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Is hunger an issue at Camp Bucca?

Rep. Mary Fallin, R-Okla., said she is investigating allegations that members of the Oklahoma National Guard’s 45th Infantry Brigade are not being regularly fed in Iraq.

Fallin, R-Okla., placed a formal request Thursday for the Army to look into the accusations, her spokesman Alex Weintz said.

The father of an Oklahoma soldier notified Oklahoma City television station KOCO after receiving an e-mail from his daughter, Kristy Fleshman, a member of the Oklahoma National Guard serving in Iraq.

“I have the ultimate respect for our military and for the job they do and for the sacrifices they make for the well-being of all of us,” Howard Fleshman told KOCO. “And, so it’s only out of this concern and the concern for the well-being of Oklahoma soldiers that I’m raising this issue in the first place.”

Weintz said Fallin’s office was told that members of the 45th at Camp Bucca were working nine-hour shifts without being served lunch.

“Having heard those reports, our office contacted the Oklahoma National Guard, and Rep. Fallin herself contacted [Maj.] Gen. Galen Jackman at the Pentagon,” Weintz said.

Jackman is the Army’s chief of legislative liaison and works with members of Congress.

“Providing for the welfare of our troops is a top priority for Task Force 134 Detainee Operations and all commanders in the United States armed forces,” said a statement from Multi-National Force-Iraq. “In the case of the Camp Bucca guard force, the troops are well fed. There is no basis for claims otherwise.”

The Camp Bucca dining facility is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to the statement. Also, 10,000 carry-out meals are prepared and provided daily to service members on guard shifts, and there is a one-day supply of Meals, Ready to Eat in the theater internment facility for personnel on guard duty.

“The families of the soldiers serving at Camp Bucca need to know that media reports of soldiers at Camp Bucca not being properly fed are untrue,” the statement said.

Fallin said by telephone late Thursday that she would do what she could to ensure that if the situation exists, it will be rectified.

“When I went to Baghdad recently, they had a big buffet of food at every stop,” she said. “It may just be an isolated incident at the location where they are stationed or it could be an issue of quantity.”

Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., also was notified and is looking into the matter, a spokeswoman for Cole’s office said Thursday.

Camp Bucca is near Umm Qasr, a port city in southern Iraq.