Life On The FOB: Part 6 - The 300

On the eve of Thanksgiving day and our annual American exercise in engorgement and gluttony (and giving thanks; I'm not trying to sound too cynical), I thought I would share something about the food.  Okay, the food isn't so bad here.  One of the myriad of contracting companies prepares, serves, and cleans up.  It could be a whole lot worse.  Sure we miss fresh milk and have sporadic fresh fruit and vegetables, but at least it's not MREs which is what the troops on the very small outposts subsist on.  When those guys come here for business, they always seem so very, very happy to be in our chow line.  So how can we complain?
 
As you might expect, it is definitely possible to put on weight on deployment.  Which leads me to my next point, but first a segue way.

A couple of years ago a movie called The 300 came out.  It purports to tell the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 defenders of Sparta took on a massive Persian army.

Spartan warrior.  All cape, no clothes

Now I have no idea about the historical accuracy of the film.  But in the finest tradition of Hollywood portrayals of Ancient Greece ala Brad Pitt's Troy, it seemed to me chiefly notable for the chiseled physiques of the loin-cloth laden actors.  In fact, I would summarize the plot as: chop off a head, flex your pecs; militant speech, bulge the biceps; primordial screaming, flash the abs; super slow-mo sword shot, tighten those gluts.  Have I missed anything here?

Not to be outdone, we have our own version of the 300 on the FOB.  Namely 300 pounds.  As in, are you going to return home bench pressing 300 pounds or weighing 300 pounds?


So what's it gonna be?


The marathon man

Perimeter Road Running Diehards

 or the ice cream man.

Dessert Line Diehards

In the end, you may look like a stunt double for The 300 or like you chowed 300 tubs of hot buttery popcorn on movie night.  But then Brad Pitt never had to resist the pie tray.

Rolando, one of our corpsman, embraces hard core training.