Mess halls

[Muley Gil]

When I first got to Afghanistan in 2004, we police advisors had our own mess hall. A year or so later, a new Compound manager started talking about building a new "dee fack". After listening to this new term being bantered around, I asked, "What the H--l is a dee fack?" " That's the dining facility-DFAC." The DOD was gradually taking control of the police mission and DFAC was the Army/Air Force term.

 

[ancient-one]

Food at NAS Norman was tolerable except for when we had night flying and you could expect meatballs with a crust on them. I always talked the server into and extra slice of bread, mashed the meatballs and made a sandwich. If you put enough catsup on it was eatable.
The food at Camp Elliot was a disgrace. We would unload lots of beef but the mess hall never saw any of it. They sold pre-packaged sandwiches and a lot of them. The beef, veggies and other good stuff must have been sold to eating joints in SanDiego, LA and SF. I was in good shape, 148lbs when I got there and about 135 when I left.
I was transferred to NAS San Diego and got there in time for noon chow.
I remember that meal today. Smothered Steak, real mashed potatoes, good veggies and either cake or pie plus real milk. Their food was always good, I just dodged the lamb stew. It wasn't long until I gained my weight back. If you weren't on duty, you could let it settle down and go eat again.
You had to watch close and not get caught up in the Marines bringing the Brig inmates to eat. Never be in a position to break up their fast-moving group or you could be eating with the prisoners.

 

[Rustyt1953]

DFAC doesn't have the allure that chow hall does.

 

[Homie]

The USAF is known for two things, one is our great chow halls.

My guess is you never ate in one at Lackland, Lowry, or Minot in the late 70's!!!

 

[sigp220.45]

Unless I am mistaken I think our buddy Sigp220.45 was at Chanute.

Not while I was in the AF. I grew up just down the road in Decatur.

 

[max]

I grew up down the road East of you in Tuscola.

Not while I was in the AF. I grew up just down the road in Decatur.

 

[Bozz10mm]

Except for basic training and jump school, my experience with Army chow has been pretty good. Talking about 1968, 1969, 1970 here.

I'll never forget the first day in AIT after leaving the Ft. Benning Airborne school (Worst mess hall ever). At Fort Lee, Virginia...in the breakfast line the cook asked me how I wanted my eggs. LOL, I just looked at him for a couple of seconds and said, "What do you mean?" I actually had a choice of scrambled, over easy, or omelet. Awesome. And they had actual plates and dishes, not those brown variegated trays I was used to.

 

[Sistema1927]

Except for basic training...

I have no clue how the food in Basic tasted, since we had to eat it too fast.

 

[Sistema1927]

I was TDY at Ft. Monmouth, NJ once, and the chow hall wasn't too good. One Saturday I decided to try my luck for breakfast off base. Went into a Denny's, and without even looking at the menu I decided on "biscuits and gravy" to go along with my eggs. The waitress looked at me a bit funny, but didn't say anything.

Along with my eggs I received two hard rolls and some clear brown gravy. Who knew that there was a Denny's in the world that doesn't do "Southern"?

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

My first-and last-encounter with grits was in a mess hall at Fort Bragg.

 

[Old cop]

Food was pretty good aboard my ship, no complaints here.

 

[Retired W4]

Navy chow at Nha Be, 69-70 and Coco Solo, Panama, 1986. Beats out the Army mess (no pun intended) that Lobo mention from the RVN.

 

[URIT]

Army 1964-67.
I was stationed at Merrill Barracks in Nurnberg, West Germany, which had the largest Army mess hall in Europe.

The food was good with pineapple at nearly every meal. Then again, I was on separate rations the last 2 years of the 31 months I spent there.

 

[Inusuit]

My mess hall story comes from Basic Training at Fort Lewis in the 1960s. I was always hungry, assumed it was all the fresh air and exercise.

I was a holdover pending orders. When powers discovered I could type, I was assigned to type daily mess hall requisitions. Noticed the draw for the next day was two pork chops per man. When I went through the line, everyone was served a single chop. While working on the next day's paper, I saw the mess sergeant carrying cases of pork chops out to his car.

That bit of insight on how the Army functioned served me well for the rest of my enlistment.

I frankly don't remember the quality of the food.

 

[peyton]

The dining facilities in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan were a hit or miss depending on when you went. In 2003/2004 I lost so much weight I fit into my daughters sized small leather jacket. I give them credit for us not starving but living off of MRE's and T rations were hard. Funny item about T rations, one unit got their issue of food for the week and it was nothing except coffee cake!

 

[H Richard]

Could never complain about the chow in any of the bases I was on in England & France, but the chow at the Wheelus AFB in Tripoli Libya had some "interesting" items, "Supposedly" Camel and a couple of other mystery meats. Whatever it was they made it taste good. Spent 6 weeks down there while our F84's had gunnery and bombing practice out in the desert. Too bad it's all closed up now.

 

[F4phantom]

Most mess halls in the Marine Corps were pretty good. At Iwakuni Japan the mess hall had a pastry chef that was the envy of them all. Best pastry I had in all the time I was in. Midrats was the best. The cooks would make anything you wanted, within reason, eggs over easy, really good has browns and good coffee. The mess hall in Chu Lai was the only exception. One time they got a supply of roast beef. We had fried roast in the morning, roast beef and baked potato at noon and roast beef and mashed potatoes for dinner. The worms and were extra protein in the salad. Oh the fun we had.

 

[BmcRet]

On most of the ships I served on the cooks were chemists. They could turn food into **** without passing through the human body.

 

[Retired W4]

On one of my son's many tour to Afghanistan with the 75th FS (A-10s) he was sent to Qatar for some conference. He sent me a picture of the mess hall food they had there. It was truly unbelievable. Fit for a Persian king.

 

[Rustyt1953]