--- Pádraig Linskey <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> And who, pray tell, feeds the troops in war theatres, such as Iraq.
> During my service, the cooks and their kitchens were providing hot meals
> right alongside the MASH units providing medical care.

That's what MREs are for. :)

> I guess you could get civilians to do that stuff, but I don't think they
> will less expensive than their military counterparts.

There are still military cooks but these days, the armed forces are having a
tough time recruiting for enlisted positions. (There are still more than enough
officers to go around.) So contracting out to health food corps is a logical
choice and is certainly cheaper. With military employees, come military
benefits like cost of living allowance, medical care, dependant care,
retirement, etc. The average food service company really only has to pay
minimum wage. Now they probably pay a bit more than that plus heath care and
some benefits, but those are far cheaper than the military benefits. And as the
original posted pointed out, it frees up soldiers to do other things.

From my experience at Ft. Belvoir, there are still military personnel who work
in the kitchens but fewer of them now.

As for contracting out archaeologists, are all the archaeologists contracted
out or just mainly the excavation crews? I'd assume that the park services have
at least one staff archaeologist on site to oversee the contractors. (Haven't
read all the posts on this.)

Deb

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