FORT HOOD, Texas - Few food service personnel in the Army get the opportunity to rebuild their dining facility (DFAC) from the ground up.
Soldiers of 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, along with cooks from 89th Military Police Brigade and 41st Field Artillery Brigade, got that opportunity when they renovated the Patriot Inn DFAC and celebrated its reopening during a grand opening ceremony Jan. 9, here.
The former location of the Patriot Inn DFAC closed for renovations, but would have taken a year to complete, said Sgt. 1st Class Armond Alexander, the Patriot Inn DFAC manager.
Instead, Alexander and his team decided to renovate the Culinary Arts Center building, which was right next to the old Patriot Inn on Old Ironsides Avenue, here, and took approximately three months to renovate, Alexander said.
The building hadn't been used as a DFAC in almost seven years, he added, which meant that many items in the kitchen had to be replaced.
The brigade enlisted the help of the Directorate of Public Works (DPW) and the Logistics and Readiness Center (LRC) for the larger parts of the renovation.
The new dining facility, which can seat up to 250 Soldiers and is expected to feed 650 people in an hour-and-a-half time frame, will have a new décor package, new equipment, and a new menu, Alexander, a St. Croix, United States Virgin Islands, native, said.
"We will start back up our deli market to provide Soldiers with a healthy, fresh alternative," he explained.
The theme of the DFAC is a timeline of Army food service.
An actual timeline of events lines the tops of the walls with historic facts such as when the first Meal, Ready-to-Eat (MRE) came out and what was in it.
One wall in the building is a hand-painted mural that includes the Patriot Inn logo and the patches of the three brigades that operate out of the building.
"This is a consolidated dining facility," Alexander said. "Yes, 69th (ADA Brigade) has operational control over the DFAC, but it's still a group effort, so we'd like the other brigades to feel a part and be part of our team in here."
The mural, painted by Spc. Margarita Grooms, a food service specialist with 1st Battalion, 44th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 69th ADA Brigade, took approximately a month and a half to complete, she said.
Grooms volunteered to paint the mural because she said she enjoys painting and even painted murals for her battalion while they were deployed.
Alexander gave Grooms the image for the mural, and she brought it to life through her artistic ability.
"I put a lot of heart into it and a lot of time," Grooms said.
The Phoenix native said she hopes that everyone enjoys the new DFAC and all of the hard work that those involved put into it.
Alexander said that working so hard to renovate the new DFAC will give Soldiers a new outlook on their work place.
"By us doing all the work and creating an establishment from the ground up together, we own it," Alexander said. "When you feel like you own something, you take a certain amount of pride for it."
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