The best meal a Civil War field soldier could have was a wafer so hard he needed to soak it in coffee, and maybe some not-so-fresh vegetables.
Today?s soldier can cook a three-course meal in 45 minutes without using fire or electricity.
“In past wars, we have lost more service members to disease and sanitary conditions than to enemy fire,” said Lt. Col. David Allen, director of the Army?s Quartermaster Center and School at Fort Lee, Va.
It has been said the Army marches on its stomach, and Fort Meade officials received a taste of military food service history this week when it dedicated a recently found 50-year-old cast iron stove.
The dedication also comes as the Army celebrates its 233rd anniversary today. An Army veteran will throw out the first pitch at today?s Orioles game.
The stove was used at the fort?s former Bakers and Cooks School, which was started shortly after the fort was built in 1917 and was the longest-running service school in the Army until it closed in 1955.
The building now houses the fort?s human resource department.
“But they still say you can smell baking bread on a summer day in that building,” said Robert Johnson, curator of Fort Meade?s museum.
The stove was found in the basement of a building on post and was sent to Aberdeen Proving Ground in Harford to be refurbished.
It is now on display in the building where enlisted service members learn how to cook and bake. The school graduated 214,000 service members in 36 years.
While cooking is still taughtto soldiers, contractors provide most of the food service at installations.
The Army now sends soldiers in remote locations large boxes with nutritional meals that use chemical reactions to heat the food.
“Thank God for cooks, because sometimes that?s all that kept us going,” said Carlo DePorto, an 88-year-old World War II veteran.
