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[iNews24 reporter Kim Hyo-jin] Reports have emerged that U.S. service members deployed ahead of a potential conflict with Iran are being served substandard meals.
On the 17th (local time), USA Today published photos that a sailor aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, deployed to the Middle East, sent to his family.
The images show a tray with a single slice of pre-cooked gray processed meat, boiled carrots and a dry patty. Three of the tray’s five compartments were empty.
The U.K. paper The Telegraph also published the photos, calling the scene horrifying.
Meals aboard the amphibious assault ship Tripoli, which moved from Japan to the Middle East, have reportedly been similarly meager.
A Marine aboard the Tripoli sent his family a tray photo that contained only a small handful of shredded meat and a single tortilla.
One Marine told his family the ship’s coffee machine had broken down and that fresh vegetables and fruit had been gone for some time.
The Telegraph pointed to the stark contrast with the period before the Iran conflict, when U.S. service members were reportedly served steak and lobster.
Earlier, a U.S. government watchdog said the Defense Department had spent $93 billion as of last September, exhausting its budget before the fiscal year ended. Of that total, $15.1 million went toward steak purchases and $6.9 million toward lobster tails.
Families worried their deployed loved ones would go hungry have sent care packages, but many have not reached the troops. Since the war began, postal service to soldiers stationed in the Middle East has been suspended, leaving thousands of food parcels stacked in warehouses.
In response, Iran’s embassy in Tunisia posted on X (formerly Twitter), “Unbelievable,” and mocked, “This is what Trump is feeding his troops to open the Strait of Hormuz.”
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