By Staff Sgt. Matthew Acosta
22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MACKENZIE, Iraq- After 10 months of desert living, the Soldiers of the 1st Squadron, 17th Cavalry, Task Force Liberty, were looking forward to something other than the end of their deployment; ice cream.
What started as a chow hall joke, "Operation Six-Flavors" began to take shape after several phone calls.
"While we were at chow we started talking about how cool it would be to get some ice cream here at Forward Operating Base Mackenzie," said Sgt. Jennifer Scott, 642nd Direct Aviation Support Battalion, 42nd Infantry Division, attached to 1-17 Cavalry. "We figured other posts have it, maybe if we pull the right strings we can get some, so I got on the phone and made some calls."
Scott started making arrangements for the delivery of the dessert from Logistical Support Area Anaconda the next day.
Although she tried to keep the possibility of ice cream coming to FOB Mackenzie a secret, she said the word got out and people were talking about it in anticipation.
"What I didn't want to happen was for people to get excited about it only to be let down if we couldn't make it happen for them," Scott said. "But it didn't work because we heard people talking about it here and there."
Scott said Soldiers were talking about how good it would be to have real ice cream even so close to their redeployment time.
"The ice cream is such a morale boost although it seems like a small thing. It can really make you feel a bit closer to going home," said Sgt. 1st Class David Rapaport, fire support sergeant, 42nd Infantry Division Artillery, attached to 1-17 Cavalry.
The Soldiers anticipated the arrival of the ice cream and made sure they were at the 1-17 Cavalry's Morale Welfare Recreation facility, the Pale Horse Saloon, at the time of serving, Sept. 15th.
"We normally start serving chow at (5 p.m.) and figured that would be a good time to serve the ice cream," Scott said. "Although, it might interfere with people going to chow, they may just eat ice cream instead of chow."
The shipment arrived in a freezer truck several hours late, putting doubts in some Soldiers minds that it would even arrive, but when it did the Soldiers were in for a surprise.
"We got six flavors sent to us," Scott added, 'so combined with the cherries, nuts and syrup toppings, with vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pralines, mint chocolate chip and cookies and cream ice cream, the Soldiers could make a lot of combinations."
"The battalion commander, executive officer and command sergeant major will be serving the ice cream to the Soldiers, so it's going to be a really good time," Scott said.
Scott said many people were involved in Operation Six Flavors, but it is worth it just to see the smiles on people's faces, even if it is for just a small treat.
"Originally, we tried to get all Baskin and Robin's 31 flavors here, but we settled for the six that arrived," Scott said. "That's not too bad for a small desert post and a few phone calls."