What Did You Do In The War In Iraq, Daddy?

[thedrifter]

09-05-2006
What Did You Do In The War In Iraq, Daddy?

Saturday, September 02, 2006

DFAC Fascists
Current mood: aggravated

Today is my day to perform maintenance on my humvee, ensuring that it is in tip top shape so that nothing goes wrong outside the wire, which could be catastrophic. I spent my morning in the motor pool doing the usual checks and inspections: checking fluid levels; lubing grease points; checking lug nuts; etc. Since I spent the last week in full uniform, body armor, helmet, and in the hatch of a humvee traveling fifty miles per hour, I wear my PT uniform on the weekend. At lunch time, I walked over to the DFAC (Dining Facility) like I always do and go almost to the serving line when a PFC in the "Chow Hall Police" stopped me. "Sir, you can't be in here looking like that." I had some dust on my back from when I was underneath the humvee (on concrete, mind you, not the dirt ground). The rest of the conversation went like this:

"You've got to be f---ing kidding me."
"No, sir. It's our policy."
"What's going to happen? Tell me. Is someone going to become sick from seeing my soiled uniform?"
"No, sir, but my boss is really picky."
"Well, it must be nice for this to be your number one problem in Iraq, huh?"
"Sir, you're going to have get a to go plate."
"Jesus Christ, you people blow my mind."

I was under the impression that I was in a war zone. I have a combat patch, a combat action badge, the Desert Camouflage Uniform, several guns, and explosions rock my trailer several times a day. All that is thrown out of the window, however, when you step into the DeFleury Cafe, which is a fancy way of saying the chow hall across from pad 12.

Everyone back home thinks of the soldiers in Iraq as having to brave the most horrific circumstances and sacrificing life's every convenience, all while fearing for your life. Bull****. What the army has done is create quasi-class warfare between the ones who actually risk their lives everyday, and the ones who hassle the ones who risk their lives everyday. This is what the chow hall police does to "serve their country":

1. Make sure that no one who may have a dusty or sweaty uniform (and, thus, look like they were working) may eat inside the air conditioned DFAC. This further punishes the ones who may have just come in from the road and were looking forward to eating a hot meal in the A/C while they relaxed and shot the ****. This is the equivalent of a regressive tax; in this case, the policy only affects the working class soldier and not the [really nasty word - worse than REMF's] in the finance battalion, post office, mayor cell, TMC, and the scores of other office jobs on this base.

2. Make sure that no one eats their meal at a table with a "to go" box on their tray simultaneously. Why? They've yet to give an explanation that I have heard except that it's DFAC policy.

3. Make sure that no stores their sunglasses on top of their head.

4. Make sure that no one escapes the chow hall with more than two Gatorades. The US government seems to love to waste money here; I don't know why the Gatorades are their number one concern.

5. Ensure that no one walks back into the chow hall after dumping their tray, even if they have forgotten their hat, weapon, or to go plate. Apparently, once you cross an imaginary line you are filthy and must wash your hands again.

6. Make sure that, if you are wearing your PT uniform, you also are wearing a reflective belt . . . even though the PT uniform itself is reflective, all other uniforms are not and do not require said belt, it is high noon, and it is the middle of August.

7. Make sure that no one places their hat on the table.

You get the picture. This is how these people "serve our country." This is the mighty, exalted active duty army that the general population genuflects in the direction of as if they're so noble. When we return to the States, people are going to say, "I was in Iraq" and I'm going to ask "What did you do?" Certain answers are not going to count in my book. This is what the army has done. Instead of creating a camaraderie of soldiers who were all there, it is now a divided organization with very real hostility amongst them. My squad goes outside the wire five days a week. Most days we have to borrow soldiers from different squads or units just in order to fill our trucks . . . all while these jackasses wear their pressed uniforms, their sweat-free hats, and a ****-eating grin on their face and stand (or sit) in an air conditioned building all day protecting it from the ones who risk their lives everyday. I think next time I'm just going to say no and tell them to go talk to my commander if they don't like it.

Disgusted SNCO

Ellie

[yellowwing]

Mickey Mouse bull-****. They must have a private company running the chow hall. Getting a soldier to make sure that they protect their profit margin is total bull-****.

[fiasco1371]

The sad thing is that I have seen Marines with similar billets.

[outlaw3179]

I hate Pogues. Not that theyre all bad and I understand that they have a job to do but I always hated coming in from the field or when I was in Iraq from outside the wire . Your tired your hungry and in a general ****ed off mood. The last thing we wanted to hear was some Fobit tell us our boots or our cammies were too dirty or wet. WTF? It would really **** us off.

[lucien2]

Civilian contractors no doubt, the Army has been using them for years.