The 484th Cookin' Up Morale In Afghanistan

1st Sgt. Levi Doll

The 484th Military Police Co. cooks start their day at 0430 to ensure that breakfast is ready for all military and civilians living on Russian Silo, and they go until after the evening meal is done. They cook for more than 200 people three times a day, seven days a week, and in their spare time they take care of the soldiers once again by decorating.

The cooks made a Christmas dinner of turkey, smoked turkey, ham, pork roast and all the fixings. Like always, the food was remarkable. The officers of the 484th and the Strategic Forces Advisory Team (SFAT) unit greeted and served the soldiers their evening feast.

The 484th MP cooks took over the cooking from the 8/1 Cavalry back in August. The first meal that the 484th cooked was breakfast – and instantaneously the Combat Out Post (COP) morale greatly improved.

A couple of SFAT soldiers informed me that they had a list of dining hours at every Forward Operation Base (FOB) and COP in the area, and they would plan their mission start time to ensure they made it to one of the dining facilities for breakfast. Now they can sleep in and have breakfast here before they leave on a mission.

The 484th has soldiers on the SFAT security squad that also appreciates this new arrangement. The old saying is "the man of the hour." Here the saying goes, "484th cooks are the soldiers of the hour."

Our cooks have received a lot of complements from everyone here. They feed not only American soldiers, they feed many different nationalities and ethnic groups. Our cooks do their best to have a good variety to ensure that the different groups have something they can eat.