Our friend Silas Baron sent this....
I think all of you know this subject and will enjoy this
“refresher course” smile.
A brief history of the C-ration
Relished and reviled, C-rations fed millions of troops in
the field. The iconic green cans were far from home cooking, but they did
sustain a fighting man when he was far from home—or at least the mess
hall—until 1981, when they were replaced by the Meal Ready to Eat, or MRE.
“If you were in the field, hungry and you could heat them
up, they were great—slightly better than shoe leather,” Dick Thompson, vice
president of the Vietnam War Foundation & Museum in Ruckersville , Virginia
, and a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, told War Is Boring. “If you were
in garrison where you had a choice, forget about it!”
Napoleon once said an army marches on its stomach. In
other words, poorly fed troops fight poorly—food is a force multiplier.
But food preservation for long periods of time and the
logistics of moving food to troops on the battlefield are two of warfare’s
oldest challenges.
The U.S. Military is no different. During the 1930s, the
War Department did its best to develop several kinds of compact, long-lasting
rations that could feed men in combat.
One was the C-ration, first issued in 1939. It was three
cans of different meat and vegetables—field manuals of the time described the
contents as having “the taste and appearance of a hearty stew”—and three cans
containing crackers, instant coffee and sugar.
It wasn’t Mom’s home cooking, but it was filling. Each
complete C-ration contained about 2,900 calories and sufficient vitamins to
keep the troops healthy.
C-rations were just one of the letter-coded rations the
military issued during World War II. Most soldiers and Marines from that time
remember—and detest—the K-rations of the era, which had three separate meal
units for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
During the Korean War, C-rations soon eclipsed the
K-ration as the most commonly issued field ration.
But the food was boring—“menu
fatigue” was the term military
dieticians used.
In 1958, the Defense Department created 12 different
menus. Each menu contained one canned meat item; one canned fruit, bread or
dessert item; one “B unit” that contained items such as crackers and chocolate;
an accessory packet containing
cigarettes, matches, chewing gum, toilet paper, coffee, creamer, sugar, and
salt; and a spoon.
Above—crew members on a UH-1 Huey helicopter deliver
C-rations to soldiers in the field during the Vietnam War. U.S. Army photo
Although the meat item could be eaten cold, even the
military conceded the improved ration was more palatable when heated.
The Pentagon dubbed the new rations “Meal, Combat,
Individual.” Nobody paid attention—soldiers in the field still called them C-rations.
Troops considered some of the items downright tasty.
Canned fruit, canned fruit cocktail, canned baked goods like pound cake and
cinnamon nut roll and canned meat items like ham slices and turkey loaf were
G.I. Favorites.
But one menu item was universally loathed by soldiers—ham
and lima beans. It was considered so ghastly that it acquired an obscene
nickname— “ham and MO-fo’s” is a polite rendering of its nom de guerre.
“It was an unnatural mix of ingredients,” Vincent Falter,
who enlisted in the Army as a private during the Korean War and retired as a
major general after 35 years of service, told War Is Boring. “Why not red
beans? Navy beans? Any beans other than lima beans?”
Efforts to improve the taste included troops adding heavy
doses of Tabasco and/or Heinz 57 sauce. Falter, who served in the 101st
Airborne and commanded various nuclear weapons units in the Army, tells of a
time when his men attempted to heat their ham and lima beans on the engine
manifolds of their vehicles.
There was just one problem—the soldier tasked with
strapping the C-rations to the engines forgot to punch holes in the cans to
release the steam.
“A few miles into our road march the cans started
exploding,” Falter said. “We were denied permission to stop, shut off the
engines and clean up the mess. In less than five minutes we were subjected to a
stink that lingered for days, even after repetitive engine cleanings. It
smelled something like ham and lima beans.” (These Army guys obviously didn't
have to cook these regularly...)
Other C-ration menu items earned equally colorful names.
Troops called beans with frankfurter chunks in tomato sauce “beans and dicks.”
Chopped ham and eggs earned the
nickname “H.E.s”—high explosives—because of the bloating and gas they caused.
If you didn’t have an engine manifold handy, there were
“heat tabs” made of a solid fuel called Trioxane to warm food. (Never to be
used in a closed shelter - the fumes were terrible...) If troops ran out of
heat tabs, there was always C-4.
Yes, C-4 the explosive. When ignited, a small chunk of it
burned like Sterno with a steady, hot flame sufficient to heat food and
beverages...never, ever stomp on it to put it out.
To open the cans, C-rations came with what many consider
the greatest invention—the P-38 can opener.
The P-38 can opener next to a penny for scale. Wikipedia
photo.
Some say the P-38 acquired its name from the 38 punctures
around the C-ration can that were necessary to open it. Another theory is the
can opener performed with the speed of the legendary World War II P-38
fighter plane.
Whatever the origins of its name, the P-38 could do more
than open cans. Made of sheet metal, it was just the right size and shape to
serve as a tool used to field strip a soldier’s weapon, pry open a jammed lid
or dig out an ingrown toenail.
“If you ask anyone from the C-ration era, he'll still have
a P-38 somewhere,” explained Thompson, who flew both helicopters and fixed-wing
aircraft during the Vietnam War.
