2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Why I think Bernie should drop out. [View all]islandmkl
(5,275 posts)at Fort Riley in Kansas for two summers....the mess halls were only used during the summer training periods...seated around 100, in rectangular one-room (seats and tables facing a 'chow line' kitchen that spanned about 1/4 of the room across the back) buildings with cinder-block-concrete 'foundations'...built early in WWII...had a 'planned usage lifespan' of 10 years.
They were only used constantly during WWII and for some time during Korea and a little bit for Viet Nam (new fort facilities had been built to take care of THAT influx of soldiers)...anyway, but the late-80s when i got contracted they were still in use...all equipment was updated (MIC $$ has to be used!) and i would feed 250 cadets every meal...this was the cadets only 'basic training' that spanned two summers...it's how they weeded out some of them who hadn't really had to play Army yet...it was a trip seeing the sergeants run these cadets through meals...after all, in two years (or one) these cadets would be officers and outrank all the training non-coms....so the sergeants made them earn it...
i asked an old-timer how old the buildings were and that's where i got the info...i asked him how something built in 1942 with a ten-year shelf life could still be used, systematically, 40+ years later...his answer:
"hell, they only use them 6 to 8 weeks a year now...they only count usage not longevity...these damn halls still have about 10 or 15 years of government use according to the way the Army counts things."
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