Contractors Doing Combat Service Support is a Bad, Bad Idea

[Ken White]

...On a less tangible basis, one could be concerned about the cohesion effect of constant MRE feeding -- the nature of the meal is such that it can tend to degrade the group dynamic by pushing people apart during an activity (feeding) that is most enhanced by the group...

Not generally correct. Sometimes providing security or other requirements can do that but a unit eating MREs is more inclined to grouping and cohesion than one using a mess hall where multiple units tend to intermingle and table size tends to disrupt cohesion.

Added Comment:

Finally, that you ate MREs for a long period does not mean that this was how they were meant to be used or that they were, in fact, suitable to that usage.

Reality again intrudes. You are correct in what you say is the goal. The same was true of the old C Ration. However, most line units as opposed to CS and CSS units frequently exist or existed on one or the other for weeks at a time with only rare hot meals. IIRC, my record was 27 days without a hot meal and that was in the Corps. My Army max was about two weeks plus or minus a day or two. What should be and what is often differ...

Back to our regularly scheduled program:

I do like your point about the "political issues." You've basically made the entire point of my dissertation, that the gastronomy for morale calculus is determined to a greater degree by the larger societal-cultural needs than the morale needs of the troops.

I believe that's called reality? Having spent many days in the field in both the Marines and the Army when there were plenty of uniformed cooks; the lobster in the rear and the societal-cultural needs were a fact of life in Korea and elsewhere. "Suck it up" is not a new phrase (though it used to be "take two salt tablets..." ).

If that relatively mature 18 or 19 year old had learned the lesson earlier in life, that might not be the attitude. The point of childhood is to develop the skills and tools that will be necessary and useful for adult life.

Totally true. Every Mom is not a Jill and every Dad is not a Ken . The system has to live with what is, not with what we both agree should be.

And I did not inadvertently -- or otherwise -- "malign" anyone. You all provided a set of facts regarding the average combat arms soldier. I drew a conclusion from those facts -- perhaps a harsh one, but certainly a defensible one. It may not be anything anyone wants to hear or contemplate, but I can't help that. If you want to change the facts that you assert, then I can arrive at a different conclusion. But if you provided that set of descriptors about a generic individual or group, I doubt anyone would come to a different conclusion. Let's not allow our thinking to be clouded by a false loyalty.

No false loyalty to it, simply a question of knowing and understanding the demographic versus forming a conclusion about it based on the written word in a less than perfect communications venue. I would suggest you are judging a quite large group of people with little understanding of their motivation and rationale based on your perception of what should be as opposed to their knowledge of what is in the environment under discussion. I do not believe it's as simple as you would like.

For the record, I am just this harsh with my husband whenever he starts complaining when he shouldn't be. I'm blunt. Live with it. Learn to love it. I have no doubt it will prove valuable one day.

Blunt is good, got no problem with it at all. I didn't perceive your comment as harsh, idealistic, yes -- but not harsh. Many accuse me of being excessively frank, outspoken, opinionated and so forth; probably correctly and this is a forum that lends itself to misunderstanding -- so, IMO, blunt is good.

However, I'd point out that you were the one complaining, not the rest of us -- we merely suggested a couple of counterpoints to your observations based on our experience that contravene or question your conclusions and a few of us asked for a realistic as opposed to an idealistic solution to the problems.

Said problems being, simply (1) From where do we obtain the numbers of people required to do this considering (2) it's a volunteer force and not enough young people want to be cooks and (3) many -- not all -- who do join for combat jobs are quite unwilling to do logistic, maintenance, custodial and kitchen work. That may be sociologically and militarily undesirable but it is reality and will remain so short of an existential war and a draft.