DFAC team serves those who serve

Published Feb. 7, 2012
By Staff Sgt. Sara Csurilla
U.S. Forces Central

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- It's a routine most service members in a deployed location could repeat in their sleep.

Wash ever-dusty hands with provided deluxe pink soap, dig through every uniform pocket to eventually find Common Access Card, scan card, grab a tray, pick out favorite silverware and jump in line with about 20 other service members to receive the meal of the day. And of course all while sporting a nifty reflective belt if it happens to be during hours of darkness.

Going through the dining facility, every Airman, Soldier, Sailor and Marine has done it.

The Manhattan Dining Facility with the 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron provides this experience for more than 3,600 people, serving more than 2,500 pounds of food a day.

Although most of the customers who dine here are aircrew, aircraft maintenance, or pilots due to its location near the flight line, it's available to everyone on base and open 13 hours every day.

"We're open for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight meal," said Master Sgt. Dean Burlew, Manhattan DFAC manager. "Most people that come here are getting that break from work and I love being able to give them that opportunity to get away during a busy duty day--to unwind and relax for at least a moment."

Burlew, a Millville, N.J. native, is deployed from his home unit, the 177th Fighter Wing, New Jersey Air National Guard. As a sergeant with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, his duties here are somewhat similar to his duties at home, just a lot safer and more rewarding.

Burlew notes that valued members of the team he supervises are third country national employees.

"They're honest people trying to make a living and doing an important job here, just like we are," said Burlew. "They're the ones preparing the food, they're the ones serving the food...without them, we couldn't do what we do."

Some of the TCNs working at the Manhattan DFAC have been living in some of these deployed locations for years and come from a variety of countries like Nepal, Bangladesh, and the Philippines.

"Working with Americans is great," said Nimesh Dhakal, TCN manager at Manhattan DFAC, originally from Nepal. "Everyone is very friendly and very easy to work with."

Along with the routine trials the DFAC managers run into while maintaining the facility, being in a deployed location presents its very own issues at times.

"Famines," exclaimed Burlew. "There have been times where we have gone months without certain products. Sometimes specific foods, like pork, get held up at customs and there's not much we can do but wait and change meal plans."

U.S. service members and coalition forces look to the Manhattan DFAC every day to provide them with the nutrition they need to continue their efforts toward the mission.
The next time you're diligently scrubbing your hands or standing in line, take some time to think about the people behind the meals, said Burlew.

"We will always be faced with challenges," Burlew said. "But, no matter what it is, we just press through and do the very best we can with what we have, even if that means no bacon."