Meals on wheels — Golden Coyote food services on a roll

Photo By Master Sgt. Theanne Tangen | Sgt. Matt King of Brookings, S.D., member of Detachment 1, of the 740th Transportation Company, Aberdeen, S.D., delivers food rations to Staff Sgt. James Rennicker of Twinsbury, Ohio, member of 256th Combat Support Hospital, Uhrichsville, Ohio, during the 25th anniversary of the Golden Coyote training exercise, June 8, at the Railroad Buttes forward operating base.  

RAPID CITY, SD, UNITED STATES

06.09.2009

Courtesy Story

302nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment

RAPID CITY, S.D. — Twelve hundred meals ready to eat, a combined 2,400 breakfast and dinner meals, 80 pounds of fruit, 80 loaves of bread, 100, 20-pound bags of ice, six trucks, dozens of Soldiers, and countless hours is what it takes to feed the more than 3,600 Golden Coyote training exercise participants.

Soldiers from various elements of South Dakota's 139th Brigade Support Battalion of Redfield, S.D., work feverishly to make this happen.

Staff Sgt. Grant Evans, who works as a general supply squad leader in Company A, 139th BSB, explained a bit of the process.

"Each forward operating base has to send over a food request through the FOB mayor," said Evans. "Once we know what each FOB needs, 'Chief' Urban creates the menus, being certain to rotate the menus for variety. Then we print up a ticket for the request, pull and wrap the items and store properly."

Warrant Officer Jeff Urban of Co. A, 139th BSB, who works as a food service technician for the South Dakota Army National Guard said "feeding more than 3,600 personnel doesn't come without challenges."

"The biggest challenges we face are trying to get the right amount of food without having excess or shortages and making sure that I have all of the workers that I need and equipment to get the food downrange," said Urban.

This delicate balance means getting up bright and early. During yesterday's mission preparation, Soldiers began loading rations into transportation vehicles in the early-morning hours. Frozen and perishable foods were loaded into refrigerated trucks and non-perishable items were loaded onto trucks. The labor continued until thousands of pounds of rations were ready for shipment and delivery to the remote forward operating bases of Golden Coyote including Railroad Buttes, Fisherman's Flats, Custer State Park Airport and Tee Pee-which is a half hours drive from the Wyoming border.

Sgt. Matthew King, Detachment 1, 740thTransportation of Aberdeen, S.D., is a truck driver who volunteered for the ration delivery mission when his original mission was scaled back.

"I didn't even know what I was volunteering for at first. But, I was very happy to find out that we'd be running this [ration delivery] mission every other day," said King. "It allows me to get a lot of driving time and give some driver's training to some junior Soldiers."

King even gets time during his ration deliveries to find alternate training opportunities.
"It has been great practice going into the FOBs and practicing gate security procedures with the challenge and password," he said.

King's ration convoy traveled to three FOBs and covered hundreds of miles in about eight hours. Each stop required the assistance of many Soldiers to get the vehicles unloaded and the rations stored. Additionally, recent rain in the area caused the drop-off locations to be muddy havens.

"We knew it would be wet out there," said King. "Getting around the FOBs in the mud was a challenge, but we didn't get stuck."

Even in the muddiest location, which was CSPA, Soldiers came together and worked as a team and got the job done. Some Soldiers wore black rubber boots, others had on full wet weather gear, others worked feverishly in wet and muddy Army Combat Uniforms with thick globs of muck on the bottom of their boots.

According to Urban, the State Food Service section expects to supply a similar number of meals as they supplied for the Golden Coyote training exercise in 2008: 45,936 Meals Ready to Eat, 64,600 dinner and breakfast meals and thousands of pounds of ice.

Urban admits that it's a lot of work to receive, store, and deliver more than 100,000 meals, but said "It's worth it. The most rewarding part of my job is that the Soldiers get fed."

• Date Taken: 06.09.2009
• Date Posted: 06.09.2009 18:53
• Story ID: 34806
• Location: RAPID CITY, SD, US