Description
As a cook, Mr. Hynes shares his philosophy of no matter what rank or level, all sailors were provided the same meal and he expresses his strong belief in doing so.
Gerald Hynes
Mr. Gerald “Jerry” Hynes was born October 6, 1963 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Following in his father’s footsteps, Mr. Hynes decided to join the navy and take on the trade of cook. Spending 27 years in the military, Mr. Hynes lived in Germany with his family and during this time in service, was provided an opportunity to join the contingent going to Persian Gulf War. Mr. Hynes expresses his pride for the service he gave to our Country, now retired from the military he resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Transcript
The military can’t travel on bread and water alone, they love to have a full diet. They love to have a full meal. From having your pork chops to having your steaks to having your breakfast of bacon and eggs for breakfast and that’s what the military travels by. I hate to say that but they do travel by their stomachs because they are a hard working organization. It’s like, if you’re working hard, if you feed them hard, you feed them very well, they’re very happy. And that’s the bottom line. And that’s one of my jobs and I say, and I’ve always said, if you are going to cook something, cook it the best that you know how, and that’s it. The pride was beyond. One of the things are, whether I was making for just the average person or feeding for the senior command staff, it was always equal and I’ve always made that. I said guess what, if we are having a special meal made, the crew is going to get it, and this is what I’ve always fed, made sure that that’s what it is. Whoever was, whatever was being put on, it was always put on for everybody and that’s one of the things are I always maintained that, I always said that, you know, and that way everybody gets treated with the same paintbrush. One of the biggest things I think about when I was in the Gulf, I’ve always thought about the camaraderie that you had with good people is whether you’re out in the back and you’re playing basketball with the air-dept or you’re playing road hockey on sand and on the desert like a hard pan sand and or, you’re just out there having fun and then the guys would say come over and they’d say, “Hey, right on, supper was great!”