A Guide to Military Food

Given that I have spent my last three weeks on a military installation, I felt a certain inspiration to write an article on military food. For those who have not had the (ahem) pleasure of sampling it, likely this will only give you a bit of insight... perhaps you've been curious about MRE's, or perhaps you'd like to know where the military is doing all that spending. I certainly cannot answer that last question except to say that it is certainly not on catering! If you are considering entering the service, you likely will come in contact with these particular meals-and I will cover the basics of basic training fare. If you are in the service, I'm sure you'll think back with either nostalgia or disgust at these descriptions. Regardless of who you are, enjoy!

There are three different ways that a service member gets meals while in military training-this consists of the DFAC (or chow hall), Hot-A's (field food), or MREs (Meals-Ready-to-Eat, also used in the field).

Chow Halls

Chow halls (or DFACs) are nothing more than a cafeteria. These range in size and quality across every base or installation. I've been to some pretty quality dining facilities, and I've been to some pretty crappy. If you are going to basic training, you will see that the chow hall looks like a long conveyor belt, a machine that sucks in and spews out (likely still hungry) recruits at record speed. My chow hall in basic probably offered the best food of any I've been to. Unfortunately, it is in basic that you have the least amount of time to eat. The trick to chow halls is to not expect much, and you will never be disappointed. You can, in general, always expect a decent breakfast. The scrambled eggs are lacking, as they are usually made with fake eggs that come in bulk, but aside from that, there is always fresh fruit, and the anticipation of delicious pancakes-which is what got me through so many sessions of morning PT.

Hot-A's

Field chow will undoubtedly be awful for the most part. This food is prepared by the chow halls and packaged up in large insulated containers to be served up by your colleagues. The food itself isn't much worse than if you were to eat it in the DFAC, but for some reason they tend to pick the blandest meals for the field, and it tends to be the same thing over, and over, and over again. The good news is that you usually get a packet of salt and pepper in your silverware-and you should use it. The other trick I used throughout basic training, and any time we went out in the field is to cover everything in salad dressing. You usually only get a few leaves of lettuce as your "salad," so you should have plenty left to help season your chicken, or chili mac, or plain white rice with "gravy" that tastes more or less like nothing. There are some of these meals that are worse than others, some better. It's very hit or miss, but again, they always have fresh fruit. Take advantage of this.

MREs

These tend to be the most exciting meals to outsiders, because it has such a strong military connotation, and who doesn't love little packaged up meals with magical heaters? Well, the answer to that is a lot of people. I personally don't mind MREs. I am also one of the very few people I know that can stomach (and actually likes) the veggie omelet. The trick is to not pretend that it's eggs and thank your stars if they give you the salsa verde. For those unfamiliar with what these gems are, they are a pouch that contains individually wrapped entrees, snacks, side dishes, and drinks. Everything is packed via pouch, and nothing requires more than the addition of water to "make." There are some that are absolutely terrible, and some that aren't half-bad for highly preserved, insta-food. There are some people that put the hot sauce on everything, there are some people that only eat the sides and reserve the entrees for trading purposes. I will make a note that in basic training, heating up your meal is probably the biggest waste of time you will encounter. Trying to decipher the instructions on how to add water and put different pouches in different boxes will just eat into the time you should be eating-because drill sergeants do not give you very much of it, and it should be taken advantage of. Oh, and if your DS tells you not to take anything out of your MRE to save, then listen. Don't get your entire platoon smoked. It's just rude.

So there you have it. If you ever wondered what the great women and men of our country eat while they're away, this is it. So take special consideration when thinking about those care packages. Regular or "normal" food is always something we miss dearly and it gives us at least a small sense of normalcy when we have the opportunity to indulge in it during training. Just don't send recruits food in basic training! Well, unless of course you want to give them a world of hurt-but hey, they may need it!