After specialist contacts congressman, Army admits soldiers got ‘sub-optimal’ food

Soldiers received “sub-optimal” meal service while taking part in a major exercise last month at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, an Army colonel acknowledged in a recent letter to a member of Congress.

The July 27 letter from Col. Nicholas Sinclair, which has been shared on social media, came in response to an inquiry from Rep. Jeff Crank of Colorado, who had been contacted by an Army specialist about the meal issues at the National Training Center. A spokesperson at Fort Carson, Colorado, where the 4th Infantry Division is based, confirmed to Task & Purpose that the letter was authentic.

Sinclair wrote that the concerns the specialist had raised about the quality of the food available to soldiers were “valid,” explaining that all meals provided to soldiers in the field during the exercise were provided by a local vendor.

“However, due to high employee turnover and staffing shortages, the meal service was sub-optimal for 4th Infantry Division Soldiers,” Sinclair wrote.

At the time the letter was written, Sinclair was commander of the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. The unit has since become a Stryker brigade.

Army officials talked to the vendor, which received a “Corrective Action Request” on June 30 and then took steps to correct the issues, Sinclair wrote.

The specialist who contacted Crank said they knew that Army leaders are required to answer an inquiry from a member of Congress, which would force them to look into the food situation. The soldier also told Task & Purpose that since he exited the simulated combat zones at the center known as “the box” at the end of July, the food is “a good 65% better”

Nearly 10,000 troops took part in the recent exercise at the National Training Center. Photos posted to social media and shared to both the unofficial Army subreddit and the Hots & Cots app show small portions, bad toppings, such as expired salsa, and appear to show shortages of food. The food was provided to the soldiers before they went “in the box,” where troops lived as if in the field. The actual exercise ran 10 days, from July 20 to 29, but soldiers with the 4th Infantry Division arrived in advance, with some arriving in late June.

The food at the chow hall was available for breakfast and dinner, with participating troops having to go to private vendors or eat Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, for lunch or meals. But soldiers reported long lines for the chow hall and poor food offerings. 

“Some of it was inedible,” a junior officer with 4th Infantry Division told Task & Purpose. “Some sausages that you couldn’t tell were that bad on purpose or not. Protein ran out more than once. Some of the empty trays are because dudes didn’t take everything that was available, but those optional items at the end of the chow line looked pretty bad more than once.”

Rob Evans, an Army veteran and founder of the Yelp-like Hots & Cots app, said that he heard from soldiers, both officers and enlisted, in mid-July who reached out about “subpar, not great” food options. 

Soldiers who spoke to Task & Purpose said that complaints were widespread and that they raised these concerns to leadership. However, the junior officer said that there was no official response beyond substituting MREs for food at the chowhall.

“It wasn’t a ‘you’re new to the Army this is the standard,’” kind of issue, the officer said.

Evans said he wasn’t sure if the training center was prepared to have a full division come through — which is between 10,000 and 15,000 soldiers, compared to a brigade, which can have between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers. 

“NTC is not going to be your great [dining facility] meal; you’re not having campus-style dining, but you expect more than what these service members got,” Evans told Task & Purpose.

The junior officer was more blunt: “I get NTC is supposed to suck, but it went from suck to insulting.”