> (This also assumes that being a cook on a ship is simple, which it probably isn't.)

The ship you are on is going on a 3 month deployment with a stop in port somewhere between 4 weeks in and 6 weeks in (depending on weather). The ship has a crew of 24 people ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel-class_cutter ).

Plan the menus, determine the provisions needed initially on ship and the additional supplies that need to be available when in port mid way through the deployment.

Make sure that the menus meet with the necessary requirements for nutrition. Two of the crew have nut allergies and one has a low sodium diet.

While the crew total is 24 people, it is possible that others will be brought on top the ship in situations where it is warranted - the provisions need to be able to account for up to an additional four people for a week.

You are the only cook and will need to be able to prepare three meals for the entire crew and have an overnight snack available. The ship runs on coffee, it should be better quality than burnt fuel oil.

The cook is essential for crew morale (consider being on a ship for 3 months and having a cook who burns all the food). Food safety is also of high importance - having any number of the crew unable to do their duties because of food poisoning is a significant impact on ship function when there's only two dozen people and little overlap.

Can they just contract out to civilians or even foreigners? A cook from the Philippines for example, give them American pay and it would be pretty fair. There is even a history of Filipinos serving in the US military for varying reasons.

Militaries tend not to do that, for obvious security reasons.

The Marines used to have a system for allowing civilians cook for the military. It's awful and I wouldn't recommend it. In-service cooks are much better and usually very skilled.