Photo By Cpl. Joshua Brown | U.S. Navy Sailors with Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 4 are served lunch by Marines...... read more read more
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USS KEARSARGE (LHD 3) – Everything on the USS Kearsarge is built around the galley. Located near the center of the ship and almost constantly boiling, baking, grilling or steaming away, its operators, culinary specialists with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit and Amphibious Squadron (PHIBRON) 4, are working all day to keep the ship’s 2,700 occupants fed.
The 26th MEU and PHIBRON 4 are conducting an Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit-Exercise in preparation for their deployment to the 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility later this year.
A mission essential piece of this deployment includes logistics. Marines often refer to this piece of the planning as “Beans, bullets and band-aids”, in reference to the multiple facets logistics covers.
The culinary specialists aboard the three ships within the PHIBRON, the USS Kearsarge (LHD 3), USS Arlington (LPD 24) and USS Oak Hill (LSD 51), ensure the “beans” requirement is met in their provision of food to the Marines and sailors residing on the ships.
The culinary specialists cook and serve four meals a day on ship, breakfast, lunch, dinner and a midnight meal colloquially named “mid-rats”.
“Our days cover 10 hours while in port and 18 hours while at sea,” said Petty Officer 2nd Class Michaela C. Edmonds, a culinary specialist with PHIBRON 4 and Oakland native. “Our first shift comes in to cook breakfast around 4 a.m. in the morning and our last shift comes in around 11 p.m. in the evening to serve mid-rats.”
The days are broken down into shifts based on meals. The first shift cooks breakfast and prepares lunch, the second shift cooks lunch and prepares dinner and so on until every meal is served.
During each of these meals, the watch captain runs the galley. The watch captain is responsible for the food production, the culinary specialists on shift, ensuring food quality and timeliness of food distribution. Edmonds is the watch captain for the dinner shift.
“We have to be quick on our feet,” said Edmonds. “No matter what position you have you have to work fast and diligently.”
Meals are an hour to two hours long. Each meal serves around 1,000 people. To serve everyone within those parameters, they must operate at a tempo to meet the demand.
“We want everyone to have the same positive experience when they eat on ship,” said Edmonds. “We have to work fast, but take the time to ensure supplies stay stocked.”
Culinary specialists do sporadic checks on everything in the dining area, the salad bar, drink fountains, eating utensils and trays and replenish them throughout meals.
“Running out of resources and broken equipment are our biggest challenges,” said Edmonds. “We have to find ways to work around these problems and practice preventive measures.”
Marines and sailors serving the food learn to communicate more effectively to prevent those situations and pay attention to the food stores while their serving, said Edmonds.
Other challenges they face include integration of different services. The Marine units bring their own culinary specialists on the ship. Those specialists work in the galley while onboard, providing more hands to assist with the culinary process.
“It’s challenging because the Navy does things differently,” said Lance Cpl. David S. Mayes, a culinary specialist with the 26th MEU and a Holton, Ind., native. “To get things done we have to learn the way they operate the galley and cooperate with them.”
Teamwork between the sailors and Marines is essential in meeting the missions the commander of the MEU and the Captain of the ship have charged their respective units with.
“We work well together, certainly we have a few disagreements, but we work through them and get the job done,” said Mayes. “Morale is high in the galley.”
Camaraderie is the best part of the job said Mayes.
“It’s easy to work with the Marines,” said Edmonds. “They’re motivated, they work hard and they work fast.”
Edmonds has deployed three times in her Navy career. Two of those deployments involved MEUs. Every team she’s worked on has bonded well and the Marines have been great assets to those teams, said Edmonds.
“It takes a unique individual to work in food service,” said Edmonds. “We are the heart and soul of the ship. Someone could have a rough day and serving them a great meal could make all the difference.”
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 06.17.2015 11:16 |
| Story ID: | 166960 |
| Location: | USS KEARSARGE, US |
| Web Views: | 266 |
| Downloads: | 2 |
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