I served CONUS in the USAF, fighting the Cold War. Food was never an issue. It was plentiful and good. A female member of our Security Police Squadron was pregnant and assigned to desk duty, so I’d do kitchen runs to ensure she got just the right kind of food in the right quantities. The cooks were delighted to accommodate her. That kind of willing camaraderie made serving a pleasure.
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But now the media, desperate to find anything to damage President Trump and SecWar Hegseth, have fixated on complaints that there is insufficient and bad food on the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier on a very long deployment, but now on its way home. Why, to hear the media, our sailors are virtually starving to death! Morale is horrible, and mental health issues are exploding. Surely, nothing like that has ever occurred before in our military?
I joined the Air Force because I wanted training as a police officer, and didn’t want the long at-sea deployments and utter lack of privacy necessary in the Navy. Even as a youngster, I knew that much about the difference between our military forces.
CNN interviewed this sailor:
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I suspect this guy’s Chief had a few words with him about the intestinal fortitude expected of sailors in the US Navy. If he had the chance, Fox star and former EOD Marine Joey Jones, who left most of both of his legs in Afghanistan, explained a bit of military reality in response to that CNN hit job:
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Wow. When I was that age, I would have considered a corn dog and a hot dog pretty desirable chow. Even Tuna and noodles would have been OK. I served in the pre-MRE military, but the field rations we had were edible, though they could get old pretty quickly. It didn’t take any of us any mental effort to realize that if we were stuck in combat for an extended period, we could survive on those rations, though we’d certainly gripe, which is what troops do.
Jones didn’t have any sympathy for the young sailor CNN so gleefully exploited. He’s more than earned that lack of sympathy, as has anyone who ever honorably served. This is particularly amazing:
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“They didn’t sign up to be on a ship in the middle of the ocean(?!).” What did “they” imagine the US Navy does? Putter about lakes on jet skis? Engage in beach parties à la Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello? Didn’t recruiters explain they’d be serving on ships, ships that travel everywhere on and under the oceans? Normally, the military doesn’t accept people whose lack of intelligence would make their sole Military Occupational Specialty—MOS—“anchor.” They would possibly have been happier in the Space Force, where it’s going to be a long time before they would find themselves on a ship in the middle of space.
The USS Abraham Lincoln is engaged in a war. War is blood, sacrifice, and misery. The Lincoln wasn’t damaged in that war, and its 5000 sailors and Marines are coming home with all their body parts. But responding to those media reports, the CENTCOM Commander visited the Lincoln:
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Admiral Cooper is right. Service at sea isn’t for everyone, but whoever enlists or is commissioned in the Navy has an obligation to suck it up and do the duty they swore to do. Parents doing anything other than reminding them of their oaths aren’t helping their offspring, the Navy, or the nation.
Cargo, including food, is constantly landing on the flight deck of any carrier, “constantly” as in essentially daily. Logistics is a major component of any military force, with innumerable officers and NCOs assigned to ensure our service members arrive in an area of operations well fed, healthy, and with all the ammo and gear necessary to fight. Yes, fight. We’re talking about the US Military, whose job is to kill our enemies and break their stuff. Feeding 5000 people is a non-trivial exercise, and it’s possible any ship could, for a short time, run low on the most desirable meals. However, on the Lincoln, they seem to be doing reasonably well:
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Officers eat from the same stores, prepared by the same cooks, as the lowest-ranking enlisted sailor. The Navy, and particularly the submarine service, is famous for the quality and quantity of its food, and officers are taught: “my men, the mission, me.”
Could the Navy be spinning this a bit? That’s possible. But it appears what’s happening is our anti-America, TDS media is using the complaints of a small number of malcontents to damage our military, President Trump, and America. That’s more than possible.
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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.
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