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File: aacad_08.txt
Indoor/outdoor vacuums came in very hands an the tents when it
came to getting rid of sand especially in the computer areas and
dining hall, linoleum was ordered for the dining hall but never
arrived, we were lucky to finally get wood floors, small compact
refrigerators also greatly enhanced living conditions but were
few and far between, additional orders never made it, ice chests
would have been a good substitute but we only had 5 which were
used for Search and Recovery. Tilt grills, convection ovens,
large ice machine were ordered but never made it . The soft serve
ice cream machine ordered did arrive and was a huge hit in the
dining hall. Mix was obtained from King Fahd contract food
vendor and delivered right to our location, unfortunately this
didn't occur until late March. Two cold bars, several drink
dispensers, folding chairs 5 insect zappers, and a small ice
machine did arrive. A large mixing bowl, coffee maker and pallet
jack were needed and ordered but failed to be delivered after
constant nagging of King Fahd contracting office and several
visits in person.
E. Food Service generally went very well, after the MKT's were
used for 3 weeks, the first 9-1 kitchen arrived and we erected it
the day after Christmas with great haste, mainly to get inside
out of the cold nights and mornings. Our main source of
B-rations was Dhahran, but we picked Tra Packs and 100 man meals
and dinnerware (all paper) up from the Army when they had it
available. Water and MRE`s also came from the Army mainly because
we were relatively small in a largely populated Army region and
the Air Force couldn't reach us except by air. We ran a hot
breakfast, MRE lunch, hot dinner and no midnight meal. This was
in effect until April when Saudi Catering moved in with 3 hots a
day, but the population dropped to half and we were moving on.
Problems that existed included numerous meetings being held in
the dining tent (mostly due to the fact it was our largest tent)
constant squabbles between first sergeants and commanders over KP
duty which most felt was SVS responsibility (we had KP s from
other squadrons the majority of the time, but new CSG commander
believed it to be our problem), undermanning resulted as our
population tripled leaving us on twelve hour shifts the entire
deployment with 1 day off a week beginning in late February.
During the war we were extremely rank heavy with 5 Masters and a
Senior Master who had no food experience. Creative supervision
was a challenge until we finally slimmed down to 3 Masters which
was still unnecessary and more of a hassle than a help. Most all
the 623x0 personnel did a fantastic job though and worked
extremely long days for several months. The attitudes were good
but the morale was awful. I attribute this mostly to the lack of
MWR activities/assets, lack of mail for the first 6 weeks, and
the northern location of our site and potentially good chance of
attack. We were also selected as the only Air Force
personnel in the world to take Anthrax shots and tablets before
the final days of attack. We basically were projected casualties
waiting to happen and everyone felt it.
.
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