I was stationed for a time at Camp Lejeune in NC. Rumor at the time was that the largest cockroach had been found there.
It was almost believable. The squad bays were infested. I used to spray my locker every day. I would find dead ones in it all the time. Coming into the head (military term for rest room) at night and flipping the lights on would be certain to find dozens of the largest ones out and about on the floors and walls. They were so big you could hear them scurrying back to cover.
The mess halls were the worst. They hung under the chow line near the heat of the steam lines. The bread locker was a living nightmare. First person in was greeted my thousands of them crawling on the bags of bread. On the rare occasion that they did spray the mess hall...... the following morning, there would be dead and dying roaches on every square foot of the floor. As you got to the food handling area, it was impossible to not step on them.
Each marine on mess duty started the first week in the pot shack scrubbing pots and dishes. The second week was out of the pot shack and being a goffer. The third week was filling the pans on the line and working on the line as a replacement...the last week before rotation out was light duty as a server. So the military health inspector came through while I was serving. I pointed out the roaches under the line..... that was at lunch..... for some reason I was asked to fill a sudden opening in the pot shack at dinner...... I still think there was a connection. Needless to say, mess hall duty was seen as a punishment....and I served 3 months.... the maximum allowed under Marine corps orders in any given 24 month period. I was such a squared away marine that the only thing that kept me from finding a permanent home at the mess hall was that little 3 month rule.
One day on refill duty..... they had some sort of vegetable soup. made in steam caldrons which held 50 gallons or more in the galley. My job was to scoop it out to a large pan and refill the serving line. So I see this cock roach on the hood above the caldron..... I swiped at it to knock it off to the floor but it jumped...... straight into the soup. I tried.... I really did try, to find that bug in the soup and scoop it out.... but it went under really quick. It got served to someone that day.
After having worked in the mess hall and seeing the true story of how infested that place was, I started skipping the prepared food and ate in town or only ate fruit in the mess hall and orange juice. I never, never ate any of the soup from that place again.