Hotel Co/75th Infantry (Ranger), 1st Cav? or one of the Recon units?
Regardless, my hat is off to you, a good medic is worth his weight in gold.
My first assignment was a bit later with A/75th Inf (Ranger), 1st Cav, Ft.
Hood. in 72
A Rats are Hot meals
B 's are cans needing to be fixed
C-Rats are Meals, Ready to eat, standard Military Nomenclature for all
canned foods which included the old K-rats it is just now they are know as
MRE sans cans
Here is a pic from your era 1967 :
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_rations_crescent_mil-r.php bet this bring
back some memories for you. I almost forgot about the infamous Turkey Loaf
and the Beans and Franks. My kids born 72 and 74 used to love for me to
open the B2 units and cheese and play Army.. Strange they liked the "John
Wayne" candy bars. The Fruit Cake was a throw away!
Here is a LRRP meal, Freeze Dried, Different pouch than I recall ?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=150009927189 . I also
don't recall getting these after 74 in the Ranger Bat. I heard they were
discontinued.because of being too lo-cal for a soldier's use.
All B& C meals are supposed to be inspected by the Vet Doc( what does that
tell you?) every 7-10 years. I got some bad apple sauce in Ranger School in
the Mountains(Winter class), puked my guts out all night and then woke in
the infirmary the next morning with 8 other bodies in there. I had to catch
up with the next class and to this day I do not eat apple sauce.
You mentioned heat! , the peanut butter would burn! lots of oil in that
one. If your poncho hooch was close enough to the ground, you dug a hole
about 4-6 inches and fired it up putting it in the bottom . it was nice
and toasty. Couldn't use C4, Sterno or Heat Tabs for the fumes. But you
needed to be in a secure base camp and have the old thick ponchos and the
newer lightweight ponchos shined light and glowed like a Jack O lantern
ones and Top was always on your butt for that, secure base camp or not..
My best to you this day Doc.
"L, not -L" > wrote in message
...
>
> On 16-Jul-2006, "Gunner" > wrote:
>
>> Tet ? My respects to you, but I must beg your pardon, you meant freeze
>> dried LRRP meals, the silvery green pouches. The first MREs came in
>> chocolate brown plastic bags & didn't come out until the 80s.
>
> Yes, I arrived "in-country" in time for Tet of '68 and was assigned to the
> 1st Cavalry in lovely Quang Tri, near DMZ.
>
> Military jargon is an interesting thing; as I recall it, LRRP was an
> informal name because LRRPs were the guys they were intended for,
> initially.
> As I recall it, the rations' nomenclature was MRE. Perhaps not the same
> MREs others have mentioned, but MREs; I am near certain the cases they
> came
> in were labelled as such (M Meals, Ready to Eat) whereas canned ration
> cases were labelled C-rations (occasionally K-rations). In both
> instances,
> the lettering on the case was quite large. Perhaps the memory plays a
> trick
> or two; but, that is how I remember it.
>
> I was a medic assigned to a 1st Cav recon unit. After the LRRPs (the
> long-range recon guys, not meals) supply chain was full of these meals, QM
> corp began supplying our unit with them as well; especially when we were
> in
> situations where we could not receive regular resupply drops.
>
>
>> I liked most of the C-rats, like Spaghetti and Meatballs (That is what
>> they
>> called it anyway) all but Caraway cheese was palatable. I even think
>> the
>> Ham and Eggs was good if you had time to cook and you had the right
>> condiments. Did have a Beef & Potatoes once that had a 4 Oz glob of
>> slimy
>> fat in it.
>
> I liked the smokey cheese, it was especially good mixed into a can of lima
> beans. I no longer recall what vintage meals these items were in; I know
> at
> various times we received rations produced as early as 1953, but most were
> from the 1960s and "flavors" varied over the years.
>
> The only use I ever recall for the canned eggs was to chop them up real
> good, mixed with a little kerosene pilfered from the REMFs generator and
> used to provide a little heat in the bunker during monsoons. Seemed to
> burn
> forever; no doubt an illusion, but much safer than an open tin of just
> kerosene.
>
> Ahhh, the good old days. We used to fight over who got the meager
> Chuckles
> supply from the PSPs (Personal Supply Package???) and the Vietnamese
> children would the the jungle chocolate bars back at us, nobody wanted to
> eat those darn things. Haven't eaten Chuckles since.
> --
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