On 4/1/2018 9:35 PM, Douglas Berry wrote:
>
> A concern would be the length of deployments. Things like MREs get
> very old quickly. The Army, at least, always tried to get use hot
> meals even on deployment. A galley and mess is not wasted spacce. it
> is vital to morale. Fresh food, and a variety of it, and eatting in
> commons increases morale and bonding between shipmates. The galley
> staff would probably double as damage control, freeing others to fight
> the ship.
>
> Think about it. You're stuck on a Gionetti-class light cruiser. You
> see the same bulkheads every day for weeks. Your last liberty call was
> eight jumps ago. Fresh food and bullshitting with crewmates may be the
> highlight of your day!
>
> Also, the galley can be repurposed as a classroom, assembly point,
> overflow sickbay, or any num,ber of uses.

I was thinking that the individual portions (entree, veggie1, veggie2,
dessert, etc.) would be produced under contract (or perhaps by Fleet
owned companies and managed by local companies, much like how the
contract to manage the Lake City Ammunition Plant is put up for bid
every few years here in the States), and held to a commercial standard
that would require the portion to be restaurant suitable.  The crew
member would then draw whatever his ration allotment would be, and this
would have a secondary benefit of allowing the ship's doctor to
officially limit individual crew members to specific foods based on
health needs.

The MRE comparison was just something that was similar in concept. I
would never, ever, condemn someone to eating MREs for a full
deployment...I'd be nice and just shoot them.

--
Kurt Feltenberger
xxxxxx@thepaw.org/xxxxxx@yahoo.com
“Before today, I was scared to live, after today, I'm scared I'm not living enough." - Me