FREDERICKSBURG, Va. (AP) - As Curt Haggard and Joe Mangin sit around a restaurant table, their talk regularly turns to the time they spent underwater - and the grub they ate while on submarines.
Both recall missions that lasted longer than the supply of fresh food. Mangin remembered one tour when little was left in the pantry but powdered eggs. The cook rummaged around and found some grits, and all seemed right in the world until one guy yelled, “Hey, my grits are moving,” Mangin said.
Haggard laughed and shared his own memory of bare cupboards at sea. “We came back once, and all we had left was pie crusts and chocolate pudding.”
Both men retired as Navy chiefs on the same day, Sept. 30, 2002, after 24 years in the military. Mangin had served six years in the Army before he turned his focus from land to water.
Even though both spent most of their careers on nuclear-powered submarines, the two didn’t meet and become friends until their last duty station, at the old Navy Annex in Washington. After they retired, both found work as contractors, and they continue to leave their Stafford County homes at ungodly hours for points north.
Haggard, 61, drives to Springfield, and Mangin, 56, “slugs,” or gets in the car with strangers heading to the same D.C. destination.
At the same time, the two also are on a quest that could have been hatched in the galley of a submarine.
The retired Navy chiefs are always looking for a good place to have lunch together once a month. They have three simple rules: They take turns choosing the restaurant. The chooser pays the tab, the other takes care of the tip. They don’t go to any national chains.
So far, Haggard says they’ve been able to “keep the streak alive” for 14 years without visiting the same place twice or resorting to lunches of Big Macs or Whoppers.
“It’s kind of like a mini boys’ night out,” Haggard said, “except we keep it pretty clean.”
During a recent lunch at Park Lane Tavern behind Spotsylvania Towne Centre, the two talked about the reputation submarines have of serving the best food in the Navy. Undersea Warfare, the official magazine of the U.S. Submarine Force, said submarine food presumably was the best the armed forces had to offer during World War II.
“The excellence of the rations - or at least the effort to make them as good as possible - was essentially ’hardship pay,’ compensation for claustrophobic working conditions, for the dearth of sunlight, for little in the way of external stimuli, and for the obvious lack of foraging possibilities,” the magazine reported.
Haggard and Mangin probably would agree that similar conditions prevailed in their day. Perhaps that’s why their appreciation of a good meal came to the surface.
Haggard tends to order a restaurant’s special, believing that a place’s “signature dish” is worth his while. Mangin sticks with a meaty sandwich or burger, something he knows he’ll like.
So far, the two have been out to eat almost 170 times, mostly for lunch, in the city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Spotsylvania and Stafford. They’ve tried all kinds of fare because Haggard tends to “pick something a little different and get us out of our comfort zone,” Mangin said.
“But we’ve never been to a place and come away, saying, ’Oh, that was terrible,’ ” Haggard said.
They’re always eager to try out local joints, places with good, solid food and decades of history. Their list of “Top Five Favorites” includes Allman’s Bar-B-Q, Vivify Burger and Lounge, Sunken Well Tavern, Battlefield Restaurant and 2400 Diner.
Their wives joined them when the men celebrated 10 years of monthly lunches and probably will accompany them again on their 15th anniversary. Until then, the two will keep scanning restaurant reviews and newspaper ads for more tips on places to dine.
“Neither of us is picky,” Haggard said, “and we’re open to new things.”
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Information from: The Free Lance-Star, https://www.fredericksburg.com/
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