Retention and Recruitment Crisis

[Box]

Tell me you have a recruiting and retention problem without telling me you have a recruiting and retention problem....


Senior officials have often pointed to difficult logistics when it comes to feeding an Army - its hard to figure out how much good food you need to give your soldiers...
...and it's unclear to us why this challenge persists

 

[Devildoc]

Tell me you have a recruiting and retention problem without telling me you have a recruiting and retention problem....


Senior officials have often pointed to difficult logistics when it comes to feeding an Army - its hard to figure out how much good food you need to give your soldiers...
...and it's unclear to us why this challenge persists

That's complete bullshit. If a 60 year-old lunch lady in a high school can figure it out, if hospitals can figure it out, if cruise ships can figure it out, if an underway navy can figure it out, I am reasonably sure the army can figure it out.

 

[ThunderHorse]

I feel like if the Bro Vets did take downs of Petraeus, McChrystal, Milley, Austin, etc. It would help recruiting a lot more than taking down small fries who have a podcast. Go after the top.

 

[AWP]

Fort Carson continues to Be unable to feed soldiers.



I find the idea that the base only averaged 591 diners a day throughout 2024 to seem more like an indictment of the ability to use the DFAC and of the DFAC to provide proper chow.

If every other DFAC is closed and soldiers have to drive 15-20 minutes across post to stand in line for up to 30 minutes only to get a bowl of soup, why would the eat in the chow hall?

Don't worry though, the Army will be contracting out all DFACs and removing 92Gs from garrison!

(That's the HQDA G4 Director of Supply Policy and Programs responding to a question about why FSC/BSB have no METs for garrison feeding, and if those would be created.)

This is just disgraceful and someone should take a charge or thousands. Court martial and jail time level. It shows the amount of rot in the officer and senior enlisted corps when junior enlisted are sharing this and the people who should be raising hell are not. Taking care of your troops doesn't get another pay grade, so...fuck 'em, right?

 

[DA SWO]

Take (from a Military view) the worst aspect of the Carter administration ( out of control inflation) and the worst aspect of the Clinton administration ( non-stop contingencies) combined with a relatively flat budget and watching ops funds feed/house migrants and you get the DFAC issue.

Inexcusable ( SecDef owns this), but no FOGO or SES is willing to fall on their sword over this.

 

[Box]

That's complete bullshit. If a 60 year-old lunch lady in a high school can figure it out, if hospitals can figure it out, if cruise ships can figure it out, if an underway navy can figure it out, I am reasonably sure the army can figure it out.

Bro - how can it be
The Army spokesperson said so.

Those sixty year old hospital boats way under the Navy don't know nothing about no Army chow !!!
Besides - "lunch lady" isn't a real thing. It was just an Adam Sandler skit.
C'mon man

 

[Box]

... no FOGO or SES is willing to fall on their sword over this.

And why should they?
They aren't eating in the DFAC - and when they are - there's nothing wrong with the chow.
...I'm thinking this "chow problem" is just like inflation during the Biden economy - just something made up by the opposition.

 

[ThunderHorse]

That's complete bullshit. If a 60 year-old lunch lady in a high school can figure it out, if hospitals can figure it out, if cruise ships can figure it out, if an underway navy can figure it out, I am reasonably sure the army can figure it out.

Dog, the pieces of shit at Carson that pushed the idea of kiosks need to be discharged ASAP. There is a dude getting a 3rd star after he pushed this as the way forward across the Army, and instead of keeping DFACs open and creating shuttles. We have DFACs closed and Soldiers going hungry.

Everyone gets BAS, but only those outside the B's get it in their check. If you close a DFAC on the weekend in my unit assignment footprint, that means I should get BAS for that weekend if I'm in the Bs. Also for every day that DFAC is closed if there are rolling closures.

This kiosk crap is a massive failure. Want Soldiers to eat healthier? Well, AAFES is gonna get one up the kiester. Removal of all fastfood options, they can keep sit down B-Dubs and Texas Roadhouse at the mall. But no Popeyes or BK at the shoppette.

 

[Topkick]

Removal of all fastfood options, they can keep sit down B-Dubs and Texas Roadhouse at the mall. But no Popeyes or BK at the shoppette.

I don't agree with taking these things away from the troops. It's about making sure there is a place for troops to get regular, well rounded meals on a regular basis, but not taking away these options. If you PT hard enough, regular enough, there's nothing wrong with splurging on a morale cheeseburger or pizza once in awhile for lunch. But yeah, kiosks are fucking stupid.

 

[GOTWA]

If you PT hard enough, regular enough, there's nothing wrong with splurging on a morale cheeseburger or pizza once in awhile for lunch. But yeah, kiosks are fucking stupid.

Then they can get it off post. The military needs to get back to being lethal, and it starts with being healthy.

I recently went down the path of eating better and it's upsetting that I didn't do it sooner. I can't for the life of me understand what a "balanced diet" means, because it's always stated with other terms like "moderation". When I tell people I'm practically all beef, I get the, "that's not healthy, you need balance..." Sorry, Karen, the fucking oreos you ate at lunch after your salad isn't fucking balance.

Anywho, who's interested in learning about beef shares?

 

[Topkick]

Then they can get it off post

They will. I agree that the military needs to get back to being a disciplined, lethal force. I've seen it when it was, and we had BK and Popeyes on post. It actually starts with enforcing standards.
.

 

[ThunderHorse]

They will. I agree that the military needs to get back to being a disciplined, lethal force. I've seen it when it was, and we had BK and Popeyes on post. It actually starts with enforcing standards.
.

What are these Standards? @Box I think you wrote a poem about standards...

 

[Cookie_]

Dog, the pieces of shit at Carson that pushed the idea of kiosks need to be discharged ASAP.

The kiosks aren't a Carson idea, it's a HQDA G4 directive towards the "Army feeding modernization" that's been in process since about 2018. The failure of the kiosks in 100% 4ID G4 foodservice though.

I've had a chance to talk with some of the cooks on Carson. They think kiosks make sense, but only as a grab+go option with an open DFAC. What Carson is doing is only having 1 DFAC open for dinner or no DFACs open weekend+holiday and trying to have kiosks fill that gap. The cooks aren't allowed to make food for the kiosk (it is all purchased from the commissary) so they can't replenish them when they run out.

This is just disgraceful and someone should take a charge or thousands. Court martial and jail time level. It shows the amount of rot in the officer and senior enlisted corps when junior enlisted are sharing this and the people who should be raising hell are not. Taking care of your troops doesn't get another pay grade, so...fuck 'em, right?

I communicate pretty commonly on reddit with one of the mods; he's former army, out now.
He's the one who went to AUSA and asked the question regarding garrison feeding.

He posted about how the G4 directly came up to him after that panel to scold him. In his words:

Again, seriously, the G4, LTG Hoyle, came up to me to give me shit for daring to question their food ecosystem. I'm a random dude, and she's up in my space to yell at me for, idk, *daring* to question the system. That's how they react. They get aggressive and rude. They don't give a shit about the problem - they just don't want anyone to be heard complaining about it.

Not all the SNCOs get it - but there's a larger % of E9s who 'get it' than there are FGO/Senior Officers, imo. And then when you *do* find that O5, O6, O7 who cares, they're just often *not* the person in the driver seat.

So it's tough. I have heard that the opinion of the Food Service leadership at Carson is that Soldiers are just whining because they want BAS, and that there isn't actually a real problem. So, honestly, no; I don't think the majority 'get it'. They don't understand. None of them ever ate out of a kiosk all weekend.

 

[Topkick]

What are these Standards? @Box I think you wrote a poem about standards...

IDK, I never had a major problem with my soldiers being overweight, failing APFT's, or not be physically fit to do their jobs. You can do the math. Sure, there was the occasional knuckleneck that failed himself, but we'd put him back on the block after making sure we didn't fail him. The answer to your question is fairly simple, standards are a leader' expectations.