Chow!

[Welbaum]

Hey Marines, I think you guys can help me out, I need to set some myths and rumors about boot camp straight...

...how's the food? Say, compared to: Mom's home cooking, high school government food, or somewhere between there and a sit down resturant.

I saw the "Warrior's Breakfast" in "The Making of Marines" video, and it looked excellent. I do believe that was filmed in '01...so its recent.

It has to be decent, I guess you gotta keep the recruits alive and functioning well enough to mess everything up:D

If I could get a few Marines that have recently graduated boot camp to respond, that'd be awesome.

Thanks in Advance,
Brandon

[LivinSoFree]

Warrior's Breakfast was actually really good. The rest of the time, honestly, the chow was quite edible. Here's the trick: Load the f*ck out of your tray with fruit and vegetables, skip the desert, and then let them give you your main meal. The fruit/salad bar is one of the few things you have control over, and the carbs and vitamins it gives you will keep you functioning and out of BAS. You'll learn quick, tray stacking is an artform. I ate approximately 6000 calories a day, and still lost 13 pounds, and I didn't have it to lose. I went as 6'3", 180, left 6'3", 167... crazy, eh? That's how much you'll get worked.
- Meyer

[CrazyBrave83]

Agreement with the LCpl.

The Fruit and Salad bar are stocked always with fresh stuff, so it's a great stop, as for the dessert I'm guilty of having some cobbler some nights.

My advice: stay away from the fish, if you can...apparently de-boning it is too much of a chore for the catering service. Unless of course you like the feeling of swallowing glass.

Other than that the food is actually really good, you'll probably have better meals (when it comes to variety) than you do even at home. Prior to leaving I barely even ate breakfast, and at Boot, I'd have oppurtunity to a full range of things, Eggs, Bacon/Sausage, Toast, Fruit/Salad, Cereal, Pancakes/Waffles, etc. etc.

On that token don't expect gourmet meals however. Nor the time to enjoy them.

[HardJedi]

don't know about these day's. In boot, the food was ok. no better or worse than my HS cafeteria food. Lots of chiken, rice, meatloaf, noodles ect. Easy stuff to fix. The one thing about bootcamp food to me was this. Inever liked eggs, never liked sausage, never like rice or chicken. By the time I left bootcamp I liked ALL that stuff, cause thats what I had to eat, and I was HUNGRY! LOL

[yellowwing]

I know what you mean, I had never liked cantaloupe in high school. It was an quick and easy fruit to eat in bootcamp, so I grabbed lots of it. You didn't have to take the time to peel or deseed it.

Now I like cantaloupe just fine. Go figure.

[Welbaum]

haha, well I love fruit, so that's good. Any mango? :D

I haven't decided whether I like that mango or not...

...anyway, I never wake up early enough to eat breakfast, so i don't know what my body will think of having to eat in the morning.

You get 20 minutes to eat correct? And there's something I think I read about two recruits staying behind to watch the squad bay and eating later?

Thanks for the heads up Marines,
Brandon

[Nagalfar]

The funny thing about eating in bootcamp, is learning how to eat after we are out of boot.. how many of us still finish our meals before the waitress asks us what we would like to drink with our meal? some things just seem to die hard lol...

[LivinSoFree]

hahaha... 20 minutes... later on you do, but don't expect that during first phase. You'll find out real quick that the Recruit "Rights" are really more like Recruit "Suggestions." Though your Senior usually is a little more relaxed about this, esp. if you put out on the drill deck or beat another platoon at something.

During Team Week, I got lucky and pulled a fairly relaxed detail in the Depot Repro (CVIC) shop. Basically the base graphics/copy shop, one of the things they were duping were copies of the Recruit Training SOP. I did some recon while I was there, and man, I don't know what SOP my Drill Instructors followed, but it sure wasn't that one! They know better than any officer who wrote the thing though. The "Recruit Rights" are far from sacrosanct, that's for sure.

[CrazyBrave83]

Welbaum-

Livin' is totally correct, during 1st phase it really is on a 'whim' when it comes to the time you have for chow. You'll have enough time to logically shovel some food in but if your Drill Instructors aren't happy or just plain mean you could find yourself terminating meal time quite a bit earlier than anticipated.

And yes, Two recruits stay in the squadbay during chow to watch the gear (somewhat like a mid-day firewatch). They're called "Late chow."

Two will leave before the entire platoon ("EARLY CHOW") and two will hang back. When the two that ate early finish up, they relieve the "Late Chows." (At least that's how I remember it working...but sometimes I don't recall them posting anyone)

*and I just noticed Poolee Welbaum adressed this thread to MARINES...my apologies if I stepped on anyone's toes here.

[Fred Pfeiffer]

I just got to reply to this. Funny how these discussions bring back almost forgotten memories.

When I was in bootcamp (Feb 1966). I picked up the nickname "Garbage Mouth". It was not because of anything I ever said, it was of what I would eat. I got the nickname for what I ate. I ate anything they served and twice.

When I went into the Corps I weighed less than 120 lbs. I was a skinny kid. When I graduated from bootcamp, I weight over 160 lbs. I had gained over 40 lbs.

It so happened that I was always positioned near the front of the chow line. (I sometimes wonder if my DI's put me there on purpose). Anyway, I would be the first to get chow and would fill my tray, eat it, clean and wash my tray and utensils and run around and get in line at the back of our platoon before the last man had even entered the chow hall and I was able to eat a second meal.

My DI's knew what I was doing and never said a thing about it. I am sure they wanted me to gain the weight.

I did this for nearly every meal, on nearly every day of boot camp. Thus the nickname "Garbage Mouth". I would eat everything and eat it fast.

Today, I eat a whole lot less and a whole lot slower. I only weight about 200 lbs and stand 6 ft. I have a bit of a gut but not too bad. Fairly healthy, but I sure grew in boot.

Semper Fidelis,
Fred

[Sgtj]

My favorite was eat n duck... ! ha ha ha ha ha...

Other then that I loved the chilli mac. I remeber loading up on about what seamed like 500 pepperoni slices everyday I could.

Oh yeah.. Don't drink the chocolate milk in the A.M. or at least minimize your intake... I still regret the day I drank two glasses of C milk right before we did the fartlick course.

[hoytarcher45]

I always liked saturday's afternoon chow. Hamburgers and chilidogs. Our DIs would always hate it though because we would get a full belly of those delicious burgers, and then wouldnt drill as well.

One quick note on the MREs that you eat during The Crucible. Our DIs told us to add the extra salt packet to our main meal. I later learned that it takes 2 full canteens of water to process just that salt, let alone the salt thats already in the damn things. At the Warriors Breakfast my guts were so messed up I didnt eat much at all. Half of our damn platoon was constipated that night. Basically what Im sayin is drink as much water as you can stand when you eat MREs, and dont add any extra salt.

"I used to eat Micky D's, and now I'm eatin MREs"

[HardJedi]

20 minutes for chow? what? are you looking for a vacation? Hell, it has never taken me twenty minutes to eat chow in my life, anywhere, unless it was because I was waiting on a server to bring it to me.

Not sure about THESE day's, but when I went through boot this was the rule.

Watch the Drill Instructor taking you in the chow hall, as soon as he stands up, you are done eating, and you BETTER beat him outside. If he goes through the line early, and you are last, and he stands up two minutes after you sit down, you better shove as much in your face as fast as you can, and don't get caught walking and eating at the same time.

[Welbaum]

interesting stories, thank you Marines

oh, and you too Crazy, good luck on getting back to PI:)

[Sgted]

Hah !!!
My experience is just what HardJedi said.

WE were done when the DI stood up. And heaven forbid if you were not outside the mess hall, in formation, aligned to the right and covered before he got outside.

Sometimes there would be extra duty for the sh*tbirds when they were in line for chow. Maybe the DI would walk around the tables and "engage" we recruits.

I was ALWAYS hungry in boot camp so everything tasted real good. I ate my fair share and lost weight while in boot camp. Everything seemed fresh and prepared well.

There was always 1 special brunch kinda meal each week (probably Sunday after church). The craziness at that one meal seemed relaxed some.

[montana]

we would fill our plates then stand at the table untill... ready sit...sometimes it would take four or five of them...then ready eat...sometimes we ate the meal sometimes one spoonfull but when ol DI said meal is over ya better be getting out...the fool that took one more mouthfull was not a happy puppy...

[alanUSMCDEP03]

yeah, your definetely not gonna have time for to eat your chow, our chow line was set up so that the tallest people were up front, and since I was the 2nd tallest person I was always up front, and I still never finished, I felt sorry for the short people. Sometimes they would just make us get out as about 30 seconds after the guide sat down, so it sucked for him, and don't get caught trying to eat chow on the way to the garbage cans like some did.

And, while your eating, everytime they find your fingers not joined, or you glance somewhere other than straight ahead, you can expect a long a$$chewing, and a lot of spit in your ear, lol don't try to reply w/ food in your mouth either.

[Poolee20050815]

Welbaum, don't mean to intrude on your thread.
But I have a question to the Marines: If you're a Vegetarian, how does that work in RT? We had a Marine on RA, who was a Vegetarian, but I didnt get a chance to talk to him. And yes, I am a Vegetarian.

[LivinSoFree]

I'm gonna tell you right now, trying to stick to that during recruit training is a VERY VERY VERY BAD IDEA. The amout of physical abuse that your body will sustain during recruit training will push your body to its absolutel limit. The amount your muscles will be broken down REQUIRES the ingestion of large amounts of protien in order to even maintain functionality, much less develop further. You're gonna get that protien from 1)eggs in the morning and 2) MEAT, MEAT and MORE MEAT. There is NO accomodation made in terms of "soy this and tofu that." My advice? If you're a vegetarian, cool, whatever makes you happy. But suspend it for the duration of bootcamp. If that means you have to start eating meat now to get used to it, then do it. I'll tell you, we had some picky eaters in my platoon... for about 2 days. Then they were piling their trays like everyone else. If that's an issue for you... then you're gonna be one hungry recruit.

[HardJedi]

and NO they won;t let vegitarians take vitamen or dietary supplements. If motrin won't cure it, or fix the problem in bootcamp, then you are in big trouble. ;) LOL

[THATFEMALE]

Yes it's important to eat your proteins in bootcamp. I wasn't a veggie but I didn't really eat meat. My DI's looked out for us as far as eating right so if there was meat I had to have some. In the end it was a good thing because I came out on top. So it's only three months, you'll make it.