Posted on 03/25/2010 6:41:26 PM PDT by Teflonic
Whoppers, Dairy Queen sundaes and the latest movies will soon disappear for U.S. military personnel serving in Afghanistan, according to a blog posting by Sgt. Maj. Michael T. Hall discussing changes to morale, welfare and recreation facilities on U.S. bases there.
In an effort to put more focus on fighting the Taliban, the military is cutting back on "non-essentials" in Afghanistan, Hall announced on the International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan blog this week. Hall is the command sergeant major for ISAF.
On large U.S. facilities such as the Kandahar and Bagram air bases, that includes closing restaurants such as Burger King, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius and Pizza Hut, dropping first-run movies from base theaters and cutting the amount of canned and bottled goods imported from the States, Hall writes.
“This is a warzone – not an amusement park,” he writes.
(Excerpt) Read more at afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com ...
*Adjusts his foil beanie*
He could have worn his Burger King pants (home of the whopper?)
You are thinking that all the troops use this stuff, but it's not true.
Some of the slacker Army and Air Force units are all that had access to this type of crap during GWI, and yes it DID affect the morale of the the front line Army and Marine grunts, not to mention the ship borne sailors when they heard about it.
I remember going one time 53 days without a shower during Desert Storm, and that same day being passed an old newspaper that had some overweight soldier whining about only old mvies being shown at the base theater.
It's a freaking war zone, not an amusement park for the most politically connected units.
This was ordered by General McChrystal.
Coincidentally the same week that Barry anointed Michelle the Nutrition Nazi.
McChrystal only eats one meal a day- a small meal at dinner.
That’s been his philosophy for 30 years.
Having an occasional coffee at the Green Beans outlet-( a very pro military company http://www.greenbeanscoffee.com/ ) or a burger at Burger King is a welcome respite for the troops.
And now that spartan weirdo McChrystal and I am absolutely convinced-Michelle-have taken that away from them.
No to Hamburgers.
Yes to Homos.
Come on..think of all the health care they can provide instead with the money saved. <|;o)
I guess the DOD just wants too make sure that the troops know they have been sent to hell and to remember that.
Personally I think it’s realy stupid though.The troops should have some comforts to remind them of what their fighting for.
I’ve been stationed on Bagram, Kandahar and a forward FOB.
This is going to be a blow to morale.
BAF is a US base, but KAF is a NATO base.
The smaller FOBs don’t have many amenities and the troops look forward to going to KAF or BAF for rest and R&R.
That place is a very tough place mentally... can’t tell you why, but it is. I’ve been in Anbar too, so I do have a little experience with stressful places.
The article talks about closing the US type places, but what about other countries places? Tim Horton’s? The French cafe? Canada house? New Canada house? The British PX, coffee shop and cafe? Dutch corners?
If they only close the US places the troops will go to the other places (these are only on KAF) until the other countries get pissed off and shut them to the US troops... and how is that going to help cooperation between the countries?
While I was there the British talked about closing their facilities to the US... until the US threatened to close their facilities to the British (the US has by far the biggest and cheapest PX).
IT will be interesting to hear what he has to say about homosexualizing the army.
I don’t get the point about getting rid of first-run movies. I mean, they are not getting rid of the theater, they just don’t want the first run movies. But they still have to bring in movies. While this could save AAFES and MWR a few bucks in royalties, I do not see how any money saved could impact local combat ops.
A warzone??? Couldn’t tell that from the ROE. More like a police beat and they just banned the donut shop.
But they WILL put in a sushi bar ;)
These services are available at the big bases to troops who are out in the isolated outposts for days and weeks at a time. To remove them completely is disgusting.
Who is the highest serving member of this Administration who actually served in the military? In a war zone? How many in this Administration every served at all? How many were active in ‘peace’ organizations?
I had forgotten about the no shower period but yes, that did last from before New Year until late March or early April, as I recall. I felt fortunate though that I did not have to face the tough, motivated and well armed troops that my uncles and father did decades earlier.
i don't disagree with the sentiment that you're showing, but there are some realities that you're not aware of.
My boy was in Afghanistan from March 07 to March 08 with 2/506, fourth brigade 101st Airborne. He was in a rifle platoon stationed in Eastern Paktika Province about 800 meters from the South Warziristan Pakistani border region.
His unit couldn't get basic equipment such as gun oil and cleaning solvent for their weapons. i know: we sent the stuff to him regularly.
When he was rotating home, i had an IM conversation with him. He was at Bagram AFB at the time, and scared out of his wits...they'd taken his rifle and grenades away from him, and he felt naked. He was telling me that he really wanted to hurt some people because the REMF's were b!tching about their favorite ice cream flavor being unavailable while his unit had trouble being supplied in WATER, which was heavily rationed. This was true at both his platoon COP, and the Company FOB.
The logistics of Operation Enduring Freedom suck! Remember, Afghanistan is a land-locked nation, so resupply by sea is pretty much out of the question.
75% of the material is flown into Pakistan and brought by land along the Khyber pass. It makes a very tempting target for the Taliban. The Khyber pass is some of the most fought over piece of real estate in history.
The remaining 25% of material comes across Russian Air Space (with their permission of course) to...until recently Uzbekistan, another former Soviet Republic that ends in "stan", and has their own Islamowacko problems.
We now have an increase of 35,000 combat troops -about 1 1/2 divisions- and the increase demand for war material that will result from that build up.
The airlift capacity for these non-essential materials simply does not exist.
You want the troops supported, make sure that they have the material to COMPLETE.THE.MISSION. The rest of the $#!t can wait.
Having said that, if I had a Mickey D's down the road after a fire fight, I might have forgiven Jimmah Carter for his transgression.
'Might," being the operative word.
5.56mm
One in eight are on mood changing medications....look for that to increase. Being a target with rigid instructions about shooting back after-the-fact of being fired upon....is stressful. Better a Whopper and a DQ than a prozac.
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