35th FSS fuels 'fight tonight' posture

By Airman 1st Class Sadie Colbert, 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs / Published July 24, 2017

U.S. Air Force Airmen wait for their food in the Falcon Feeder at Misawa Air Base, Japan, July 18, 2017. The Falcon Feeder adjusts their schedule for instances like surge weeks, which is an increased operations tempo, in order to accommodate flightline personnel and their shifts. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Sadie Colbert)

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U.S. Airmen wait for their food in the Falcon Feeder at Misawa Air Base, Japan, July 18, 2017. The Falcon Feeder adjusts their schedule for instances like surge weeks, which is an increased operations tempo, in order to accommodate flightline personnel and their shifts. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Sadie Colbert)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jason Parks, a 35th Force Support Squadron food service technician, prepares salmon fillets in the Falcon Feeder at Misawa Air Base, Japan, July 18, 2017. The building was originally designed to be a flight kitchen, but was repurposed into a secondary dining facility later on. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Sadie Colbert)

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U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Jason Parks, a 35th Force Support Squadron (FSS) food service technician, prepares salmon fillets in the Falcon Feeder at Misawa Air Base, Japan, July 18, 2017. The 35th FSS Falcon Feeder provides a consistent venue for personnel to receive food anytime, feeding their efforts to get jets in the air, no matter which shift they work. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Sadie Colbert)

MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --

Airmen are charged with staying combat ready 24/7, to uphold Misawa’s ‘fight tonight’ posture.

The 35th Force Support Squadron Falcon Feeder provides a consistent venue for personnel to receive food anytime, feeding their efforts to get jets in the air, no matter which shift they work. The food service members provide three hot, ready to eat meals a day, right on the flightline, fueling the Airmen and their nonstop missions.

“The Falcon Feeder is not a traditional flight kitchen,” said Staff Sgt. John Davison, the 35th FSS food service shift leader. “Flight kitchens typically serve meals to crew members and their passengers, but we have mostly F-16 Fighting Falcon crews, so there aren’t many passengers. It was repurposed to a second dining facility, providing quality hot meals for our enlisted personnel at a more convenient location.”

Davison said the Falcon Feeder primarily runs during three shifts – days, swings and mids—in order to provide quality food to maintainers around the clock. This requires cooks to come in early and prepare for the day.

“The Falcon Feeder is right on the flightline and it’s a quick means of getting food to the maintenance Airmen,” Davison said. “They are so far out on the flightline, by time they get to main base, get food and get back to work, they wouldn’t have time to eat the food.”

In order for members to be fed at any given moment, Davison said the facility is equipped for 24/7 operations in case of emergency situations. This allows maintenance personnel to work at their optimal level and keep jets ready to deploy, support and fight, for the U.S. and its allies in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

“We have emergency rations out there for them, right on the flightline where the aircraft and hangars are,” Davison said. “It makes a huge difference, especially during an emergency situation where we would need to be ready to respond immediately.”

Regardless of any situation, the kitchen maintains least two Airmen ready to go around the clock, which helps the maintainers be more prepared.

“It keeps them stress free knowing they can come into the dining facility and be fed hot meals,” said Airman 1st Class Danielle Streeter, a 35th FSS food service technician.

Although sometimes their job at the Falcon Feeder can get complicated with changing schedules for increased operations, they believe the flightline personnel enjoy the availability of the Falcon Feeder.

“Their breakfast is awesome,” said Airman 1st Class Nathaniel Devinger, a 35th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron aircraft armament systems technician. “It’s really nice that we can utilize the Falcon Feeder, because we don’t always have an opportunity to get food from Grissom Dining Facility.”

The 35th FSS service members know their importance in keeping our Airmen healthy by providing them with quality meals anytime and anywhere.

“I picked this career field so I can cook,” Streeter said. “It has its ups and its downs, but I enjoy being in the kitchen. It can be hard for Airmen to work on an empty stomach, so I can imagine they appreciate us being out here.”

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