Meals Ready to Eat (Photo by U.S. Marine Corps)
An Internet rumor that American troops in Afghanistan no longer get breakfast has prompted a response from the Pentagon via Twitter.
A chain email says the last-minute deal Congress passed to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” also denies breakfast to troops in Afghanistan.
The email garnered enough attention that rumor-debunking site Snopes.com picked up on it and rated the email “partly true” since some bases stopped serving hot breakfasts as they get ready for the drawdown.
From Snopes:
It isn’t true that, due to fiscal cliff-related budget cuts, breakfast has been completely eliminated for all U.S. troops stationed outside the U.S. It is true that “hot chow” breakfasts have been replaced with MREs at some U.S. bases in Afghanistan because those areas are preparing for a transition to local control.
According to the Stars and Stripes, the bases that have replaced hot breakfast with Meals Ready to Eat are in Paktika province.
The decision by leaders in Paktika was based off a need to reduce logistics, not because of budget cuts, military officials said in a statement. “We want to assure you that all soldiers are receiving four meals per day (if they want all four),” the statement said.
Here’s the DoD’s tweet responding to the rumor:
All deployed #troops recving 4 meals/day (if they want 4). At FOBs in Paktika Prov, breakfast is MRE, plus hot lunch & dinner, midnight MRE.
— U.S. Dept of Defense (@DeptofDefense) January 7, 2013
1 Comment
Wonder how long these high mucky-mucks at the Pentagon would last if they had to endure the things our heroes have to endure?!? How would they like to eat MREs for breakfast or like the heroes at the remote bases who only get a hot meal once every 30 days when they get flown to a bigger base?!? SHAME ON OUR GOVERNMENT and SHAME ON WE THE PEOPLE for allowing this travesty to take place! Our troops deserve so much better than they get, regardless of where they serve, and it boils this 70-year-old blood when I hear about travesties like this!!!!