DU Vets: what was the worst mess hall you ever ate in?

[jmowreader]

Remembering the post I made in the artery-clogging-meal thread brings to mind this question: what was the worst Army food that was ever inflicted on you?

Two places come to mind. The first is the 1/3 Air Defense Artillery mess hall at Fort Campbell. This place was so foul, the ADA battalion commander moved the battalion aid station into a room right next to the mess hall to send a message to the mess sergeant. Unfortunately for the troops, he was too fucking stupid to get the hint.

The other was the 163rd Military Intelligence Battalion mess hall at West Fort Hood. The food in this place wasn't actually all that bad, but it gained its nickname because the most popular warrant officer in the 504th MI Group was packing around an undiagnosed brain aneurysm. And, unfortunately for this fine gentleman, it popped three days after the Fort Hood medical command moved the West Fort Hood clinic from the airfield to the family housing area. By the time they got him up there, he was dead. Unfortunately for the poor mess sergeant, it popped while the officer in question was walking out of the mess hall...needless to say, everyone in III Corps at the time decided that it was really the food that killed him. You guessed it: we all called it the 163rd MI Death Hall.

[Pacifist Patriot]

1. I'm only an army brat, but....

I've eaten in a few mess halls. The swill served in Giebelstadt was pretty darned bad.

[Ptah]

2. The mess hall at Lowery AFB, Denver.

I had KP there Thanksgiving and Christmas, 1970.

[Kutjara]

3. Another military brat here.

The base cafeteria at High Wycombe Air Station in England was unspeakable.

The stuff at the enlisted mess in at the Frankfurt-am-Main Army base was damned good, but the Rheinmain Air Base stuff wasn't fit for livestock.

[driver8]

4. Do Navy ships count?

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower cooks could whip up some nasty shit. Granted, they worked with what they had but some of the stuff they fed us should never have been served.

I was a Navy brat also, and I ate in a lot of Navy mess halls and always loved it! When I was a kid our baseball team travelled from Adak, Alaska to Anchorage to play in the Little League World Series. Since we were all Navy brats, we stayed at Elmendorf AFB and ate in their mess hall. Man, we thought we died and went to heaven!! Omelets to order, milkshakes, pie, cake, burgers!! Good stuff.

[nytemare]

5. I think the green eggs we got on field exercises took the cake.

I wish they would have given the cake back.

[puerco-bellies]

6. Mid Rats on a long deployment U.S.S. Barney

After being out at sea for over a month the mid-rats (Midnight Rations) got pretty weak. We had a couple of lazy cooks who would do the least possible if they could get away with it. One particular night they offered up only onion soup (brown water) and warm lime cool-aid. I had not been able to get down to the mess decks for supper and was starving when I headed out of C.I.C. to eat. I almost crawled through the serving hatch when one of those assholes said that if I don't like it to go to Mc Donald's. We were in the middle of the Indian Ocean at the time.

[driver8]

8. Our mid-rats were actually pretty good.

The cooks would make up these "egg mcmuffin" type sandwiches that were great. Plus, they always had hard boiled eggs and cereal.

Now that I think of it, this wasn't mid-rats. It was called "jet-setters" and we used to eat there when we had the balls to four watch.

[Aristus]

7. The chow hall at the 3rd Infantry Division Replacement Battalion

at Wurzburg, Germany. I forgot the name of the kasern.

The food sucked. :puke:

The best: The chow hall at Karl Schurz Kasern at Bremerhaven. :9

[AllegroRondo]

9. 1st AD, Rose Barracks at Bad Kreuznach

wow, that was some bad stuff. They would even screw up the kool-aid. The specialty was deep fried breaded mystery meat fillet with sauce. I guess they figured if you put enough crap on it you wouldnt taste it. At least the salad bar was OK.

Best one, 50th Engineers at Camp Laguardia, Korea. Tiny camp, tiny mess hall, but great food. Once a month they served steak and lobster. They had to stop telling us which day it would be, because people would bus in from all over Uijongbu if they heard it was coming. And the head cook had a thing for barbecue. Saturday afternoon he would fire up the smokers, and serve real smoked ribs on Sunday.

[lost-in-nj]

10. I actually ate

at a mess hall. Camp Perry in Ohio, my son was there for the rifle matches.
All I can really remember about it was the SIZE of the serving dishes and the 6 foot single layer chocolate cake!
I was amazed. Don't remember how the food was though.


lost

[Crabby Appleton]

11. Ft. Jackson SC - Basic - 2nd Trn Bde.

[YankeyMCC]

12. Club Med

That was the nickname for Medina Annex at Lackland where I attended OTS. I think the annex is closed now.

The funny thing is we were all so hungry all the time I don't think we made much note of how bad the Mess was or perhaps we just had to put it out of our mind. It was closed for fumigation at least once a week, it wasn't uncommon for a cockroach to drop out of the dry cereal dispensers along with your cereal.

And the meat...well this will also point out how completely we put the quality of the food out of our mind. The weekend leading up to graduation families were invited and they made a special meal at the Mess Hall for everyone. It was a steak dinner. All of us cadets were raving over the dinner or at least revealing in it but the looks of disgust and shock on the families were clear about the real quality of the meal. I remember sitting at the table with my parents and fiancee, looking up after inhaling most of the meal and wondering why they looked that way and why there was so much food still left on their plates. lol

I didn't have to eat in many mess halls during my time in the service, travel rules at the time allowed for us to go off base on most trips. The brunches at Scott and Langley I went to occasionally were usually very good.