The Military's Pricey Restaurant Tastes: Gone Are the Days of Grunts Peeling Potatoes

By Nick Turse, Metropolitan Books. Posted May 8, 2008.

The following is an excerpt from Nick Turse's book, "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" (Metropolitan, 2008).

When you think of food and the U.S. military, you undoubtedly picture a long chow line where a grunt serves up chipped beef on toast, lowly privates peeling potatoes on KP duty, and semi-inedible old C-rations or more modern military field fare like palate-numbing Meals-Ready-to-Eat (MREs).

But that's the old military, not the new, modern variant -- and not just because private corporations like Kellogg Brown & Root have taken over the mess halls from construction to cooking. These days, like the rest of America, the army loves to eat out. No messy preparation. No dishes to clean up. Not a chip of beef in sight. And, best of all, it's on someone else's tab. The U.S. taxpayer's. Judging by the Pentagon's own accounting, the army, navy, air force, and marines have been very hungry and they've been chowing down.

As it happens, the army has definite gastronomic tastes. Some ethnic foods, for instance, just about never make it to the table. Due to the arcane nature of the Pentagon's accounting, it is almost impossible to know for sure, but the tally on Asian food (although not Asian bases) appears to be:

Vietnamese restaurants 0
Thai restaurants 0
Indian restaurants 0
Japanese restaurants 0
And don't even ask about Afghan food!

But while it's a no-go on sushi, cooked fish is another military matter. In 2004, for instance, the army spent more than $5,000 at Chic-A-D's Cajun Chicken & Catfish Restaurant in Winnsboro, Louisiana. That same year, the catsh-hungry army dropped $6,500 at Capt'n Morgan's Steak & Catfish Restaurant in Diberville, Mississippi, and over $7,300 at Kenny's Katfish Depot in Dequincy, Louisiana. But since, as Napoleon once observed, an army marches on its stomach, the U.S. Army cannot live on catfish alone. Sandwiches are, apparently, also a must, so army eaters plunked down $13,845 at a Quiznos Classic Subs in Louisiana.

In Arkansas, the military dropped significant sums at such "Natural State" restaurants as: Rodeo Cafe ($3,485), Molly's Diner ($5,400), Annie's Family Restaurant ($8,996), and the Crispy Taco Mexican Grill ($19,283), among other establishments. While these 2004 gures were impressive, they paled in comparison to the combined sum paid out to just two El Nopal Restaurant locations in Arkansas (more than $423,000) in 2006. And for dessert, perhaps, the DoD spent a whopping $7.9 million at Arkansas's own White Dairy Ice Cream Company that same year.

But Arkansas was only a drop in the proverbial bucket (of chicken, no doubt). Military folks also sampled the fare at numerous other eateries across the country. Just a few examples from 2004:

• Copper Mill Restaurant (Logan, UT) $10,878


• Bristol Bar & Grille (Louisville, KY) $5,026


• Englewood Cafe (Independence, MO) $5,026


• Pericos Mexican Restaurant (Covington, TN) $4,050


• Big Mama's Kitchen (Fayette, AL) $3,705


• Timber Lodge Steakhouse (Sioux Falls, SD) $2,544

and some DoD favorites from 2006:

• City Caf (Elgin, TX) $26,350


• Home Plate Restaurant (Butner, NC) $47,917


• Pelican Caf (New Orleans, LA) $105,670

While the military clearly savors its catfish and tacos, what it really loves is barbeque! In fact, the military has sampled barbeque all across the United States -- from Shotgun's Bar-B-Que Restaurant in Texas and Bo's Pit Bar-B-Que in Missouri to the Pig N' Whistle in Tennessee and Longhorn Barbecue in Washington State. In 2004, the army shelled out at least $164,828 to get its fingers greasy. In2005 and 2006 combined, the Pentagon spent over half this amount at Corky's Bar-B-Que of Memphis, Tennessee.

While U.S. taxpayer dollars have regularly morphed into barbequed wings and ribs (with not a vegetarian restaurant in sight), the DoD wasn't completely gastronomically timid. In their travels abroad, military officials apparently did manage to sample foreign cuisine, supping at, among other places: Restaurant Schinvelderhoeve in the Netherlands ($2,133 in 2004) and Restaurante El Escudo Sociedad in Guatemala (an astounding $82,291 in 2004) and -- evidently the grand champion -- Singapore's First Street Cafe, where the DoD reportedly spent $151,883 in 2004, $216,646 in 2005, and, an astounding $310,776 in 2006, eating who knows what.

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Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tomdispatch.com. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Nation, the Village Voice, and regularly for Tomdispatch. He is the author of the new book, "The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives" (Metropolitan, 2008).