Guardians and airmen stationed at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado have been without an on-base dining hall facility for months after it was closed this summer due to a safety issue, according to an internal memo.
The Aragon Dining Facility, located on the Colorado Springs base, has been closed since July. An internal memo, marked as Controlled Unclassified Information — documents that aren’t classified but are still out of public view — was posted on the 21st Force Support Squadron’s website and detailed the closure.
“On 2 July 2024, the Aragon Dining Facility experienced a significant safety incident,” the memo read. “Due to the nature of the incident, it has been determined necessary to close the facility temporarily to ensure the safety and well-being of all personnel and patrons.”
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The dining hall will remain closed “until further notice,” the memo added. A spokesperson for Space Base Delta 1 detailed the dining hall, or DFAC, closed “due to facility infrastructure conditions” but did not provide any specific details.
Peterson, home to Space Base Delta 1, consists of 3,700 service members, according to the base’s website. Guardians and airmen affected by the DFAC closure are receiving type II Basic Allowance for Subsistence, or BAS, in the amount of $920.50 a month to buy groceries and eat at restaurants nearby.
Dining hall facilities are often the main food source for young service members who live in barracks and dorms, and typically are the main source for consistent and nutritious meals for enlisted members.
The other on-base dining options available to Guardians and airmen at the base include less structured and healthy options at the Colorado Pizza and Sports Grill bar, the Strike Zone Cafe at the bowling alley, the Delta Uno Burrito Bistro at the golf course, and the Hub Community Center.
There are also fast-food options available at the base exchange.
Robert Evans, the founder and developer of Hots&Cots, a smartphone app that ranks, reviews and details the quality of meals and dorms at military bases, told Military.com in an interview Tuesday that increasing the Basic Allowance for Subsistence is a shortsighted solution to many issues facing dining halls across all the services.
Specifically, Evans said it’s easy for the military to give BAS to troops when dining facilities are closed, but the services still require many junior service members to live on base — notably in barracks and dorms that have received scrutiny from the Government Accountability Office for being subpar.
“If DFACS are so bad and barracks are so bad, why don’t we just give them BAH [Basic Allowance for Housing] and just move them all off post?” Evans said. “If we are using the logic of ‘the dining facility is not up to par, let’s give them BAS,’ why can’t we use that same logic to give airmen and other branches money to live off post?”
The closure of Peterson’s DFAC comes amid other dining hall woes for the Space Force and Air Force.
Military.com reported that the dining facility at Shaw Air Force Base near Sumter, South Carolina, has not been operating for a year and a half, leaving relatives of young airmen concerned. That facility is not scheduled to reopen until 2026.
Guardians located at Schriever Space Force Base in Colorado no longer have takeout boxes provided to them at the dining hall, making it harder for them to get a nutritious meal on the go.
And earlier this year, Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana closed its sole dining hall as it dealt with a persistent pest problem.
Related: Troops at Colorado Space Force Base Will Have to Bring Their Own To-Go Boxes for Dining Hall
