Alaska Public Media: “Officials warned that the disruption could have resulted in mission failure and that the lapse risked ‘jeopardizing the readiness, and overall well-being of the military and government personnel stationed at the installation’”.
Soldiers stationed at Ft. Greely saw their access to food jeopardized for four months as a result of Sullivan-backed DOGE federal funding cuts that military officials warned “could have resulted in mission failure” and “jeopardiz[ed] the readiness, and overall well-being of the military and government personnel stationed at the installation.”
Dan Sullivan – who sits on the Armed Services Committee and the Senate DOGE caucus – backed the DOGE cuts, has called DOGE “brilliant,” and pledged to work “very closely with Elon Musk and that department” – yet, when asked by Alaska Public Media about his cuts resulting in Ft. Greely “struggl[ing] to feed its soldiers,” his office claimed he “wasn’t aware of the situation.”
“Dan Sullivan is a coward who has abandoned Alaska for years while lining his own pockets – and now, Sullivan’s votes to rob Alaska of critical federal funding have jeopardized the well-being of our service members and put our military readiness at risk,” said Alaska Democratic Party Chair Eric Croft. “It is unconscionable that Sullivan’s reaction to hearing Ft. Greely wasn’t able to feed our soldiers because of his funding cuts was that he ‘wasn’t aware of the situation.’ Sullivan’s selfish, spineless refusal to show up for Alaskans is disqualifying, and Alaska deserves a senator who will show up and fight for us. That’s why we’ll show Sullivan the door in November.”
Read more:
Alaska Public Media: For months, federal workforce cuts made it hard for Ft. Greely to feed its soldiers
By Shelby Herbert
January 29, 2026
- Fort Greely restored its regular dining facility hours on Jan. 20 after a service disruption that lasted almost four months. Military documents say federal workforce reductions made it hard for the installation to feed its soldiers.
- The fort, which is just a few miles south of the small Interior Alaska community of Delta Junction, specializes in ground-based missile defense and hosts about 350 soldiers. Fort Greely’s dining facility usually offers three meals a day, Mondays through Fridays. But in October of 2025, it had to reduce operating hours.
- Officials warned that the disruption could have resulted in mission failure and that the lapse risked “jeopardizing the readiness, and overall well-being of the military and government personnel stationed at the installation.”
- They also said that the disruption resulted from the loss of essential civilian positions due to federal workforce reductions under the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
- During the monthslong gap, U.S. Army Materiel Command and Space and Missile Defense Command looked at several other solutions, including distributing ready-to-eat meals commonly known as MREs. But they eventually ruled out using the water-activated field rations over nutritional concerns and because Fort Greely didn’t have enough of them in stock.
- Separately, the Army told Congress at an April 2025 hearing on military food programs that it was cutting about a third of its cook positions over the next three years.
- U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich III did not respond to multiple requests for comment about the lapse in services. A spokesperson for U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said his office wasn’t aware of the situation but is looking into it.
USA Today: Exclusive: DOGE cuts prompt scramble to feed troops at remote US base
By Davis Winkie
January 7, 2026
- An Army base in Alaska responsible for protecting the U.S. homeland from nuclear missile attack has struggled to feed its soldiers in recent months because of the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, according to a military document.
- Fort Greely is tucked in the rugged interior of the 49th state, just north of a gap in the glacier-capped mountains of the Alaska Range. The base experienced a “critical disruption in food service operations” after the remote Army base lost “essential” federal civilian cooks in the wake of efforts to shrink the workforce, said an Army official whose name was redacted in an official contract document published Jan. 7.
- The document, a legal justification for an emergency no-bid contract awarded to staff the fort’s dining facility, blamed the issue on […] a federal hiring freeze and a buyout program launched by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency shortly after President Donald Trump’s inauguration last year.
- Contracting officials warned that the food service disruption could have resulted in “mission failure” […]
- The post in a bitterly cold corner of Alaska is home to approximately 350 soldiers, including those of the 49th Missile Defense Battalion, which operates 40 of the military’s 44 specialized missiles designed to shoot down nuclear or other ballistic missiles targeting the United States. While the number of troops permanently assigned to Fort Greely is low compared with other Alaska bases such as Fort Wainwright, the post regularly hosts major training exercises that temporarily swell its population.
- Robert Evans, a veteran and quality-of-life advocate for soldiers who created the Hots&Cots app for troops to review their living conditions, told USA TODAY that the Fort Greely food service disruption represents “a quality-of-life failure.”
- He argued that the episode is one of many recent issues impacting soldiers attributable to civilian workforce instability.
- The post was unable to address the staffing shortage with military manpower because of a “shortage/lack” of soldier-cooks at the remote base, the contract document said. The Army told lawmakers at an April 2025 hearing on military food programs that it was cutting approximately 33% of its cook positions between fiscal 2025 and 2029.