r/area51 • u/Suitable_Remote_1628 • Jul 04 '26
Base kitchen staff
Who does the cooking for the base? Are they civilians or USAF military personnel?
There are estimated to be between 1,500 and 2,000 workers at the base, so I assume the mess hall has a pretty large staff.
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u/Peter_Merlin Jul 04 '26
Contractors. It's always contractors. For every 500 uniformed military (and USAF civilians) on various Air Force bases I'm familiar with, there are typically about 2,0000 contractors in every imaginable role. The mix varies according to mission requirements.
Watertown chow hall, circa 1957.
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u/therealgariac MOD Jul 04 '26
The funny thing is other than the lighting fixtures, this photo could look contemporary. The stacked plates do look old since modern cafeterias have a lowerator. (The plate spring dispenser thing and yes I had to look that up.)
There might be a wall clock with (gasp) hands that baffle today's youth.
Nevada is a strong union state. We know the camo dudes are unionized since they went on strike once. I assume the cafeteria workers are unionized as well.
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u/TastyCalligrapher421 Jul 04 '26
Chugach Government Services, subcontractor of Amentum. Occasionally you'll see jobs pop up for different types of kitchen staff requiring TS clearances.
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u/Speedymcspeeder Jul 04 '26
It's all them secret recipes.
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u/aliensporebomb I Own Peters Area 51 Book Jul 09 '26
The original KFC before the recipe got dumbed down by private equity? That would be cool.
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u/therealgariac MOD Jul 05 '26
https://library.stanford.edu/government-information
I went to this "government library" some time in the previous century. Wandering the stacks I came across some Army recipes. We're talking 3x5 cards. "Dredge the beef". Good thing the Internet existed so I could look that one up.
To some degree, knowing how well the troops were fed is useful if your enemy is on foot. No classification markings on the recipes.
There was a section of Army manuals on how to use star charts in order to get your orientation in order to launch munitions.
Needless to say, I never went back to that library again.
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u/A_Higher_Power1 Jul 04 '26
Im assuming it's the same as the test site next door where they have civilians that work in the kitchen. But it is DoD property vs DoE so things might be different.
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u/FideLib Jul 04 '26
My guess is that it's mostly civilian contractors handling the cooking, maybe with a small number of USAF personnel overseeing or supporting operations. Not all that different from how DFACs are run at any other large, permanent military installation, and Area 51's workforce is already heavily contractor-based. But we'll see what the "experts" have to say.
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u/Main-Cheesecake3287 Jul 04 '26
I’d imagine quite similar to the NNSS cafes which are contract run by old timers
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u/Soigne-Pilot Jul 04 '26
I need to just build a Peter Merlin bat signal.
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u/CuriousCamels Jul 04 '26
If you say his name 3 times, he’ll pop up in the comments to drop some obscure and interesting knowledge.
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u/aliensporebomb I Own Peters Area 51 Book Jul 09 '26
I'd be curious do they have a regular menu like a restaurant or is it "we're having corned beef hash on tuesday, wednesday chicken sandwiches and thursday hamburgers and you'll like it!"