Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Mary Katzenberger | Spc. Quinn E. Hilyard, a food service specialist with Company E, 307th Brigade Support...... read more read more
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FORT BRAGG, N.C. – If they’re not jumping out of airplanes or cooking enough food to feed an army, the food service specialists with 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, can be found working on perfecting their other specialty — winning competitions.
The 1st BCT dining facility crew was named, March 25, as the installation-level winner of the Field Kitchen Competition in the 46th Annual Philip A. Connelly Awards Program here. The win thrusts 1st BCT paratroopers into the Forces Command-level competition slated for June, putting them in the running for the Department of the Army level trophy in the final competition slated in the fall.
Capt. Philip J. Wingo, company commander of Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 307th Brigade Support Battalion, 82nd Abn. Div., said the Devils are no strangers to competing against the Army’s best food service specialists as they won the DA-level Connelly competition in 2012.
“That’s a group of hard chargers that we’ve got,” he said “They’re really skilled in what they do and they’re all really hard workers. They know what they want — they want to win — and they know they’re going to win if they work hard.”
Wingo said the paratroopers spent a month preparing for the March 14 inspection that won them their first 2013 Connelly award. He said the scenario-driven competition required the soldiers to replicate a field feeding operation that would be seen in a typical forward operating base in Afghanistan. This required setting up a security perimeter, concertina wire, entry control points and facilitating roving patrols, all while preparing a breakfast and a lunch meal and providing customer service to the hungry troops, the company commander continued.
Sgt. Silvestre Arroyo, a food service specialist with 1st BCT’s 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, served as the noncommissioned officer in charge of the containerized kitchen during the inspection. He said the paratroopers put their talents on display during the inspection by preparing meals that weren’t the usual fare.
“When it comes to something like this, or whenever there’s big names coming through, people usually do the steak meal because everyone likes steak,” Arroyo said. “We wanted to do something … that was more difficult so that we could demonstrate some of the skills that these paratroopers have as far as culinary arts goes. We wanted something that would look nice on the line.”
The meals that helped the food service specialists win included a bananas foster topping for French toast at breakfast and specialties like Happy Family — a Chinese dish incorporating a medley of meats served in a brown sauce — and spicy fire chicken and jasmine rice for lunch.
Pfc. Rigoberto Madrid, a food service specialist with 1st BCT’s 2nd Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, said preparing for the inspection was stressful.
“I was cutting up fruits and I was worried I wasn’t going to make it, but I had my friend [Spc. Chris L.] Fite who helped me out,” he said.
Madrid, who has only been at the unit for four months, said he and his fellow paratroopers did a good job.
“To me it’s a big honor — we’re preparing food in the field and making sure the soldiers are happy.”
| Date Taken: | 03.25.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 04.02.2013 18:13 |
| Story ID: | 104495 |
| Location: | FORT BRAGG, NC, US |
| Hometown: | FORT MYERS, FL, US |
| Hometown: | SPRING CREEK, NV, US |
| Web Views: | 236 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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