It can’t be any worse than the current mystery meats
Jeff LPH 3 sends in this tidbit on the latest Defense appropriations bill. The one that passed the House includes a requirement that the military will buy two million pounds of buffalo meat from Native tribes. From Military Times;
House wants troops to chow down bison meat bought from native tribes
Want a hot bison sandwich on rye? The uncommon food product may soon be on the table for troops as Congress has proposed in its annual defense bill the Department of Defense purchase bison meat from native tribes and organizations.
House lawmakers passed their $840 billion version of the National Defense Authorization Act out of committee on June 23, incorporating a series of amendments that included, among others, a procurement measure for bison meat. The final annual defense bill must still be passed by the full House, and later agreed to by the Senate, which earlier in June passed its own version out of committee.
If passed, the Pentagon will begin “increasing procurement of bison meat…with the goal of procuring two million pounds of bison meat annually to promote bison as a healthy and sustainable food source and further treaty and trust responsibilities and Native American agriculture,” according to the amendment text.
The amendment would also direct the secretary of defense to provide a briefing to the House Committee on Armed Services by Feb. 1, 2023, outlining opportunities to increase the procurement of bison meat and other agricultural products from native tribes and organizations.
The amendment was introduced by Rep. Ruben Gallego, an Arizona Democrat and Marine veteran.
“The success of our nation’s armed forces is dependent upon its ability to innovate and use resources efficiently. One possible practice is the procurement and use bison meat in Indian Country,” Gallego said in a statement to Military Times. “As a leader in Congress on Tribal issues, I have seen the success Tribes have had in rehabilitating our country’s bison population, and the military would benefit from this meat to keep troops fed. That’s why my NDAA amendment is a cost-effective win for both our military and Indian Country.”
Buffalo is good eating, Not as fatty as beef though. Unless Uncle Sam buys only the offal and tailings. Which is probably what they’ll do.
Category: "Your Tax Dollars At Work"
Bison burgers in the chow hall.
Bison is delicious. I prefer it over beef. Or whatever that was they served under the brown gravy on Tuesdays.
The real question is this: In 8 years of army service I never saw them get those hash brown potato slices cooked correctly. They always came out as a disgusting cold blob of Nader cooked potatoes that were burned in a few places, but otherwise raw. That’s the real story here, veterans. Are they still serving these effed up potatoes to the troops? They belong in a hall of fame of bad chow. Right next to chicken ala king and the omelet with ham.
Bison? Hell, this is great news, although kinda unusual and indicative of government pandering.
Remember back in the day after earning my hat. I was really feeling my power. Chow hall advertised at breakfast ham and egg omelet but there was never any ham in it. After a week of this I got on the cook’s ass about changing the menu board. His response was to go directedly to mess officer. After a brief session of my replying yes sir, no sir, sorry sir, I left with my tail between my ass. We all went on eating ham and egg omelet without the ham.
Every chow hall I was in did eggs to order. I usually got an omelette with cheese, mushrooms, maybe ham. Cooked in front of me. Honestly, army breakfast back then was delicious. I looked forward to it. Our CO made sure we had good food. Except for those damn potatoes.
Every few months we did steak and lobster. I always enjoyed that. Especially the part at lunch when every officer on post was standing in line outside my chow hall and we got to go in front of all of them, since it was our chow hall. You don’t get many times to flex as a lower enlisted in the army, that was one of them.
I recall standing in line at the Ft Dix Mess Hall while
the cook served the eggs to your tray. Guy in front of
me pointed to the one he wanted and the cook said
“this one?…you want this one?” Guy says “yeah, that
one”. Cook proceeds to chop it up into a mess then
scoops it up and plants it on the guys tray then says
“now get the fuck outta here”. I didn’t dare laugh and
just took what he put on my tray next.
Was it something like this?
Had a similar experiance in that Sundays were eggs to order so on one Sunday, one of the mess cooks asks me how I wanted my eggs so to make things easy I said any way you want to and he takes a raw egg and cracks it over the tray and everyone on the chow line got a laugh on that one.
Roommate of mine at Leonard Wood asked the chow lady (civilian) for “Some of the Alpo.” I thought for sure she’d be pissed or have a smartass reply. Nope. She just scooped up the brown chunky stuff for him.
MidRats- eggs to order and whatever was left over from the evening meal. Spaghetti and an omelet- good to go.
MidRats – a couple of “Barney Clarks”*, a handful of greasy Navy fries, and a big cup of red “Bug Juice” with ice.
(For the information of our TAH Landlubbers:
A “Barney Clark” is a greasy Navy cheeseburger slider with a fried egg and mayo on top.)
Just what was required after a difficult nighttime recovery aboard the ship in shitty weather and with minimum fuel.
*Barney Clark was the world’s first recipient of an artificial heart.
Additional information for our TAH Landlubbers regarding Navy red “Bug Juice”.
TINS (This Is No Shit)
Aboard ship, red “Bug Juice” powder is not only used to make “Bug Juice” for consumption by the Sailors and Marines on the mess decks and in the wardroom; it is also used as a scouring powder to clean the urinals in the heads. It really gets those nasty urinals a-sparklin’!
AW1Ed, Jeff LPH 3 63-66, Forest Green, Hack Stone, and any of our other usual seagoing suspects can back me up on this.
Yep- works great on brass, too. Also, bug juice’s color is no indication of flavor.
I lived in Utah when Barney got his bionic heart. There was a sign on I-15 near downtown SLC with picture of a smiling Barney, captioned “X number of days with an artificial heart!” My twisted little mind wondered if the hospital had a betting pool on how long he’d make it.
The Rebel Burger at the enlisted Club (Trade winds) Norfolk NOB was the answer to a Mickey D burger.
Y’all know AF chow is pretty good. Not Michelin Star-quality, but more than serviceable. Even in basic the food was pretty good.
Brand new E-3 me goes to Ft Leonard Wood for tech school. One of the guys who’s been there a while is showing me around. He point to the chow hall and tells us the food’s not all that great. He specifically said, “The bacon is what you eat to remind yourself what bacon tastes like.” Confused, I asked no followups.
Fast forward a couple days, and I’m in line for morning chow and see a stack of perfectly crispy bacon behind the glass. I was very disappointed and suddenly understood exactly what the guy had meant. It was soft, flabby, and devoid of any flavor except a faint liquid smoke-like aftertaste. It was, as the man had said, what you got once every couple weeks to remind yourself what bacon tastes like. The closest thing I’ve ever tasted since was turkey bacon.
In the mid 80s I did a year at Osan. The standard joke was that the western food was tasteless.
The working hypothesis was the Korean cooks had a cookbook that included pictures and they could make stuff that looked exactly like the photo in the cookbook and tasted exactly like the paper it was printed on.
The beef bacon in Riyadh in the early 80s was something else entirely.
Gots me some locally sourced, grass fed, non hormone injected, grounded Bison Beast in the freezerator. It shorely be am some good eating. Eating place (The Blue Bell) in Custer (he got what he deserved) State Park serves Bison in many configurations…grounded, orast, steak, stew, cubed, BBQed and so on.
It took the destruction of the herds by “Cump” and “Little Phil” to take away the food source of Natives and subjugate them to the rez.
Sadly, the choice cuts will NOT filter down to the E-4 mafia or PVT Snuffy in the chow hall. Beans & Bison will become the new ham & muthers.
A bison will use their head to sweep the snow away from the prairie grass and eat, while a dumbass cow will die of thirst in snow up to it’s neck.
And sheep will huddle in freezing rain, creating an immobile mass of mutton, frozen into a clump. Funny as hell to see.
Ducks will freeze in place as the pond ices over during
the night. When I was a kid we used the frozen head as
a hockey puck on the local pond.
No shit, there I was… 1985, I’m working for a small local company that built lodgepole pine furniture and custom fencing. Did a big job for an obscenely rich NYC lady. She’d dropped an $20K on exotic ducks for her pond. Winter comes, ducks disappear, she assumes they joined the local ducks and headed south. Fast forward to the spring thaw… we found her ducks…
M. R. Ducks…
M. were Ducks.
So she was all set for Cold Duck?
Nah, she was out of town, we helped her husband dispose of the bodies before she got home. It seemed to be the humane thing to do.
I have noticed the nearby farmer’s bison will stay by themselves, away from the cows. It seems they don’t want to be associated with them.
Better than chicken 7 times a week.
Chicken a la king. Turkey a la king. Pheasant a la king. Squab a la king.
Hey now, this is all the same stuff!
Never had Buffalo but I’ve been buffalowed many times.
Moose meat is a real treat and also low in fat, high in protein.
Did not get a permit this year but I can hunt as a subpermitee
on a friends permit. Looking to fill the freezer this Fall.
I’ll take 100 lbs, please.
Hot and fast for lean meat as bison, elk and venison. Otherwise low and slow.
Otherwise, I’d be willing to try mixing it in with some meatloaf or sausage.
I wonder if Ted Turner is as much Native American as Squawsnatch Fauxcahontas Warren.
Government set asides for Native American owned businesses? The champagne must be flowing at the corporate headquarters of All Points Logistics this morning.
Last I look isn’t Bison way more expensive than beef? Sounds like the bio fuel debacle.
We have a winner!
Back in the day, Bison meat/cuts were available at the Fort Carson commissary about every other month. But you gotta figure that since Rabbit (8905-00-273-3622), Beer Sausage (8905-01-413-8062), and Alligator Nuggets (8905-01-414-3158) are already on the DOD’s list of available mess chow, this was going to come around.
But as I was browsing around through the listings for Federal Supply Class 8905, I found that one of our allies (the Belgiques) have a stock number for Smoked Horse (8905-13-107-5367). Let’s just hope the whole world doesn’t go down to the point where the US troops have to eat their own horses.
Back in the day, they ate quite a few of their mules. I imagine some horses met the same fate when soldiers on extended excursions in the field were verging on starving.
Speaking of mules, a couple of weeks ago at Jake Clark’s Mule Day rodeo and shindig in the little town of Ralston, WY (where Mrs. Claw was the Postmaster at one time, population 100) the top two mules at the auction sold for 52K each.
So, Big Army’s Breeding Mule Program is back on track?
Yep, actually the top four mules sold at the over Father’s Day weekend auction were:
Hip #8 Tin Man 52K
Hip #9 ROSE 52K
Hip #25 Flower 48K
and Hip # 13 Pairadice’s Rooster at 34K
That is some expensive mule flesh.
Where they trained jumpers?
I have heard from those who have them, that once you have owned a good, well-trained mule, you will never go back to horses. For mountain work, they can survive on forage that a horse will starve on. They are also more surefooted than a horse.
Where have you been? Having you ever been to the Enlisted Club?
Fresh(er) meat than salt pork and jerky? I bet it was a big hit.
Only place I ever saw rabbit in the chow hall was at Beautiful Camp Coiner, home of the 304th Signal Battalion.
SERE, Rangeley Mountains, People’s Republic of North America.
Two rabbits were dispatched, skinned and divvied up between the 30-odd students. Last meal for about a week.
Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center- we had rabbit as an entrée during the Cold Weather Medicine Course…😁
Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center Mountain Survival Course 1986.
We were given two rabbits during our first day of survival training in the field. That was all we were provided with for the next 9 days that we spent out in the field. Everything else that we ate during those 9 days was whatever we could catch/trap/kill using our survival knives and the survival gear that was contained in our SV-2 survival vests.
My cat like rabbits, but he can’t eat a whole one.
Bunnies do taste good. All kidding aside.
May 1977 Hurlburt Field FL while attending ROTC field training. Saturday a group of us including two females went to lunch and several asked for fried chicken. Was informed it was rabbit by food handler/mess attendant.
All proceeded to the table to eat. After a moment of eating I expressed the opinion that he wasn’t kidding it was rabbit. To which one of the ladies questioned my judgement. I responded have you ever seen a drumstick thigh combo that was white meat before. It ruined her appetite.
I lost contact with her over the years but 22 years later she retired as a Lt Col KC-135 IP and was only 19 years old when she was commissioned.
At Wrigley Field in Chicago, there is a kiosk that sells bison burgers, bison dogs, bison brats … they are a little pricier than the usual ball game fare, but well worth it. No matter what else I do when I catch a Cubs game back home, I make sure to have at least one treat from the bison stand.
Wait!?…..What?!
Ummmm…….don’t both bison and cattle emit “toxic methane flatulence”? Isn’t that why the Current Illegal Regime pushing The Green Nude Eel? So then why is the Current Illegal Regime pushing Bison over cattle? Enquiring minds…….
Bison emit 100% organic naturally produced no growth hormone methane flatulence, and is therefore acceptable.
Buffalo (American Bison) are difficult to raise for meat. They behave like the wild animals they are. More people are killed or injured by them at Yellowstone than any other animal. But their meat is low in fat and can be quite tasty. On the other hand, I ate some at an Indian Wars reenactment that was rather tough. Every year this event is held in Wyoming or Montana where these Indian reenactors camp in teepees and battle a bunch of cavalry reenactors. It is a by invitation only event with no spectators. Participating was an incredible experience, especially when you are shot with a blunted arrow.
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Cool. I went to a reenactment at the Little Big Horn. Great fun.
I did the Little Big Horn reenactment in 1999. It was the culmination of a two-week cavalry boot camp near the battlefield. My buddy and I trailered our horses to Montana. It was quite an experience being chased by half a dozen 13 to 15-year-old Indian boys on their ponies. I was a conspicuous target, as I was carrying the colors, so they wanted capture the flag. Good thing my thoroughbred could outrun them.
I remember seeing “Custer’s Army” on the battlefield. Very impressive. And I met the owner of the land. Crow Indian. Really nice guy.
Learned a lot on that battlefield. Mostly that Custer was nuts to attack. They also covered a LOT of ground in a short time from the time they first saw the Indians to first contact.
Definitely checked off a bucket list item going there.
I used to deploy to Olongapo a LOT. We used to call the BBQ they sold on the street “PI Mystery Meat”. Very tasty as long as you didn’t think too much about what it might be.
There was also a taco joint on Gordon. Went there for lunch one day with a shipmate. He wanted beef tacos. Waitress disappeared in the back and almost immediately heard a dog yelp. “Getting your lunch ready, bud!”
We won’t go into balut.
But my favorite when I was aircrew were the box lunches from AF chore halls. The chicken ones. It allowed us to play the game “Name That Chicken Part”. Nobody ever won cause, well, it was impossible to figure out!
Heh. Those aren’t Easter Eggs.
Heh. The “Balut Man” used to sell his wares way late. The girls would scarf them up, then chase us around trying to get us to kiss them. Good times. Ha!
I was issued an Air Force box lunch by a USAF Flight Kitchen one time during a refueling stop at an AFB during a cross-country ferry flight that consisted of nothing but candy bars and cookies. No semi-rotten fruit; no dry horse cock sandwiches; and certainly no unidentifiable mystery chicken.
Just candy and cookies.
It was as if my little kids had packed a lunch for me.
Strangest thing to show up in our box lunches during Gulf War, Round I, was a bagged delight called “shrimp chips.”
Smelled like ammonia and cat food. An opened bag would occasionally wind up beneath the TACCO’s station. It got pretty rank after a few hours at 200 ft and 100 degrees tube temp.
Ugh…
During my first night in Korea as a wet-behind-the-ears Joe fresh out of OSUT, I was prowling Itaewon with an E6 who was starting his second tour there and we ate some mystery meat on a stick from some kiosk where the Aijima” wanted us to return the bamboo skewers so she could use them again. As I dined on that meat, the song “How Much is that Doggie in the Window” came to mind!
Bwahaha!
There is not enough San Miguel and Tanduay to get me drunk enough to eat balut.
Rep Ruben?
This is a joke right?
At least it ain’t insects!
They served elephant at the Mare Island Mess Hall when I was at Nuke school. It was for Black History Month.
I am thinking that was not elephant. The powers that be just told you that because they did not want to tell y’all what you were really eating. Ask Claw, but I doubt there is an NSN for elephant meat.
Yep, you’re right rgr. There is no NSN for elephant meat that I could find. However, I did happen to come across an NSN that our resident Swabbies may be interested in for Swordfish Steaks (8905-01-414-1582).
Also, just for general info, I can report that our NATO ally France has three different stock numbers for different unit of issue sized/types of Escargot./smile
Once upon a long time ago, rabbits were doing what rabbits do and we ate rabbit at least once a week in Air Force dining halls.
Sheppard AFB 1984. First time I ate Bugs Bunny. I went back as my chicken tasted a little funny, walked up to the line and it had a big sign, ifin I had read “RABBIT”, I’d have not thought my chicken tasted funny. Went bac thte table and ate dinner. Huh, this ain’t so bad, just gamey.
Speaking of “Mystery Meats” anyone else remember what McDonald’s got caught putting in their burger meats a few times in the 70’s and 80’s? We heard they found traces of monkey, horse and kangaroo in their patty meats! As for Bison, I find them every bit as tasty as any other Herbivore I’ve ever eaten, I’m always good for a Bison Burger and had Bison Steak as a kid. Quite tasty, but it was lean and tough!
Only time I ate Bison was at an adult training at the Philmont Scout Ranch. They have their own herd, and during a week-long adult training Bison is on the menu once. I liked it a lot.
For donors at a certain level, I understand, one may hunt one of the Philmont Scout Ranch herd.
Beaver is pretty good eating, too. The one rattlesnake I ate was tough. I’ve done lots of rabbit and squirrel, of course.
If that armadillo that I popped in my yard tonight hadn’t run under the house, I might be thinking of Hoover Hog…
I’ve heard that “Possum on the Half Shell” aka Armadillo is not bad, but it’s greasy!
Ya bake ’em with sweet taters, API. It helps soak up the grease a bit.
I’ve heard that some armadillos carry leprosy.
https://www.cdc.gov/leprosy/transmission/index.html
Also, every Texan I’ve ever met has told me that there’s no such thing as a living armadillo, because they only find them dead beside the road or under your bumper.
I can’t wait for the greenies and peta folks to have their heads explode over this. It should rival some cities fireworks displays.