The Chicken In the Army, They Say It's Mighty Fine ...
NOTE: Time has gotten out of hand again, as the mission has gone into overtime. Therefore, I am sharing another entry from my personal journal. This is from mid-November.


So, what did you have for dinner?

It has been said that man does not live by bread alone, but it never even occurred to anyone that they might need to mention that man does, indeed, need bread. So, what was for dinner? Who did you eat with? Did you grab something on the run? Was dinner a family event, or perhaps a business meeting? Did you microwave a TV dinner or heat up a frozen pizza and sit in front of the news?

Meals are an event here. Meals are scheduled to be served at the same times every day, so events can be planned around meals. Now and then, someone has a package from home that gives them the flexibility to eat something different, and eat it whenever they want, but generally life here revolves around the set of prefab trailers affectionately known as the Chow Hall.

Ask any servicemember here, from any nation, about the best part of their day, and there will be three answers. The first will generally be mail call. Think about how much you enjoy getting a letter or a box from the postman, and then try to imagine how much more it would mean to you eight thousand miles and 11 months away from the people you love, and you will start to get the idea.

The second will usually be shift change. Working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for a year, with two weeks off, makes quitting time a sweet thought. Now, add in the uncertainty of the shift change, since an event could trigger a delay, factor in the hoops through which one must jump to schedule that two-week break, and sprinkle in surprise tasks, equipment failures, and a thousand other people facing the same troubles as you, and you understand how the time away from the desk can be precious.

The third, more often than not, is mealtime. Meals are a brief break from the efforts of the day. You can usually choose with whom you will have your meal, and you can talk about anything, even work, if you must.

Another reason mealtime is so popular is that everyone has a menu entry that they consider to be the best item out here. When that item pops up on the little white sign in front of the door, it is a time of celebration, one of those brief, happy moments in life that get you through the others. It can be a double-edged sword, however. There have been those moments when the little white sign has told little white lies, and a brief moment of elation is turned into just another choice between the lesser of two evils.

In Baghdad, chicken is for dinner. Chicken is served in every way imaginable.
With so many different nations represented, chicken seems to be the Esperanto of ingredients. Chicken here gets baked, boiled, fried, sauced, broiled, steamed, roasted, spiced, coated, smothered, pressed, dunked, and occasionally nuggetted. It has been served in soups, stews, casseroles, salads, pies, and in the standalone configuration. When they are too small to have been let outside alone, they are called Cornish Hens. If the truck hit a pothole, it is stew.

Of course, no one really minds having a lot of chicken. There are some out here that don?t even have that much comfort. Everyone learns to make due with what they have on hand, even if it gets a bit monotonous. The alternative, of course, is the MRE.

The Meal, Ready to Eat, in its khaki plastic pouch, is the stuff of legend. The contents are reassuringly consistent: Entree, some form of cracker or bread, hot sauce, salt, pepper, brown plastic spoon, beverage powder, and a small folded parcel of toilet tissue. The accoutrements vary from one to the next, but Meal #10 will always contain ChiliMac, Cheese Spread, Wheat Bread, and Cocoa Powder. Everyone has their favorite, not so much for the main item as much as the accessories. But you would be hard pressed to find more than a half of a handful of people that would prefer their favorite MRE to a hot meal at the Chow Hall.

When you sit down with your family tonight, or pull up a chair next to a business associate, think for a minute about the event in which you are participating. Even if you are just grabbing something at the drive-through on your way to wherever it is you need to go, take a moment to think about the ritual of food, it?s surprises and comforts. We remember it here, and it has taken on a whole new meaning.