quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I ate Spam sandwiches as a kid when Dad was out of work. I have eaten MREs and they are better. Never tried C rations. I could see how that would be a morale booster though.

C rations weren't bad. I want in when they still had CRats. I got a retiring Master Sergeants "ccokbook" on how to combine different CRats for a fire team or squad banquet. They then switched over to MREs. I in unit where we all got food poisoning. It was due to the hype that MREs could be stored indefinitely in any conditions. So the MREs were stored in bunkers subject to the extreme heat and cold. I was so sick and so dehydrated it took 3 one liter IVs going into me before ANY fluid came out the normal way. It hit while on patrol, water was going through me without changing colors. Got back, reported in, passed out, and woke up in ER.

Hot meals out in the field are HUGE morale boosters. Sitting at a picnic bench in a chair (or anything chair like) instead of a foxhole to eat said meal as an even bigger morale boost.

In the 1960s at Mt. Hebo AFS we didn't have "C" rations, but "K" rations as emergency food. When our bacon ran low we sometimes opened some of the salty Spam and fried it for breakfast and midnight chow. It was an acceptable, if not great, substitute. (I actually liked it.)

flashguy

What's good for morale in the field?
In my experience: a hot meal, a chance to get clean, a shower or bath of some kind, shave, and clean uniform, and some time to talk to your buddies about what is going on.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
The M-2 burners always made me nervous as they were pressurized gasoline and I figured if one of them decided to blow up one day with me near, I was fucked but they were quite reliable.

As a young man I hitchhiked around the country, camping anywhere my vapor barrier would lay flat and out of sight. My tiny camp stove operated on white gas which was pressurized by . . . *wait for it* . . . filling a depression around the burner with fuel and lighting it. Damn, what a great little stove. The case doubled as a pot for my noodles or boiled water. It got sold by my brother when he was low on both luck and funds.

---

Great video. Sensible solutions all around.

According to books and stories about WW2, the good chow never made it to the fronts. Every stop in the supply chain got their cut, so the only food that made it to the front was the crap nobody else wanted.

You don’t have to be hungry to enjoy hot food, but if you are, every bite is a celebration.

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:
When did Ranger School go soft? I remember being shorted C-Rations on purpose, but that was 1967!

You definitely went back when it was "hard!" It went soft in the mid-late 90's after 3-4 students died of hypothermia in Florida phase. Dr's assessed that 1x MRE per day at that level of activity left them malnourished and more susceptible to things like hypothermia so they upped it to 2x MREs per day. Enough nutrients, but still hungry though.

They also ditched Desert phase as being redundant...so it is physically easier now. The COL in charge at the time I went through said he thought it was harder now as they really upped the standards for grading. I was happy for the extra MRE and less time though!


Speaking of hot chow and morale, when not in the field we had hot chow in the DFACs and they served "legendary" blueberry pancakes in Mountain phase. Objectively they were just ok, but in that environment they were pretty great.

As I said in an earlier post, you have not experienced Haute Cuisine until you have heated a can of Ham and MFs on the engine of a Deuce and Half.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
In the 1960s at Mt. Hebo AFS we didn't have "C" rations, but "K" rations as emergency food. When our bacon ran low we sometimes opened some of the salty Spam and fried it for breakfast and midnight chow. It was an acceptable, if not great, substitute. (I actually liked it.)

flashguy

Slight thread drift but your mention of Mt Hebo AFB brings back some scary memories of flying in to Mt Hebo (in a chopper) in the early 70s. Ate in their mess hall (sorry, I was Army) a few times. The one time I ate breakfast we got SOS and Bacon and eggs.

quote:

Originally posted by low8option:

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
In the 1960s at Mt. Hebo AFS we didn't have "C" rations, but "K" rations as emergency food. When our bacon ran low we sometimes opened some of the salty Spam and fried it for breakfast and midnight chow. It was an acceptable, if not great, substitute. (I actually liked it.)

flashguy

Slight thread drift but your mention of Mt Hebo AFB brings back some scary memories of flying in to Mt Hebo (in a chopper) in the early 70s. Ate in their mess hall (sorry, I was Army) a few times. The one time I ate breakfast we got SOS and Bacon and eggs.

That Dining Hall actually won USAF Hennessy Awards for excellence in several different years. The cooks there did wonders with the basic foodstuffs they were given.

They sometimes received a little help. When I was there the unit had a Teletype maintenance troop who'd been a baker before entering USAF. He sometimes went in the Dining Hall kitchen and whomped up some excellent baked goods for the troops. They really enjoyed it.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by YooperSigs:
As I said in an earlier post, you have not experienced Haute Cuisine until you have heated a can of Ham and MFs on the engine of a Deuce and Half.

The origional MRE's didn't have heaters. We had to find ways to heat them without burning through the foil pouch.

In training in 62 we had good SOS and sometimes bad SOS. Once in the field we had it on a morning with light rain falling. The SOS was very good that time but every time you dipped your head down for a spoonful the rain would run off the rim of your helmit into the SOS, so we had watered down SOS.

Hot chow is the best. Rule of thumb is at least one hot chow a day, but as you imagine things get in the way.

When I was a kid my family summered on Hyannis. On the weekends we would walk up to Main Street and I would make a point to stop into the Army Navy Store. I bought C-Rat peanut better and jelly, and I bought chocolate nut cake by the nickel full.

Well fast forward 20 years and I was at mountain warfare training in the mountains of Bridgeport California. We had MRE's then but when they sent us into the mountains I remember sitting there, looking at the ground, wondering to myself "Dam, am I the first person who ever sat on this ground?" Of course I wasn't. I saw the same rotten, rusted C-rat cans I ate when I was a kid. I also saw rusted M1 clips and .30 blanks. Later I found out that they made every Marine that went to Korea spend two weeks in Bridgeport for mountain training since is was so like Korea.

Fast forward to trashcanistan, and a hot chow was still welcome. Spend 60 days eating MRE's...they suck, even if you know the menu by number..We had an Aussie attached to us, and man could he cook. He used to buy out the PX of SPAM every time he hitched a ride to Leatherneck. When he came back we would surround his truck like the kids in a Charles Dickens novel...we wanted his SPAM...

SPAM, heated, was a delicacy...add some hot sauce..angels would sing...

Fried SPAM, on MRE bread with MRE cheese and some Spice It Up! Jalepeno Catsup...(I used to steal it from the chow tent...) THAT is a meal boys



Now, not that I am plugging anything but the brand Spice It up! has the best spicy catsup I have ever tasted. I literally used to sneak up to the chow tent when the Georgians had it to grab a few bottles. It went great with SPAM. The boys loved it. Spicy as hell. Since I got home I still order it from them. A small company in TX. They have spices and stuff and they are meh but the catsup is awesome. They supported us over there and I will never be without. Their spicy catsup on a piece of grilled SPAM is heaven... . Here is a pic of a bottle I stole from the chow tent and a pic I have sitting on my stovetop.

bottle from over there (freshly snagged):



And the bottle from my fridge:

This message has been edited. Last edited by: mbinky,

Loved that video! Like others, I never thought about the genius behind the field kitchens.

quote:

"Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics."
- Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC (Commandant of the Marine Corps) noted in 1980

Safety on the gasoline fired 30 gal cans. I witnessed a fire on one unit with a leak on drip valve. The fire burned all of the gas, buldged the tank ends, but the tank did not rupture. Gas was being forced out of the vent during the fire. I was a long way off waiting for the fireball which never came.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
Mt Dad seldom talked about his time in the Pacific in WW2. He did mention though what a difference hot coffee and anything other than a K ration, made to the Marines.

He actually liked SOS over toast and would make it occasionally. Same for Spam.

Yeah, my dad was the same way. He was in teh Air Force in the 1950s and I suppose that's where he developed his tatse for creamed chipped beef on toast, otherwise known as SOS. He would make it three of four times a year.

And for anyone who doesn't know, 'SOS' stands for 'shit on a shingle', although mom forbade such talk at the dinner table.

Ok That's it. i am doing SOS for tomorrow.

Stouffer’s has a ready-made SOS version for breakfast.

https://www.stouffers.com/en/o...creamed-chipped-beef

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
I ate Spam sandwiches as a kid when Dad was out of work. I have eaten MREs and they are better. Never tried C rations. I could see how that would be a morale booster though.

C rats were not all bad. The main meals came in cans, and each pack had its own opener. Most of us had one of them on our dog tag chain or key ring. The one that NOBODY wanted any part of was "ham and lima beans." The one that most people wanted was pork and beans.

I spent months sitting on mountain/hill tops in Germany doing relay work for units out on field exercises. After a while of that, we started stopping at local Germany stores/shops and buying what we wanted. Loaves of German bread, butter, and a nice selection of cold cuts.

Have tried the MREs, don't care for them.

And there was a purpose for those field kitchens. They cooked a lot of meals for the troops.