It’s bad enough that thousands of National Guard soldiers remain confused as to why they’re on deployment in Washington D.C., as they sleep in parking garages and wonder when they’ll get to go home.
According to the New York Post, making matters worse for many of them is the bombshell revelation that a contingent of Michigan National Guard troops was recently treated for gastrointestinal issues after reportedly consuming food that was either under-cooked or contained contaminants such as metal shavings.
What’s going on?
Thanks to a report from an anonymous Michigan National Guard staff sergeant, it was revealed this week that contaminated and improperly cooked food has been on the menu recently, which has caused dozens of troops to fall ill.
The situation is apparently as bad as it sounds, as the staff sergeant relayed to news affiliate WXYZ that the food situation is not getting any better for his fellow troops, reporting multiple instances of bad food during the deployment.
“Yesterday, for instance, there were 74 different meals found with raw beef in them,” the staff sergeant told the news station, adding that “Just yesterday … soldiers had found metal shavings in their food.”
Wow.
Whistleblower reveals poor food quality making Michigan National Guard members sick https://t.co/JVh32eHXvW
— Lara Logan (@laralogan) March 2, 2021
The rapidly declining situation was apparently the fault of a contractor hired to provide food for the roughly 1,000 Michigan National Guard troops that have been stationed in the nation’s capital with thousands of others from various states.
“Morale is very bad”
While the troops are a voluntary, part-time fighting force that follows orders with the best of them and answers the call to service no matter the inconvenience to their normal lives, not properly feeding the troops while they’re on deployment on American soil has degraded morale to low levels.
“Morale is very bad; many have served overseas and cannot believe the quality of food they are being fed here,” one anonymous solider reported this week.
The Michigan National Guard leadership finally responded to the concerning reports, acknowledging in a statement that the first-hand accounts of what soldiers have posted on social media are disturbing and that they’re currently working to fix the situation as fast as possible.
The @MINationalGuard provided this statement today:
“The firsthand accounts and pictures of undercooked food being served clearly shows that what is being given to Michigan’s service members is unacceptable.”@GovWhitmer spoke with the Acting Sec. of Army about the situation pic.twitter.com/QEaa7G2fRB— Brian Abel (@BrianAbelTV) March 2, 2021
The entire Michigan delegation in the House also penned a letter to National Guard leadership, demanding answers and pledging to use their power to quickly fix the situation, as the last thing these fine men and women should have to worry about while deployed in America is finding metal shavings in their food.