The way chow was served at Camp Bondsteel was its own special set of quirks. I have already touched on one of those quirks: how they insisted on piling everything together into one single giant lump of food, no matter what the individual bits were. Your potatoes, beans, meat cobbler… it all got piled on top of each other.

I learned very quickly to ask for my macaroni and cheese specifically in its own separate bowl and sometimes other things too.

But one thing that also never failed: you would ask for a particular item, and they would give you whatever would fit in about a teaspoon (okay, I exaggerate, but not by much). I don’t know if they were going off of some weird interpretation of a regulation “serving” or what. Then, if you asked for a little bit more, then they put away the teaspoon and pulled out the snow shovel instead.

I also learned very quickly to be absolutely sure of how hungry I was before asking for “a little bit more,” because they would oblige in a big way.

But then again I have always said that a “serving” is “just enough to make you mad.”

Until next time!