A little dessert goes a long way
April 27th, 2012 | Blue-Green operations Food Life at sea | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Lance Cpls. Jonathon Ziolek, right, and Matt T. Behrens with 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit enjoy their ice cream aboard amphibious assault ship Makin Island, at sea April 26. (USMC photo)
You have to wonder how quickly these Marines devoured that ice cream.
Amphibious assault ship Makin Island held an ice cream social for Marines and sailors aboard the San Diego-based ship, which has been deployed in the Arabian Sea region with the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit and a three-ship amphibious ready group. As these junior Marines are learning, sweets like ice cream, cakes and cookies are often readily available aboard many if not all ships at sea, yet they still are familiar, comforting. Besides, you can’t really ruin ice cream, or most any dessert for that matter.
Ice cream is more the rarity for those training in the field or deployed away from the large camps in the combat zone of Afghanistan (though you might be lucky enough to find some while on patrol). But as more Marines get to experience the different pace of life at sea, and in new places like Australia, the Philippines or South Korea, dessert will be just one of those constants when the meals might vary from rations to local but unfamiliar favorites. So whether it’s ice cream, cake or cookies, few will pass up the chance to indulge in those simple comforts that often remind us of home. And it certainly beats the sweets that come with MREs.
Freshly-made cookies await takers aboard assault ship Peleliu during a visit by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta March 30. //Gidget Fuentes photo
Granted, food of any kind is a great unifier, as Marines and others got to experience during exercise Balikatan just recently, and there’s plenty of chocolate and candy, along with goodies from home, sent overseas to Marines. Still, some chilled ice cream, with or without toppings like cherries and whipped cream, and freshly-made cookies won’t last long no matter where it’s available. During Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s visit in late March to the Peleliu, an amphibious assault ship training with the 15th MEU off the coast of Camp Pendleton, Calif., the culinary specialists in the ship’s galley served up to the crew plates of fresh chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies. The top civilian at the Pentagon? He enjoyed two of the oatmeal raisins. Can you name your favorite?
But will they be running (off) on Dunkin’?
April 6th, 2012 | Camp Pendleton Food Pop culture | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
When officials mark the opening of the new and enlarged Marine Corps Exchange at Camp Pendleton, Calif., in early May, they might want to brace for an unusual crowd: Dunkin’ Donuts lovers.
We’re talking coffee and donuts, and muffins and bagels, too.
Dunkin’ Donuts, a Massachusetts-based company, has more than 7,000 restaurants across the country, in 36 states plus the District of Columbia, and there’s even seven overseas. But there’s not a single one in California, a huge state where Starbucks and McDonalds are a dime a dozen. But come May, the state’s first Dunkin’ Donuts eatery will open inside the new MCX.
It’s been more than a decade since the company shuttered its few California shops, putting the nearest Boston Kreme, Powered Cocoa and Spiced Apple donuts in the far reaches across the border – no, not Mexico, although it might as well be – in Nevada and Arizona. Why they did that is just mind-boggling, even in a state that screams healthy and fit but gorges on In-N-Out burgers and burritos.
That gap in time has been agony for throngs of fans, East Coasters mostly, relegated to reminiscing about Dunkin’s Hazelnut coffee and Salt bagels and waiting for the day to travel back East, where a trip to the nearest Dunkin’ Donuts is a required pilgrimage.
But with the new Camp Pendleton store, the 64,000 people who work or live at the base will be the lucky ones able to get their coffee and donut fix daily. At least that’s what the corporate data keepers expect. “We are honored and excited about the opportunity to serve the 64,000 people who live, work and train at the military base and look forward to keeping the Marines running on Dunkin’ with our coffee and snacks,” the Dunkin’ Brands public relations manager, McCall Gosselin, said in a response to questions, picking up the company’s motto of “America runs on Dunkin’.”
Running they will be. At a base with quite a few transplanted East Coasters – including the base commander – and Southerners more familiar with the brand’s sweets, the official grand opening set to run from May 3 to May 6 just might become more of a swarm. A big one. It won’t just be base workers and residents who can access the store, not far from the main gate and Interstate 5, but thousands of military retirees in the region, which itself has a sizeable population.
“This will be off the charts,” predicted Brig. Gen. Vincent Coglianese, the Marine Corps Installations-West commander. The New Jersey native knows: He described his wife as a big Dunkin’ fan. And a recent interview veered off into warm memories of hot coffee and tasty pastries, and anticipation of the “VIP” opening on May 2.
Coglianese expects to see as big a reception to Camp Pendleton’s Dunkin’ Donuts as the Marine Corps has seen at the Camp Lejeune, N.C., store, which reportedly had more business than the Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants outside the base in Jacksonville. The company rep wouldn’t confirm but said there are 25 other Dunkin’ Donuts at U.S. military bases, and service members apparently don’t shy away from its goodies. “The military population is a great audience for us and we are actively looking to develop new Dunkin’ Donuts locations on other military bases,” Gosselin said.
The company’s original announcement that the Camp Pendleton location will be the only site in California had left die-hard Dunkin’ Donuts fans out West thinking: Are they hazelnuts?
But how soon new sites would open isn’t clear. “It will be some time before we consider expanding into California,” said Gosselin. “We recognize there is high demand for Dunkin’ Donuts on the West Coast, as evidenced by the fact that California is the #1 state for sales of our bagged grocery coffee. However, Dunkin’ Donuts is moving westward with focus on disciplined development in contiguous markets that are adjacent to our existing base in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas. We will enter the market once our infrastructure is established to meet the demands of our guests.”
Fans anticipate the reaction at Camp Pendleton will be hot. But if the it turns out to be more lukewarm, well, that means there’s just more coffee and donuts for the rest of us.
One last meal before you go
April 2nd, 2012 | Food Life at sea MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines aboard ship find a variety of meal choices, from baked chicken, fish and beef to burgers and salad bars. Some days bring themed meals, like the Tex-Mex lunch aboard USS Peleliu off California last week. (Photo by Gidget Fuentes)
Last week, some 4,000 Marines and sailors on the East Coast furiously worked to get themselves and their units and ships ready for a scheduled deployment overseas. The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit and its 2,300 Marines and sailors headed out March 30 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., aboard amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima, dock landing ship Gunston Hall and dock transport ship New York. It will be an eight-month deployment to the Mediterranean and the Middle East for the U.S. European and Central Command regions.
You can bet during that last weekend home, just about every Marine and sailor made the most of every single free minute. The 24th MEU asked its Facebook fans for their must-have favorite food they’d want to eat before deploying on ship. More than three-dozen responded with choices ranging from pizza, meatloaf and steak to even sushi. Other favorites:
- Louisiana gumbo.
- Ribeye steak, baked potato and fresh corn on the cob.
- Lasagna.
- Pumpkin pie.
- Chicken and dumplings from Cracker Barrel.
The chain restaurant must be a popular stop – Sam Tate wrote that he would enjoy its meatloaf and accompanying side dishes. Diane Brankley Zimmerman relayed that she made her son’s favorites before he left home: Corned beef and cabbage and beef stroganoff. Hmmm, yummy. Andy Warren brought back memories of a timeless comfort food: Grilled ham and cheese with a bowl of tomato soup. Craig Babich was open to most any meal with one caveat: “Anything but chicken.” But Christopher Olinger and James J. Hayes must have been kidding with this suggestion: An M.R.E. We hope.
At sea, a place of their own
November 11th, 2011 | Blue-Green operations Food Life at Sea Marine Raiders MEU operations | Posted by Gidget Fuentes
Marines heading out to sea in any of the Navy’s fleet of amphibious ships get quickly and acutely familiar with a few spaces inside those large gray warfighting hulls: their berthing space, the ship’s gym and the enlisted mess decks.
Carlson Cafe aboard amphibious assault ship Makin Island, was busy at lunchtime during at-sea training last month. The cozy section of the much-larger enlisted mess decks is named after a legendary Marine Raider. (Gidget Fuentes/staff)
There’s usually nothing spectacular about those spaces, which are often crowded and offer little in the way of physical privacy or familiar comforts of home. But aboard Makin Island, the Navy’s newest big-deck amphibious assault ship and homeported in San Diego, what would have been some storage area off the main mess decks has been remade into a cozier space with a more intimate “cafe” feel.
Unlike the fluorescent-lit, Navy-blue color schemes more typical of ships’ mess decks, this area called “Carlson Cafe” features walls wrapped in paneling, blue vinyl-covered bar stools and booths and tables topped with the Mandarin phrase of “Gung Ho” on red vinyl.
The cafe, which is opened during the ship’s meal hours for E-6s and below, is named for the late and innovative Lt. Col. Evans F. Carlson, one of the more colorful leaders among the Marine Corps’ small but elite World War II force known as Marine Raiders. Carlson had served in China and adopted the phrase “gung ho,” which means “working together” in Mandarin, for his men of 2nd Raider Battalion known as Carlson’s Raiders. They and another group of men – “Edson’s Raiders” of 1st Raider Battalion led by Col. Merritt Edson – were formed in February 1942 and quickly deployed to fight in the island campaigns in the Pacific. Their legacy was short-lived – the Marine Corps disestablished its four Raider battalions two years after their formation – but the more than 8,000 men who earned the title were pivotal to the Marine Corps’ development of its unique amphibious warfare capabilities and its reconnaissance, force recon and special operations communities.
The Carlson Cafe includes a growing collection of Raider memorabilia. News clips and movie posters, including of the 1943 flick “Gung Ho” that told the story of Carlson’s Raiders, hang on the wall. Wooden cases display Carlson’s combat medals and a period uniform. “They’ve got room to grow,” noted Navy Senior Chief (SW/AW) Donnie Ryan, the ship’s public affairs chief. “Gung Ho” is designed into the table coverings. Sconces on the walls can provide some “mood” lighting, an improvement on a ship where glaring overhead fluorescent lights are the norm.
That may be welcomed once Makin Island leaves San Diego Nov. 14 on its maiden deployment, leaving a force of three amphibious ships, including dock landing ship Pearl Harbor and amphibious transport dock New Orleans with Camp Pendleton, Calif.-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit for the Persian Gulf and Western Pacific regions.