MasterBates
Well-Known Member
I remember $400 mess bills, $350 of it food on the Vicksburg and about $350 or so on the Anzio
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Sent from my PH44100 using Tapatalk
Sorry Brett, I'm not a shut up and color guy. This is just one of the things that is going into the pile of reasons to find another line of work. I go to the CAOC and get unbelievable food at all times. On top of that, I can take drinks whenever I want. I go to Afghanistan and it's the same thing but even better. In the war zone of Afghanistan I got better food then I ever did on the boat. Any boat. They have energy bars at all times. I can't even get a proper boxed lunch on the boat when flying a 6 hour mission. No, CS2, that plate of baked beans and chicken wrapped in tin foil that you gave me on the boat will not work for me in the plane.
Take away my BAS. It doesn't cover my mess bill anyways. But do away with the mess bills as well. The thing that gets me the most is that the ship WILL NOT change it's meals to the schedules of the CVW. If the whole airwing is flying mostly night ops and no one is going to get up before 11a.m., well too bad. No breakfast for you. That is not how it's done in the Stan. If you are working night ops, then you get breakfast when you get up, even if that is 6 P.M. This attitude of "that's how it's always been done" is antiquated. It's time for change, right? Maybe it's point paper time. It's not like there are any reasonable arguments to defend this policy. It's just the way it is.
Yeah, but how can I pay $2.00 for breakfast in the chow hall and it's 100x better than any meal on the ship?Aren't all the DFACs in theater funded by a Cost Of War augment for the Army? It was rumored that meals there cost 24+ dollars per person per meal. Back in the States, all the Army and Air Force DFACs charge per meal the same way the Navy and Marine Corps.
Aren't all the DFACs in theater funded by a Cost Of War augment for the Army? It was rumored that meals there cost 24+ dollars per person per meal. Back in the States, all the Army and Air Force DFACs charge per meal the same way the Navy and Marine Corps.
It comes out in the wash.
If you compare single homeowner vs. married homeowner, there is no justification for the married guy getting family separation pay.
I don't disagree with any of your rationale. It's a fucked up policy that definitely should be changed. Here's the thing - people have been complaining about this literally for generations. So, MB can write an articulate, well argued point paper and run it up the chain, but what makes you think that his point paper is going to receive any more attention than all the dozens of guys who have done the exact same thing over the last 30-40 years? Why, all of a sudden, is NOW the time it's going to work? What has changed? As unjust as it all seems to us, this just isn't something that big Navy is going to change. We all know it. It's not a matter of "shut up and color," it's just how it is.
Can't win if you don't try? Maybe, but as I said before, I'll spend my time and energy on issues that big Navy doesn't consider DOA.
So, if that's the straw that breaks the camel's back for your (or anyone's) decision to continue serving, that's unfortunate and perhaps understandable. People get out for all kinds of reasons, so if the Navy isn't cutting it for you anymore, you should vote with your feet.
I'm not telling him he should leave, he's the one who feels that it exceeds his pain threshold (although it's probably just a rhetorical bluff). Theres a big difference between that and me telling him to get out if he doesn't like it. Since its not in my power to change, I could give him a patronizing answer where I pretend to "look into it" or to "see what I can do." Neither of those are particularly honest. What's the alternative? We have to live and operate within constraints and limits every day. This issue draws people's passions, but at the end of the day, it's a policy we have to live with.The officer's mess used to serve different food than the enlisted galley; thus the different charges. But now they serve the same "microwaved" crap. The CPO mess gets better chow and they pay the same as the E-6 and below. If it all boils down to different pots of money, then why don't we just consolidate the mess funds.
Do tell what you plan to fix in during your Command tour...
That's a bullshit answer and you know it. "If you don't like it, then leave". WTF, I thought you were better versed than that.
I'm not telling him he should leave, he's the one who feels that it exceeds his pain threshold (although it's probably just a rhetorical bluff). Theres a big difference between that and me telling him to get out if he doesn't like it. Since its not in my power to change, I could give him a patronizing answer where I pretend to "look into it" or to "see what I can do." Neither of those are particularly honest. What's the alternative? We have to live and operate within constraints and limits every day. This issue draws people's passions, but at the end of the day, it's a policy we have to live with.
Brett
I'm not even sure if the guys that are complaining even know which part of the "problem" they're upset at.
For those bitching about paying anything, why is it a surprise that you have to pay to get food? Right or wrong, that's how the Navy Supply system works, whether it's on land or on a ship. If you want to eat at the galley on base as an O, you go in and pay money. If you go as an E, you pay money. If you're in the barracks, you pay money (in the form of losing your COMRATS).
All of the above is the same on a ship.
Now, as I've repeatedly said, why O's have to pay more... I agree, that's something from an old system. Nowadays, it seems that Chops use the wardroom mess bill (again, something different than mess DUES) to help augment their books. But I might be a little cynical.