67 COMBAT SUPPORT GROUP TRIP REPORT

File: 110796_aacad_08.txt
Page: 08
Total Pages: 14


            Indoor/outdoor vacuums came in very hands an the tents when it
            came to getting rid of sand especially in the computer areas and
            dining hall,  linoleum was ordered for the dining hall but never
            arrived,  we were lucky to finally get wood floors, small compact
            refrigerators also greatly enhanced living conditions but were
            few and far between, additional orders never made it, ice chests
            would have been a good substitute but we only had 5 which were
            used for Search and Recovery. Tilt grills, convection ovens,
            large ice machine were ordered but never made it . The soft serve
            ice cream machine ordered did arrive and was a huge hit in the
            dining hall. Mix was obtained from King Fahd contract food
            vendor and delivered right to our location, unfortunately this
            didn't occur until late March. Two cold bars, several drink
            dispensers, folding chairs 5 insect zappers, and a small ice
            machine did arrive. A large mixing bowl, coffee maker and pallet
            jack were needed and ordered but failed to be delivered after
            constant nagging of King Fahd contracting office and several
            visits in person.

           E. Food Service generally went very well, after the MKT's were
           used for 3 weeks,  the first 9-1 kitchen arrived and we erected it
           the day after Christmas with great haste,  mainly to get inside
           out of the cold nights and mornings. Our main source of 
           B-rations was Dhahran, but we picked Tra Packs and 100 man meals
           and dinnerware (all paper) up from the Army when they had it
           available. Water and MRE`s also came from the Army mainly because
           we were relatively small in a largely populated Army region and
           the Air Force couldn't  reach us except by air. We ran a hot
           breakfast, MRE lunch, hot dinner and no midnight meal. This was
           in effect until April when Saudi Catering moved in with 3 hots a
           day, but the population dropped to half and we were moving on.
           Problems that existed included numerous meetings being held in
           the dining tent (mostly due to the fact it was our largest tent)
           constant squabbles between first sergeants and commanders over KP
           duty which most felt was SVS responsibility (we had KP s from
           other squadrons the majority of the time, but new CSG commander
           believed it to be our problem),  undermanning resulted as our
           population tripled leaving us on twelve hour shifts the entire
           deployment with 1 day off a week beginning in late February.
           During the war we were extremely rank heavy with 5 Masters and a
           Senior Master who had no food experience. Creative supervision
           was a challenge until we finally slimmed down to 3 Masters which
           was still unnecessary and more of a hassle than a help. Most all
           the 623x0 personnel did a fantastic job though and worked
           extremely long days for several months. The attitudes were good
           but the morale was awful. I attribute this mostly to the lack of
           MWR activities/assets, lack of mail for the first 6 weeks, and
           the northern location of our site and potentially good chance of
           attack. We were also selected as the only Air Force
           personnel  in the world to take  Anthrax shots and tablets before
           the final days of attack. We basically were projected casualties
           waiting to happen and everyone felt it.







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