How not to run a DFAC

One of the reasons I've heard people give why they don't like the Dining Facilities (DFACs) here is, "They don't serve American food." I've never really understood that (are spaghetti, pizza, or "French" fries American?), but I think I can give examples of what they're talking about.

Why am I eating french fries for breakfast? Because they're available, and I didn't find anything else I'd rather eat. They have pancakes, but no syrup.

Looking around, I thought, "I could use steak sauce." Hot sauce is hard to come by, and despite an extensive variety of things called "salads," (like bean salad, beet saclad, and carrot-cucumber mix), there's never any salad dressing, but they always have steak sauce out, no matter what meal it is.

So maybe the the food's not the problem so much as the management. It shows in these kinds of little things.

We call these "graham crackers" (and improper use of an apostrophe). I don't know why they're giving graham crackers out, but I'm going to guess when management ordered them they thought they were something else. Either way, calling graham crackers by their literal description is one of those things that says, "DFAC management is not American, and doesn't know what you want."

Here's a good way to decrease traffic at your DFAC:

Serving only water in the "Juices and Drinks" cooler. When I see that, it just makes me angry. If it were a command decision, like "To improve soldier health, we're not going to serve soft drinks," that'd one thing, but this is just poor management. Here's another one.

I don't drink coffee, but if I did, I wouldn't drink this.

One reason why my soldiers like going on mission is that they get to eat at better DFACs. They may have to wait in line a little, but they're willing to deal with that. By comparison, DFACs here in Kandahar have NO line.

Wait till you see the next post. "American" food has come to KAF.