Is the food really FREE in the Army? 

Why does this sound exactly like my University meal plan? 🍟 🍔 🥛

In Iraq, we got BAS and they didn’t deduct for meals.

Breakfast and hospital chow were the best!

As a single soldier, i loved the chow hall. As a married soldier, chow hall was still always a viable healthy option way better than off post food, especially on duty.

Navy veteran here. It is still a great deal. I loved the food in the chow hall. My favorite time was midrats. But I think that you have paid for it. You don't get BAS. And if you buy food off base. You are wasting your money if you do that everyday. But you need to treat yourself every once in while. But not every day.

Back in the 60s, if you lived in the barracks you got a meal card. if you lived of base tor in the housing area you got BAS. Meal card = free, BAS you paid the headcount in cash only added up to less than $2 a day Most people on BAS would probably only eat one meal a day in the mess hall (lunch) probably 35 cents. Sometimes they might be able to sneak past the headcount.

Seems like there would be a class at the beginning of a service members enlistment that explains basic accounting so that everyone understands how to read their pay stubs. Honestly the food is not that bad and I would go so far as it is generally pretty good. If I, as a civilian, ate every meal out with an conservative estimate of $8 for breakfast, $12 for lunch and $15 for dinner, that is $35 for one day (and really is likely to be more) multiplied by 30 days is $1050. The prices i stated were not for any great quality food. Those are fast food prices for breakfast and lunch and maybe a greasy spoon for dinner. I would take $2 a day mess hall food over that anytime.

Was in Bosnia in 1996 assigned to the British sector. They fed us while we collected full BAS. Pretty much double-dipping the system. Was a cool 6 month tour.

Army DFAC food at Bliss on aviation side was actually really good imo. The 92G’s seemed to actually have high morale and it showed in the efforts they made to feed us 3X a day. We had a wide variety and they were very attentive to supply & quality of the dishes! Sure, it wasn’t 100% free. But we had everything a person could want at all times.

I know this isn't what you were talking about, but for officers the food is not free, officers pay for their meals, even if it's MRE's. I knew that going in, but what I didn't expect was the bill I got from the hospital several months after surgery. I went down there to ask what the bill was for and they told me it was for the meals I got while I was a patient there.

Thanks for all the informational videos and live casts.

Not deducted from your Base Pay, deducted from your Total Entitlements. If you draw BAS which used to be called SEP RATS, you will have to pay to eat in the Mess Hall because you've already been paid to subsist elsewhere.

As a married guy after PT, you could never beat the breakfast at the chow hall. Never knew they started this pay action for single soldiers.

You have no idea how the DoD manages DFACS, food costs and the manpower to run any service Chow Halls.

Interesting Christopher that BAH he got for 8.10 (in my day was called Partial BAQ) is the same amount i got in 1988! they haven't raised it in almost 40 years.

I loved the DFAC in fort leonard wood MI, MP Co knows how to feed us.

My point of view is irrelevant since i was in the Army 40 years ago but if you were issued a meal card you didn't pay for food (simple) Every so often we had mess hall detail where you would tell the troops entering the chow hall to show your meal cards along with id cards to make sure it's you and not someone using your card for a free meal who was getting food allowance. If someone didn't have a meal card they would pay a few bucks which we collected. Back in the day they didn't allow you to cook anything or have a microwave in your rooms during my time in the Army. Higher ups wanted you to at least sign in at the mess hall so the mess sgt's can order food based on the number of troops that signed in to eat per meal.I guess those days went with the dinosaurs.

Chow ain't' free, it is "included"

This guy is being paid BAS and is still eating in the Difac, plus he is eating more than 3 meals a day. Must be a flight kitchen at his location.

I had a meal card for 4 yrs & never once paid for a meal in the chow hall incl MREs. Chow hall & in the field food was good.

So first of all, my favorite food is veal parmigiana. I'm also very fond of NY style pizza, preferably with sausage and peppers. Onions are good too. Meatballs of course but that's not an "all the time" topping. Meatballs are a special occasion topping. So while veal parm is my favorite, I think a pizza with Buffalo wings (hot of course) is a very close second and some days I even prefer it Secondly, what is the quality of the food generally like? Would you compare it to any popular restaurants? Like is it around Denny's quality? Or more like Macaroni Grill or something midscale like that? Or is it more like fast food or maybe slightly better? Can you get a steak, for example? Or a pizza? Or a burrito?

So can married guys still eat at chow hall without paying? Or do they have to pay?

Can you explain a bit more about BAH and living off-base as a single soldier? You did a short video about it before, but all I got from it was "eh, it's up to your leadership because they don't want you wasting your entire paycheck on rent". I'm going in as an E3, which isn't all that high up, but it puts more money in my paycheck vs a brand new, fresh-outta-high-school soldier. Plus I've also lived in an apartment before on less than half of what I make now. Could I just tell my leadership like "Hey, bro, this isn't the first time I've lived alone in an apartment. I've lived by myself even while making less money. I'm responsible enough to budget my money. Can I do this?". And would it help if I kept record of how much rent I would be paying? Because I'm very minimalistic. I don't need a big space. I can easily find an apartment for very cheap since it's just going to be me living there. I've actually been looking at a few that barely make a dent into my income. I just want my own place off-base because I have pets that are currently being taken care of by a family member. And I don't know how long I'm going to be in for: could be 3 years, could be 10 years. I don't know. And I don't want to dump my animals on someone else for that long. They're my responsibility. I had them before enlisting, and I'm not just going to get rid of them all because of this decision I made for myself. And how soon could I approach my leadership with this? How long do I have to be in for before even bothering to ask? Can a soldier get their own place in AIT? Do they need to be assigned to their first duty station? Or after their first duty station?

Is there a worst case scenario where lets say you living on base, you are too far away from the chow hall, there's no kiosks, off base food is too far away, no delivery service available or allowed on base (lets say due to security reasons). What then? Are you stuck eating MRE's as your 3 squares? This is a hypothetical 'what if'. Just wondering if this would be allowed to happen?

Any 11b what was the 12 mile ruck like was there a lot of hills/downhills or mainly flat?

shud u keep ur stash in the barracks?

Notification platoon.

Burrito 🌯 🤤

How would this work as a geo bachelor?

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No

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