AAFES Concessions closing in Afghanistan


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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #1  March 31,2010, 6:00am
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Here's the link.

AAFES concessions to close in Afghanistan - Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

Soldiers are split on their opinions of this happening. I personally am against closing the concessions, not because I don't agree with some of what McCrystal says but because deployments for soldiers suck as it is. There are much better options out there than closing these shops/restaurants. McCrystal brings up some good points but I believe everything he mentioned can be resolved better, and more popularly, by other means.

One thing this article does not mention is that these food chains have 5 years left on their contract. They will get their money, either from Uncle Sam or from their customers, I would prefer it be customers who choose to buy this stuff instead of coming out of my pocket.

The one thing that really burns my biscuit is that he has chosen to keep his favorite chain open on all the bases (Green Bean, a coffee shop). This was actually a wise decision seeing as those soldiers who support this removal only do so on the condition that the Green Bean stays open. LoL

However, I do understand that Generals are not trying to win a popularity contest (at least from privates) and that the military is not exactly a democracy. You do lose leadership ability when your troops don't feel you care though.

Any opinions from the civilian world?
 
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dito is offline dito Post #2  April 3,2010, 5:42am
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I think you should only be fed MRE's but only you.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #3  April 5,2010, 8:41am
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dito wrote :
I think you should only be fed MRE's but only you.
LoL The new ones aren't that bad (actually better than some of the carp they serve in the chow halls). The calorie count in one of those things is ridiculous though. But hey, thanks for showing your concern.
 
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dito is offline dito Post #4  April 5,2010, 11:31am
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I like the mountain house freeze dried. I've never had an mre actually. I've heard they are good at first but after a few days they all taste like chemicals.

On a serious note they should just leave them there if they have a contract.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #5  April 10,2010, 5:27am
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dito wrote :
I like the mountain house freeze dried. I've never had an mre actually. I've heard they are good at first but after a few days they all taste like chemicals.

On a serious note they should just leave them there if they have a contract.
The freeze dried stuff is a lot better than MREs. They never allowed us to eat more than one MRE a day in basic training. Most of the time they just brought pre-made dining facility food in cases out to the field for us to eat. The army is too fat as it is, don't need to be making fat bodies in basic training. LoL

If you ever run across an Breakfast MRE run away, burn it, don't even feed it to your dog....just....don't. I don't know what in the world those eggs are really made of and probably don't wanna know.

The general isn't caring too much about their contract. Tax payers will pay that contract off instead of the soldiers who want the stuff. Not exactly sure how that will go down though. There is arguing amongst the higher ups regarding the issue. They have signs saying they will close at the end of this month though. We'll see how it goes. Until then I'm getting all the Dairy Queen Oreo Blizzards I can possibly get. LoL
 
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tweet37 is offline tweet37 Post #6  April 10,2010, 11:53am
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dwreese182 wrote :
If you ever run across an Breakfast MRE run away, burn it, don't even feed it to your dog....just....don't. I don't know what in the world those eggs are really made of and probably don't wanna know.
Reminds me of our c-rats. Every case of c-rats is a mixed variety of all the available meal packs. (All canned.) And each pack had a variety of other things like cake, candy, canned fruit, cigarettes, gum toilet paper, etc. Each case had a ham & eggs rat pack that was so bad, if you got stuck with it, you automatically got to pick an additional pack. So you got a double order of all the other stuff too.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #7  April 12,2010, 5:42am
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tweet37 wrote :
Reminds me of our c-rats. Every case of c-rats is a mixed variety of all the available meal packs. (All canned.) And each pack had a variety of other things like cake, candy, canned fruit, cigarettes, gum toilet paper, etc. Each case had a ham & eggs rat pack that was so bad, if you got stuck with it, you automatically got to pick an additional pack. So you got a double order of all the other stuff too.
A C-ration? Didn't they have those back in WWII? I believe they come out with those right after they invented dirt?
 
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tweet37 is offline tweet37 Post #8  April 12,2010, 8:47am
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dwreese182 wrote :
A C-ration? Didn't they have those back in WWII? I believe they come out with those right after they invented dirt?
Yep. And they kept making them well past the Vietnam era. Some were actually OK - like the spaghetti & meatballs, they actually tasted like Chef Boyardee. There was always a rush to get that one. The beef stew, on the other hand, made me think I was eating a can of dog food. On Mail Call a few months ago, Gunny opened a WW I K-ration. That stuff started to look like dirt.
 
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vegaschick is offline vegaschick Post #9  April 12,2010, 9:46am
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I can kind of understand why they are shutting down the fast food concessionaires. The TCN's in many of the areas are questionable, and the idea of having them on base isn't too smart. Though troops losing their access to wonderful 'taste of home' greasy burgers and fries isn't a great thing. My husband will survive his deployments without burgers and such, but he tends to only go through Subway withdrawals LOL I would rather have him come home alive than find out a TCN employee at a Burger King did the suicide bomber thing.
 
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dwreese182 is offline dwreese182 Post #10  April 14,2010, 4:25am
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vegaschick wrote :
I can kind of understand why they are shutting down the fast food concessionaires. The TCN's in many of the areas are questionable, and the idea of having them on base isn't too smart. Though troops losing their access to wonderful 'taste of home' greasy burgers and fries isn't a great thing. My husband will survive his deployments without burgers and such, but he tends to only go through Subway withdrawals LOL I would rather have him come home alive than find out a TCN employee at a Burger King did the suicide bomber thing.
Understand that there is a difference between a TCN (Third Country National) and a LN (Local National). TCNs are from the Philippines, India, Africa, Bahrain, Russia and so forth. LNs are from Afghanistan. There are no LNs (who are the ones to worry about) working in the food facilities. TCNs live on base, do not leave base unless in transit from base to base and that is with military escort. The threat of them doing anything violent, and I am not aware of any TCN incidents, are slim to none. You are far more likely having a friendly keeled by a soldier going off the deep end or from an alcohol related negligent discharge of a weapon.

LNs take out the trash, clean tables in DFACs (Dining Facilities, which are different than fast food), and clean toilets. Losing the fast food, along with other stores, will not change the threat of a LN doing something violent on base whatsoever. There have also been very few incidences where a LN has done anything on base. The bad ones are getting on base providing intelligence to outside groups. (most of the time they aren't bad, usually a rebel group has kidnapped their family to persuade the LN.)
 
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