ChowBot 3000

Photo By Mark Fayloga | The ChowBot 3000’s mission is to terminate hunger. Programmed with a need to feed, it doesn’t stop until all bellies entering its food zone are filled. Lance Cpl. Devin Williams, the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, mess hall manager, created the ChowBot costume after wondering what to be for Halloween. During deployments most service members lose any semblance to regular life, but during holidays a lack of tradition and familiarity can be difficult. Williams, who counts Halloween among his favorite holidays, didn’t see a reason serving in Afghanistan should hinder tradition. “I’m not going to let a deployment spoil my Halloween,” Williams, from Chicago, said.  

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JAKER, AFGHANISTAN

10.31.2010

Story by Sgt. Mark Fayloga 

I Marine Expeditionary Force

FORWARD OPERATING BASE JAKER, Afghanistan - The ChowBot 3000’s mission is to terminate hunger.

Programmed with the need to feed, it won’t stop until all bellies entering its food zone are filled. It isn’t the most high-tech piece of machinery - just a bunch of empty ration boxes and a whole lot of tape and imagination.

Deployments can pull most service members from any semblance of regular life, and during holidays, a lack of tradition and familiarity can be difficult.

Lance Cpl. Devin Williams counts Halloween among his favorite holidays. The mess hall manager for Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, didn’t see why being in his sixth month of an Afghanistan tour should keep him from participating in his favorite Halloween tradition.

“I’m not going to let a deployment spoil my Halloween,” Williams, from Chicago, said.

With limited costume options, Williams spent his mornings creating the ChowBot out of available items in the Forward Operating Base Jaker mess hall.

While the ChowBot is a unique creation, the spirit behind its inception has been embraced by deployed personnel for as long as there have been deployments.

On Independence Day, mess halls across Iraq and Afghanistan serve up whatever food they can to remind the deployed of barbecues and fireworks.

During December, care packages filled with candy canes and hot cocoa packets are all but guaranteed to come rolling in.

And on Halloween you, get the ChowBot 3000, serving up reheated tray rations in style.

When the ChowBot 3000 greeted Marines and sailors entering the mess hall, their responses ranged from laughter, to grins, to “Today’s Halloween?”

But it was the reaction from the company first sergeant that meant the most to Williams.

“He laughed. He said I made a lot of people happy today,” Williams said. “Not too many people would do something like this. It’s motivating.”

Mission accomplished, ChowBot 3000.

• Date Taken: 10.31.2010
• Date Posted: 11.05.2010 02:17
• Story ID: 59462
• Location: FORWARD OPERATING BASE JAKER, AF