Field/Combat Army Rations. What Are Your Stories of Eating Chow? CHOW SHARE OF THE DAY?

I will never forget being cold, wet and tired in the back woods of Ft. Benning, GA and being handed my first Ham&Eggs C-Ration. The absolute worst thing called food ever.

As long as I had a good C-ration or later an MRE, I was one happy camper.

C-rats- pound cake - peaches- pour off peach juice in a nother crat can- add creamer - 2-3 packets- one sugar-- stir fast and hard-- put peaches on pound cake - top with the sauce ya just made --- mmmmm heaven lol

As part of the first soldiers assigned to the newly reactivated 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, NY, it was vital to the mission that we became combat-ready ASAP. So, despite getting every durable and non-durable item brand new, most of our NCO's and officers had to learn along with us as we assembled everything for the first time. Like most units, we went to the field for training for months at a time. I was a medic in C CO, and our mission was to assemble and run a division treatment station for the light infantry and other units associated with the 10th Mtn. As an ambulance driver, I know that I had it a lot better than most; not having to carry every piece of my TA-50 into the field on my back. But I definitely had my dislikes about the field. One of those were the ghastly meals rejected by Ethiopians or MRE's. I could stomach the pork and beans, but I rarely ever got one of those. It was usually the dehydrated beef or ham which barely passed for edible. There were highlights, though, like when the Division's cooks came to the field and set up T-rats. God, that was a great day when we got T-rats instead of MRE's!
On one particular occasion, I was waiting in line for my share of T-rats, at least three paces separated me and the soldier in front of me (we socially distanced back in the 80's, even before it was cool). What a treat! Waking up before the sun for stand-to and having your commander tell you and your soldiers, "no MRE's today, we're taking the convoy to Division HQ for T-rats!" My mouth started watering immediately. Why? Because the worst of T-Rats; some kind of scalloped potatoes and ham concoction, was better than the best MRE's any day of the week. Not hard on the cooks, either. All they had to do is lower the sealed metal trays into boiling water for a few minutes, open them up and scoop out the contents onto the cardboard tray held by the soldier in front of them who eyed the hot goodness like a ravenous wolf eyes its first meal in days.
So there I was, about to get my whatever-it-was-but-I-don't-care-because-it's-hot slopped onto my plate, when the sweet aroma of dessert entered my nostrils. Could it be? This was the holy grail of T-rats! At the end of the line, the tray containing dessert was none other than that apple pie filling, just like mom used to scoop out of the can, and we were getting it for dessert!!! Suddenly, one of the range cadre set off a smoke grenade in the middle of the camp and screamed, "gas, gas, gas!" We all donned our protective masks and took cover until the "all clear" was given. No matter. I didn't care about this routine training drill, nothing could spoil my day. I was getting T-rats! I took my place back in line and picked up my cardboard tray and plasticware, ready to savor the yummy goodness of my first hot meal in weeks. No matter how bad the chow is; hunger makes the best gravy.
That's when I saw the cooks dumping the contents of the T-rats in the garbage. "What the HELL are you doing?" I cried. "These rations were contaminated by a chemical attack, we can't use them now." Another cook opens up a box and starts handing out MREs. My heart sank. "B-But, it was just smoke, we're just training, that wasn't really an NBC attack," I lamented. "We gotta play the game like it's real, sorry, these T-rats are contaminated," the cook replied and he said, "here ya go." He handed me an MRE. Oh great. Dehydrated beef.

Summer, 1968: Infantry Tactics training, somewhere in the heart of Kisatchie National Forest, "North Fort" ("Tiger Land") of Fort Polk, Louisiana. They brought "chow" out to us in the field. It was a pork and potatoes in gravy main course, but they brought no cutlery. The only choice for most of the company was to eat with their fingers. Fortunately for me, I had an aunt who insisted that I learn to eat with chopsticks when I was just five years old (she said it was a "survival skill")! Using my bayonet, I cut a couple of branches from a tree, and ate my meal with my improvised "chopsticks" (I've always hated getting my hands any messier than I absolutely have to!). As for "C-Rats", the one most vivid in my memory was the "Chopped Ham with Lima Beans". It looked like canned puke.

I was in the early days of the MRE, and we actually had a class in how to eat them. Cracks me up. Most memorable meals were the Green Eggs in the field at 29 Stumps. Always wondered where the Ham was.

As a unit, our Assault Helicopter Company (195th AHC) often found ourselves away from our home field at lunch time. We carried C-rats for such occasions. Often we would have a new crew chief or gunner and we like to play a trick on them. We would extol the tasty Spaghetti and teach them how to heat this delicacy over a stove made of cake cans and using C-4 as fuel. We explained that the stove worked better out of the wind and showed them how to get it lit in the cargo compartment. (I know, but we figured we were going to die anyway, little matter how). The unsuspecting newby would set everything up and get the stove lit and put the can (opened on the top) on the stove. Shortly thereafter, the bottom of the spaghetti would boil but the spaghetti created a seal until the pressure built up to ejection velocity. The spaghetti would "explode" and cover the top of the cargo compartment with red sauce and spaghetti. The newby then spent the rest of his lunch period cleaning up the mess. Boys will be boys.

Our meals in the field duck. The Germans had beer and the French had wine. We had water out of a plastic canteen.

C-Rats first meal 1959 last 1975. Better than LRPs never had MREs.

I can always remember my days in the 1980s where we would be doing exercises in the field and when receiving our rations near any village the families would bring really good home cooking to trade off for the rations , for the most part I had a very good Home cooked meal everyday we was out doing field exercises, Of Course I still have my very 1st p-38 I ever received in Fort Benning Ga.