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Hi all,
    Thank youall so much for your responses, I've got so many recipes to
chose from now, I'll go a while without repeating any one. Most of you
seemed to be interested in my time in the military, so I'm more than
happy to share with you. I am 21 years old, and a Sergeant in the Army.
I have been in for just over three years, as I joined during high
school, and left shortly after graduation. Just to give you a little
background, my maternal grandmother has celiac, and I was diagnosed when
I was 8 years old. Out of my mother and her two sisters, and myself, my
brother and sister, and my 5 cousins on that side of the family, I am
the only one who has CD, so it is not as prevavlent in my family (I am
interested though, if my case is the odd one, or if there are more
families like mine. Generally what I hear is most people in one family
will have CD.)
    Anyway, as I was saying, when it came time for me to ship out, my CD
was in remission, so I was able to get by during basic combat training,
though thats not to say I came out entirely unscathed. As a side note, I
had enlisted for a very high demand intelligence job, and so it is my
opinion that the doctors who do the screening just marginalized if you
will my CD. For those of you who have celiac children looking to join
the military, it is a disqualifier, and even if the do suceed in getting
in, life will be extremely difficult, especially if you are sent
overseas, like I was, or to a deploying unit, like I am now. After much
fighting while I was in training, I was able to recieve BAS (Basic
Allowance for Subsistence), so that I could purchase my own food, though
storing it in a training environment, where there are 8 other people in
the room, and little place to put much of anything made things harder still.
    The Army has no field rations  (MREs, Meals Ready to Eat) that are
GF, and you cannot eat at the chow hall, because of cross-contamination.
By virtue of my rank, I get to live off-post in an apartment, even
though I am single, so I can buy, store and cook all I need to in order
to get by. The only problem is that I am at Fort Hood, TX, living in
Killeen, and the nearest Whole Foods is in Austin, which is a good hour
and 1/3 tank of gas away. I don't make the trip often.
    Hopefully I can be home (Boulder, CO) by the begining of next week.
But I keep getting the run around, so soon I may have to start making
phone calls. I hope this has given you all some insight into myself. I
would be more than happy to answere any questions you might have on an
individual basis, or if many are asking the same thing, then I can send
out another post. Time for me to eat breakfast and get back to work.

Have a great day,
Craine

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