Mess halls

[Narragansett]

Never ate in mess halls on base, but have eaten in the enlisted and officer's galleys on several different ships, and as I recall they were both good, but the officer's galley is a cut above the enlisted facilities.

Same thing holds true for the enlisted clubs vs the officer's clubs. Lots of time at those facilities

 

[AJ]

Never ate in mess halls on base, but have eaten in the enlisted and officer's galleys on several different ships, and as I recall they were both good, but the officer's galley is a cut above the enlisted facilities.

Same thing holds true for the enlisted clubs vs the officer's clubs. Lots of time at those facilities

Chief's Messes were generally the best places to eat when on a ship.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Wow. I was volunteered only once for pot & pans. You must have been good at it!

No matter the cost never let a zinger go to waste.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Been there too Rusty. Chanute, Beale, Fairchild, Elmendorf, Osan AB, Castle.

Never had a bad meal.

These days decades later, I work on a military installation. Eat at the chow halls once in a while. Us old civilian employees many of them ex military consider it a treat.

 

[Kanewpadle]

Thanks for reminding me how old I am Rusty.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Tell me, except for Officers Mess, when salad bars became a reality. I sure never saw one.

Graydon, a question about beverages.

When I was in all the chow halls had a row of beverage dispensers...

Water, whole milk, skim milk, chocolate milk, orange juice, iced tea, hot tea, coffee (leaded and unleaded) and at least half a dozen different sodas.

What were the offerings when you served?

 

[DWalt]

I have eaten at many AF enlisted and officer’s clubs at dozens of AF and Navy bases during TDYs. There were no significant differences in food between them that I remember. I think they were all operated by MWR, not sure about that. I was a member at the Fort Sam Houston OC because the fee was somewhat cheaper than at the AF OCs. Yet that membership was good at any base OC anywhere. As I remember, your membership card was actually an MWR credit card. I dropped it after I retired.

 

[Grayfox]

Back around 1990-91 (?) I was a Boy Scout Leader. BSA did a huge weekend regional training event at Ft. Campbell, KY. The Army was a pretty good host all things considered. They put us up in those old WW II wooden barracks and fed us in one of their Mess halls. Nothing fancy, they kept it pretty basic.
Breakfast on the first day was good ol' SOS. Most of the folks had no idea what the hell this stuff was.
2nd day about half of 'em dug right in and the other half skipped breakfast.

 

[SMSgt]

When I was in AK, the army base at Anchorage won the "Best chow hall of the year" award. One of the grading criteria was they weighed the discarded food. (There's the job every soldier wants!) The higher the weight, the lower the points. Seems Anchorage cooked the least, threw out the least.

 

[sousana]

I was selected for FMF school in '65. This was at Camp Delmar on camp Pendelton, California. The Mess hall (more like a dining room) had won numerous awards for best food service in the Marine Corps...ALL the Marine corps.

I hated leaving there.

But all the Navy and Marine mess halls I ate at were decent...except for the coffee.

Greetings Brother

 

[sousana]

While vacationing at Lackland I was "volunteered" for KP. I was assigned Pots & Pans. They put me in a tiled room with a large floor drain and suited me up with rubber galoshes, rubber gloves, rubber apron and a face shield. They handed me a car wash wand dispensing scalding hot water under high pressure.

The heat was oppressive and the carts of crusty kiddie pool sized pots and pans seemed endless. A most miserable day, indeed.

A week later I cracked a joke at the wrong time and got volunteered again.

You'd think I would learn.

A few friends and I got " volunteered " by our Gunny at Lejeune after he had to come drag our sorry bums outta the brig for getting into a fight with the Army.

By the way, we won hands down but it sure as hell didn't feel like it.

 

[Thiokol]

In the late 1960's while assigned to the 3096th AVDS at Travis AFB, my team was selected to participate in the Air Force's Program 437. We were sent TDY to Sandia Labs in Albuquerque and to Los Alamos for some specialized training then off to Johnston Island. The chow at Sandia Base was excellent but the chow at Johnston was fantastic. The mess was operated by Holmes & Narver, a civilian contractor.

 

[MarineSgtjimh]

The best chow I had was at the chow hall at Kadena AFB. Worst was at camp lejuene.

 

[Sistema1927]

Guess I was real lucky as I was never volunteered for Mess Duty.

Never once here. However, there is a reason.

Before Basic, Dad told me "never volunteer for anything". One morning, my Drill Sergeant asked "can any of you maggots type?" Well, yes, I could touch type 70 WPM on a Selectric. I quickly assessed that there was no down side to this, and quickly volunteered.

As a result, I never pulled KP, not fire guard, nor guard duty, but spent many an air-conditioned hour behind a typewriter since the unit was short a clerk and those reports still needed to be done.

 

[Muley Gil]

Never ate in mess halls on base, but have eaten in the enlisted and officer's galleys on several different ships, and as I recall they were both good, but the officer's galley is a cut above the enlisted facilities.

Same thing holds true for the enlisted clubs vs the officer's clubs. Lots of time at those facilities

Aboard ship, naval officers eat in their wardroom, not the galley. The reason the food is so good is that the officers pay for their own food.

 

[Sistema1927]

The O clubs are not always better than the NCO/EM clubs.

At Camp Walker, Taegu, ROK, the Hilltop Club was head and shoulders about the O club. How do I know? A Lt. friend of mine was always wanting me, a lowly NCO, to host him for lunch. Funny thing, I was planning to make the Army a career, while he only intended to serve his ROTC commitment. I ETS'd at the end of that tour, while he remained on duty and finally retired as a Major General.

 

[Retired W4]

One fine memory from my many years at Mother Rucker was the snack bar/mess at Cairns AAF while teaching Instruments in the UH-1. In the morning I would swing by to pick up a chunk of rice pudding prepared by the little old ladies of LA (lower Alabama). Toss it in my helmet bag for later when hot refueling. When I had time to sit down to eat, the food was wonderful. Those ladies could cook!

 

[Chubbs103]

Aboard ship, naval officers eat in their wardroom, not the galley. The reason the food is so good is that the officers pay for their own food.

When we were flying in Afghanistan from the USS Eisenhower, we had an Army major onboard to serve as a GLO (Ground Liaison Officer) for coordinating air support for Army operations.

A great guy, but he was appalled at the concept of a mess bill while deployed. I think he faced numerous threats from above before he paid.

 

[MaricopaKid]

Hands down, the best Navy chow I ever had was over at the Sub Base mess hall at Pearl Harbor. We always tried to get over there a few times a month while we were in port. Shipboard chow wasn’t too bad. Fondest memory I have is we had a rather eccentric baker, MS2 Ivan Washburn. He would stay up all hours of the night baking bread and cinnamon rolls and stuff. If you were on mid watch in one of the machinery spaces, you could expect Ivan to show up a couple times a week bearing a couple hot, fresh loaves of bread, some butter and a few cinnamon rolls. He liked taking care of “his boys” and it sure made our night during a long watch. Nothing like hot fresh bread slathered in butter!

I was a Torpedoman stationed at Sub Base Pearl from '68-'70. Breakfast had as many eggs as you wanted, cooked anyway you wanted. Corned beef hash, bacon, link sausage, sausage patty or SOS. Every morning at the sound of reveille I was first or second in line. The other guy lived off base and was extremely hen-pecked. His wife would give him exact change to pay for breakfast. I believe at the time, it was $0.27!

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Many culinary calamities in my day were traced to-or at least blamed on-disgruntled GIs, who thought they had been put on KP one too many times, got tired of cooks who did nothing but yell at them-training units, remember. Soap in the stew pot, bodily excretions, cleaning supplies, the list of added ingredients I leave to your imagination.
Several Vietnam rear echelon types spoked of mess halls boycotted by officers and senior NCOs, all the choice cuts, etc., skimmed off, the regular shifts always short handed while some people had their private "chefs". The grunts coming in from an op, promised a "hot meal"-the mess hall always ran out.