Getting the Most Out of Meatloaf

GRAYLING, MI, UNITED STATES

08.02.2017

Story by Staff Sgt. Tegan Kucera 

126th Theater Public Affairs Support Element

“An Army marches on its stomach” or so the old saying goes, and those who cook for an Army know this best; but every now and then they cook for themselves.
Like last year, the chow hall at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center had a meatloaf competition during Annual Training AT and they did the same thing this year, making fun for themselves and delicious food for the many of the Armed Forces eating there.
“I think food is the best part of anybody’s day, and to be able to do it everyday is awesome,” said Spc. Rachel Garms, a food specialist with the 46th Military Police Company based in Corunna, Michigan.
Garms has competed in past military cooking competitions; having won the Philip A. Connelly Award for the state and coming in second in the region. She said she liked competing in the Connelly, but had more fun pitting her sautéed loaf against eight other cooks from around the state.
“The Connelly is a lot more pressure with a lot less time and more dishes, it was really nice to focus on one,” Garms went on to explain why she enjoyed it. “This was a lot less pressure, and everybody else is smiling and not feeling the heat as much.”
Garms, a Petoskey, Michigan, native may not have won the competition but that does not diminish Northern Strike 17 for her, because it was one of the few times she has been able to cook in a chow hall for AT. She said for the most of her six-year career she has been cooking in the field; Garms explained cooking outside involves a lot less cooking with equipment like a mixer and using your hands more. It doesn’t really matter to her either way she just likes to cook.
“I wanted to make people smile, I wanted to make a difference, and the best way to make a difference is morale,” said Garms.
One of the many food specialists who volunteered for the Northern Strike 17 mission, Garms is not unusual for taking on multiple orders to cook for others. It is normal for Army cooks in the National Guard to go on multiple AT’s a year because of the high demand for them, and they demand a lot from themselves and their cooking which is why the meatloaf competition while it was done in fun is also important.
“It was fun, because we take a lot of pride in the work that we do,” said Sgt. 1st Class Deanne Fell the senior culinary management non-commissioned officer NCO with Joint Force Headquarters located in Lansing, Michigan.
Fell was in charge of the competition, as she is the one who thought of it last year, and it was such a success with the cooks and the troops she did it again.
“Competition is a good way to let them be creative,” explained Fell who is from Ionia, Michigan. “If you let them, meatloaf is one of those things you can really play with and you can make it your own. The competition is about camaraderie and trying to boost the spirits a little bit half way through AT.”
There were many meatloaves in the competition, from first place BBQ bacon cheeseburger to a sautéed loaf, everyone seeing what the other was doing but not doing the same, still learning from the others. The event was so much fun one cook volunteered for it.
“I really just enjoy cooking and I don’t get to cook anymore,” said Staff Sgt. Steve Gehringer, also a senior culinary management NCO with the 272nd Regional Support Group based at Lansing, Michigan, who is acting as an inspector throughout AT. “I’m always doing inspections, so this was first chance to get to cook up here and I decided to give it a whirl.”
Gehringer has been in for nearly twenty years and has seen the changes the cooks have gone through to keep up with an ever-changing Army.
“15 years ago we were still cooking the way we cooked in 1950,” said Gehringer, an Eaton Rapids, Michigan native. “Now we’re starting to change the menu to where they are a little more nutritious and aligns with what you would get at a restaurant or at least in a healthy diet. We’re trying to get better at it, but we still have to make sure the Soldiers have what they need to get throughout the day.”
Part of getting better at it is providing nine multiple meatloaf selections to troops, because the Army only has four versions. The cooks coming up with their own adds to the enjoyment of all.
Making the most out of their meatloaf, and making the most out of Northern Strike 17; cooks from around the state are coming together to work, train, and cook thousands of meals.
Northern Strike 17 is a National Guard Bureau-sponsored exercise uniting approximately 5,000 service members from 13 states and five coalition countries during the first two weeks of August 2017 at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, both located in northern Michigan and operated by the Michigan National Guard. The newly accredited NS17 demonstrates the Michigan National Guard’s ability to provide accessible, readiness-building opportunities for military units from all service branches to achieve and sustain proficiency in conducting mission command, air, sea, and ground maneuver integration, together with the synchronization of fires in a joint, multinational, decisive action environment.

• Date Taken: 08.02.2017
• Date Posted: 08.03.2017 19:06
• Story ID: 243639
• Location: GRAYLING, MI, US
• Hometown: CORUNNA, MI, US
• Hometown: EATON RAPIDS, MI, US
• Hometown: IONIA, MI, US
• Hometown: LANSING, MI, US
• Hometown: OAK PARK, MI, US
• Hometown: PETOSKEY, MI, US