Gearing up for Xmas in Afghanistan

The other day I wrote about a US Navy submarine cook who is currently working at an Army post in Afghanistan. Now ZUI this article from the MoD Defence News:

Due to arrive at the main British base in Helmand Province in the next few days are nine thousand kilograms of turkey breast, fifteen thousand kilos of cranberry sauce, four thousand mince pies, six thousand after dinner mints, six thousand balloons, four thousand party hats and five thousand Christmas crackers.

So it will be a traditional Christmas lunch in the two huge tented barrel cookhouses on the camp, and on Christmas Eve, the chefs plan to put up Christmas trees and decorations so the troops will be greeted on Christmas morning with a festive atmosphere.

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SAC [Stephanie] Thorogood points out that it's actually in the Queen's Regulations that no one is allowed to leave the cookhouse hungry, and there is not much chance of that happening at Bastion. They have seven different choices for lunch or dinner, ranging from lamb curry to steak with béarnaise sauce and chicken stir fry to lasagne, and it all tastes excellent:

"People like curry," SAC Thorogood said. "We cook off six green boxes of rice a day, that's a lot of rice! I did the stir fry the other day too, with six boxes of peppers, that's a lot of peppers!"

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The Christmas tradition of officers and senior ranks serving the junior ranks their Christmas meal will be alive and well at Bastion too, and [head chef] WO2 [Alan] Watkins will know how to gauge the troops appreciation of the food[.]

Note: A Senior Aircraftman (SAC) is an RAF rank equivalent to a USAF Airman (E-2). A Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) in the British forces is a senior enlisted rank equivalent to a USAF Senior Master Sergeant or USN Senior Chief Petty Officer (E-8).