USS Reagan Below Deck: America's Heartland Series

but this is a story not so much about the exciting light top side but the more routine life below decks while seemingly mundane the galley crews like culinary specialists 4cs Torey Mitchell take enormous pride in their work do you like to cook the morale yes yes raise the morale of the boat if the crews eating healthy and good when the ship is out on maneuvers the Navy spends two and a half million dollars per day including sailors salaries and food out of that only around 40,000 goes for meals buying in bulk combined with lots of storage keeps expenses down as far back as the American Revolution food has been a primary concern for the military where to get it how to carry it how to keep it fresh farm boys raised on good country cooking and marching into battle suddenly found they had nothing to eat except salt pork and a rock hard biscuit called hard tack to augment their meager diets early American soldiers and sailors depended on suppliers like meat packer Uncle Sam Wilson in the war of 1812 Wilson stamped his initials us on barrels of meat and secured his place in American history while field kitchens have traditionally served our troops today soldiers often rely on prepackaged meals I served in the Marine Corps in the 1960s and back then the standard food in the field was called sea ration sea for combat nutritious but not at all delicious over the years the sea ration has evolved into this the MRE or meal ready to eat and improvement it tasted variety it includes snack foods dessert and a main dish ranging from pot the vegetarian pasta you won't find MREs onboard the Ronald Reagan that's because food here is prepared from scratch so you're mixing it up right now it's that this is a Creole macaroni mix of some sort Creole macaroni ground beef they basically is like a spaghetti sauce with macaroni noodles the elbow noodles in it culinary specialist and professional cook John Smith is from Alabama I've been at suit at my school's for it the Navy Senate suit of a school is for so I'm pretty pretty well trying experience and that experience pays off in flavor say some of what you think so this is a real man straight up the pipe straight out the fire whether it's potatoes pasta or poultry suppliers for the Navy go through a competitive bidding process not completely unlike but certainly more high-tech than America's first provisioners people like Uncle Sam Wilson mentioned earlier who won a contract to supply meat during the war of 1812 today boxes of fresh produce canned and frozen foods are loaded on in pork then replaced at sea by supply ships the regen goes through millions of dollars of food every year normally the ship carries a three month supply what kind of beats do you have down here you have yet steaks and well we have everything from ground beef to prime rib this is prime rib over here this is my final bowl right here this represents a lot of money that does actually $900,000 that's correct in me right here for those who prefer seafood the ship stocks salmon halibut and other frozen fish in terms of drink the days of issuing frog watered-down rum are long gone there is no alcohol on board US Navy vessels or older personnel the beverage of choice is coffee for younger sailors milk this note right here is the same milk that you would buy it at the grocery store just act a little bit different this smoke right here it's called ESO extended shelf-life ESO has an extra step during imagination that makes it brought that prolong this life this smoke will last 90 days in cold storage the junior enlisted personnel eat their meals in one of the mess halls complete with a walkway down the chow line patterned after the star-studded Hollywood Walk of Fame the senior enlisted enjoy fancier dining quarters like this one with a wall-sized mural of Rancho del Cielo the Reagan's ranch above Santa Barbara California the most popular item for the younger crew chicken nuggets they are served on the so called brown line where all the food is deep-fried know the average age of sailors on the ship's about 22 and I find that your desire for nutritious food is inversely proportional to your age so as sailors mature they start to look for more for more healthy options we were able to provide that and that means a growing emphasis on going green pushing a healthier greens based diet with a boatload of vegetables and fruit they do eat a lot of salad because I think I talk constantly to help everyone make informed decisions cards with portion size and calorie counts are posted and over here we have for every news breakfast burrito portion size 1 3 300 300 calories yeah but they still eat them they know what they're eating the galley operates around the clock one meal ends and right on its heels comes the next almost every sailor will do KP kitchen patrol duty or a full three months it's tough or some tougher than being on the flight deck I get good feedback from them Antonio Padilla has his hands full as the galley supervisor still he finds time to put his artistic talents to work what are you doing making a swan basically a garnish for our line that way the crew will have something as they're coming through the line they waiting in long lines usually on board the ship when they come through we'll give them some nice to look at all this attention to creativity nutrition and flavor has earned the Reagan the creme de la creme of awards in the Navy in 2007 the Captain Edward F Nate row fee went to the ship for having the best food on any aircraft carrier but despite the emphasis on fresh and wholesome old eating habits can prevail but too much of a good thing means that more than 60% of US adults are overweight or obese that's according to the Centers for Disease Control and the armed forces are no exception so in an effort to get the crew into shipshape the Navy has put its muscle behind its own ship shaped program combining exercise with nutrition tips in behavior modification to develop healthier eating habits Rick Allison is the Reagan's Fitness boss there is enormous pressure to get into and stay in shape it not only makes good sense for better health but for readiness sailors in good condition perform physically demanding duties more quickly and easily and that's especially critical in times of emergency ask any of these sailors why did you join the Navy invariably one thing he or she will say is something sailors have always said to see the world it's always interesting to me how many sailors come from landlocked places in the United States and it's a it's actually seems disproportionate but so many of our sailors came from the heartland from places like Nebraska and Kansas and good examples our escort petty officer Chad Bascom I'm from Cedar Rapids Iowa you can't get any more Heartland than that Benjamin Lewis helps run the media department I'm from outside of superior Montana far western Montana near Missoula right where he worked on a horse ranch why did you want to join the Navy I wanted this see the world before I went back home so I did because experience new things and then eventually go back Elizabeth Garcia traded life and rural America for sweating it out in the ship's galley as well if you get out are you gonna work in a restaurant run a restaurant I want a restaurant go back to Texas and I wouldn't I do want to go back to Texas but I think my family has a ranch so I think your family has a ramp what do they do Oh shipboard life takes a lot of getting used to cramped sleeping quarters little or no privacy long workdays weeks at sea with no land in sight but for some the great expanse of ocean reminds them of home when I go out and look out the hangar bay doors and see the water and know people it kind of feels like home in a different sense I guess it's open spaces and know people that's what Toby Snowden yearns for so this is the kind of plane that you do provide a lot of ordnance for the fa-18 toby is another farm boy he joined the Navy three days after graduating high school since these are our flares you want a unit of issue would be each ei okay he supervises a team of sailors responsible for moving ordnance bombs and ammunition from the storage bay to the flight deck and onto jet fighters he'll retire from the Navy with 20 years of service it's been a good experience I enjoy being able to we go out to foreign ports being able to interact with them going out having a good time I also enjoy just seeing different places traveling the world not having to pay for it but Toby has plans for a second career for that he's going home to the heartland you want to return to a farm yes sir I I want to go back and work on my grandpa's farm when I when I got you'll be ready then you'll be ready to settle down on a farm oh yes sir after all this after all this this is uh sometime this can be hectic this can just seem get at you this is this is hard to do you know I've been on on the the Reagan not sweet a half years and we've been gone I'd say 75% ever get tired of that every day [Music]

Channel: America's Heartland

Views: 786,385

Rating: 4.642797 out of 5

Keywords: Americas Heartland, sustainable farming, sustainability, agriculture, PBS, KVIE, farming, food, ranching, organic, conservation, environment, stewardship, food safety, Paul Ryan, USS Reagan, US military, navy, marines, aircraft carrier, aircraft, fighter jets, seamen, galley, crew, culinary specialist, Torry Mitchell, cafeteria, cook, cooking, morale, military, history, US history, Uncle Sam

Id: yFuPt1s6wTo

Length: 11min 47sec (707 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 05 2009