Sandbags for Dinner

You are aware of the phrase singing for your supper, well the US Marines at Hurricane Point have a different variation. It is called “Sandbagging for Chow”. Just before you enter the chow hall there is a pile of sand and a stack of empty sandbags and before you can enter each person must fill two sand bags with 40 lbs of sand tie them off and throw them on a stack.

It takes but a couple of minutes but the pile continues to grow, at this base we get two meals a day that are bought over form the main Military Base at Camp Ramadi in 7 ton armored trucks with armored military Humvee’s escorting them. Sort of like Pizza delivery boys with attitude, but here the delivery boys have body armor and kevlar helmets.

Food comes twice a day in Vat Cans, sort of like large cool boxes that are designed to ensure that food is Luke warm. Tonight’s dinner was a classic, if you ordered it in a restaurant your request to the Maitre D would have been something like this …

“I would like an old T Bone steak with gristle cooked four hours ago and served medium Cold, along with a side serve of green peas that can turn mushy under air pressure with mashed potatoes triple super sized so that it drops off the side of the plastic plate and then can you top it with brown gravy to disguise the taste of anything under it. And your finest bottle of 2006 Tabasco Sauce so that I can really enjoy it with my meal.”

All jokes aside the chow is good and the meal times are looked forward to here. And you are allowed to carry weapons into the food hall and no one complains.