There is nothing better than sinking your teeth into a good hamburger or slice of pizza! Tap your heels three times and repeat with me, “there’s no place like home!”
It began with the opening of a Burger King at Baghdad International Airport on June 10, 2003. Little more than a take-out stand, Iraq’s first Burger King was soon turning out 5,000 patties a day for a steady line of hungry troops.
AAFES now operates 190 Name Brand Fast Food (NBFF) restaurants throughout Operations Enduring and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF). In the next month, AAFES plans to complete a new Burger King at Camp Bucca in Iraq, build a Starbucks Coffee shop and redesign the Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs with seating at Camp Buehring and replace Kuwait’s oldest Subway shop with a new modern facility at Ali Al-Salem AB.
“The entire dining experience is designed to remind the Soldiers, Airmen, Marines and Sailors of home,” said AAFES Contingency Planning Chief Lt. Col. Steven Dean. “From the aroma of a burger sizzling on the broiler to the smell of fresh coffee, NBFF has an amazing ability to temporarily take troops from war zones to comfort zones.”
AAFES’ NBFF operations in Iraq alone have gone from that single Burger King in 2003 to more than 70 establishments today, including 12 Subways, 12 Pizza Huts, 10 Burger Kings and five Taco Bells. From Afghanistan to Qatar to the United Arab Emirates, troops can also choose from a wide variety of restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dairy Queen, Orange Julius and Hardee’s, among others.
In addition to the name brand fast food facilities operating in OEF/OIF, AAFES operates more than 2,000 restaurants worldwide with an additional 77 locations planned to open in the next year.
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Would love to see this as a guest post on the eMOM blog!