User Panel
Posted: 7/21/2008 9:46:44 AM EDT
OK, this goes out to all of us old ARMY guys. Who remembers when the chow hall was called a "chow hall" or "mess hall?"
My youngest brother has been in the ARMY for 6 years or so and he has always called it a DFAC (Dining FACility). When was the change? |
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The cooks in the AF get pissed when we call it a "chow hall" but 90% of us still do. It's only a D-Fac when deployed.
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so,,which protected group did Chow Hall infuriate???
chinese? or mess hall.. Messnise???? |
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I was 87-89 and 91-93. I don't recall it ever being referred to as a DFAC. Who knows, perhaps Ft. Leonardwood, Ft. Lee and Ft. Hood were just weird. |
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Yep, heard all three PLUS we had Consolidated Dining Facilities. These were monsters and I never saw them more than half open. The other side was complete with tables and chairs, only the lights were never on.
Each tenant unit would have its cooks assigned to the CDFAC until the unit went to the field. The MKT was in some other motor pool...don't remember anything other than the 3-phase juice they needed would require some careful scheduling. |
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Chow Hall was the way I was taught. Never heard the word DFAC 'till I got into Kuwait and eventually, Iraq.
But to me, the Chow Hall is wherever the cooks park the MKT (Mobile Kitchen Trailer) and set up the line or where the Supply Sgt drops the MRE boxes. God I miss those days. Seriously. |
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+1 but whenever I went to the field our cooks always worked thier asses off. After a 3 wees field problem we got steak for dinner on our last night. |
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For me it's not even the D-Fac then. |
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We called it the DFAC or the Chow Hall interchangeably. Army, 1999-2004
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See the first post. |
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You got head at the Term Chow Hall? |
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'68 - '70 we went to the "messhall" for "chow" or sometimes just opened a can of "C-rations". I still like peaches in a can.......
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Chow hall '92-'96. DFAC '00-'05. Seems like the terminology evolved while I was in college. Deuce-and-a halfs and five-tons also seemed to go the way of the dodo in favor of LMTVs and FMTVs in the same time frame.
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I heard all three, but technically I believe the "offical" term was dining facility, Army 83-86.
Of course I used to call them "dining fatalities". |
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Exactly the same here. C-rations were pretty nasty except the ham&eggs, the hard chocolate and the cheese and the cigarettes. Yep, cigarettes. |
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"Peaches in Heavy Syrup" were good even when it was hot, so was the B-4 unit. |
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The 20 year old Ham and Eggs we got in the C-rations sucked a big one. |
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I’ve heard, and used all three. Chow Hall, Mess Hall and Dining Facility.
ETA: Speaking of favorites from the Chow Hall, in the field my favorite was a plate full of hash browns covered with pepper, and a few slices of SPAM. To top off the start of the morning, a cup of black coffee and a Marlboro. |
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Chow hall or mess hall. Ft Wainwright 87-91. And the Chow hall at Eilison AFB was 5000% better than those slop joints the Army has.
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AF chow halls were always better than the ARMY. Same food in, better food out. Can't explain it. Maybe it was the fact that they had waiters and bus boys to take our order and clean up after us. (I was able to eat in a few AF dining halls). |
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I won’t argue that. Every AF chow hall I ate at was 100X better than the Army. |
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Informally "chow hall". I think I remember a sign saying "DFac". 93-96
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We ate "chow" in the "messhall"
DFAC was some effed up college term that only officers used. |
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Mid 90s
I went from Mess Hall Officer to Dining Facility Manager. Call it 95. |
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Late 80's to Mid 90's. Chow Hall was the most commonly used term.
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I was a PFC in the Army in '93, and for some reason I can't remember now, a few of us were on Ramstein AB and had breakfast in the AF chow hall. We got done, picked up our trays, and wandered around stupidly for two or three minutes trying to figure out where to take them. Finally some AF SPs told us that we could just leave them on the table and go. I initially thought they were setting us up for failure, but then the ladies working there came and took our trays and told us it was okay. Man, that was some high class stuff!!! |
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Did they have Head Counts? 1985, I ate at Moron AFB in Spain. We walked in unchallenged , picked up our trays, snaked our way through the chow line, only to end up facing a civilian cashier! |
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Galley, shipmate. |
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back in '90,when I was stationed in Germany with 3RD Inf,I had this buddy of mine who HATED the chow/mess hall! He always complained about something. mainly the fact that the building was freakin' old! He would always say,just loud enough for everybody within 20 ft. to hear: "Damn! I hate eating here! The last time I walked into the kitchen I saw a squad of roaches with MP bands(I forgot what they are called)busting suds!"(KP duty) Damn,I miss Army chow! My favorite meal of the day was always breakfast It's kinda hard to mess bacon and eggs!(plus the grits.)My southern buds would frak out when I would put butter and sugar on my grits instead of salt and pepper! |
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chow hall.
+1 on DFAC being some O-type lingo. they come up with that crap just to make themselves feel better than us working men. damn elitists |
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