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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 2974
Location: Liverpool, England | Subject: Glad You Were in The Navy?
Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) were not something the Navy had to endure except on occasional training expeditions. The Army unfortunately had to survive on them constantly while in the field. There is a young guy who has an online site where he examines MRE packs from different armies and different times in military history. This guy is quite brave in that he also cooks and eats the prepared meals. For example, he opened a British Army pack from the Boer War 118 years ago and cooked and ate a very stale and suspect beef jerky concoction. He also sampled a WWII US Army MRE pack containing cookies and coffee and found both to be still fresh and delicious. Surprisingly, a more modern pack issued to Russian Forces turned out to be a feast in a box with a variety of foods being packed. Interesting if you are curious about battlefield food rations. Here are just two of his videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZoHuMwZwTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm8f5Kj_CrY
Pedro
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2357
| Subject: RE: Glad You Were in The Navy?
Remembering that for some reason unknown to us, we were given a bucket load of ration packs on a patrol. Not the entire ration pack, but the lolly section. I certainly enjoyed eating stuff from 40+ years ago! I see a boy has been born on St George's Day.....what are the chances of a Prince Pedro? Best.. Blue *_* |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 2490
Location: East Coast of Wisconsin | Subject: RE: Glad You Were in The Navy?
Yes.assuredly glad I was in the Navy. Rumors aside we did not always get 3 squares and a flop daily. When on the AKA we had numerous landing operations where we boat crews were separated from the mother ship often 3 days at a time. Reason for this was since we were carrying cargo, (tanks, jeeps, trailers,whatever and this stuff was in the cargo holds. In order to get the stuff out, the boats which were normally carried over the hatches, had to be launched while the unloading was ongoing.We scavenged for food. Robbing the Marines MREs were just a part of it Ciggies took a hit too. In Puerto Rico, often locals would come into our boat refuge and offer goodies. A fresh pineapple or a pint of rum was for that same fair price of a quarter. three times a day, the captain's gig being used as the chow boat would show up and after finding out how many people were in our particular 'nest' would launch an equal number of balogna and cheese, aka HC&C sandwiches to us. Over the 4 years attached to this ship, I probably had 20-30 days as described above.
On the operation to the Arctic in 1955, when it was chow time and tied up alongside a merchant ship receiving stuff to take to the beach, we were allowed to go aboard and order chow at the mess hall. These meals were cooked to order by a civilian cook. Can you say 'steak and the trimmings'? We stood 12 and 12 on our boats but did have opportunity to get chow on our ship and even sleep in our own rack most of the time but the being caught alongside a merchantman wasn't a bad thing at all. Spent all summer in the extreme north end of Hudson Bay and never saw the sun go down.
As you likely guessed, NTINS!
Also after getting on Entemedor, I didn't have a lot of time for anyone complaining about how bad they had it. |
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1322
Location: Oxnard, CA | Subject: RE: Glad You Were in The Navy?
You bet I was happy to be in the Navy. 3 hots and a cot! Sure beat digging a fox hole, then living, sleeping, eating, s**tting in it, all the while dodging bullets, in the Army. I saw it coming, joined the Navy before I even registered for the draft. Showed up at the Selective Service office in uniform to register. |
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Glad You Were in The Navy?
