A handful of soldiers will get a chance to put their speed eating to the test as they move to the big leagues of competitive eating next Thursday.
Competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut will attend a hot dog eating contest at Fort Bliss’ “Pop Goes the Fort” event to celebrate Independence Day. Four soldiers will take on Chestnut, a 16-time winner of the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, in a 5-minute competition.
From Basic Training to day-to-day life in the operational force, there are only so many minutes in a given day when soldiers can cram food into their mouths before racing off to the next task.
That should give them a shot against Chestnut.
“I will root for them, but obviously, I think that Joey might take championships,” Fort Bliss Morale, Welfare and Recreation spokesperson Marlo Bestar told Military Times. “Everybody’s super stoked that he’s coming to join our event.”
Officials from Major League Eating announced on June 11 that Chestnut, who ate 62 hot dogs at last year’s contest, would be barred from competing in the annual competition after Chestnut signed with another hot dog brand, according to the Associated Press.
On June 25, the Fort Bliss Morale, Welfare and Recreation account on X, formerly Twitter, tagged Chestnut in a tweet offering him a chance to compete against soldiers at the base’s July 4th event. Chestnut currently holds the hot dog eating world record, consuming 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes at the 2021 Nathan’s competition
“ABSOLUTELY,” Chestnut responded. “I’m honored to celebrate America’s birthday with U.S. ARMY soldiers and their families. Bring me your best 4 eaters and I’ll take them down, combined!”
Fort Bliss, located on the Texas-New Mexico state line outside of El Paso, is home to the 1st Armored Division.
Zamone “Z” Perez is a reporter at Military Times. He previously worked at Foreign Policy and Ufahamu Africa. He is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he researched international ethics and atrocity prevention in his thesis. He can be found on Twitter @zamoneperez.
