It doesn't matter how it looks or tastes. You'll spend 10 minutes staring at it and shoving it in your mouth and the DS are going to be there screaming at you to hurry up everytime

my first pepsi after basic was the best thing in the world

“My food tastes better with my heels together”

The food at fort Jackson was pretty good there were no desserts but only on Sunday would they have cheeseburgers. Every other day was healthy ish food and breakfast was always good. And Everytime somebody dropped a spoon or something we had to yell "sorry spoon" over and over until u got outside . 🤣🤣

Hi! Went to Basic in 2013. Halfway through Drill Sgt told us we're actually authorized to eat/drink anything in the chow hall. But just cause you can, doesn't mean you should.

Glad I ate before watching this. When I was at basic we had access to dessert the whole time but we were highly discouraged from taking it. No food trucks for us but I remember my first time having Burger King after basic it was so good! Army breakfast chow was always on point. Here’s a hack: if you’re out in the field save the candies and peanut butter spread from your MRE’s. You can use them later as a snack so long as no one is watching. 👍

You are so hungry at chow time that everything tastes super good.

We never had MREs for lunch in basic training. They were a new thing when I went to basic and were to expensive to give to basic training recruits. At lunch when in the field we had a KP line with food from the mess hall kitchen. The one experience I remember is I was loosing weight and entered basic training at 147 Lb. After four weeks at Fort Lost in the Woods I was hungry all the time and down to 129 pounds. For clarity I am 70 inches tall. Drills saw this and took care of me. They fed me a pizza every night for the next two weeks. The Drills will take care of you in basic. That is their first task and they hold true to it!!

Because of Basic Training and AIT I drink milk with most of my meals. I also eat a lot faster than my wife. She doesn't understand the struggle 😂🥺

I fainted during breakfast chow line. Because I donated blood the night before and went Monday morning running for PT. I made fun after that by all Drill Sargents.

ive been asking myself this question for WEEKS. thank YOU

Just MRE like a man, like a badass, like a monster soldier, like the boss, like Christopher Chaos. ☠️☠️💀💀

Drill Sergeant: "TWO Boxes of cereal!!?" Me": "Well, Yeah" DS: "What are you doing with TWO boxes of cereal!?: Me: "I'm going to eat them, Sereant." DS: "Sit down and eat and move it!"

Love this one! Oh, yeah! They should do it in the Chicago’s inner city! Good deployment means to find the food sources! Dumpster diving and everything! You gotta do what you gotta do! Be resourceful!

The food at fort Leonard Wood was terrible ain’t no damn soda, lmao it was milk and water with sloppy ass noodles or some liquid eggs every day lmao!!

Drills be yelling "Side step!!!!!" "One peanutbutter one jelly!!" "One scoop and go!!!!!" "No talking in the chow line!!!!!" One last thing.... UPU SUCKS

I love how you walk in to KZfaq intros like Robert Stack it’s pretty funny

Don't touch the cake or pudding...and white phase at fort Jackson was MRE's for breakfast and lunch for then chow hall for dinner

Remember those days, kinda miss them. Our Drill Sgt have a special meal for my Charlie CO. Appetizer 50 push ups/ 50 sit ups Desert 10 pull ups Best times ever

The main takeaway I'm getting from this (no pun intended) is that if food is important to you then join the Air Force 😅

Basic training food tasted better then the food at my current unit 💀

"Your drill seargeant's going to be angry one day and you might not get to eat in the chow hall for a week." Gosh, where can I get in line for that?

No Popeyes chicken sandwich? I’m out.

I’m getting prepared to go to MEPS and omg I’ve been watching all these kind of videos ugh wish me luck 😰

Basic 1972 Fort Polk When your name came up for kp the first one in the chow hall next morning got to be the DRO dining room orderly the others had pots/pans or other kitchen work for the day

In blue phase me and my battle would run to the front of the line screaming "DETAIL"!! HAHAAH great times

Breakfast at fort benning was the only thing I really looked forward to. That’s the only meal I actually got full off of.

"Chew and. Swallow!!!! Taste the food later"

Lackland AFB, summer 1984. Surprisingly good food, wide variety, generally given at least sufficient time to eat, albeit you really could not lolly-gag around or chat with others much. The 10-minute rush thing the other branches was more along the lines of 15-20 minutes.

Hey man thanks for all the useful information you put out there helps me get a head start on my career

Once you become a Soldier, you will go to different posts for training, etcetera. You will experience "Oh Wow" food from some chowhalls, to oh gawd ones. Always a fun perk of being in the Army. Hot Tip: Get some sort of trip that gets a layover in Hawaii. The Naval Base there makes gourmet box lunches for Army people leaving there! Former Army paratrooper here.

Food at Benning is good, whole fried catfish, general tso chiken, spaghetti, ect was very impressed.

Also, considering spaghetti as healthy food...lol

The food I had in basic was better than the food at AIT and the food at camp vilseck, or maybe it just felt better 🤔🤔🤔

Excellent video as usual. I leave for BCT next week, so this video was helpful. Thanks. Hooah!🤘

US Army, trained at Ft.Benning here. We had orange chicken twice. No idea how since I've yet to have orange chicken again from the DeFac (now at Ft.Stewart) but somehow that was by far the best orange chicken I've ever tasted. I personally enjoy the DeFac food, for both training and service, and will heavily suggest, along with that orange chicken, the chicken with fish inside stuff, and the meatloaf. Personal opinion, though, and the only real way for you to know is to have it put on your tray while a drill sergeant ruins the day of the guy behind you for whatever reason he can find

If I have to say something positive about my time in the Air Force, it's the great food and barracks with AC from day one! Can't complain!!!

I left graduated from basic back in March at fort Jackson, rarely got chow hall especially during red and white faze, mostly got something called HOT A’s and MRE’s

My fondest memory of chow during bct is a private taking two peanutbutters and he had to hold the extra up to a portrait of Michelle Obama saying "would you like some peanut butter former first lady?" Over n over . 😅🤣🤣

"HURRY UP AND GET OUTTA MY MESS HALL!." -- 1967 A-11-3 (5th Platoon, 7th & Gold Vault Rd.). . . . . that's all we heard, all the time.

Early Vietnam era, we went through overhead parallel bars going into the chow hall. Speed was of the essence. By platoon? Probably. I don't really remember.

This is very informative! Thank you so much for your service to our nation! I appreciate everyone in the military because they sacrifice so much to help keep the United States the land of the free and the home of the brave! You are super awesome!

I dont drink soda anyways so i could live without it

I was very underweight and actually was allowed and told to eat dessert or a bigger helping ... Other people that were overweight seemed to be the ones seemed to be on a quicker time limet

I was lucky enough to be assigned to a Company in the new "Starship" barracks at FLW. The DFAC was like going to Golden Corral 2 to 3 times a day and shoving it down your throat in 3 to 5 minutes. I think I ate sandwiches the first month after I left there.

my experience was about the same as described in the video. i never had to pick up someone else tray though. the food is just "meh" nothing special. most of it was fine but the asparagus always sucked balls, and stayed that way in every unit I was in after training (14 year veteran). the food is the constant all through your military career. there are exception days. maybe you're over seas and they cook some local dish. as for standing in line... yeah that is gonna sound like something you might not be able to handle... you can though. standing with maybe an inch between you and the guy in front of you and the guy behind you isn't what i consider natural. that whole personal space thing. but this as with many of the other things is necessary! you're a soldier and you follow orders. you'll be surprised that you're doing it one day and not think anything of standing so close to another guy. LOL or the day you're told to drop into a roadside ditch with 4"+ of gross looking water and lay there. after a while. following orders is just what you do. and the sight discomfort of not being an total individual but something more will fill that "but I'm an individual" space with pride in yourself and what you and they others have accomplished as a group. being a soldier kinda sucks, not gonna lie. but you'll get to tell stories about it for the rest of your life. stories about things no one else will have been through. some of them will be slightly embellished. but others will be so out of the ordinary you might feel the need to tone them down just so they'll be believable. here's a few examples of mine where just the title might captivate you... "Adkins ate the banana" "Where did ice cube go" (over seas bar story) "SAC2 ammo/explosives return" "Ft. Hood: your uniform for tomorrow will be a towel" "PLDC commando hill slide maneuver" "pink mist... yup that was a hit!" (war story) "i can sleep through anything" (multiple stories) i have way too many of these to list.

When I was in basic (summer 2001 at Ft. Knox), soda & desserts were strictly forbidden, as were short order lines (don't think they had one at my DFAC, or at least I didn't notice) regardless of PT scores or achievement of any milestones. The main line almost always had something good ~90% of the time, but the portions always felt inadequate. It was the healthiest diet I've ever eaten, since the inadequate portions forced me to fill up on salad - the only thing that wasn't portion restricted for basic training soldiers. Even though I still ended up being a disgusting fat-body after leaving the army, to this day I still hardly ever drink soda; this is perhaps one of the few remaining healthy habits that I kept from the army. 🤣

Honestly my recollection of Army chow back in 87-94 when I served was really not that bad!! Of course, everyones story will be different!!

I only had 10 minutes to eat so wasn't concern with how food taste, objective was just trying to get full fast. Semper Fi

I wonder if they still have unsweetened Kool Aid? That was one of my nasitest memories, but I had to devour whatever was given. He said " if you can taste it Your wrong Privates"

As someone with a fast metabolism, and who likes to eat, let see what they have in there, looking forward on joining to the Army.

My daughter's mother still blames me for her telling mommy - "Eat it now, taste it later."

Very accurate Sir! My basic was just like that. No talking no looking around etc. If you didn’t eat it timely you didn’t eat. They want you to lose weight. When you were out in the field I barely was able to get the food down. I remember being so hungry I stuffed food in my field jacket. To this day I can’t stop eating fast. Sad.

Chris, is "kp" a thing of the past?? I recently asked Erica Bernie during one of her live streams. She is a drill sergeant on active duty. She told me she has never heard of "kp" and what the detail consists of. LOL!!!!! I know that I peeled plenty of potatoes during the three times that I pulled "Kp" during basic training! Food trucks? We referred to them as the "roach coach", "maggot wagon" , "scarf and barf", etc. Although like you mentioned, the food from the trucks was almost gourmet stuff compared to the mess hall, chow hall or DFAC. LOL!!!

Im going to ask my drill instructor if he can have fresh fruit and cookies out for me. I like that.

Hey Brother! Thank You for your service and The video! Yes, ours was pretty much the same.. however I remember it being so good!! We were hungry. Yeah, a couple of The Cadre had standards as far 😢 what You could have.. depending on pt results. I do remember milk All the time in dispensers. Whole and chocolate and maybe a low fat variety. I just put it in the cereal boxes! Again Man Thank You!

When I was in military school they gave us just water or milk with salt less and sugar less food with nasty ass burritos. Eating w/ your feet at 45 degree and only for 5 mins was annoying xD getting yelled at while eating was so annoying too but I get now haha

You're not going to get enough time to taste it, so don't worry about it.

I did Basic at Ft. Lewis in 1970. I wish that I could tell you what I ingested. The issue was that the Drill Sergeants stood over us yelling: Eat faster! Swallow now; taste later! They then took us at double time, for a nice 5 mile tour of our base (in the rain).

as a former 94b the breakfast meal was outstanding!

Ft. Benning GA. Harmony Church summer of 1986. We stood at parade rest and read smart books. The Drill Sergeants asked you questions from the smart books like effective range of the M16A1, subjects in there like the M18A1 Claymore Mine etc. If you got the answer wrong, you went to the back of the line. If it was correct we did the pull up bars with 5 good pull ups. If you messed that up, back of the line along with answering questions from the smart books. If they were pressing for time it was read your smart books and do 10 push ups before entering. The foods I got introduced to which I never had as a civilian high school student but at Basic Training. First was Parmesan Chicken with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese, Chicken Fried Steak, Chicken Ala King, Turkey Ala King, Tomato Ground Beef, Tuna with Noodles, Fried Ground Beef with Spaghetti Noodles with no Spaghetti Sauce, and my favorite was Chili Mac. That was for lunch or dinner. For breakfast was French Toast, Grits, and my favorite SOS. Never had them as a civilian. My Dad who served in the Army for 23 years never made or cooked these foods for us but told us how terrible they were. For breakfast Dad only had was bacon, eggs, toast and coffee. He never got "Fancy" like the Army did. Our Mess Hall at Harmony Church back in the day but now no more. Were wooden buildings made before and during WWII. They creaked as we walked or ran into them with green linoleum floors, painted white on the outside, and had shingles on the roofs. It was like being transported back to WWII, Korea, and the Vietnam era. The mess hall at reception before Basic was a modern red brick with air conditioning and very modern like a high school cafeteria. That ended when you got inside the cattle cars headed for Harmony Church. Same food but very old mess halls which they called the "DFAC". We called it the mess hall as our Drill Sergeants would call it. My Drill Sergeant was an E-7 Vietnam combat veteran from the 173rd Airborne Brigade. He was very old school. Those were my memories of Infantry OSUT at Harmony Church in 1986.

In basic you will eat 3 meals a day. When you go to the range and stuff during white phase that’s when you start eating mre’s. Get used to not eating at the d fac for lunch and eating an mre instead lol. Sometimes it happens like that

Mind you Christopher Chaos went to basic training in the 80s so the food might be completely different

Yakisoba was the best! “Take it to the head” is what the DS would say to us to finish our drinks after only 3 minutes to shovel food down our throats.

LOL, the fact that people remember what they ate in basic training tells me it's become a lot easier than it was. The only thing I remember was using a spoon to shovel everything into my mouth before they told us time was up.

"Back in my day". In basic (1989) , lunch and dinner in the mess hall was basically meat and carbs (potatoes/noodles) and a vegetable. No salt or pepper at the table, just Mrs Dash.

Marines: snort crayons for sustenance

What's the best way to poop in basic after eating this?

Guess I'll find out Tuesday 😉

I recall a drill sergeant calling the company to attention and ordering all Regular Army to the front of the line and the reservists and national guard to the rear of the line. That was at lunch. Breakfast was after PT at 0630. Lunch was often C rations of canned food eaten cold. I even got a pack of cigarettes occasionally. I recall the drill sergeant standing at the end of the chow line and shaking salt all over our food. He salted down my green jello. Breakfast was the best because we got OJ, eggs, hash browns and bacon. But I learned to chew my food quickly. The one drill sergeant would circulate among us and yell at us the to chew our food x number of times to get the maximum nutrition out of it. But to do it rapidly.

I LOVED Army basic training BREAKFAST!!! 😊. Because I only had one bowl 🥣 for breakfast, at home 🏡.🥣

I never got taste my meal because when i sat down about to eat the Drill Sgt yelled "This table has 30 seconds to eat!" 10-3-2-1 drink it up and go! They did this to my platoon all the way to gold face. I'm not exactly sure what I ate or how it tasted. The only time we got to taste food was MRE's, but you weren't allowed to use the heater. I'm pretty we were in red phase until day of graduation. I also remember two people went awol somehow and also we were never allowed to go to Sunday services or ot was at least frowned upon or something. It was really terrible at the school of Hard Knox.

I don't drink pop or alcohol, I prefer clean food... Whatever food I have access to is what I'm happy with eating

It cost 7 dollars for an mre. To feed a soldier in a mess hall only cost 3-4 dollars

Back in ‘56 we done ate in the latrines instead of the ‘ol chow hall, kids have it too easy these days

Remember food taste better with the heels together

Food tastes better with heels together Benning 2-47 :’)

I had to pull KP on the first Day of Basic. It started at about 2 Am and lasted until the last dish or pot was cleaned after Dinner. You talk about a long Day! I peeled a lot of potatoes. The food was not bad. We had to shout at the top of our Lungs either RA Drill Sergeant or NG Drill Seargent! If we were not loud enough we had to drop and give him some pushups. One time someone did talk and the whole hall had to eat standing up. Fort Gordon summer of 1976!

I loved Gut Trucks. We had one laid back Drill Sgt. "What are you Privates doing"? "Drill Sgt, taking initiative and marching ourselves to chow". "Okay then carry on".

It's crazy talking about not being able to eat short order. When I went to Basic Training in 06 I could eat whatever I wanted with no problems but I was skinny and needed to eat whatever to put on weight

I did basic during the summer of 1973 at Fort Lost in the Woods as well as AIT. The chow was good there. We did only have a few minutes to eat but unlike a lot if my buddies, I made a sandwich of as much of what was on my tray. That way it was far faster to eat. I sure came up with some odd sandwiches.

Sundays were usually what I looked forward to! They served this breakfast pizza at the chow hall on Sunday mornings and that was something!

I was always hungry in basic we had tons of food it really wasn't bad. You just burn up the calories that you consume . We ate mres 2 times out doing range stuff for lunch . Otherwise we were in the chow hall at Ft Jackson SC .

I bought a bunch of orange cough drops from the px. I would eat them like candy at night. lol

Warrior Breakfast 2017: Our entire company got smoked and ran around the battalion with full stomachs. Warrior Dinner: All I got was a small salad, not wanting history to repeat itself, but got yelled at for not getting enough food. Came back with a large ass pizza, hotdogs, wings and a burger. CO's jaw dropped. Luckily, we didn't get smoked after lol.

Biscuits and gravy. All the way.

Always remember eating was fast. In the chow line the Drill Sgt's would ask random people stuff from your smart book like your 3 General orders and so on. If you fail to answer correctly you were sent to back of line which meant you would have about 5 mins tops to eat. C-rats when out in the field or ranges. Funny story about AIT chow hall experience. We didn't have Drill Sgt's i guess you would call them NCO soldier herders :) Made sure they got there troops to class /mess hall/Etc. To this very day when i'm in a rush to go somewhere and i'm trying to get the family to eat quicker i would go back to the time the AIT NCO with the strong southern accent would say ( Put down the rake and pick up the shovel) Means put the fork down and use the spoon obviously. Sounded funny with his accent.Happened 37 years ago and it's one of the things that sticks in my head.Do they still have KP in basic?????? That was the worst part of basic for me.I joined knowing and excepting training to be in the Army but not washing dishes.

So you can pretty save money pretty easy in the military.

Private Benjamin: I want to do brunch! (standing guard duty in the rain)

I went to basic training at Ft Bliss, TX in Jan '84. Our chow hall was closed down by the health department. When it reopened we got steak or lobster for lunch. If that wasn't bad enough when we graduated I went to Juarez, Mexico with my buddy and his family who have family there. Went to a restaurant and I ordered chicken. I think I got a cat 😢😮😅😂

" TWO HANDS ON THE CUP"" TWO HANDS ON THE CUP"" TWO HANDS ON THE CUP"" TWO HANDS ON THE CUP"

I liked things I didn't have to chew haha. Like pancake with peanut butter and a banana. Or cornbeef hash or biscuits and gravy. I really liked the bellpepper with hamburger meat inside.

I went to basic training at fort Jackson south Carolina on tank hill A-3-1 2nd platoon in August of 1979.and graduated on October 5th 1979, we slept in the world war two barracks and our mess hall was a world war two mess hall, they fed us good 3 meals a day and if we were out in the Field we ate C.Rations and they were better than the MRE,S anyday. My favorite at breakfast was shit on a shingle, and I can't remember what we had at lunch and dinner except the sausage and sauerkraut was great all the food in basic training we good they had a despencer that had coke and Sprite and Pepsi and white milk and chocolate milk we were allowed to to drink it. But in the company area they were drink machines and ice cream vending machines and we were not allowed to touch it one of my buddies in my platoon would volunteer to help severe chow and got caught with a peach in his pocket when we were in formation and the drill sgt made him cram the whole thing in his mouth and eat it

Drill SGT we took initiative and marched ourselves to the chow hall.

I was in basic training in 1978 in Ft Jackson. SC. The food was good. Even the. MREs. Good. Chow

I still don't feel like I have an idea of what kind if food is served from the video. For my BCT class breakfast had 3 meats (bacon, sausage, and Turkey sausage), scrambled eggs, some sort of carbs like rice or potatoes and breakfast breads (pancakes, waffles, or french toast) everyday. You could pick one of each. There was also a huge selection of breakfast cereals in single serving containers. Lunch and dinner similarly had 3 meat entrees to choose from (always a beef and chicken and either pork or fish), overcooked steamed veggies (carrots, green beans, or mixed brocolli/cauliflower), a full salad bar and dessert was usually a nature valley granola bar or yogurt. Fresh oranges and apples and slices if bread are always available to those who want to take them and condiments (peanut butter, jelly, butter, mustard/ketchup) are available too. To drink you'll have water, fruit juices, Gatorade, and milk.

My luck when I was doing mortar training we'd have to eat chow in field and rain

Basic training 1979 I was underweight drill sergeant always made the server give me extra, and it was heaven when you got to eat from the Roach Coach

Literally the only good thing about the army. The breakfast

i remember morning training and they would bring a duce an a!/2 full of chow - the best was the sos at lunch they brought us c rations and dinner was spegetiy