"S. Sampson" wrote in message
. ..
If I may, I have a war story about what people are really fighting for:

There was a rule (don't know if it still exists) that said if you flew
through two meal periods, and were TDY, that you got full per-diem
for the day. There are generally four meals a day, in defined periods
of time (breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight chow). If you launch
before, or during one meal, and land after another, you track that
data on a "missed meal" form.

Well, in my flying career, we had the system all worked out. If you were in
crew rest (12 hours of rest, including 8 hours of un-interrupted sleep),
pre-flight brief, actual flight, and post-flight brief, you could wangle
missed meals. There were a couple of times that my crew managed to get
missed meals for two days out of one mission. I flew 27 missions in Allied
Farce (24 combat support) and I walked away with just about $3500 from
missed meals. Greatest aircrew scam ever - beats out even the ever-popular
"crew integrity" for billeting scam.