CAMP SMITH TRAINING SITE, Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. - For 200 New York Army National Guard Soldiers of the 369th Sustainment Brigade their meal of roast pork, black-eyed peas, salad, mashed potatoes and angel food cake Saturday, March 19 was just a really good lunch at drill.
For the 25 members of the brigade’s Headquarters company mess section, it was a serious competitive event.
The meal the food service Soldiers cooked that day was their preliminary round in the Army-wide Philip A. Connelly Awards Program cooking competition. The prize, known to Army mess sections as the Connelly Cup, recognizes Army cooks ability to master the logistical, administrative, tactical, and culinary challenges of preparing a healthy, good-tasting meal in the field.
“It’s a learning experience for the Soldiers that don’t know, and for the ones who have been a part of it, who have done it before, it’s just getting quicker, getting better, and learning more,” explained Sgt. Kelvis Cedeno, a food service specialist.
“I think it’s a good thing because it actually makes you feel like you have a purpose and people realize the importance of your job,” Cedeno said.
The skills the Connelly competition evaluates are especially important for Army National Guard cooks to master, said Chief Warrant Officer 2 Nakia Dukes, State Food Service Advisor for the New York Army National Guard.
“Since 9/11 most units have gone to catered meals. What the objective is for the National Guard is to go back to actually having cooks gainfully employed in their MOS and actually feeding Soldiers,” Dukes explained.
“Cooks in the New York Army National Guard typically don’t do a lot of field feeding,” Dukes said.
“The Connelly competition gives the cooks an excellent opportunity to cook on their (organizational) equipment, to feed Soldiers in their unit, and to get command emphasis on their actual training. And that’s the bottom line; get cooks cooking and feed Soldiers so they can carry on the mission,” he added.
The Philip A. Connelly Awards Program, was established in 1968 and recognizes excellence in Army Food Service. The program is named for the late Philip A. Connelly, a former president of the International Food Service Executives Association.
The Connelly competition is comprised of four categories: active-duty garrison, active- duty field, Army National Guard field, and Army Reserve field. Army commands conduct competitive evaluations from March through September for each category.
The Soldiers prepare a meal in a field environment using a mobile kitchen trailer or MKT. Ingredients for the meal come from the Army's standard A-ration, a combination of fresh, frozen and canned foods.
The stated objectives of the program are to improve the professionalism of Army food service personnel, therefore providing the best food service quality to Soldier diners and also to provide recognition for excellence in the preparing and serving of food in both dining facilities and the field. For the Soldiers, this type of competition can bring an added value to maintaining their readiness and proficiency in their career field.
“Being that we’re National Guard Soldiers, we don’t get to do that type of training and pulling out all the stops and all of the equipment we use,” said Sgt. 1st Class Dumahi Wallace, the brigade mess sergeant.
“By allowing the cooks to do their jobs it gives for a better product, the Soldiers seem to be a lot [happier] knowing they’re going to get hot meals prepared by other Soldiers,” Wallace said.
Mess sections competing for the Connelly Cup are evaluated based on their planning—to include putting together an operations order for the cooking mission—their adherence to Army food service regulations, sanitation standards, understanding their equipment, and their ability to prepare a tasty meal using the Army’s standard meal plans, Dukes said.
All units participating in the competition cook the same roast pork meal to ensure the test is fair, he added.
Dukes and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Michael Brignone, the 369th Sustainment Brigade food service advisor, were the evaluators for the first phase of the competition.
The cooks of the 369th are competing against cooks from of the 642nd Aviation Support Battalion who will be evaluated on April 29.
The winner will then go on to the regional level and compete against National Guard units from other northeast states. The winner of the regional competition then goes on to the finals which encompasses units from the entire Department of the Army.