The Great Steak and Lobster Scandal

I've resisted commenting on the outrage over the Department of War's purchase of steak and lobster for our troops. Now, I think it's time for me to weigh in.

I never considered any part of my military service to be scandalous or frivolous, but I guess it's time to rethink that.

I enlisted in the Marine Corps in the mid-1970s. In the 24 years that followed, I deployed at sea for three months or more six times, four of those times for six months or more.

Confession time...

On just about every one of those occasions, we were treated to a meal of steak—and sometimes lobster—at some point along the way. And we lapped it up wantonly, as if it was something that we should actually feel good about.

But the scandal didn't end there.

I started out as an infantryman, and when we were in the field on Thanksgiving or Christmas they would actually truck a hot holiday meal out to us—usually a turkey dinner with the trimmings for both holidays.

They did this even though one of the twelve meals in a case of C-rations was turkey loaf, so you already had at least a chance of enjoying a holiday-like meal in the field without all that extra effort and expense. If you didn’t draw the turkey loaf, there was also a ham slices meal. So really, we had about a one-in-six chance of a festive meal even without the military going to all that trouble.

To make things worse, when we were at sea on those holidays, the Navy served a nice turkey meal too. But in their defense, we didn't have C-rations to fall back on there.

THEN there was the matter of "beer days." When we had been at sea for forty-five consecutive days, the Navy would sometimes issue us two cans of beer. I took part in several of those over the years. As if that's not bad enough, on those beer days, the Navy would actually set up grills on the flight deck and turn part of the day into a "holiday routine" cookout.

And that brings up another thing: "holiday routine."

When we were deployed on ships, every day was supposed to be a work day. We were expected to answer the call at any hour. But once in a while the Navy would declare a "holiday routine" where they didn't sound reveille and the only work written into the routine was what was necessary to keep the ship afloat and on course. We were getting paid to perform a 24/7/365 duty, but there we were: writing letters, reading books, and relaxing for a few hours.

Imagine that.

Hopefully readers will recognize this "confession" for the satire that it is.

The fact is that when the steak and lobster "scandal" came up, I thought the criticism was so outrageously petty that it would quickly fade away. But somehow, it just keeps coming. And some of it is pure fiction, including the one I heard this morning—that Secretary Hegseth spent millions on steak and lobster for himself while the troops were stuck with MREs.

Sometimes people take positions that are just gratuitously oppositional. In this case, though, they fail to consider the luxuries and conveniences that military people surrender, the meals and holidays with family that they sacrifice, and the hazards that they face every day. The feigned outrage can have a way of harming the morale of our military people because it means that we didn't really mean it when we said "thanks" in that small way.

Those small tokens—a steak dinner, a lobster tail, a holiday meal, even a couple of beers after weeks at sea—aren't extravagances. They're morale boosters. A little slice of home served on a segmented tray. When your job involves fighting for your life and protecting the security of your country, a little boost is a good thing.


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