Home » Archives » "Four-star chow hall"

Four-star chow hall

May-22-2005 » Filed Under: 1/25 SBCT

Link to Full Article
MATT MISTEREK; The News Tribune

MOSUL, Iraq – The tile floors and marble-pattern tables and chairs gleam with a shade of white seldom seen at this dust-choked U.S. Army base. Filipino workers in tuxedo vests and matching ties keep the food stations heaped with fresh fruit and salads; others distribute gourmet-looking desserts from a well-stocked glass case.

A gold-rimmed decanter and decorative wine glasses rest atop a faux brick fireplace, while the sound system plays Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young.”

The words “chow hall” hardly seem to fit what military contractors have built in the middle of Forward Operating Base Marez, the most populous Army post in Mosul and home to thousands of Fort Lewis troops.

The $8 million dining facility, which opened at the beginning of the month, is meant to help soldiers relax a little before they head out for another mission. The restaurant atmosphere is an escape from the razor wire, portable toilets and endless miles of grit just outside the front door.

Most of all, it’s designed to help them forget what happened five months ago at the old chow hall about a quarter-mile down the road – and to make them less vulnerable to it happening again.

The new building was under construction Dec. 21 when an Islamic extremist, reportedly dressed as an Iraqi soldier, blew himself up in the plastic-and-aluminum tent where thousands of soldiers, contractors and others gathered to get their three squares a day.

Twenty-two people were killed in the lunchtime blast, including 14 U.S. soldiers, and more than 60 were wounded. Many were badly burned.

Six of the dead were from Fort Lewis, the largest number of casualties sustained at one time by either of the post’s two Stryker brigades that have deployed to Iraq since November 2003.

Something else was lost that day – an intangible quality that made the structure the size of a football field an appealing target for the insurgency.

“You’ve got the symbolism of what this place stands for,” said Maj. Rob White, an Arizona National Guardsman whose unit has on-base police duties. “This is the one place where we all come together on the battlefield.”


Advertisements