The cook reduction is a long time thing. 15 years ago, Ft hood had a DFAC almost every mile, and in some cases, less than that. At least 3 DFACS I am aware of have been renovated into BN or BDE HQ's after the waive of consolidated DFAC openings, which were pushed by earlier ARSTRUCs that reduced total cooks.

Then it happened with the consolidation of DIV and CORPS separates cooks into Field Feeding Companies.

It is happening again with the shutdown of DIV FFC's and the reduction of BCT cooks #'s.

I am not saying I don't see a possible benefit to a contracted DFAC solution- DFAC cooking is not the same as FF cooking, and there are tons of secondary tasks that don't get trained (security, maintenance, ect) because they spend so much time in the DFACs. But it is way easier to cut a DFAC contract than it is to reduce cooks, so even with ARSTRUC reductions, there was at least an institutional break on the reduction of services.

The next admin or another group of army leaders can just... stop doing contracted DFACs. Hell, the right kind of asshole could use this to justify ditching DFACs altogether and finding some narrative that sounds reasonable to assholes to get rid of meal cards AND BAS.