Master Sgt. Leland White dishes out some food at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. White has served for 18 years in the Marines and will be leaving the service in 23 months. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Master Sgt. Leland White dishes out some food at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. White has served for 18 years in the Marines and will be leaving the service in 23 months. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Ret. Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Burns, left, and Ret. Army Master Sgt. Andre Rush check the progress of their pork tenderloins during the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Ret. Marine Master Gunnery Sgt. Jeremiah Burns, left, and Ret. Army Master Sgt. Andre Rush check the progress of their pork tenderloins during the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Pork tenderloin on the grill at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
John Oravec, right, a culinary instructor at Stratford University, chats at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Danell Mengesha, a student at Stratford University and an Army veteran, works on the pork tenderloin at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. Mengesha served from 2004-2007. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Stratford University culinary instructor John Oravec bbq's some pork tenderloins at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. Oravec's father served in the Army for 20 years. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Ret. Army Master Sgt. Andre Rush - who has worked under four different presidents - at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Ret. Army Master Sgt. Andre Rush shows off his pork tenderloins at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Marine Master Sgt. Leland White, left, and Sheila Burns hand out samples of their pork tenderloins at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Stephen Humphrey, a retired Army first sergeant who served 23 years, far left, at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Army veteran Sgt. Fallon Williams, from the Stratford University Woodbridge campus, dishes out some pork tenderloins at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. Williams served 14 years. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
Tickets start to pile up at the Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
The Military Cook-Off at the 2018 Giant National Capital Barbecue Battle, Sunday, June 24, 2018. (Meredith Tibbetts/Stars and Stripes)
WASHINGTON — Pork tenderloin was on the menu Sunday at the annual Military Cook-Off, part of the 2018 Giant National Capital BBQ Battle on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Cooks taking part in the event were a mix of active-duty servicemembers and veterans, the majority of them students at Stratford University — Army from one of the school's campuses, Air Force from another.
In the competition, visitors to the event bought tickets, then visited each service branch's table to try a sample. At the end of the sampling, they placed their ticket in the jar that represented the service branch they believed cooked the best pork tenderloin.
tibbetts.meredith@stripes.com Twitter: @mjtibbs
