U.S. Airmen Improve Dining Facility Program for Iraqi Air Force

Multi-National Force - Iraq ^ | Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski, USAF

[SandRat]

The Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) recently opened a new dining facility (DFAC) with greatly expanded food service capabilities, thanks in great part to the Coalition Air Force Training Team (CAFTT) advisors assigned to the 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron here. Photo by Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski, 506th Air Expeditionary Group.

BAGHDAD — With the opening of a new Iraqi dining facility, featuring menu selections like kebabs, samoon-a flat bread and baklava, the ability to prepare the food safely is paramount.

The Iraqi Air Force (IqAF) recently opened a new dining facility (DFAC) with greatly expanded food service capabilities, thanks in great part to the Coalition Air Force Training Team (CAFTT) advisors assigned to the 521st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron here.

Food not properly prepared can cause life-threatening illnesses and infections. To fight that threat, Airmen here are providing a stronger public health system for the IqAF by training them to perform food service facility inspections.

Master Sgt. Amy Swanger, an independent duty medical technician for the CAFTT, recognized there wasn't a program in place for Iraqis to conduct food service inspections.

Because of the Iraqi Airmen's inexperience in public health standards, the State College, Pa., native, deployed from Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, knew the public health standards needed to be enforced.

"Because these guys don't have any training on food service facility inspections, they were missing a lot of things," Swanger said, referring to food preparation regulations. "They knew little about what they were looking at; they didn't know what kinds of questions to ask."

Swanger said she took essential items from the U.S. Food Code, which is what Air Force Public Health offices use when inspecting U.S. and AAFES food service facilities, removed culturally sensitive material, and created a training program for the IqAF.

At the old IqAF DFAC, she showed Iraqi medical technicians how to recognize problems that occurred in food management.

"I would have them show me what's wrong there; what's wrong with the bags of rice being stored and what to look for while inspecting canned goods," Swanger said. "We went step-by-step using the new critical food list."

Swanger partnered with a 506th Expeditionary Medical Squadron public health official to allow the Iraqi medical technicians into the kitchens of AAFES food facilities for on-the-job training.

"This training gives them a visual point of reference for what a facility is supposed to look like," she said.

Swanger reviewed some of the essential procedures in the training environment: safe temperatures for hot and cold food; parts per million for a bleach sanitizing solution; and how food and kitchen equipment should be cleaned and stored.

She said she thinks her training program is a small piece of a much larger picture in public health, but it is essential for the well-being of the IqAF. Without the program, a lapse in proper food preparation could yield deadly results.

"If you are in a military organization, everyone eats from one food service facility and [if] there's an outbreak of typhoid, you can easily have a lot of people down," she said. "They are no longer able to complete their mission.

“This food program helps with that cause, Swanger said. "In the history of human warfare, more people have died from diseases than combat injuries."

(By Senior Airman Jessica Lockoski, 506th Air Expeditionary Group)

[SandRat]

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[AndyJackson]

featuring menu selections like kebabs, samoon-a flat bread and baklava

Sounds scrumptious until I imagine this stuff being prepared by a couple of Navy Mess Cooks to get all the taste out.

[JRandomFreeper]

COMBAT SERVICES BUMP! No-one, but no-one, takes care of troops like AF Services Squadrons/Flights. Feed you, billet you, do your laundry, and if required, respectfully handle your remains to get them to your family.

I had more fun cooking than as an old crow, but that was pretty fun, too.

Never been the tip of the spear, but I've fed a damn lot of 'em.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Shoulda gone AF. ;)

Truth be told, I served in a JTF with some MS-3s that were damn good cooks. I can't say anything bad about the squids, based on personal experience.

/johnny