4 Lessons From Army Mess Halls
Posted: Thursday, October 21, 2010
by Donovan Baldwin
No Diet 4 Me
One of the more permanent memories of basic training in D-3-1, "Best Damn Company on the Hill, Sir!" at Fort Jackson, South Carolina was the mess hall.
It was a small building through which poured several hundred bodies, thrice daily.
Talking was not allowed.
You were not there to savor the cuisine or network with your peers. You got your food, sat down, ate it, got up, scraped off your tray, tossed it and your steel utensils (no silver for us) through the window to the dishwashers, and got out. It all fitted in with the tenor of basic training, but it had to be that way. The building was too small to feed all of the would-be soldiers (according to Sergeant First Class Alozio we were definitely NOT soldiers yet) at one time.
Lesson I: We're all in this together.
At mess halls after basic training, we were allowed to talk and usually take time to enjoy our food a little more. However, at basic training and at other mess halls I "patronized" during 21 years of service, it was understood that you should, "take all you want, but eat all you take".
Frequently, cooks would not heap your tray full of everything at once (except when "the wolverine" came through the chow line in Bad Aibling, Germany), but you could usually come back and get seconds, thirds, whatever as long as there was enough to go around.
Lesson II: Don't take it if you don't really need it. That way, you won't waste anything, and there will be enough to go around.
During my occasionally lustrous army career, I had the "privilege" of "pulling KP" at several mess halls.
KP, for the uninitiated, stands for "kitchen police". Cartoons of Sad Sack peeling a huge mound of spuds may come to mind. If you don't know who Sad Sack was, look it up. After all, you're on the Internet. Use it.
Anyway, the KP's (soldiers assigned daily to help the cooks in the mess hall) swept, mopped, cleaned tables, took out garbage, helped prepare food, and washed dishes and pots and pans. I was one helluva "pots and pans man", assigned to clean the big kettles and other utensils used to prepare the meals. You stayed busy and they left you alone when you ran the pots and pans sink.
Someday I'll tell you about the time the cook ran an entire can of Jalapeos down through the disposal in the pots and pans sink. Talk about gas warfare!
Those not familiar with military mess halls (now renamed "dining facilities" and sometimes decorated like real restaurants) might consider the older military mess halls as cold, sterile, examples of lower-class greasy spoon eateries at best.
However, I got to talk to, and work with, the cooks and the mess sergeants who ran the dining facilities.
I am sure that there were some real losers, and I have heard a couple of horror stories. In my personal experience, however, most mess sergeants and their staff were not only excellent cooks, but hosts as well. Most took pride not only in running their facilities well, but in the quality of both food and service.
As one mess sergeant explained to me, a well prepared meal, served in a pleasant atmosphere, by a caring staff was the nearest that many soldiers would come to feeling "at home".
That particular mess sergeant, by the way, went into his own pocket and bought steaks which he personally grilled for the soldiers eating at his mess hall.
Lesson III: When others deserve our best effort and our thanks...give it to them.
Lesson IV: You never can tell when, where, from whom, or from what will come the next lesson for life.
In the Dos Equis commercials, "The Most Interesting Man in the World" likes to say, "Stay thirsty, my friend."
I say, "Stay thirsty for the next lesson".
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Donovan Baldwin is a 65-year-old accountant, amateur bodybuilder, freelance writer, certified optician, and Internet marketer currently living in the Atlanta, Gerogia area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting, he has been a member of Mensa and has been a Program Accountant for the Florida State Department of Education, the Business Manager of a community mental health center, and a multi-county Fiscal Consultant for an educational field office. He has also been a trainer for a major international corporation, and has managed various small businesses, including his own. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, with 21 years of service, he became interested in Internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes original articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has posted a series of articles on The Law of Attraction , and other self-improvement issues at xtramoney4me.net/internetmarketing/reviews/law_of_attraction_articles/index.html .
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)I like your lessons, I think they're full of sound good sense.
When I first got in Vietnam I had mess duty in an outside mess hall. We had to lug water from a water buffalo (water tank)Thanks for this article Donovan
Hello Jennifer, David, and Fran
Thanks for the visits and the comments. "I'm pickin' up good vibrations".
Jennifer: Thank you very much. I try, but I writer what I like first and then hope there's a lesson in there somewhere. :)
Yes, David, I too, have lugged water from the water buffalo, in the field, not at a mess hall, and filled many a canteen at the "Lister bag". Thanks for your service, by the way.
Fran: I went in the Army in 1966 and still drive my wife crazy because I scarf down a plate of food while she's eating her first or second bite. Guess you just get trained and your needle gets stuck.
Hey! There's another article!
Don
Thank you - this was a great article! It actually brought up several of my own Basic Training stories. I was at Fort Jackson, South Carolina as well, and remember it fondly! I may have to write my own little Mess Hall story here in a minute!! Thanks!Hi Liesl, When someone says I bring up memories of the army,I usually have to ask if that's a good thing or a bad thing. In your case, it's good. I was there in 1966, lived in the old wooden "squad bay" barracks up on Tank Hill. Thanks for the visit and the comment.
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