FORT HUNTER LIGGETT, Calif. – Soldiers from the 315th Engineer Battalion, Forward Support Company, Camp Pendleton, Calif., joined soldiers from the 983rd Eng. Bn. FSC, headquartered in Monclova, Ohio, at Castle Installation Related Construction here at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif., for their annual training.
Tasked to support almost 600 soldiers with two hot meals a day means long hours and lots of hard work. To add to the already sizeable task, the unit is being evaluated for a chance at the Phillip A. Connelly Award, the top Army cooking award.
The 315th is being evaluated in the large field-feeding category, classified as serving more than 300 personnel in a field environment.
The Connelly Award not only judges the taste of the food, but how it is prepared, portion control, appearance, layout of the site, sanitation and many other items. In essence, the entire cooking operation is reviewed.
The 315th passed the first of the four levels at Camp Pendleton, Calif. The next competition level will be evaluated by the 416th Theater Engineer Command, out of Darien, Ill. If selected, the unit will compete amongst the top cooking units in the region. The final evaluation will be at the Department of the Army level against the best that the Army has to offer.
2nd Lt. Matthew Bern, distribution platoon leader for the 315th, says this is the unit’s first time cooking entirely in a field environment.
“The hard part was trying to get the battle rhythm,” said Bern, describing the challenges of his first field feeding. “It took us a little bit to get the schedule down, especially with cooks from another unit.”
While this is the first time the 315th has cooked in the field, the soldiers from the 983rd cook regularly, both in garrison and using their mobile kitchen trailer. Six soldiers, including two senior non-commissioned officers and four junior NCOs, joined the 315th for this exercise. Combined with their two NCOs and three junior enlisted, the 315th has a full complement for the competition.
Even though the 983rd has cooked in the field, they are using new equipment for this exercise, a container kitchen.
“The CK is more advanced than the MKT,” said Sgt. 1st Class George Hair, food service operations non-commissioned officer-in-charge for the 983rd FSC.
“It even has a refrigerator. It is very similar to cooking in a regular kitchen, just smaller.”
During the planning conferences, the number of anticipated soldiers attending the exercise was discussed, but once the troops arrived, the number of meals needed to be adjusted to reflect who was actually here, said Master Sgt. Reid Stone, food service non-commissioned officer in charge of the 372nd Engineer Brigade from Fort Snelling, Minn.
“Adjusting the head count to consume all the meals is a real challenge,” he said. “In past exercises we have ended up with a lot of extra food.”
The meals being served are unitized group rations. One UGR is designed to feed 50 soldiers. This expedites drawing rations for the exercise. It also emphasizes the need for an accurate head count, explained Stone.
“This is the first time we have used the UGR(-A)s. We only saw them in books before,” said Hair. “Everything is pre-measured, we don’t need to figure anything out. They are really easy to use.”
Bern is confident in the abilities of his food service team to perform well in the competition.
“We did very well in level one back home. With the UGR(-A)s they should have no problems,” he said.
Hair was impressed to see the intent of the FSC in action.
“(The FSC) can be pulled, and it can stand alone and support any type of unit. It was great seeing it all come together,” he said.
Preparation for the Connelly Award is only a means to an end for the food service team: training soldiers to be leaders while providing meals for the troops.
“I really love seeing the confidence I have seen in the soldiers after the first level competition,” said Bern. “They are taking advice and running with it. This is helping build a soldier.”