C-Rations question

cigarettes, matches, salt, pepper, sugar, napkin and toilet paper pack. i vaguely remember shoebox style boxes containing one days worth of cans, drink mix, etc. the cig packs were flat, 5 packsm i believe. we used to steal the cigs out of them at the commisary, leading to my first bust. shoplifting.

I can't speak for WW-II or the Korean War but the C-rats we had in Vietnam came in small tan/brown cardboard boxes packed 10 (2 rows of 5) to a larger and heavier cardboard box. We never took them to the field in the boxes but opened them and dumped the loose cans and accessory packages right into our rucksacks. Ther accessort packs were rather shiny dark brown coated aluminum foil and they had a book of matches, a white plastic spoon, salt, pepper, sugat, cream, and coffee packets in them, along with the infamous small plug of toilet tissue. Each box of c-rats came with a 4-pack of cigarettes (various brands) that gave those like me who didn't smoke great bartering material. I once got two cans of peaches and a package of cocoa for one 4-pack of Luckies. My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

Don't forget the John Wayne chocolate bars, Bill.

Ed "If an enemy power is bent on conquering you, and proposed to turn all of his resources to that end, he is at war with you; and you -- unless you contemplate surrender -- are at war with him." --Barry Goldwater

I ate them during drills in USS Enterprise CVA(N)-65 in the seventies. I just hated the ham and lima beans. It was just God awful! Jerry 47

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m02.aol.com, Bill Woodier at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 7/1/04 4:11 PM:

In the pre-Viet Nam days, we had about the same pack as issued during Korea. in fact, I had several that were dated in he early to mid '50s...not uncommon at all. I remember that each indivudual box had a day's worth of of rations. There was usually a can of something for breakfast (canned scrambled eggs with ham...not great) instant coffee pack, sugar pack. then about the same for lunch except there was more substance, crackers--hard and dry--peanut butter (really good!) perhaps canned peaches or pears. Meats were usually mixed with vegetables so we had stew, lima beans with ham, beanie weenie, canned pound cake or nut roll. Of course there was the chocolate bar and the cigarettes, often quite brown with age, but if you were a smoker they beat nothing at all.

I remember a mess hall at Fort Sill, probably in 1959 or so, that served C-ration stew, a concoction of mixed cans of 2nd and 3rd meal "main courses". The cook simply opened individual cans, dumped the ingredients on a shallow pan in neat rows--stew next to beans, next to roast beef, next to beanie weenie... you get the "picture." Colorful yes, tasty...NOT. Whoever said army cooks lacked imaginatioin.

MB

I remember the flat, fold open can openers that we called "John Wayne's". Still have a few around here somewhere.

In survival training I remember a guy ixing the powdered cream with a little water and pouring it over a can of peaches on top of a canned pound cake then heating it up in his canteen cup. It was actually quite tasty.

Tom

My favorite was beans and meatballs. The crew on my tank learned this and always kept them out for me. We traded a case one time in FRG for a case of German beer. I am sure those kids got in a lot of trouble for that one! We used to cook them on the back of the tank, where a small fin of the rear exhaust had been been bent down.

The coffee was just terrible, but I liked the pound cake and cheese and crackers. Some of ours were 10+ years old.

Those were the good old days... yah sure, you betcha!!

A good many years ago, long before I met my wife, she approached her father for an investment loan.

A friend of the family had developed a new system for preserving food, freeze drying it to preserve taste and lengthen storage. He was bidding on a contract from the US military and the owner wanted to get enough money together to put on a bang-up deonstration.

Her father, a well to do doctor, wouldn't do it. He also wouldn't invest in another family friend's new sports drink because "Who in hell is going to drink something called Gatorade"?

It's true that most doctors are idiots when it comes to handling their money.

Tom

We called these "P-38s", the myth was that it took 38 punctures to open a C-rat can. Never bothered to count though. C-rats went away the year after I joined and were replaced by MREs.

None of the C-rats in 1982 that I ran across had cigarettes though. Must have been removed sometime prior. Rob Gronovius Modern US armor at

After my first tour in country and then back home, wife and I often dined on C-Rations when money was tight. Also used to trade for the cigs as my wife was a smoker and I wasn't. I remember four to a box and brands like Lucky's and Old Gold and I think Winstons. In the bush would often gather all group of meals and mix them together in an ammo can like one large stew. Some were quite tasty and others had neat names like Ham and Mother F****er's. A real treat though was when we could get LURP meals, a mix with water ration, kinda like an early MRE except these tasted good. You could also buy C's in the commissary by the case of 12. Large market for these in the outside for hunting and camping. Still prefered C's over the later MRE's. Chocolate bars were called Shit disks, can openers were John Wayne's or Jim Browns and a can of Fruit Cocktail was worth its weight in gold. You could put a small slit in the can and sip the juice on a hump. If you had enough time before hand, you could take the pound cake, make a small slit, pour in some whiskey and let it soak for a while. Great pickup for tired bones. captain OD

Usually called "ham and motherfu.....".

When we were out in the field we always had a lively trade in C-Rats. There were always preferences and we horse-traded back and forth. The cans of pound cake and peaches were the most valued.

We also did C-Rat stew, where multiple cans of C-Rats regardless of content were mixed into one big pot. It was surprisingly good.

If we could we used immersion heaters to heat C-rats, heating them until they bulged with pressure. The other way of cooking C-Rats was on a deuce-and-a-half engine block, as long as you remembered to punch a hole in the can to let out the steam. We had a WAC forget to do that with a can of spaghetti and it blew up. 5 minutes later a COL showed up for an inspection and asked her why her deuce hood was closed while all the other ones were open.

For ancillary items, one thing I haven't seen listed is the Chiclets.

BTW, the can opener was the P38, not "P-38" like the airplane. I still have my first one on my original dog-tag chain. Around 1979 a larger type of can opener was fielded - it was built heavier and was longer, and more shiny. P38 openers were not issued with every box - you had to hunt through multiple boxes to find them. We once went through an entire 2.5 ton truck-load of Cs and stripped out every P38 we found.

The toilet paper "plug" was good for just that, as a plug.

John Hairell ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com)

I'd forgotten about that nae for the flat can openers. I think that P-38 was a more common name than John Wayne.

Used to hang one on the dog tag chain. Of course the guys in country didn't. Too noisy.

Tom

of course we all remember some new guy using his tt for a napkin and then asking where the toilet paper was. also cooking on a small paic of c4 was popular although there as a real skill in estimating the amount of c4 to light. also did not want to put the c4 into into any kind of container or you could have a bunker decorated with beans and ham. also the usav newspaper used to publish recipes for c rats. remeber one for ham with fruit glaze was pretty good. also remeber contests as to who could open a c rat can fastest with a p38. ahhh .. the good old days, I must have been nuts ( or age 20)

in article snipped-for-privacy@mb-m05.aol.com, Jaznugent at snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote on 7/2/04 3:58 PM:

Ah yes, the P38. Mine is still sharp and strung on a grenade ring for better leverage. I had a pocketful of the things when I got out but now there's just one left. We could have done with some recipes but I never heard of any. We were a little lacking in imagination I guess but we had plenty of C rations!

MB

b-m05.aol.com, Jaznugent at

We always carried 2 blocks of C-4 per man. One was to blow stuff up and the other was to use for cooking. It heated the C-rat meal literally in seconds and didn't produce that extraordinarily recognizable odor that would otherwise drift through the jungle.

Estimating the amount of C-4 to use to heat one's C-rats was an acquired skill. I remember the first day of my very first patrol when the guy who was "breaking me in" told me what to do. "Cut a couple air slits in the bottom of a B-2 can, squeeze the opened end into an oval, put C-4 in the can, put my can of Ham and Mother-F'ers on top of the B-2 can, and light it."

I thought he was putting me on until I saw a couple of the other guys doing the same thing. So.......I made my "stove" and put the C-4 into it. The only question was how much to put in the B-2 can stove. My mentor was out down the trail setting up a claymore mine to protect our night lager site so I just did what I was told and put the C-4 in the can - I packed it completely full of C-4. I then set my Ham and Limas on the stove and lit the C-4. It instantly began to sizzle and burn and I figured; OK, that wasn't so hard.

Almost immediately, however, the flames began shooting up around the can and the sizzle became a small roaring screech. Within a couple seconds, the pressure of the burning gasses actually lifted the can of C-rats off the makeshift stove and plopped it on its side next to the burning C-4. Unrestrained now, the burning C-4 took on the appearance of a small rocket motor with a pillar of flame extending some 3 feet into the air, illuminating the entire hilltop perimeter against the darkening jungle. The next problem was that, once you light it, you can't put it out and just have to let it burn itself out.

The flaming "here we are, Charlie" beacon also caught the immediate attention of the Patrol Leader, Lt John Dunn. The entire patrol had to make a circle around the flaming pillar to shield the fire as best we could until it burned out - it only took about 30 seconds but, there in the dark jungle, it seemed like 30 minutes.

When it finally went out and I instinctively kicked the smoldering B-2 can out of the way. Of course, it was still red-hot and it caught some of the surrounding grass and weeds on fire. Once the forest fire was extinguished, LT Dunn asked me in a not-too-fatherly voice what the hell I thought I was doing. I told him I had done as told and explained what Ray Triana had told me.

When I told him I hadn't been informed how much C-4 to use and assumed the stove should be filled with it, his attention shifted to Ray and he got a good "talking-to" from LT Dunn. After that, since I had basically sent out an engraved invitation to anyevery NVA and VC in Happy Valley to come on over and hit us, we had to pull in the Claymores and booby traps (dangerous in the dark) and move to another lager site.

The moral of this incredibly long story is that a 1" (or less) sized ball of C-4 was enough to heat just about any C-rat canned meal. ;~).

My home page:

" In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow; he's been up all night listening to Mohammad's radio" W. Zevon

Sorry, never saw it in print, just in spoken phrase.

Rob Gronovius Modern US armor at

My most unfavorite was scrambled eggs and lima beans...christ..who the f**k ever thought up that combination? Hated the Kent cigarrettes too..I mean..what the f**k putting a 'thinking man's cigarette' in the middle of a unthinking war? Liked the roast beef..when I could get it..loaded down with Heniz 57 sauce it was almost 'world like'. Was never enough toilet paper or matches...learned the finer elements of 'C-4' cooking...sh*t it was my war and so others will bring home theirs as well. Mike IPMS

great story - couldn't amke that up. best I ever did was wall paper a bunker with beans and weinies. too much c4, not enough opening in the can

I went camping this past week deep in the GW Natl. Forest, and I'm here to tell ya, you would have fit right in, and felt at home with the fire we had going for 4 days straight !! Two driving thundershowers could NOT put it out. (took over 20+ gal water to kill it before we left) A Natl. Forest stamp (required to camp) allows you to take 2 cords of deadwood per person, per year, and we sure as hell tried !

I also learned two new things... First, my Taurus can ford fairly deep little creeks, tho it really didnt like it. (everyone else had 4/wheelers) And.... Second, the gas generator on a Coleman stove (liquid fuel) will still give you a 3d degree burn even 10 min after you shut it donwn :( Relearned an old lession. Red Virginia clay, is some of the stickiest gooeist, nastiest stuff ever known to man !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And who needs C4 anyway, dont you remember when you were a kid, and all the cool stuff that came in the chemistry kit's sold back then ??? With the nicer sets you could make hypergolic fuels, now THAT was exciting !!! (growing up is sooooo hard to do :) Needless to say, this didnt last long when my parents saw the results... (for some reason reloading ammunition for 30+ calibers didnt bother them)

"Only a Gentleman can insult me, and a true Gentleman never will..."