My gosh President Obama's priorities are all screwed up. And of course he blames it on "budget issues" when he's been flying all over the damn country giving endless speeches at our expense and giving billions to countries that hate us. :(
The New York Times article titled, Travels of the President Under a Microscope in an Era of Belt Tightening dated 5/29/2013 reports, "The cost of flying aboard Air Force One: $180,000 per hour."
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The Daily Mail UK
written by Staff
Friday May 31, 2013
Marines at Camp Leatherneck in south-western Afghanistan will lose one of their four hot meals starting this Saturday, according to Marine Corps officials.
The camp will lose the midnight ration service, known as 'midrats', the one meal of the day where all the troops gather together to eat. The meal serves as breakfast for the Marines at the beginning of their midnight-to-midday shift, and dinner for those coming off their midday-to-midnight shift.
The idea of forgoing their hot meal rankles with some, including one Marine who declined to be named, whose email to his wife was shared with NBC News.
'This boils my skin,' he wrote. 'One of my entire shifts will go 6.5 hours without a meal. If we need to cut back on money I could come up with 100 other places.'
'Instead, we will target the biggest contributor to morale. I must be losing my mind. What is our senior leadership thinking? I just got back from flying my ass off and in a few days, I will not have a meal to replenish me after being away for over nine hours.'
Registered dietitian and Captain Christina Deehl told CNN that U.S. troops will never go hungry, and that the moves are logistical, not budget-related.
'We would never deprive the soldier of adequate nutrition and that's just all there is to it,' she said.
Instead of hot cooked meals, soldiers have access to MREs (Meal, Ready to Eat). These pre-packaged meals contain all the energy and nutrients a soldier needs to meet one-third of their Recommended Daily Allowance.
'When we initially entered Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers were eating MREs every day until we were logistically established. Once again when we draw down and pull out, we will see a similar trend,' Deehl explained.
'The fact is our force in Afghanistan is shrinking fast and all the creature comforts and services deployed military-members have grown accustomed to over the past decade are going to be reduced,' Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Cliff Gilmore to NBC News.
'When serving we are challenged to endure different things - to face different challenges - over time. But we're an odd bunch, we Marines - probably no surprise that we'll complain more about losing the sandwich bar on the way out than we did about getting shot at on the way in.'
Camp Leatherneck is one of a reported 17 bases facing cuts to their hot meals, and families back home are worried about how the lack of hot food will affect morale.
'Psychologically, midrats is probably the most important of all the meals because that’s the big social time - where first (shift) crew is coming off and second (shift) crew is coming on,' Babette Maxwell, founder and executive director of Military Spouse Magazine, the wife of a Navy pilot and an advocate for service members and their families told NBC News.
'That's where you get the esprit de corps, the camaraderie. It's not just the food you're taking away, it's their social sustenance.'
The base, which is located in Afghanistan’s south-western Helmand Province, flanked by Iran and Pakistan, will also be losing its 24-hour sandwich bar.
Concerned military advocates and family members recently launched a Facebook page called Breakfast for Bagram to gather food donations that can be sent to troops in Afghanistan.
The page states: 'We are here to help collect and send non-perishable breakfast type foods to the deployed troops on the 17 bases in Afghanistan that are not currently serving breakfast 'hot chow' and midnight chow due to the budget cuts.'
The loss of cooked meals isn't popular, but it's a reflection of the huge draw-down of U.S. troops from the country, where they've been established for more than 10 years.
The U.S. Army's 'support services', such as the people who prepare food, 'need to go home before the people who provide the security which enables those services,' Gilmore told NBC News.
'This is a natural outcome of the draw-down process unrelated to sequestration or the ongoing budget issues back in the States.'
More than 30,000 U.S. service members will return from Afghanistan over the coming months until the U.S. hands responsibility back to Afghan forces in 2014.
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