FORT CARSON, Colo. - The small green tent feels like a sauna as Spc. Bishnu Remi, food service specialist, Forward Support Company H, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, cleans a large silver pot with scalding hot water; outside snow flurries and below-freezing temperatures greet Soldiers as they begin to prepare dinner service for about 300 hundred Soldiers training in the field on Fort Carson, Feb. 23.
The field feeding section of Forward Support Company H, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 1st SBCT, 4th Infantry Division, is responsible for feeding their battalion while they train in the field from Feb. 17 to March 6.
"Working in the field, we really learn our job and to be strong and courageous for when we need to deploy and do this job," said Remi, a native of Gorkha, Nepal. "Right now, we are cleaning our pots because Soldiers out in the field need to be healthy, sanitation is important."
Every day of the three-week field training exercise Soldiers will eat a hot breakfast, a Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) for lunch and a hot dinner. The Containerized Kitchen (KC) is a green trailer elevated about 2 feet off the ground and the hub of activity as cooks ready the dinner meal.
Staff Sgt. Cory Wood, senior food service NCO, Forward Support Company H, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 1st SBCT, 4th Infantry Division, explained, "Food stays warm in a mermite for up to four hours."
A mermite is a hot and cold container for food meant to withstand the rigors of Army training and deployments.
Wood went on to say that they kept food warm in the kitchen until just before it went into the mermite and out to the Soldiers.
"Soldiers are not getting lukewarm food. They are getting hot, ready-to-eat food."
Companies validated their combat readiness during the battalion's the three week platoon live-fire exercise.
"We are supporting the line companies for the three weeks we are out here. One company per week; keep them well feed, keep them motivated and keep the energy up," said Staff Sgt. Bill Hengsteler, food service NCO, Forward Support Company H, 2nd Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 1st SBCT, 4th Infantry Division.
Spc. Noel Pallay, a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer, helped unload dinner chow and said about the beef, potatoes and mixed vegetables he was about to eat, "[The food] reminds us of the comforts of home and makes it a little bit easier out here."
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