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BISMARCK, N.D. - After marinating on a state and regional win in the Phillip A. Connelly Excellence in Army Food Service competition, a team of North Dakota Soldiers are preparing another recipe for success for a national-level evaluation to be named the best Army field mess section in the National Guard. The cooks, from the North Dakota Army National Guard's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 112th Aviation Regiment (HHC/1-112th), are members of one of two Army food sections - including a unit from the Wisconsin National Guard - that are in the running for top honors.
The Connelly award was established in 1968 and is designed to encourage professionalism in Army food service teams and recognize excellent performance. The award is named in honor of the late Philip A. Connelly, a former International Food Service Executive Association (IFSA) president, who was responsible for obtaining IFSEA sponsorship of Army food service awards.
According to the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps website, the IFSEA is a professional organization "dedicated to raising food service industry standards." It says its membership is comprised of management executives from all aspects of food service, including armed forces and other organizations having food service operations.
To reach the national-level competition, North Dakota's food service specialists first gained wins at the state level this summer in June, and later, at the regional competition. North Dakota's region includes food sections from Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming. Both competitions were held outside the Army Aviation Support Facility in Bismarck. A team of evaluators from National Guard Bureau were on-hand to score North Dakota's team in a number of areas during a "Field Kitchen Competition." Some of the evaluated items that are used to ascertain a team's score include headcount operations, transportation and storage of rations, field food handling procedures and food sanitation.
"The team gets an evaluator's checklist to prepare for the competitions. The main thing is having all the necessary equipment and making sure it's maintained and operational, and then licensing personnel on the equipment," said Master Sgt. Jamie Wagendorf, state food service adviser for the North Dakota Army National Guard. "It's entirely field mess operations for the competition, so the team had to practice outside. There's a certain site layout to follow, which includes setting up a kitchen area according to a standard operating procedure. After setting up in a field environment, the team prepares one meal, which is served to their unit."
The food service specialists from the HHC/1-112th typically work indoors in the Army Aviation Support Facility's kitchen area where they feed about 100 Soldiers during drill weekends. For the Connelly competition, the cooks had to familiarize themselves, starting in 2013, with the U.S. Army's mobile kitchen trailer, or MKT, which can feed about 250 Soldiers two hot meals in the field per day. They later made the leap to a containerized kitchen, or CK, which can feed about 550 Soldiers. The preparation and training required numerous working hours on the part of the HHC/1-112th's five chefs and three field sanitation specialists.
"We've put in pretty close to 100 hours, if not more, into the CK, setting it up, tearing it down and practicing over two annual training periods to make sure that our site layout is set up properly," said Staff Sgt. Jascon Rundquist, food section noncommissioned officer in charge for HHC/1-112th.
Rundquist said a field kitchen site layout takes many factors into consideration and is scrutinized by competition evaluators. The layout needs to incorporate site security, including military defensive positions; accessibility and appropriate distances between the kitchen and latrines.
While the N.D. Army National Guard has eight food sections in units across the state, Wagendorf said not every cooking team has the flexibility to pursue the Connelly competition. Unit deployments and limited staffing can prevent units from sending their cooks forward. To have a strong chance at success, field sections need established cohesion, along with experienced Soldiers and supportive leadership.
"There has to be support, not only at the section level, but within the battalion and command levels, as well. It just all fell into place for the (HHC/1-112th) to raise their hats and take the competition on to see how well they do," Wagendorf said.
Now, the HHC/1-112th team will look toward March 2015 when it will be evaluated during the national competition in the dead of winter, again at the Army Aviation Support Facility in Bismarck. Rundquist said his team is prepared.
"I've talked with the group, and as a team we're excited. When we first started out, we weren't really sure if we wanted to do this (competition), and then as a team, we grew into it and now everyone is ready to win and looking forward to being able to say that they're national champions," he said. "Our leadership has supported us 100 percent. We couldn't ask for better leadership, supporting us, letting us grow as a team and making sure we have what we need to succeed."
Already, being involved in the Connelly competition has paid off for HHC/1-112th, including monetarily. For the cooks' win at the regional completion, the unit will receive $10,000 for its food service operations. With a national win, they'll receive $25,000 or $15,000 for runner-up.
The last North Dakota Army National Guard unit to win a national-level Connelly competition was a food section from the Minot-based 164th Engineer Battalion in 2003.
| Date Taken: | 11.14.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 11.14.2014 12:34 |
| Story ID: | 147883 |
| Location: | BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA, US |
| Web Views: | 551 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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