> In line with that though I read a bit now and again where here in San Diego
 > a big name chef from one of top restaurants will spend a day or two at some
 > Navy base teaching the cooks advanced food prep.   That would one day of
 > pretty good chow at least. :)

They changed the name of the cook's rate to 'Culinary Specialist' fairly
recently and have added many fancy classes.  One normally has to be stateside
to get the fancy training but they do exactly that.

I got major blessings from the ESSEX for writing a strongly worded 'exception
to the normal funding for training' to request enough money to send 4 of our
Sasebo Japan sailors to San Diego for specialized culinary arts classes like
that.  I got the word across well and we were funded to send 6 of our CS's
for 2 weeks each to any 'Culinary Arts' class we could find with no tuition
and an ancillary rider that allowed us to spend up to 2,000$ tuition if we
cut the number of students down to meet the same cost as the 6 would for
travel etc.

It would be very involved to really explain how schools funding works but it
boils down to 'if not mandated, cant have it'.  I got it anyway.  With the
second largest training requirement in the FDNF (forward deployed mostly
Japan fleet) and only a hair smaller than the biggest one (the carrier), I
actually got us 800,000$ MORE than the carrier did.  Why?  We supported with
*facts* what we needed and asked for little more than true 'needs' documented
by the Navy itself.  That CS class set was one of 2 I asked for that were not
based on required training.

Smile, it was fun juggling a 1.6m annual budget.  I actually came in well
under budget last year as I knocked my head into a wall and asked myself 'why
am I sending 20 people to San Doggie when I could ask the school house if
they could send 2 instructors to us and give them a vacation in Japan?' 
Believe me, the school houses lapped it up for every class they could export.
 Even got them to teach underway on live systems with a 'wink wink, nudge
nudge, we will not look askance if your TAD flight out just happens to give a
2-3 day in Japan because gosh the flights are booked'.  Much cheaper than
sending 20 folks to San Doggie!
            xxcarol
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