Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gunthr on August 02, 2005, 04:01:45 PM
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My associate just returned from Iraq after six months of forensic/evidentiary photography of human remains for Saddam's trial.
He described the food at camp Victory, and other US camps as delicious and plentiful. Wednsdays were "lobster day" - all you can eat. He said the food was good the rest of the week too ...
He spent a month or so in a British camp. His first day in the chow line he took 2 chicken leg quarters and then moved down the line and put a square of lazagna on his plate. The British cook called him back and said, "Hey mate, you've taken 3 entrees. Put the chicken back - and in any case, one chicken quarter equals one entree. You can't really put back the lazagna since its fallen apart, now can you?" (They did let him have all the veggies and potatoes he wanted.)
Then for deseart, they had 3 containers of ice cream - vanilla, strawberry and chocolate, and a little further down the line a pile of cookies in those paper envelopes fries come in. My friend is a big boy - 6'3" and husky. He scooped up a pile of all three flavors and got a couple cookies. The cook again stopped him - "Hey mate - ya can't take two deserts. Its either a cookie or ice cream, not both, and remember next time, you only get one scoop, not three."
I was surprized to hear that Brits got fed so much less than American soldiers. I thought that this portion control must have been due to a glitch in the supply lines or due to temporary enemy activity or something - my buddy said he didn't think so, that was just how it is over there.
In any event, considering we are still basically in a war over there, even the British soldiers eat very well compared to the soldiers fighting in other wars...
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Originally posted by Gunthr
In any event, considering we are still basically in a war over there, even the British soldiers eat very well compared to the soldiers fighting in other wars...
Well when eating was possible :)
(speaking of WWI for example)
If your mate survived one full month food was not too bad ;)
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It probably comes down to this...
The UK has a budget problem.
The US has a recruiting and retention problem.
Guess which country is gonna feed it's troops better?
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Good observations... :D
I'm thinking now that it might just be that American servings are just huge compared to European servings...
... I visualize a "Lamb Dinner" in Europe as a large red plate with a little medallion of lamb in the middle, with a sprig of lemon grass, accented with a squiggly pattern of squirted mashed potatoes going all over the plate in a wavy design.
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Originally posted by eagl
It probably comes down to this...
The UK has a budget problem.
The US has a recruiting and retention problem.
Guess which country is gonna feed it's troops better?
I think both have problems with recruiting new meat for the grinder and IIRC also US has some problems with budget...
Propably it all boils down to the British "cuisine" ;)
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Now you know why the British troops are always so pissed off and fight so hard.
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Ok let me shed 2 cents of actual observation about the US chow halls.
The US does the same thing state side unless you are not on a "meal card" and actually paying for the food. In other words they do the same thing the brit chow hall did in this scenerio. While I can't speak for Chow halls in Iraq I can say that not all of them are equal. Probably goes the same for brit chow halls.
I can only speculate that the US mil eased it's rules about food consumption in Iraq due to the fact the meals are being consumed....in Iraq.
There's many a times when I was on meal card and wanted 2 entres or 2 "starches" and couldnt because we werent allowed unless we came back through the line a second time.
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Its probably true that portions in the US in general are much bigger than those in UK and europe.
Maybe thats why you guys are to put it politely generaly bigger than us scrawny brits.
Though thanks to the diet of Big mac and fries so popular nowadays that particular gap is narrowing.
Last year we went over to Normandy for the DDay commemorations. The campsite at Ranville where we stayed also had a few ( understatement) airborne troops staying as they were reenacting the drop around Merville and Pegasus Bridge.
The British Paras were frankly lean and mean. I wouldn't pick a fight on em. We chatted to one American guy. He was airborne though I don't know what regiment. He was lets say suprisingly rotund. One of the Paras quipped that his chute was larger!
Who knows. I wouldn't mess with either.I'm no expert but I reckon lean and mean is probably better than well fed and comfortable in a combat situation.
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Who knows. I wouldn't mess with either.I'm no expert but I reckon lean and mean is probably better than well fed and comfortable in a combat situation.
Some of us can actually go a whole day without food and not faint dead away. ;)
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Lol:lol
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Originally posted by eagl
The UK has a budget problem.
The US has a recruiting and retention problem.
We got all three, we just haven't admitted it yet.
Gatso
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and anyone who has had to live off UK issue "Packed Rat" deserves a medal.
Gatso
PS I actually like em. Just not for an extended period of time. Veggie and Halal ones are the best. Top tip.
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Originally posted by Gunslinger
There's many a times when I was on meal card and wanted 2 entres or 2 "starches" and couldnt because we werent allowed unless we came back through the line a second time.
Yep, brits probably are same. Just finish food and come back for the seconds. Not a very hard concept. :lol
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Actually the UK uses the Metric system, so the portions are the same!
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the UK dont use no metric! they pretend to. just like everyone else. also, the official language of the US military is jive cuz "mamma didnt rase no dummy".
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The US feeds it's troops well. It's been that way for a long time. Officers pay for their meals, enlisted don't. Lobster and steak are not uncommon.
Brits on the otherhand are operating on a tighter budget. They are also handicapped by Brit food. Bangers and mash, anyone?
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im clinging to the dilusion that the brit squaddies dont need lobster to keep up morale cuz they are already so bad-ass. i believe that the infantry of her magesty's army are, and have been since the new model army, the finest soldiers in terms of profesionalism in the world.
PS
the french forien legion is quite astounding in their own right.
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bah Lobsters! what counts is Bratwurst & Sauerkraut,
Schnaps and Liebfraumilch ! ;)
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When i called to get the papers to apply for officer candidate school i asked all 4 sevices to drop their menues in the envelope with the other papers....
Navy all the way from there :D
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BOO-YAH!! NAVY ALL THE WAY.
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I heard from colleagues in Iraq & Afghanistan that the USMC thought that the British food was excellent compared to theirs! They loved the British issue ration pack and would swap loads of equipment for supplies! :D
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I found this, Replicant ... it supports what you said:
... The British Army today has a much better field diet in the form of a 24-hour "ratpack" (ration pack) thought by many other armies to be the best in the world. It's useful to examine the contents of the British ratpack when planning and assembling your own rations for Militia field duty. Each ratpack weighs about 4-1/2 pounds, comes in a cardboard box with a range card printed on the side and is issued with a folding stove and hexamine solid fuel tablets or a sterno type jellied fuel cooker. There is a menu card showing the suggested breakdown for a breakfast, snack and main meal. The meal plan for the ratpack is not very different from the meals consumed by many backpackers; a quick, easy to prepare breakfast, high carbohydrate snacks eaten throughout the day's activities, and a more hearty main meal. Breakfast consists of a rolled oats porridge mix, a can of bacon grill or baconburger (which can be eaten cold or fried), brown biscuits (plain dense cookie/crackers not unlike hardtack with some sugar) and powdered cocoa. The snack is placed in uniform pockets or an equipment belt pouch (never in an ammo pouch; in a firefight, reaching for a magazine and coming up with a chocolate bar can get you seriously killed). The snack is consumed throughout the day as desired and as the mission allows. It consists of more brown biscuits, a small tin of meat spread (chicken, ham, beef, or chicken & bacon), a milk chocolate bar, a roll of hard flavored sugar candy, chocolate covered caramels and lemon or orange flavored dextrose (glucose) tablets. There are four different main meal menus, all in cans; chicken curry, steak & kidney pudding, steak & onion casserole and minced steak. The main meal also has fruit filled biscuits, instant soup, a side dish (mixed vegetable, pre-cooked minute rice, spaghetti in tomato sauce or beans in tomato sauce) and a fruit dessert (instant apple flakes, apple & apricot flakes, fruit salad or mixed fruit pudding). The 24-hour ratpack also contains six 25-gram sugar packets, four tea bags and several one-cup serving instant drink packets (four dried skim milk powder, two coffee, one beef stock and one orange or lemon drink powder) and sundries (chewing gum, toilet paper, salt, book matches, windproof & waterproof matches, water purification tablets and a P-38 type folding can opener). Where possible, fresh rations are issued to supplement the ratpack, but it provides a balanced diet of excellent quality and has enough calories and vitamins to keep a soldier going on all but the most arduous tasks."
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wow that doesnt sound that bad Gunthr.
Of course there are probably very few of you that have ever had a "chow hall steak" or a "Chow hall lobster"
They arent much to brag about. Have you ever known Iraq to be popular for it's cow population or crab season?
In addition these are military cooks. ;)
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In fact it's nothing but historic :)
See what a lanc crew wrote (from the september FlyPast)
(http://www.onpoi.net/ah/pics/users/33_1123087979_britfood.gif)
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I spent a month in Britain in 1984. The only palatable meals that I had were Chinese take out and fish and chips. I am not a picky eater, but British food is just awful. I have nothing but respect for Britain and its citizens, but they just don’t “get” food. I find it hard to believe that these military “Rat Packs” are anything but nutritious. And let’s face it; the reason why the British soldiers are thin is because they don’t eat any more than they absolutely need to.
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This reminds me of one of my favorite jokes:
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and it's all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it's all organized by the Italians.
eskimo
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:rofl Thats great!
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Straffo
Might've had something to do with the battle of the atlantic and rationing!
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Lunch is or wimps.