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Where is Ft. Greely? Try back-of-beyond, Alaska.\u00a0 NNE of Anchorage in that largely empty part of the map… yeah, not someplace people flock to – unless they are under orders. 350 or so permanent party, more when some of the frequent exercises take place there. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it is a “census designated town”, which sounds like\u00a0 “we didn’t want to call it a town but too many people live in the general area. Ironically, Wikipedia says the annual precipitation is only about 12”, so think of someplace as dry as El Paso but lots further colder. I mean north.<\/p>\n
The post in a bitterly cold corner of Alaska is home to approximately 350 soldiers, including those of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion, which operates 40 of the military’s 44 specialized missiles designed to shoot down nuclear or other ballistic missiles targeting the United States.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I’m going to stick my neck out and say they’re important. Critical function important. Maybe they should be fed?<\/p>\n
“Since October 2025, Fort Greely has faced a temporary reduction in (dining facility) operating hours due to unexpected civilian workforce retirements and attrition,” said command spokesperson Lira Frye. Her statement did not address any potential impact related to DOGE cuts.<\/p>\n
The base experienced a “critical disruption in food service operations” after the remote Army base lost “essential” federal civilian cooks in the wake of efforts to shrink the workforce, said an Army official whose name was redacted in an official contract document published Jan. 7.<\/p>\n
The document, a legal justification for an emergency no-bid contract awarded to staff the fort’s dining facility, blamed the issue on staff retirements combined with a federal hiring freeze and a buyout program launched by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Have to give props to the local command – they increased food allowances so soldiers could afford to eat off post (but Delta Junction, the local we’ll-call-it-a-town, has less than 1,000 inhabitants – 918 according to the 2020 census)\u00a0 so the number of places to eat is , shall we say, limited. Here’s a comparison – I know a town in East Texas that has 1200+ inhabitants, a Subway, a pizza joint, two Mexican places, and a couple of doughnut shops. At least the local command is trying, and trying to cut through the red-tape BS.<\/p>\n
\nRobert Evans, a veteran and quality-of-life advocate for soldiers who created the Hots&Cots app for troops to review their living conditions, told USA TODAY that the Fort Greely food service disruption represents “a quality-of-life failure.”<\/p>\n
“We saw early warning signs with the Deferred Resignation Program drawdown at Fort Hood,” one of the Army’s largest installations, in Texas, “where leadership acknowledged impacts to barracks (quality) and work order response times,” Evans said. He said the program “didn’t just reduce headcount on a spreadsheet; it removed the civilian workforce that keeps basic functions running.”USA Today<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But we keep getting told that contracting out food, housing, etc. to civilians is more efficient… yet here they let the civilians go. Is anyone running the nursery? Anyone else think we need real cooks, mess sergeants, and chow halls again?<\/p>\n
Anyone else remember the days when we laughed at USSR troops who had crap barracks, poor food, and no money?<\/p>\n
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