakfast and I live here in the states. Often I'll just have a bran muffin and some OJ.

I'm sure there are microwaves around to heat up something, it's not like the troops are going to starve. How much money did our government spend on R&D of these MRE's anyway? It seems a shame to waste them.

Granted, I haven't tried any of them recently; for all I know they could be horrible tasting. Having said that, soldiers should know what they are getting themselves into before the sign their enlistment paperwork. MRE's are part of deployed life.

I'm with Tenth on this -- I just can't feel sorry for them or outraged. They probably eat better than I do overall, on my taxpaying dime in a war I don't support.

You know what war really is? A money hole. We will never truly know where all of the money is spent. Thats why this country is in debt. Not medicare.

Well maybe they shouldn't be at war if they can't handle living without a hot breakfast, they can always come back the states and get a normal meal anytime they want instead of fighting a fake war for control/power/oil.

Get over yourself crybaby jesus.. There are plenty of people in the world who don't even have MRE to eat, which MRE are 20x better now days then they use to be and you can have a hot meal it comes with the pouches to boil your powdered eggs so there you go eat away.

Back in my day, we didn't have food. We ate dirt, and we were grateful.
And I'm still in.

MREs come with heaters, stop crying.
But then, the Army always was weak and spoiled.

Semper Fi.

reply to post by MystikMushroom


Yeah, I'm outraged that people would consider this outrageous.

They have MRE's, your're on mission. Eat the food they put in front of you.

~Tenth

reply to post by tothetenthpower

I'm curious.... The taking of something established as a basic part of the on-base services to the men stationed there isn't an issue to question?

These aren't the Forward Operating Bases where hot meals haven't been the norm or where facilities don't exist. These are base facilities that have had this as a basic level of service all along and still have it for lunch and dinner ....while dropping this part of it. Isn't that a bit odd to see done so widespread and by specific time table, given everything else happening in and around that theater right now?

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Only if they add truffles!

I think i eat worst breakfast then the army lol

cant they just build a fire or rig up a little survival stove and heat things up?

hard to feel sympathy here, they are meant to be tough...

a friend of mine who was in the RAF told me a (possibly apocryphal, but cool all the same) story of when he was in the falklands, and some gurkhas had been dropped in the wrong part of the islands in the freezing cold and rain, with out being told it was not the correct location etc. when some squaddies ran into them a couple of weeks later, they had fortified their position, made themselves more than comfy and were dining quite happily on roasted local sheep. i imagine the argies had given them a bloody wide berth.

Suck it up really?

A hot breakfast just may be the very last thing a soldier will eat in a COMBAT ZONE low morale kills them just as easy a russian ak or an ied, or mortar round.

reply to post by resoe26


I have a lot of friends that are Viet Nam vets and even a few Korean War vets. They love to tell me how weak today's Army is. How we are spoiled and have things too easy.

They had open access to the civilian markets (as could be found) during those wars. A majority of soldiers in the ME may never even meet an indig.

They were allowed (and even supplied) alcohol during those wars. Off limits GO #1 to us today.

They had "rear areas" in those wars. We have "green zones" but even that isn't safe.

Every war is different and every soldier experiences things differently. I couldn't imagine what they went through and they tell me the same thing about the ME.

As far as skipping a meal I think over half of the military can probably afford it LoL

anyone have a breaking story on the TP situation over there ?