Rocky Spencer, a volunteer with ‘‘Cooks From the Valley,” grills the first batch of steaks to be served to the Midshipmen. USNA photo by MC3 Chris Lussier.
As the rain came down, the tents went up. On April 28, more than 20 members of ‘‘Cooks From the Valley,” a volunteer group from Bakersfield, Calif., prepared 5,500 steaks for the Brigade of Midshipmen.
‘‘Cooks From the Valley” is led by Tom Anton, a longtime member of the Bakersfield Navy League. Anton and his fellow volunteers, including doctors, lawyers, real estate developers, retired admirals and others, travel the world cooking steaks for service members.
‘‘I think that the military calling is a special calling and not a calling that everybody can do,” said Anton, who has been cooking steaks for military members for nearly 25 years. ‘‘It takes special people...and [cooking steaks] is my way of saying thanks for the sacrifices that [service members make] for our country.”
‘‘Cooks From the Valley” volunteers spend their own money to purchase high quality steaks and then arrange the transportation and logistics to fly around the world to grill those steaks for service members.
One such volunteer was retired Army captain and West Point graduate John Bair, whose trip to Annapolis was his first time volunteering with the group. Bair said he never thought he would find himself grilling steaks for Midshipmen, but that he loved grilling and volunteering for any service member.
Anton and the ‘‘Cooks From the Valley” have prepared nearly 100,000 steaks for service members in Iraq, Dubai, and Cuba, as well as Twentynine Palms, Calif., and aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), USS Belleau Wood (LHA 3), USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).
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