Published in The Star-Ledger on September 03, 2005

My son is serving in Iraq as a member of the Connecticut National Guard. Recently, he e- mailed me to say that many of the troops' schedules allow them to make only one of their dining facility's mealtimes. Even worse, KBR (the Halliburton branch that runs the facility) rationed food until recently, allowing troops in his unit only one meat item per meal. He once was told he could have only six pieces of shrimp for dinner. A slice of pizza was considered meat, so he couldn't have it in addition to shrimp. The chow hall is his only local source for food. If troops are still hungry, they must make a 1 1/2-hour round trip to a Burger King trailer.

My son says that food rationing seriously hurt his unit's morale and that he lost more than 25 pounds during rationing. Eventually, the dining facility reversed the policy, but this never should have been allowed to happen. President Bush and the Republicans may say all is going well in Iraq, but how can that be if our soldiers are losing weight due to rationing? Contractors shouldn't be allowed to limit food.