From: Jim White

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: Zama

Thanks for passing my e-mail address on to Kevin. However, in reading his reply, my first thought that while "always" has only has six letters it is actually a very long word! I can remember when, in the 1960's, the Camp Zama Personnel Section was on the first floor of the "Little Pentagon" just under the CG's offices and was filled with perhaps 25 or more enlisted men. There was one officer, a CW4 Dye, and I don't recall seeing a single civilian of any nationality. Today, it is in a different building and without a single uniform in sight. Also, today, with 75% of the staff being civilian, there may be some "officers in charge" but are they really "in charge of civilians in the military sense"?

Jim

From: Bob Nelson (in reply to Paul Poppino's 's message)

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: New Rule

One of my sons currently serving in the Middle East--"They try."

Bob

From: Mike Jackson

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: New Reality Amen,

Frank, amen. I've been meaning to ask my senator for a long time why there is a need for the Wounded Warrior Project.

Mike

From: Bob Nelson (in reply to Ken Kalish's message)

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: New Rule "Bullshit." Well put sir.

Bob

From: Frank Rogers

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: New Reality Group,

If anyone would like to see the real cost of the present wars, just go to any military hospital. The wife and I have to go to the Navy Regional Medical Hospital - called Balboa - quite often and see the men there without various/multiple limbs. I thought I had seen it all when I saw a guy in wheelchair with only a left arm.... More recently I saw a man with NO extremities being fed by another man. Then, I do see remarkable sights of men walking very well on two prosthetic legs. They have overcome. What really gripes me is the public campaigns seeking money to support the "wounded warriors." That should NEVER be necessary. It is the duty of the government who sent them into combat to be responsible for all consequences.

Frank

From: Frank Rogers

Date: June 23, 2013

Subject: Zama Received from a friend at Camp Zama.

Frank
~~~~~~~~~~
MG Boozer was to take command three days after MG Harrison was suspended. He is in charge now. And three of the four colonels also have their replacements in under normal rotations. Business is going on as usual as these suspensions do not stop the hard work of the others. Actually, MG Harrison's fault is that he didn't report it up the chain as he should have when this started months ago. There is an ongoing investigation but he was hoping (I guess) for the outcome before he had to take action. And Camp Zama HQ, it's always been 50 percent MLC* and about 1/4 civilian and 1/4 military. We just had several selected for promotion from Maj to Lt Col Wednesday, my boss included. All this just comes at the worst time when only two weeks earlier the White House said they wanted sexual assault issues in DoD taken care of now. Waiting to see what big Army does next. We also have a great deputy commander who can make things run smoothly.

From: Steve Poppino

Date: June 22, 2013

Subject: New Rule

Having worked as a "contractor" (but not a cook) my wife and I both ate in the troop dining facilities. The food was outstanding and the workers (from KBR) were clean, professional and always helpful. The highlight of our day was chow time in the morning or at night. We ate MRE's for lunch as we were in the field training Police officer for the Afghans. The troops always liked the choices and it was a huge moral lifter. I too ate C-Rats in Nam and also "Lurps" (which I preferred), and hated the greasy canned crap served in the Mess halls. When I would get to Nha Trang or Saigon I would eat on the economy. I hate to see the hot A's removed from Afghan land but I want our men and women to come home I'm sure this is a process to do that. They deserve the best we can provide. As to fighting Contractor cooks, it is not legal to have in your hands a weapon. My wife and I were armed with M-4's and 9mm pistols and both of use were trained and ready to deal with any combat issue. I thank all those who served and are serving in the middle east. It's like Vietnam, it sucks, but we do what our commanders tell us to do, because we serve whether in uniform or as supporting cooks, bakers and candle stick makers. Semper Fi!

Best Regards,

From: Lakadm@aol.com

Date: June 22, 2013

Subject: New Rule

Amen, Brother.

From: Jim White

Date: June 22, 2013

Subject: New Rule

Ken, I wholeheartedly agree. About the only Army base I really ever get to is Camp Zama, located not too far from Tokyo. It is a small place--maybe only 2,500 people or so and has a single "military" dining facility. I put "military" into parenthesis because it is 100% civilian. Opps, sorry, the head-count duty soldier is selected from a duty roster of E-5s and below so it is not quite 100% civilian. This change-over from military to civilian occurred perhaps 3 or 4 years ago. When it was run by the military, it was often named as one of the best mess halls in the Army in the "small garrison" category. Hasn't won anything since. The weekdays hours are reasonable but on Saturdays it is open from mid-morning to 1300 or so for a "brunch" and then in the evening for dinner from 1600 to 1700 only (with mostly cold sandwiches). Sundays are worse, with only a mid-morning to early afternoon "brunchupper" (?). [Hey, I just invented a new word!] Otherwise, your choices of dining at Zama are the Food Court (Popeye's Chicken, Some Chain's Pizza, Burger King or Subway). At least Subway isn't greasy! The only other choice is the Community (combined E-1 through 0-whatever) Club. However, it tends towards steaks and other more expensive meals. Since it is (and has always been since 1945) "peacetime" at Camp Zama, none of this is nearly as critical as what Ken outlined in his message--but I'd sure like a real "Army Mess Hall." Some other Camp Zama News. About two weeks ago, MG Harrison, the Commanding General of US Army Japan (USARJ) was suspended from duty because he apparently cooperated in a cover-up of a high-ranking office accused of rape by a Japanese female on-base employee. Several other high-ranking officers have also been suspended but I have no details as to jobs or names. Then, just last Monday,Colonel Tilley, Commander of the U.S. Army Garrison Japan at Zama was also suspended from duty based upon allegations of misconduct and even his GS civilian deputy has also been "temporarily detailed to other duties locally." I'm beginning to get curious about who is left in charge?!

My wife has been involved with the U.S. military for many years. In 1945, of course, she was one of the recipients of a series of B-29 bombings. But from 1946 or 1947 she began to work for the U.S. forces, with a variety of jobs such as a ticket seller, mess hall waitress, ration-breakdown clerk, etc. She has been just a dependent wife (mine) since 1956 or so. (The exception to that was 16 months or so as a motel maid in Monterey, CA in 1957/59 and as a Post Exchange Waitress/Cook at Fort Belvoir, VA in 1965/67. Her reaction to all the goings-on at Camp Zama is basically "There's too dang many civilians and not enough soldiers in the Army!" And, she is right! About the only Army unit that isn't 50% or more civilian is the USARJ Army Band and perhaps the MPs--but they still have a lot of help from Japanese civilian guards at the gates, etc. If you go to USARJ Hqs, you are lucky if you see any officers below the grade of Major or enlisted of any kind (other than the Command Sergeant Major). Back to my first paragraph, I honestly don't know where those who are detailed head count in the dining hall even come from! The only real benefit (at least benefit that we get personally) from all this "civilian-ization" is that one of the doctors at the Camp Zama Clinic is a contract civilian who has been there for 20+ years and, as a result, he is the first doctor we have ever had that we could consider to be our "family doctor." Until connecting with him, if we were being transferred or our doctor was being transferred.

Thanks for listening (reading),

Jim

From: Ken Kalish

Date: June 22,2013

Subject: New Rule

Ya know …

You know as well as I that the model of contracting out meal service was supposed to be this great cost savings for the military budget. No more tattooed mess sergeant scooping reconstituted scrambled eggs onto your SOS and grits. Those 25 to 50 hash slingers could be turned into lean, mean fighting machines, and every person in uniform would be free forever from KP duty. I have eaten my share of C-rats and K-rats, but that was always a result of being out in the field training or out there in Charlie’s back yard looking for something fun to do. When we ten or fifteen guys came in from a two or three day patrol we spent two hours squaring away our equipment, fueling our boats, cleaning weapons, rearming, replacing depleted medical supplies and pulling perturbed snakes out of our impellers. Then we headed for our compound. We were filthy. We stank. Sometimes our clothing was little more than brown rags from wandering around in saw grass. Sometimes there was more dried blood than grease on us. We were bone-weary, usually burned darkly from a merciless sun, often nursing feet that hadn’t been dry in days. We would have consumed ten or twelve meals from individual cans or bars, and sometimes there wasn’t enough of that to last us for the whole patrol because of unforeseen events such as combat, which kept us out longer than some tight-assed supply Chief thought we should be gone. When things were really tight we ate tiny, dehydrated cereal bars and pemmican, and we drank lots of water. So there we are, snoozing in the back of the ammo truck as it pulls into the compound. Our River Division CO had two iron-clad rules. The first was that whatever ammunition we felt we needed was given to us, no matter what the official paperwork dictated. The second was that every crew coming in from patrol was immediately served a hot meal. 02:00, hot breakfast. 22:30, hot supper. 05:30, half an hour before the mess decks opened for breakfast and there stood the mid-rats crew with pancakes, eggs to order, SOS, fruit, milk, juice, coffee, hash browns, sausage, oatmeal, dry cereals, bug juice, and reconstituted powdered milk laced with a little butter. I have never smoked, so guess who got all my tobacco ration. Those guys fed us, not just because it was their duty shift but because they all knew that if they ever had to pick up an M-14 and defend themselves, we were all dead. That second night of Tet, when our compound was overrun, the mess crew was busy packing hot food into insulated packs and cans. They were the first out, and by the time our crews got to the piers at 01:00 they already had been passing out hot food to Americans from MACV, the Army armor advisors, and the Vietnamese RAGs for half an hour. That was a morale issue, and it helped us make the most of a really shitty situation for four days. So some wiz kid in accounting decided it cost too much to pay enlisted folks to run mess facilities, that if the military contracted that work out then the funds would come from someone else’s budget. The military grumbled a bit, but didn’t put up much of a fight. And now we come to another wiz kid idea. Cut back from four hot meals a day to two, and those two only in daytime hours to prevent contractors from having to pay overtime. I don’t suppose our warriors out there at the pointy-end of the stick, in the dirt, getting to learn to dance in full pack, are ever again going to see a field kitchen. Call it hubris, but the entire concept of our military being so elite that learning how to peel potatoes is beneath them is, IMHO, a serious problem. The day that bad guys come through the walls and word goes out that every warm body needs to suit up and shoot, how many of the contractors who clean steam tables are going to be anything more than slow targets? Who among them is going to spend what may well be his or her last hour of life making sure that those troops get fed? Even if they buy “protection” on the black market, exactly how proficient will they be when it comes down to making a contribution to defending themselves? Bullshit.

Ken

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