Jill,

Earlier, I wrote this...

My company was tasked with providing 2 Soldiers to help the support platoon prepare food. We raised hell over that because we were only getting 2 hots meals per week, but were losing 2 men everyday for the tasking while we were were grossly undermanned and overtasked (neither of those attributes are unique to my situation - every unit in Iraq is undermanned and overtasked, particularly as Soldiers rotate to and from mid-tour leave). The XO threatened to cut off the food for LOGPAC if we didn't pony up. We said fine - we need men, not the brown lettuce. Eventually either the LTC or CSM put an end to the foolishness and we got our men back. The lesson here is that units are overtasked, overstretched, and having enough men is more important than having green eggs instead of poundcake.
And then you responded...

Quote Originally Posted by Sargent View Post
I could read this and say that the problem is that the contractor system is not meeting the needs and the units are not really well-prepared to deal with it. I would venture to say that such episodes will become more frequent and more ridiculous. Again, I may not have hit upon the right solution, but I think the problem is there. You can fight with me over tactics, but that doesn't change the strategic situation.
Your first sentence there seems to ignore almost everything written on this thread. The problem was fixed, so I am not sure what problem you referred to. We got our KP's back.

My only other guess for what problem you referred to would be that you see a problem in that we are eating lots of MREs? That's not a problem either, so it doesn't need fixing. I know that you have pointed out that MREs are not intended for long-term consumption. Perhaps the objective should be to make MREs that are intended for long-term consumption. Because the simplicity and ease of shipping MREs to a PB/COP is pretty sweet.