Email   Print   Share By Staff Sgt. Johnathan Hoover 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs

Facebook Digg Delicious May 31, 2012 | Leisure

Spc. Victor Miller, a cook with 4-9 Cav. Regt., 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div., prepares hashbrowns for the Phillip A. Connelley Awards Program competition held at Fort Hood’s Expert Field Medical Badge training site April 4. Staff Sgt. Johnathan Hoover, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs

Soldiers from 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div., enjoy the food cooked during the Phillip A. Connelley Awards Program competition held at the Expert Field Medical Badge training site at Fort Hood April 4. Staff Sgt. Johnathan Hoover, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. Public Affairs

Soldiers assigned to various units and units from the 2nd “Black Jack” Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division came together to win the installation level of the Active Army Field Kitchen Phillip A. Connelly Awards Program competition held at Fort Hood’s Expert Field Medical Badge training site recently.

The Philip A. Connelly Awards Program was established March 23 1968 to recognize excellence in Army Food Service. The program is named for the late Philip A. Connelly, former president of International Food Service Executives Association, who was responsible for obtaining IFSEA’s sponsorship of the event, according to the Evaluators Handbook.

“Overall, what we were looking for is the standard in field feeding, sanitation, quality of the meal, presentation of the meal and the way the customers are treated when they come in,” Bryan Day, a member of the III Corps Command Maintenance and Evaluation Team said. “The way the field site is laid out is everything in its proper place, everything built to standard, everything according to the Army manuals and regulations that give us our guidelines of how we are supposed to perform our operations.”

“The goal of these competitions is to improve the quality of the Army Food Service and keep us in line with what is going on in the commercial side of the house,” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joseph Bodirsky, the command food service technician assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd BCT, 1st Cav. Div. said. “The same food that we are serving up here is the same food that you can buy downtown.”

Black Jack Soldiers had a shorter time to prepare for the competition than other units on the installation, but their willingness and resourcefulness pushed them through.

“Other units competing on Fort Hood in the field category had their equipment here. Black Jack Soldiers borrowed from other battalions to complete their set up,” Bodirsky said. “Our Soldiers’ resourcefulness was monumental.”

“I’m so proud of these Soldiers. They have bent over backwards, putting in long hours getting this together,” Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Roberts, a senior food operations sergeant assigned to HHC, 2nd Special Troops Battalion said. “It’s great bringing the award to Black Jack, the Soldiers wanted to win this.”

Roberts said that Soldiers were volunteering to be on the team that represented Black Jack when the competition was announced.

Day said teamwork is huge, a total command effort, not just the food service personnel. It’s from the commanders emphasis on feeding his troops, the other sections within that command, maintenance and how they support the field feeding team, supply and whether or not they are resourced properly and then the food service team itself.

The amount of support that the unit received from the brigade command team with anything that they needed shows they completely support the food services 100 percent, Bodirsky said.

“Competing at the installation level proved who had the best field feeding section and had the knowledge, training and who performs well in the field to meet the commanders intent to feed the Soldiers,” Bodirsky said.

Roberts said the teamwork, receiving tremendous support from every unit within the brigade, was a huge part of the competition.

It’s not just one battalion coming out to compete, we requested an exception to policy so that we could pull from all of our battalions, making it a brigade team which shows our solidarity, said Bodirsky.

“Our commanders already know that in Black Jack we have the best cooks on Fort Hood, now we have proved to the rest of Fort Hood that we have the best cooks,” Bodirsky said.

Black Jack also received first place in the Military Dining Facility (garrison feeding operations).