Cameron Sparkman began cooking meals for cadets at Fort Knox, Kentucky’s summer training program when he was 19.
The job had its perks, he told Army Times by phone. He made good money, and his coworkers respected him. This year, at 22, he earned the title of sous chef, elevating him to a position of seniority at odds with his age. Having spent most of his life along the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi native relished the opportunity to meet people from other states and countries.
Thousands of prospective Army officers congregate at Fort Knox every summer for Cadet Summer Training (CST), a month’s worth of classes and field exercises. This year’s training started smoothly, Sparkman remembered. He started work on May 6. The base’s dining facilities, or DFACs, then managed by the contractor Next Level Relief LLC, began churning out meals soon after. Besides a shortage of work outfits, “we were good,” Sparkman recalled. Food was prepped. Soldiers were fed. Spirits were high.
Then, he said, the paychecks stopped.
Next Level Relief promised to pay its workers every Friday, according to copies of employee contracts shared with Army Times by former workers. For reasons still unclear to Sparkman, he says he never received a check on Friday, June 2. He soon learned that hundreds of his colleagues hadn’t received payments that day either.
From there, things “rapidly declined,” he said. No checks arrived on June 9 or June 23, according to employee testimonies and legal claims provided to...
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