JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Military service members make sacrifices, including often risking their lives, so it might be easy to overlook that they often go weeks or months between home-cooked meals.
But, thanks to Winn-Dixie and United Services Organizations, about 500 Marines on domestic deployment at the Marines Support Facility, Blount Island, had themselves a barbecue dinner worthy of a general.
"I wasn’t going to not have that happen in our city, to have these Marines here all month and not get a home-cooked meal," Mike O'Brien, president of the U.S.O.'s Greater Jacksonville chapter told First Coast News at the event. Thanks to our great partners at Southeastern Grocers -- Winn-Dixie -- we're able to feed 500 hungry Marines today."
Those Marines welcomed the gesture -- and the delicious meal, of course -- with open hearts and hungry stomachs, telling us they'd spent roughly the last month eating mostly pre-packaged meals-ready-to-eat, "MRE's" for short.
"This definitely far surpasses [an M.R.E.]," one Marine said, gesturing to a plate full of fried chicken, spare ribs, corn and beans. "The taste, the flavor, the sweet tea -- you can't go wrong."
"It's a big morale booster for the guys," Captain Joe Johnson said, explaining that the troops were on domestic deployment from Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. They'd been living in tents at the Marines support facility on Blount Island, sent to unload tanks and other ordnance from ships.
"Everyone gets thanked when they're in the airport, but having someone come out here and actually feed you is a little bit nicer," Johnson said.
"It's very delicious!," another Marine said of the barbecue dinner, echoed by so many others, especially compared to the monotony of M.R.E.s.
"I like to call them mysteries," another said of the pre-packaged meals.
As the troops began winding down their work in Jacksonville and prepare for the return to Camp Lejeune, one Marine said his next home-cooked meal will be "about five minutes after" he gets back to North Carolina. Mike O'Brien wanted to make sure they wouldn't have to wait until then.
"These men and women of the Marine Corps make unbelievable sacrifices every day, and to do a little something like a home-cooked meal means a lot to them," O'Brien said. "And, letting them know that we care about them, we're thinking about them, praying for them, and always by their side, as we like to say in the U.S.O."