If True, This Is A Decomposition ...

... of the force. I want to introduce a caveat immediately--there are occasions when officer mess hall eats differently from the rest of the crew. Special occasions, such as officers' birthdays, visits by important guests--the galley may cook a special meal--and something special officers bring onboard bought with their own money. The rest of the time--officers eat same food as their subordinates. Here is what Larry reports: 

During a conversation with the Marine’s mother, I mentioned the emails I had received from the sailor’s mom. The Marine mother, who does not know the lady who had sent me the emails, told me her son had the same experience, i.e., lousy chow and big weight loss. Pete Hegseth is calling these parents liars.

According to Ms. Mayes-Osterman: Both the Navy and Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth denied reports of food problems. “My team confirmed the logistics stats for the Lincoln & Tripoli,” Hegseth said in a post on X. “Both have 30+ days of Class I supplies (food) on board. NavCent monitors this everyday, for every ship. Our sailors deserve — and receive — the best.” 

The only liar is Hegseth. He reportedly visited one of the ships and had a splendid meal in the Officer’s Mess. He did not eat in the dining facility for the enlisted personnel. That is a failure of leadership. My dogs eat better than these sailors and Marines. This is not just a problem on the USS Tripoli and USS Boxer. Similar complaints came from sailors posted to the USS Abraham Lincoln. The officers on board these ships have a duty and obligation to ensure their troops are properly fed. In theory, officers are supposed to eat last. But that is not the reality on board the ships conducting war missions off the coast of Iran.

Evidently Pete Hegseth thinks that his tour in Afghanistan and career of media personality make him a very special guest who can bypass galley realities of the ships on station and accept his great meal as a confirmation of everything being rosy with feeding the personnel. Of course, any deployment does have an effect on the weight, but if it is the "big weight loss"--this is more than just bad food or effects of protracted deployment, this means NOT ENOUGH food. 

Evidently the problem with feeding the personnel on these deployed ships persists. 

Well, deodorant should be the least of the concerns there. Food, water for showers and laundry, and functioning toilets should be. That's fundamental for deployment and the morale. What we observe, however, is a sheer incompetence on part of Trump Administration (no surprise here) and US military. This is a third world. This is also inadmissible. It has two layers to it, the first one, of course, is that the US shouldn't be there in the first place, the second--who allows these conditions to persist? As Stalin used to say--each problem always has a name.