Obama Administartion CUTS HOT MEALS for Troops serving in Afghanistan!

reply to post by smurfy


Well, I started out annoyed, at the least, about the fact that hot breakfast our troops were already used to having as a standard fare was being cut. Now I see so much more to be upset with, it's hard to know where to start. I really appreciate all the extra information you bring to the thread with that. He's citing specific stats and data out of the reports, which is always nice. In this case, wow, does it ever highlight just how bad it's become.

But earlier this year, auditors for the Pentagon inspector general’s office outlined several other concerns, including that Supreme:

_charged $455 million for food transportation flights. (The $3.74 price per pound shipped was an “oversight,” the Pentagon told auditors.) The auditors said Supreme’s original contract did not include a provision for flying food into the country, and that work was added without rewriting the contract.

_charged as much as $8.35 per pound shipped when it used a helicopter instead of an airplane.

_billed the Pentagon in one year for 8.8 million pounds of food flown by helicopter, when it really only flew 7.7 million pounds.

_sought profits guaranteed at 10% for the airplane flights and 13% for helicopters.

(Smurfy's Link - Bottom of Page

Didn't U.S. Troops have their very own mess halls and cook their very own hot chow once upon a time? I could have sworn they did...before war became so damn profitable.

Perhaps this is a dandy time for leaders to show leadership and suggest we de-corporatise the Military. Start with food. How much does the Pentagon pay..and I mean REALLY pay, not bean counter pay, for a Blackhawk to go from Kabul to any number of the bases needing supply? It seems 3-8 bucks a pound comes just a hair over what I'd expect it to cost by our own people.

This whole private army and privatized war concept thing doesn't seem to be working out too well. Maybe it's time to drop the concept, eh?

Originally posted by jonnyc55
reply to post by sonnny1

 

Well that sankari never replied to your post.

And a good 90% of her/his posts consist of shooting down the OP with zero regard for manners and kindness.

There is a good handful of people on ATS who have purely signed up to be blunt because they know being blunt makes the other person reach out for points. Then the next reply would be an increasingly blunter post.

Its like going to a forum about art and saying you don't see anything in the picture, it just looks like a messed up bunch of shapes. Yet am sure the artist felt he made something that has reflected his frame of mind on something.

edit on 2-6-2013 by jonnyc55 because: (no reason given)

I think you you hit the nail on the head with this post.

I was a cook in the army assigned to an armor bn, we would move with the armor, and they jumped every 24 hours. We issued 3 MREs a day, and served one hot meal a day. Being in a field environment, it would take a few hours to set up an MKT (Mobile Kitchen Trailer), a GP medium to serve the food in and a sanitation tent. Then fuel up field burners, prepare the food, then serve the meals to about 300 or so soldiers. Then after the meals, we'd have to clean everything, break down the MKT, pack everything up back on our trucks, dispose of our garbage, setup our sleeping stuff in the GP medium then try to catch 3-4 hours a sleep (IF WE WERE LUCKY), and jump to our next location.

We didnt have the TIME to serve 2 or 3 hots a day, thats just how it is in the field

How awful. He must be an agent of satan to do this to our lovely troops!! Hopefully he gets impeached and arrested like the criminal he is.

reply to post by HomerinNC

Agreed for how it is in the field. I don't have to have been there to imagine that particular scenario for how true it sounds in how you describe it.

I think the problem is that no one in this army really travels like that anymore. The first few weeks of the Iraq invasion, perhaps....then GIANT U.S. Bases were established, complete with Burger King and Taco Bell. At first, anyway.

As I understand it, the bases this is all a part of and the issues with the Army troops before them, are fixed support and forward bases. Nothing in motion, but all static and long term positions with all the basic services of life. Now in that position, why can't the Military supply it's own people, facilities and logistics chain for supply of food?

Billions.... *BILLIONS*?? For food service? Good Lord.. I wonder how much it takes to feed my CITY by comparison. I really, honestly believe we've been snowed with big numbers and lots of 0's for so long, we've lost meaningful connection to what these numbers are for size and impact. Some people are getting filthy rich off feeding and/or screwing our people in uniform and seem to be having a real dandy time of it.

Perhaps our troops are fighting the wrong people and aiming in the wrong direction. The enemy fighting them, directly, isn't necessarily crying Allahu Akbar but 'Profits are great'. I think the latter may do as much or more damage, the more I learn how mercenary it's become.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Next thing we hear is that they're feeding them nutritious bugs .
Watch . Because they cannot control what they eat ,unless there's a McDonald's near where they are stationed .

Do you think they serve GMOs or bugs at UN or Whitehouse dinners ?
When the first family chows down on cicada with aphid sauce,is when I will eat bugs .

reply to post by PtolemyII


LOL... Funny you should mention that. I had 2 loads in my time that went to the White House for their dinners. They were both for the Obama White House. Talk about a security issue with paperwork and seals. It didn't actually go to D.C. of course, but some receiver in Mass that then inspected and reshipped to the White House from there. I can assure you it was only the best though. Those were a couple of the most expensive loads, for what it was, that I ever hauled out of Yuma, too.

Nope..Nothing but the best for our leaders while our troops can apparently suck cold eggs (At outrageous cost of course) and be happy they were remembered for food at all.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Wrabbit,

If I didn't know any better I'd say it sounds like you want to turn your guns around and shoot the profit system down...



Seriously, though - yes, it is a big problem, and not just with military services such as this but also with other institutions that by their nature should never be profitable such as our correctional facilities.

reply to post by KyrieEleison


Oh, I agree with you entirely here. I think there is a set of things in life for Government and a set of things, making the majority of life, for private business. I also think the two should cross just as little as humanly possible, as they are mutually exclusive to purpose and accountability. Mixing makes for corruption so fast we can barely catch it for blinking.

I'd fully agree that profit, in any form, has NO business in the active side of war, corrections, policing, fire and even..dare I say it? Basic tiers of medical service. Oh...I loved the General Hospital/County Hospital days. The places were not the best, by far, but a family didn't risk financial ruin and total bankruptcy over ONE serious injury or illness, either.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by smurfy

 

Well, I started out annoyed, at the least, about the fact that hot breakfast our troops were already used to having as a standard fare was being cut. Now I see so much more to be upset with, it's hard to know where to start. I really appreciate all the extra information you bring to the thread with that. He's citing specific stats and data out of the reports, which is always nice. In this case, wow, does it ever highlight just how bad it's become.



(Smurfy's Link - Bottom of Page

Didn't U.S. Troops have their very own mess halls and cook their very own hot chow once upon a time? I could have sworn they did...before war became so damn profitable.

Perhaps this is a dandy time for leaders to show leadership and suggest we de-corporatise the Military. Start with food. How much does the Pentagon pay..and I mean REALLY pay, not bean counter pay, for a Blackhawk to go from Kabul to any number of the bases needing supply? It seems 3-8 bucks a pound comes just a hair over what I'd expect it to cost by our own people.

This whole private army and privatized war concept thing doesn't seem to be working out too well. Maybe it's time to drop the concept, eh?

Exactly as I was thinking. I used to perform for American and British troops in Germany and Britain and they had their own facilities and the food was really very good and wholesome without being posh, and just about every kind of meat imaginable and no shortage of it. Can't you just picture what these catering firms would be dishing out..... they probably really do bean counting

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


So why don't we as a whole give more attention to these things?

Is capitalism such a sacred cow that any time someone tries to have a reasoned argument against its application in certain industries the knee-jerk McCarthyism comes creeping out like clockwork?

Back in my early years, parents knew how to handle 5-year-olds stamping their feet and throwing tantrums. Nowadays, it seems like they just cave in to whatever they want just to shut them up. Perhaps I should try this technique out myself:



Who knows - maybe I'd make it all the way to POTUS.

Originally posted by seabag

Originally posted by hamburgerler
Good thing.

Obama is saving my tax dollars!

Maybe he should start by getting a divorce....that would save more than anything else he could cut.

Just saying!

How about not going on a 100mm dollar african jungle trip....

Originally posted by Sankari

Originally posted by LadyGreenEyes
reply to post by nighthawk1954

 

I can believe it. Virtually all his actions regarding the military are negative.

Obama has nothing to do with this, and your statement that 'virtually all his actions regarding the military are negative' is untrue.

How about, instead of making claims that people are wrong, you back up anything you claim?

reply to post by nighthawk1954


Yes, this is disgusting. Our military budget is grotesquely bloated and we don't even spend any of that super-wealth on the boys who are the foundation of the whole shebang...

But then again...

You can't join the military and not expect it. Just look at our track record. Clearly you're neither cared about nor cared for by the government as a veteran.

If you join and expect to be treated fairly... Well... That's like going to a used car dealership and being surprised that the car you bought isn't new after bringing it home.