CHICAGO -- Marines with Food Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, received an award for best field mess in the Marine Corps during the Maj Gen. William P.T. Hill Memorial Awards in Chicago, May 22, 2010.
The W.P.T. Hill Awards is an annual event held in Chicago that serves as a means to promote food service excellence throughout the Marine Corps at its installations across the United States and overseas.
Awards presented during the ceremony include best military garrison mess hall, best contractor garrison mess hall, best field mess and best reserve field mess, along with many other awards earned by Marines and contractors alike.
“This is an outstanding accomplishment,” said Chief Warrant Officer David F. Hunley, the company commander of Food Service Company. “The fact that we can do this with 50 percent of our Marines deployed is absolutely remarkable.”
The five to six months of preparation and work done by the Marines was great, Hunley said of his Marines after they accepted the award for best field mess in the Marine Corps.
Food Service Company emerged victoriously from field messes across the Corps. Each Marine Corps station had its own competition. Then, winners from each station were sent to see who would represent each Marine Expeditionary Force, and so on.
As the contest moved up the chains, the field of contestants grew smaller until one company was named the winner.
“The checklist is long and ranges from sanitation to accountability,” Hunley said. “They check a lot of aspects while judging the competition.”
The W.P.T. Hill Awards breed excellence and emphasize quality amongst the many mess halls and Marines working in the food service field.
With this competition pushing Marines to be the best they can be, and to ensure their mess hall is up to par with Marine Corps standards, Marines can assure that they are eating quality food and are receiving better than standard service when entering the many mess halls in the Marine Corps.