Services strives for better frontline meals

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. Scott Elliott
  • Air Force Print News
WASHINGTON --  The immediate requirements of conducting war demand a no-frills approach to frontline living. However, that does not mean conditions have to stay that way.

The chief of logistics for the Combined Forces Air Component Command said that once the basic resources needed to effectively fight a war have been delivered, conditions are set for immediate upgrade.

“The nice-to-have things, such as hot meals, are going to follow,” said Col. Duane A. Jones via telephone from his deployed location.

While airmen in the services career field are now serving about 111,000 hot meals per day within the Operation Iraqi Freedom theater, not everyone has access to them, Jones said.

“At bases within Iraq, which are nonpermanent sites because we’re not looking to occupy them, we are still consuming meals ready to eat,” he said.

Relief is on the way, however, in the form of “unit group rations” -- rations that resemble giant TV dinners.

UGRs are pre-packaged meals that feed about 50 people, Jones said. Large trays containing entrees are heated in steamers before serving. Desserts are also available, as are the necessary utensils.

“If you compare them to the rations served in dining halls across the Air Force, I think most people would say they don’t measure up because they’re ‘pre-prepared,’” Jones said. “But when compared to MREs, they’re heaven.”

Jones said the third phase of warfighter feeding is the move to “A” rations, where fresh foods are purchased locally to supplement military meals. The goal is to provide deployed airmen with meals that are closer to what they would find in a normal dining facility.

But a large-scale change to “A-rats” has not happened yet, Jones said.

“Despite what is often in the news, which suggests that things are pretty much ‘ops normal,’ from our perspective things are anything but,” he said.

“We have young Air Force men and women out there in some very austere conditions, serving their country well,” Jones said. “The priority is giving them the equipment and tools to get Iraq back into shape. We’ll follow up as time and transportation allows with improved rations.”