Pentagon Shipping More Food for Christmas Meals This Year

The cooks for the traditional Christmas meals for troops overseas should have a lot more to work with this year, including the eggnog.

The Defense Logistics Agency said that deployed service members will be getting a total of 112,092 pounds of turkey for Christmas, compared to 90,727 pounds in 2016, and 59,430 pounds of beef, compared to 39,970 last year. The eggnog total was up from 1,079 gallons last year to 2,145 this year.

Robin Whaley, who works with DLA Troop Support Subsistence supply chain in Philadelphia, said it takes a lot of planning and coordination between her team and their industry partners to ensure service members can enjoy a traditional meal during the holiday season.

In a DLA release, Whaley said, "Our warfighters spend a lot of holidays away from their families and miss out on some of their favorite family traditions. We take great pride in ensuring a taste of home is delivered to every warfighter."

The agency's delivery priority for the holiday meals was going to troops deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Jordan and Kuwait.

DLA Troop Support also ensured that service members at other locations around the world, including those at sea, will be able to enjoy a holiday meal, the release said.

This is what the agency expects to deliver for holiday meals worldwide: 112,092 pounds of turkey; 59,430 pounds of beef; 38,430 pounds of ham; 29,304 pounds of shrimp; 690 cases of cookies; 16,002 assorted cakes and pies; 6,564 pounds of marshmallows; 3,743 gallons of juice; and 2,145 gallons of eggnog.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.