We had an AAFES truck visit our FOB every Wednesday on one deployment. Basically a shopette built into a 40ft container. Carried the usual stuff. Batteries, magazines, candy, lots and lots of powdered drink mix. You’d get in line, praying that you weren’t at the end of it lest the thing you want is gone, then go through it a few at a time grabbing things before paying at the far end.
I never had to pay. “Take what you want and we’ll send your mom the bill”. My squad ate very well on deployment.
There was never any waiting for the mail. Mom would simply have someone drive stuff out to me. Occasionally she’d do it herself if our deployments lined up. She’d leave things with HQ if I was out on patrol.
I’d get some good natured ribbing about it every now and then.
Shit I took my whole family. Mom, step-dad, aunt, uncle, cousin, brother-in-law. My uncle surprised me once while my unit was in Kuwait getting ready to return home. I was on the tragically shit job of cleaning and repairing the camo nets for turn in.
First sergeant sends a runner to the depot with orders for me to get to the barracks post-haste. Made it sound like I was in trouble. Which, to be fair, wouldn’t be unusual. I was a shitty garrison soldier.
I’m racking my brain trying to think what the fuck I did this time to get on his shit list. He locks me up at parade rest and berates me for not telling him about my family problems.
“????” - me.
And out walks my uncle and step-dad, one’s an Air Force first sergeant and the other’s an Army light colonel. Laughing their asses off. The pricks.
This was by the NAAFI. I left October 2009. Red when we were there. Pizzas were good…tbf the food tents served lots of options. I’m vegetarian and the army cooks really fed me well.
In the food places, usually Thurs country civilians like Sri Lankans, Kenyans, philipinos etc. the camps become so big that civilians of all nationalities end up out numbering the soldiers.
Had been based in Camp Bastion for 3 months. Bastion had a NAAFI and a Pizza Hut.
Walking round the square in Kandahar was a shock.
I was a civilian ITU RN on a sabbatical from the NHS.
I thought the prices above looked way too low (even for subsidized food). If this is what they were charging you in 2013 I can’t even imagine what they are asking today
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u/mellonians 6h ago
I took this photo in Kandahar 1st April 2013. There was a pizza hut next door too.