Let them eat cake!
Better take your blood pressure meds… I know mine were insufficient.
We all know how BAS is supposed to work, right? You live in the barracks, you eat in the chow halls free – because you have ‘the card’. Now, you pay for the card – it costs your monthly BAS payment but you should get three squares a day in exchange. Folks who are authorized to eat elsewhere, like quarters or authorized off-post residents, receive their BAS but they have to pay for the chow hall meals. (Apologies to the other services, I call ’em chow halls – I know y’all have your own terminology but this one is Army oriented.)
Should be cut and dried. But it ain’t.
The U.S. Army is redirecting millions of dollars it has collected from the Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) pay for soldiers living in barracks away from food services, according to a report.
The money is supposed to help soldiers with food costs, but a Military.com investigation found that of the $225 million collected from enlisted soldiers’ BAS pay last year at 11 of the Army’s largest bases, $151 million was directed elsewhere.
Wait, what? That’s taking almost 70% of the subsistence costs for food and spending it on – what?
The outlet’s investigation found that all but two of the bases they looked into – Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska and Fort Bliss in Texas – had redirected more than 50% of the money away from feeding soldiers.
It’s not clear what the redirected money is being spent on.
Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, said the data should be investigated.
“Stealing food money from our soldiers is not how we achieve military readiness,” Tokuda told Military.com. “The fact that at least $151 million was collected from soldiers and not spent on food as required demands not just an immediate investigation, but swift accountability.”
Swift accountability? It demands a goddamned HORSEWHIP. How many remember this?
The Army has struggled to provide meals for soldiers in recent years, the outlet reported, noting that its most extensive base, Fort Cavazos in Texas, only had two of its 10 dining halls open in the summer of 2023 and last November, Fort Carson in Colorado was forced to serve soldiers meals of just lima beans and toast.
Well, maybe the lack of dining halls makes more sense when 68% of the food money is STOLEN.
Oh, and before we start getting confused:
Food service worker salaries and dining hall infrastructure funds come from separate source, the outlet noted.
So it’s not money used for the workers salaries instead, it’s not used for the infrastructure…this is FOOD money. And what do the rats look like, other than the aforementioned lima beans on toast?
Some bases have also started serving prepackaged meals from kiosks – that the outlet found were generally high in sugar and low in protein – a cheaper alternative to cooked dining hall meals.
Not that soldiers are buying plastic wrapped sandwiches because they prefer them – but because it’s the only option they have.
Officials in the past have pointed to lower interest in dining hall meals as soldiers frequently report undercooked meat, a lack of fresh ingredients, and unseasoned meals being served there. Fox News
Calling some old-school senior mess sergeants? They served generally decent food, profanely cooked, grumpily served, that looked like and tasted like FOOD. But we privatized the mess halls, we converted the cooks to what, transgender hand-holders, and now we steal the food money to use for – what?
This is Army- and installation-level stuff, and a whole bunch of senior NCOs and officers need to fry. Probably some of these supposed dining facility folks too.
Couple of sacred things used to hold true – you could screw with soldiers’ lives, marriages, time off, deployments maybe….but you NEVER EVER FREAKIN’ EVER mess with their mail or their food. May not be great food… but get ’em real food. And don’t steal their food money.
Okay, DOGE – you’re looking for fraud and waste?
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Army, Crime
