It's paying to go on deployment that really hurts. What a shit show
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VFA or VAQ?
- Thread starter Carolina Cruizer
- Start date
Amen. I don’t understand how this hasn’t been addressed yet.
Couple of years ago an XO at the time asked the question to the Flags at Hook. "We'll look into it." Right
My favorite was spending some time at J-bad and BAF and realizing everyone else supporting the war was getting per diem, free food, and even a take what you want mini-mart while our dumb asses were flying 6-9 hour missions, eating PBJs because that's all the SuppO could figure out and paying $400 something a month to do so.
I can't help but wonder who benefits from this asinine policy? Where does the money actually go?
For the uninitiated: Sailors lose BAS while embarked on USN ships, on the theory the ship is providing all their meals. Meanwhile many of them still have a spouse and kids at home to feed. Officers keep BAS, but then pay more than BAS to "the ship's mess". Ergo, your grocery bill goes UP while you're on deployment, generally by several hundred dollars a month.
That's totally unacceptable.
Yet? You do know this problem goes back to before my time, 45 years ago. Everyone bitches about it and for a long time. It hasn't been solved because somehow it has been endorsed over and over without scrutiny, or it is benefiting others who are in a position to derail changes.
And racking up Air Medals because each "sortie" didn't include going up and down the damn Boulevard.
You've kind of answered your own question. It goes to help pay off the overall ship's bill. It's not uncommon to hit a port where the food is more than expected, which puts the SuppO over-budget. The officer's mess bill, which is more than COMRATS, helps off-set that slightly (or maybe more than slightly on a bigger ship). See, you're helping. TYFYS.
Note, I'm not endorsing this policy. It pissed me off too, especially when I'd be flying and come back with no food saved for us. That's when I started tallying missed meals and refusing to pay for them each month.
When food at the DFAC in Qatar costs more than expected, where does the money come from to take care of things? No mess dues there.
The Navy can solve this. They just don’t want to.
Years ago I was at Bagram waiting to pick up a soldier who was flying in. A Navy F-18 crew (2 seater but I don’t recall if it was VFA or VAQ) came by and asked where they could get some chow. I had time so I walked them over to the DFAC and lucky days….it was surf and turf day! On the way in they paused at the desk, I guess to pay .but I just told them to go eat and told the PFC they were an army aircrew from the 160th! Nobody asks about the 160th.
I diverted to Kandahar for a few days once. Chow was just scanning your ID (and it was 24/7). I ate much better than on the boat, and didn’t pay a penny. With the board walk, we had lots of paid options for different food and QoL too. Except for the rocket/mortar attacks, life on that base really wasn’t too bad by 2011.
When I did my CAOC rotation, Qatar was even better food and quality-wise, and (sarcastic shocked face) no mess dues there, either.
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When I was in Djibouti in 2010 we just signed in at the galley for each meal. Except they definitely weren’t checking that list against anything. My 6’6” IFT who worked out twice a day and had the most ridiculous metabolism ever was eating 4-5 meals a day and never got caught. He was actually a little sad when we left since he wouldn’t get all that free food any more.
Agreed. I'm not an idiot, and fully realized we were subsidizing the sailors meals. Which I guess is a nice thing to do in the make believe land of the navy where we don't have "funds" to just outright fund everyone's meals on a combat deployment. But to your point, it is insulting when you realize what all the other services are able to do. Probably at higher cost in some more remote places (AFG would probably fit that bill).
@wink your point is exactly mine. It's been an unacceptably long time that this standard has been accepted. 45 years is far too long to be doing our own thing, forcing service members to actually pay more, for less services.
Wanna improve retention big navy? Get rid of some of these asinine policies that just rub everyone the wrong way for absolutely no reason. I'm not saying this would move the needle alone, but a start would not be charging aircrew/officers $350/month for shitty food everyone else gets for free (that OBTW, they often aren't around to eat).
