[Gunslingr3]

Hard to find someone who’s goal in the military is to be a cook. And we don’t want to hurt their feelings by making them cook unless they want to.

When I worked at the Eglin AFB mess hall one summer 30-some years ago most of the staff were contracted. Only a handful of uniformed staff involved. My summer job was filling in for the contracted staff as they were taking their vacations.

[T.B. Yoits]

While the Air Force outsourced most of their food services, the Army still uses a lot of military members because they need such skills when they deploy.

I suspect there's more to this. To be short staffed at just one post usually points to a successful sting operation, usually for drugs or theft. I know of one base when I was in (not our own) that had several Articles 15 and discharges for an online porn ring where the wives were the "stars" swinging with different men and some of the videos were shot in base housing.