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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview With John Inman
Aired May 04, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to switch gears a little bit right now, go aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The ship, of course, named after the 16th president, and the 43rd president landed on it just a couple of days ago. It is now on the way home. It stopped off in Pearl Harbor, then in San Diego, now it's headed to the home port, Everett, Washington.
On board, a lot of very anxious, eager sailors, and Frank Buckley. Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are eager, in fact, Anderson, to get home. They'll be heading home on Tuesday. These guys have been deployed for nearly ten months and they can't wait to get home. This is one of the last times they will be enjoying this fare, the food line here on the mess deck. This is where the enlisted men eat, one of the places where they eat.
You can see some of the offerings this morning. If you, when you look at the bacon over there, we can tell you that they've served some 19,000 pounds of bacon during this deployment. So a lot of food being served on this food line.
Joining us is John Inman. You're the mess management specialist, the guy who's basically running the show here right now. Tell me what kind of a challenge it is for you to decide what to serve these guys. You've got to serve them four meals a day?
PETTY OFFICER JOHN INMAN, MESS MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Correct. It's pretty challenging sometimes because some people are vegetarians, have high blood pressure, don't like any salt. So you have to be very versatile in what you do.
BUCKLEY: How many meals do you serve every day?
INMAN: We serve about 18 to 19,000 meals a day between both galleys the forward and the aft, the four meals a day.
BUCKLEY: And you have fresh fruit offerings here during the lunch and dinner hours. I notice that you have salad bar. Now, in the old navy, the navy of my dad and probably your grandfather, they didn't have that sort of thing.
INMAN: Not as wide variety as they have now. With the replenishments at sea from the other ships we get fresh fruits pretty regularly, so that's a big benefit for people. BUCKLEY: And, you know, you got a pretty rough crowd. Sometimes these guys are not too easy to please. They'll -- come on over here, John. Even though you're serving all these meals to them, they're not always happy with what you put out, but sometimes they are. How do you keep them happy and give them stuff that they really want?
INMAN: Well, food is always a morale booster anyway. As long as you make it well, present it well, make it taste good, you can please some of the people. But not all the people. Sometimes you can't, no matter what you do.
BUCKLEY: You're going to be going home to see your family soon. I just have one question for you. When you get home, do you do the cooking or does your wife do the cooking?
INMAN: Me and my wife, we split it pretty equally. If I cook, she does the dishes. If she cooks, I do the dishes.
BUCKLEY: All right, John. Thank you very much for the tour. We appreciate it, sir.
Just one of the things going on here. They're almost home, Anderson. They'll be home on Tuesday morning.
COOPER: All right, Frank, thanks very much. Nice to see a lot of people waiting to greet them back with open arms.
Frank Buckley aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 4, 2003 - 09:35 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Want to switch gears a little bit right now, go aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. The ship, of course, named after the 16th president, and the 43rd president landed on it just a couple of days ago. It is now on the way home. It stopped off in Pearl Harbor, then in San Diego, now it's headed to the home port, Everett, Washington.
On board, a lot of very anxious, eager sailors, and Frank Buckley. Frank.
FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are eager, in fact, Anderson, to get home. They'll be heading home on Tuesday. These guys have been deployed for nearly ten months and they can't wait to get home. This is one of the last times they will be enjoying this fare, the food line here on the mess deck. This is where the enlisted men eat, one of the places where they eat.
You can see some of the offerings this morning. If you, when you look at the bacon over there, we can tell you that they've served some 19,000 pounds of bacon during this deployment. So a lot of food being served on this food line.
Joining us is John Inman. You're the mess management specialist, the guy who's basically running the show here right now. Tell me what kind of a challenge it is for you to decide what to serve these guys. You've got to serve them four meals a day?
PETTY OFFICER JOHN INMAN, MESS MANAGEMENT SPECIALIST, USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN: Correct. It's pretty challenging sometimes because some people are vegetarians, have high blood pressure, don't like any salt. So you have to be very versatile in what you do.
BUCKLEY: How many meals do you serve every day?
INMAN: We serve about 18 to 19,000 meals a day between both galleys the forward and the aft, the four meals a day.
BUCKLEY: And you have fresh fruit offerings here during the lunch and dinner hours. I notice that you have salad bar. Now, in the old navy, the navy of my dad and probably your grandfather, they didn't have that sort of thing.
INMAN: Not as wide variety as they have now. With the replenishments at sea from the other ships we get fresh fruits pretty regularly, so that's a big benefit for people. BUCKLEY: And, you know, you got a pretty rough crowd. Sometimes these guys are not too easy to please. They'll -- come on over here, John. Even though you're serving all these meals to them, they're not always happy with what you put out, but sometimes they are. How do you keep them happy and give them stuff that they really want?
INMAN: Well, food is always a morale booster anyway. As long as you make it well, present it well, make it taste good, you can please some of the people. But not all the people. Sometimes you can't, no matter what you do.
BUCKLEY: You're going to be going home to see your family soon. I just have one question for you. When you get home, do you do the cooking or does your wife do the cooking?
INMAN: Me and my wife, we split it pretty equally. If I cook, she does the dishes. If she cooks, I do the dishes.
BUCKLEY: All right, John. Thank you very much for the tour. We appreciate it, sir.
Just one of the things going on here. They're almost home, Anderson. They'll be home on Tuesday morning.
COOPER: All right, Frank, thanks very much. Nice to see a lot of people waiting to greet them back with open arms.
Frank Buckley aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. We're going to take a short break. We'll be right back.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
