Photo By Chief Petty Officer David Votroubek | Petty Officer 2nd Class David Crabb of Navy Embedded Training Team 3-205th Garrison,...... read more read more
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LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan — The Afghan kitchen opened the sailor's eyes and the smoke made them sting. Even fans that run 24 hours a day can not keep up with the smoke from a dozen or more wood-burning stoves at the new Afghan national army dining facility.
The sailor is Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class David Crabb of Navy Embedded Training Team 3-205th Garrison, who has been helping the Afghan national army to improve their food service at the Shorabak garrison DFAC since he arrived in September.
Mentoring the Afghan kitchen staff requires experience and initiative. Crabb has both. The former submarine sailor has a total of 26 years of food service experience, 16 of it with the Navy. During a ten-year break in active service, he also worked as a manager and trainer in a deli and bakery for a supermarket chain, which helps him mentor here.
Crabb also returned to his basic Navy culinary training to teach the Afghans. In fact, he uses a Navy supply publication as a reference for instructing them on food preparation, hygiene and sanitation.
The latter is particularly important because most of their food is prepared on site. While the facility itself may be new, many of the methods that the cooks use are not. It's not unusual to see bare-handed cooks, or butchers chopping up beef on the ground with an axe.
The team's medical mentor, Lt. Paul Shattuck, arranged for an ANA doctor to teach a class on personal hygiene. Simple steps like hand-washing are important because they can easily reduce the risk of pathogens and food-borne illnesses. There was an outbreak of dysentery shortly before the team arrived, but none since they began their mentoring.
Process improvements made by the team have also helped the Afghans to become better organized. The DFAC staff now holds a morning formation at 9 a.m., for instance, and has a chart to help them understand their chain of command and duties.
This level of organization may be typical for the Navy, but it is new for the Afghans. Until Crabb's team got here, the DFAC didn't even have personnel assigned to clean up after meals. He got them that additional help from the ANA battalions at Shorabak.
"We're trying to show them how to be organized, not shove regulations down their throat," he said.
The team has also made facility improvements. On this particular day, a welder's sparks flew from the bottom of an overturned sink as Crabb stood talking with Abdul Sami, his Afghan counterpart. They stopped to watch workers attach new filters under sinks that had been prone to clogging with food. Crabb had researched and submitted a request for the system as a way to prevent that.
He also devised a drainage system for effluent from the butcher shop, and leveled a flood-prone area out back.
Future plans for the DFAC include converting it to gas-burning stoves. The Afghan cooks have never used gas before and have been reluctant to give up their wood-burning stoves, but when the smoke clears; this sailor thinks they'll see the light.
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 02.10.2008 11:30 |
| Story ID: | 16208 |
| Location: | LASHKAR GAH, AF |
| Web Views: | 225 |
| Downloads: | 109 |
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