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👍👍👍👍Lol!!!

Chitlins in heavy seas. Stink up the whole ship for days.

C-rats in Basic, AIT, '78. LRPP( long range patrol packet) and C-Rats when I got to 2/75. Had a kick ass mess hall and at night we had the Recondo Pit Stop (leg mess hall) that was open till 11pm just down the road. Kick ass sandwiches!

Damn! C company here during those 13 weeks of hell I went through at the “church”; lol! Two things I hated the most: 1.). The drill sergeants we had were “weekend warriors” from Flint, Michigan, doing their summer obligation as part of the National Guard; June-August, no less. Because they were not regular Army, they felt they had something to prove to the RA supervisors, and we suffered the results. 2.) These azz holes expected mirror-shined boots and ironed BDU’s every morning, or else pay the price with your hide!!
Oh; and the most excruciating, painful experience was when they made us sit outside all day bare-headed with our peeled noggins all day for instructional “classes” in Georgia sunshine. Needless to say, our bald, sunburned heads blistered and suffered for the next week from those “kettle pot” WW2 era helmets!!
15 mile roadmarch in full “battle-rattle” before graduation was no picnic either; I think I still have scars on my feet from those horrendous blisters on my feet at 52yrs old!!! Ha!

It's been nearly 50 years but I don't remember the food at Ft Leonard Wood being all that bad. I've eaten a lot of C-rats. The MRE's are a great improvement. I'd been out a long time before they appeared.

LOL!! Got mine hanging from my truck key ring as well. Every now and then, some youngster asks, “what is that”? Good stuff

I never had the pleasure of the C-rat canned “goods”, but I was well-informed by my Vietnam-vet Platoon sergeant about it in the late 80’s. He said it was high in calories, but left a lot to be desired in the taste department, ha!

I was in from 66-70. Mostly ate C-rats or USMC chow hall cooking. The best deal in a chow hall was mid-rats. Cooked to order omelets etc.

I actually liked C-rats pretty well. We cherry picked a few and added stuff to them when possible.There were two generations both good. Way better than MRE's
The sucky meals were the field kithchen meals. Simply awful. Boiled and luke warm or cold. Always watery.

Our holiday meals when we wereeen't in the field., everywhere were stunning especially overseas.

I also spent some time on Navy bases when travelling. Mostly Treasure Island. It was outstanding. A lot of VIP's flwe through there then.

Camp Victory, Republic of Georgia, on the border of Azerbaijan. Non-potable water only. Marines there training Georgians for Afghanistan. I was there for a week but some guys there for months. If you tried to eat the food you would chit your brains out. We hired cabs to drive an hour to the nearest town and bring back food. Any place else I saw or heard about if there wasn't hot chow there was at least MREs.

When I was at McClellan AFB with the EC-121's, we had a regular 45 day rotation to Keflavik NAS, Iceland. Best food I encountered in 20 years service, I really had to watch my weight up there. Place was the pits otherwise.

Holy Chit; I was there man! Not many Army guys there at the time. I’m guessing it was 2007-2008 or so when I was there, I can’t remember. I remember being there for a month in the Georgians’ barracks. The toilets were just an elongated “urinal/[bleep]” that extended to the floor. No place to sit to take a dump; you had to “spot and squat/hover” over the dry hole! Totally disgusting and unsanitary. For whatever reason, the running water was cut off in the restrooms in the barracks for a week in the summertime, with no options for the soldiers to relieve themselves. Dysentery ensued. It was absolutely miserable. If you’ve never had dysentery, it’s like your sphincter becomes a fire-hydrant with no turn-off valve. Many a grown man crapped their pants due to this. Lots of them dehydrated to the point of needing an IV

As an infantry Marine, we didn't ever complain about a hot meal, whether in the mess hall or in the field with vat cans. A hot meal always trumped C-rats.

Same here; US Army Infantry. Hot meals/mess halls were always a bonus. MRE-heated meals were endured cause you had no choice; whether in the dirt or in a vehicle. I’m just thankful they were not the “potted meat” style C-rats the old timers had to eat

C-rats weren't all that bad, as long as you has someone who liked to trade. My favorite desert was sponge cake covered in fruit cocktail (and the syrup) Free cigarettes too.

Cigarettes in C-rats would be very appealing. Now the MRE’s only have chewing gum. What a way to boost morale

This^^^ . We transitioned from C's to MRE's about midway through my tour, 82-83 maybe? Those first gen MRE's were different, for certain. Never did figure out what we were supposed to do with those dehydrated, 'styrofoam'' strawberries and peaches...soak in a canteen cup full of water, and they turned into a gooey mush that was just nasty, and don't even try to eat them dry, lol.
This thread makes me want to dig out a 'beef with spiced sauce' C ,a 'chocolate choke roll' and a canteen cup of 'beverage, coffee, dehydrated' , heated up over a can of burning peanut butter (with a squirt of bug juice to get it lit) and re-live the days of my youth!

Only a few weeks experience with C Rats in late 1969. They weren't as bad as I expected, having heard horror stories about them. I liked getting the ones with cigarettes in them because as a non smoker they made good trading material with all the smokers for their desserts. When were MRE's introduced? It was quite a while ago but I recall with amusement hearing that our guys were calling them; " Meals Refused by Ethiopians ".

Spent almost my entire Navy time at Cubi Pt. NAS. The food was was flat-out good...well-prepared. At that time, the Navy had a running, service-wide annual competition for best mess in several categories. They consistently won.

Once in a while we had to go do stuff with the Air Force or, while flying around, have to put down on an AF base for some reason or another...long enough for air crew to get a meal. Seems like all we ever gout on AF bases was some variation of macaroni, hamburger and tomato.

Other than one or two weird offerings, we had the best food in the Navy.. First month I was on the sub I gained about 20 pound.. Hadda quit eating..

Best AF chow I remember was our flight kitchen in SEA which was for aircrews flying night missions ..Our CAS night watch airborne patrol burned mass quantities of fuel,ammo and flares during engagements so it was nothing for us to return home for a quick turn around to rearm and top tanks...While our crew chief was handling those duties it was off to the kitchen for the rest of us..Eggs,pancakes,sometimes waffles,bacon,sauage or SOS if you dared however your choice also of hamburgers, hotdogs & even roast beef should supper be to your liking...yeah we had it rough didn't we ! LOL