Remember C-Rations?

Being on tanks, and with a supply pouge as my driver, we always had about 3-4 cases on board to share with the grunts. I supplemented with canned potato strings, hot sauce and Vienna sausages from the PX and care packages from home. We spend a lot of time in the field, so had many more C-rats than mess meals. I don't remember them being all that bad, but those same 12 meals did get boring no matter how you mixed and traded the cans. They still beat the hell out of guard Night Rats (a slice of bologna on white bread and a piece of bruised brown fruit) I broke the boredom by eating with the Koreans we were attached to. They also had C-rats, but decidedly different menus.

I've since had some freeze dried camping meals and quite a few MREs. The problem with the MREs for me is, how do you hold that bag over a heat tab? No cans to cook over. If you don't have one of those magic heater bags you are screwed to eating paste out of a bag. That's just wrong. It seems to me field preparation is a real PIA.

SPC Jeff Daley, PhD -
we used to Take the Mole skin and wrap the Bottles of Tabasco and Texas Pete and it helped choke down the Ham and Claymores...

Pictured is an OLDER C-Rat....shows a tube of Hexamine heat tabs (white), we had Trioxane tabs (purple) that came with the cases and burned longer. I also don't see the 4 pack of smokes.

SPC Jeff Daley, PhD - I could eat them,as long as they were warmed up,but during basic the drill instructors found all the ham and lima beans and had everyone eat them cold.

At the airport, TSA made the mistake of telling my father he couldn't take his P-38 on the airplane. He started ranting about having that can opener with him in the POW camp in WWII and keeping it with him through 25 years of service and fighting 3 wars with this same P-38 on his dog tag chain and now the government was gonna take it away!!! No way, Jose! The old man made quite a scene.

Capt Michael Greene - don't blame him it was with him thru thick and thin.