From Military.com:
“Fort Cavazos Soldiers Have Been Without Proper Access to
Food for Months”
(The water tower near the intersections of Clear Creek Road
and Tank Destroyer Boulevard at Fort Cavazos, Texas.)
One of the Army's largest bases has been barely able to keep
its food services up and running for months, according to soldiers stationed
there and dining facility schedules reviewed by Military.com. The situation at
Fort Cavazos, Texas -- previously known as Fort Hood -- has left some junior
enlisted with few options for meals, as top officials on base struggle to
juggle logistics while most of its cooks are on deployments, missions or
serving field training and other events.
The base had only two of its 10 major dining options open
every day for much of the summer, with three others open only during limited
times. The closures forced many soldiers to drive long distances across base,
sometimes an hour round trip for their meals But not all junior soldiers have
vehicles, and the base provides only a limited shuttle service, with none
dedicated to dining facilities. The service is so limited that some service
members interviewed by Military.com didn't even know it exists. "For
months, one [dining facility] was open and was a more than 30-minute drive for
my soldiers," said one noncommissioned officer, who spoke to Military.com
on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the
press. "All the soldiers were going to that one. It's unmanageable during
the workday."
In some situations, the base posted conflicting schedules or
confusing guidance on what meals were being provided at which dining
facilities. One facility had a sign on the door stating that it was
"closed for dinner," but it didn't note which specific days it was
closed or days when other meals were not available. Base officials also did not
post updated dining facility schedules on social media, although two of the
base's dining facilities -- Iron Horse and Patriot -- were reopened in the past
week, which should start alleviating traffic jams and logistical hurdles in
providing more accessible meals for soldiers.
At the heart of the issue is the dining facilities not having
enough Army cooks to run them. A rotation to the National Training Center, or
NTC, and support for a cadet training exercise at Fort Knox, Kentucky, took
many cooks off base. Dining facilities have been a key focus in the Army's
discussions on boosting the quality of life for soldiers. That has included
access to healthier foods and staffing those facilities with civilians so Army
cooks can focus on feeding troops in the field.
However, the service has made no notable progress on those
efforts. Army officials are eyeing allowing soldiers to use their meal cards at
non-military restaurants on base, such as Panera and Qdoba, an idea that is
currently being piloted at Fort Drum, New York.
^ There is absolutely no excuse to not give regular access to
good food to Soldiers – especially when they are in the US. This is a complete
and utter failure and disgrace on the part of the US Army – one that needs to
be fixed immediately! ^
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