I hated Ham and Lima beans! The company making the "C" rations must have owned a salt mine! There was so much salt in them they were inedible! Every time I was given Ham and Lima Beans I would claim to be Jewish so I could trade it for something else!

Cold green eggs and ham on a cold day, ice cold pork patties (I think that's what they were called) were awful also. The tuna was my favorite, and I sort of enjoyed making a icing from the cocoa and spreading it on any of the canned cakes.

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William H. Smith

I liked the canned turkey and the beanie weenies. Hated the spaghetti. Ham and eggs was okay if you had Tabasco sauce. Pound cake and canned peaches were good. Heck, I even liked the fruitcake!

I liked anything but the ham and eggs, because eggs of any kind make me puke. Somebody stole my C-rats one day and I ended up stuck with the ham and eggs. Fortunately, it was so cold that they had congealed into a tasteless mass that wasn't quite nasty enough to make me sick.

I greatly prefer C-rats to MREs, since other than the coffee or cocoa, they don't require water.

This is going to date me but I think ours were left over from WWII!

Eggs and ham were horrible but could be eaten if you employed heavy amounts of Tabasco Sauce!

There were some that were as good as store bought canned food, I just don't remember which ones!

Smith Crazy,

In the late 60's my friends were buying early 1950 dated C-Rations at the surplus store for camping. My older brother came home from Vietnam in early '69, looked at the C-rats and said "Where are you guys getting this new stuff? All the stuff we got in 'Nam was WW2 surplus". I told him that what we were hearing on the news was that in Nam they were getting dehydrated rations in the field, not the C-Rats. He said they did try the dehydrated stuff but no one though about the lack of potable water in the jungle. So the space age stuff was swapped for WW2 surplus C-Rats.

C Rats! I guess my favorites was beans& weannies and pork slices. Heated up any of them were OK.
MRE's were a great improvement.

Ham and eggs weren't bad, as long as you had Tobasco sauce. Beenie weenies were my favorite.
Ham and lima beans- hatred them!they made a good target, but that was it.

+1 I really liked the fruit cake. Cs were so useful. Toilet paper, matches, 4 cigarettes, salt/pepper, flat ware and food. Light the box and your food got warm and eliminated a good portion of the trash. What more could a man want? Yes, a can opener. I still have the first P38 I was issued in 1971. It is on my key ring and I will take it to my grave.

Beef and potato slices were ok, and the Ham amd eggs. I always looked for the pound cake. The beans and weenies were Ok but the pork slices were just nasty.

Who decided to put the fruit cake in those things, and don't forget the John Wayne bars.

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Stan

In the late fifties my uncle gave us some rations he brought back to take camping.

We were all thrilled to find the little packs of cigarettes inside but were confused as the Lucky Strikes packs had a green emblem instead of the familiar red one.

http://gruntfixer.homestead.com/files/crats.html

Yes I remember them. Four decades have diminished some what how much I disliked them. What I recall is that for an extended period of time we were limited to two meals a day due to a supply problem. At two per day one learns to eat every thing provided no matter the taste or vintage.

Ham and lima beans were referred to as ham and mother f$%&#%s. If one took the crackers, broke them up, and mixed them in along with the midget can of cheese spread. (With the cheese one had to drain off the oily fluid.) Heat the mix up it was tolerable. The beef and potatoes I’m reminded about them by smell when opening a can of dog food.

Proper disposal of the cans was a priority. The toilet paper a necessity and if you were a smoker the cigarettes even aged Camels were tolerable.

In the early 60s my cousins were on a smoke jumper cleanup crew of "2". They were airdropped supplies for "20". They hauled their precious load home in an overloaded 41 Ford pickup dragging it's tires on the fenders and loaded the basement with a ton of stuff.

Don't recall whether C-rats or K-rats. The large round crackers were inedible, as was the peanut butter....until you mixed in the grape-like jelly substance....then if you had enough fluid to wash down the stuff, it actually tasted "OK".

Whatever the meat-like road kill body-part stuff was, mostly went to the dogs after a few experimental tastes.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I really liked the pound cake and Pall Mall cigarettes.

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4th SQD 7th CAVALRY

I never made it to Nam. My overseas assignment was Ft Wainwright Alaska so I did not get all of that many C rats. When we did get C rations they were normally an improvement to the chow we got in the mess hall. I loved the Lima Beans and Fruit Cake. I did not smoke so I would trade the cigs for Fruit cake. Somewhere I have a photo in my slide collection of a garbage can with an immersion heater in a solid block of ice along the banks of the Tannana River. We were on maneuvers in February of 1969 and the temp was hovering at -50F. The “cook” would fire up the immersion heater and in about ½ hour the water would start to boil and he would toss in all C Rat meals and we got hot chow for lunch. I sure am glad I joined the Engineers instead of the Infantry.

I was training at Indiantown Gap Military Reservation in the late 60s I think. It was a bitterly cold day in January with rain/snow coming down. My Sgt. and I were huddled under a poncho trying to keep the water out of our C-rat cans. I made some comment about the potatoes tasting funny. The Sgt. looks into my can and says, "Sir, those aren't potatoes. Those are grease lumps."

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You are what you learn.

If you were hungry enough, any of them were "tolerable."

But the worst of the worst was the ham and eggs.
Cold, heated, hot sauced, salted, peppered, cheesed, (never tried peanut buttering them) or crackered, they really were awful.

And, IME, no one would trade you anything for them.

The Ham and M....s as we called them were not really that bad. And anything with beef was almost "good."

But I don't miss any of them.

Bob

MREs don't require water except to use the heating packet that is enclosed. If you just rip open the pouches and squeeze them down your throat or spoon them down, then no water is needed to prepare them.

I see you guys talking about leftover WW II C-Rats. There were NONE.
In WW II, it was K-Rations. I am not sure when C-Rats came out, but they did not exist in WW II.

The C-Rat I liked the least was Ham & Eggs.
The best, which was rarely seen, was Salt Pork. It looked like white Spam, but, to me, was delicious.
Ham & Limas, and Spaghetti, were awful cold. Heated, they weren't bad.

The pound cake, by far, was the best thing in them. Absolutely delicious, and VERY tradeable.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

cmort is thinking of the Viet Nam era "LRRP" rations. They were similar to MRE's that had to be hydrated. Carrying potable water was the problem that killed them, and led to the MRE- "Meal, Ready to Eat".

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-ration

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I always take precautions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-ration C rations came out in 1938 and were issued in WW2. Postwar they were technically the Meal Combat Individual.

K and D rations existed, and were issued alongside, C rations in WW2. Some units and areas - such as troops in Burma - seemed to only get K rations. Ks were more a "survival/combat" ration, whereas a C ration was supposed to take the place of a mess hall meal.

The Quartermaster department has a couple of free booklets that they make available that go into loving detail about all this stuff, and the capsule history is contained in the book about MREs that they give out to anyone who cares to ask. It's strange but oddly compelling reading to follow along with when Skittles were first used as a side item.

I stand corrected.
I did not know that they existed in WW II. I have seen a lot of K-rations in the collector market, but never any WW II C-Rats. I guess they ate 'em all.

I worked with a lot of ARVN troops on my tour. I saw K-rats on their bases from WW II. They would not eat them if ANYTHING else was available. I have no idea if we gave them to them during the war, or if they were leftover from WW II.

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Regards,
Lee Jarrett

There has never been a C-rat or MRE made that I did not like. I really liked the ham and eggs. The only negative is that it came in such a small can. The spaghetti was my favorite. The only problem with it was trying to stir the spaghetti in the can while cooking it over a heat tab.

The genius that figured out that it would be a good idea to include a small bottle of Tabasco in each MRE should probably be nationally recognized. Their birthday should be a holiday, or something.


.

I believe Ham & Lima Beans, also known as Ham & Motherf--kers, were universally loathed. As to my favorite--it would have to be ham slices.

Take a can of ham slices and find/beg/acquire some pineapple jam. Carefully remove the ham slices and then replace putting a layer of jam between each slice. Heat and serve!

Pound cake was my personal all time favorite of anything that came out of a green can!!!!!

Anyone else use C-4 to heat water for coffee? Anyone else use the C-4 out of the back of claymores?

Two notes:
In 1960 at Quantico, VA, I had my first exposure to C rats. They came in a "shoebox" w/ three meals for the day.
Included was a full pack of cigarettes, in my case a pack of Luckies in a green and red packet.
This green and red pack was discontinued in 1942 and changed to the familiar red/white bullseye pack w/the slogan "Luckies go to War"
The hamburger was lovingly referred to as "ground mouse"
During 1967-68 in 1st Amtrac Battalion at Cua Viet, RVN it was widely known that to eat the apricots that came in some C-rats was a guarentee of incoming artillery.
The place is probably still littered with unopened apricots.

Semper Fi

I last ate MREs in '84 at Fort Irwin while field testing the anti-mine plows and rollers. The "beef bar" was COMPLETELY inedible without water. It was akin to trying to eat a sharpening stone. Supposedly they've changed the meals somewhat since then, but they're somebody else's problem now.

eggs & ham - worst heating then up with C-4 did not help.

pound cake & peaches - best.

Lrrp rations (long range reconnaissance patrol) were pretty good when we could get them. This was in Vietnam 1969.

No, I'm talking about the '84 vintage MREs. Several things required water, including the "beef bar" and the fruit cocktail, which was like styrofoam without adding water.

Ham & Eggs with the spaghetti a close second for the worst.

The best way to heat C-rats, at least when you didn't need to hide your location, was to puncture the cans, put them back in the box and set them on fire. I learned to do this from some prior service guys at Infantry Officer Basic Course in '80. It always worked like a charm.

I recall comic Ron White saying about how his dog Sluggo after eating his new wife's cooking started licking his butt. When his wife asked why, he said "I think he's tryin' to get the taste out of his mouth".

Yeah, they were JUST like styrofoam...but kinda' filled the gap when trenching along. Tasty little morsels..LOL. And crunchy too.
Thankfully though, times have changed. So have the MRE's.

The ham & eggs unheated on a cold day. One look and you just lost your appetite.

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OFT/NRA LIFE MEMBER

The worst was the Corned Beef that our chow hall made into SOS. Came out of the can like wood chips.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Loved them-the smokes could be a little rough. Loved LRRP rations even more. Could live on MREs forever. And T-rats were yummy too. Only C I had a problem with was sphagetti with meat-It was dark and I pulled out a three inch square piece of buffaloe hiney. Yick-I ate the rest though.

Ah yes, C-rats.

Favorites were Beef & Potatoes and Beany Weenies. I'd eat the Lima Beans & Ham also. Least fav were the Eggs & Ham.

We'd do pretty much the same as Paladin, open the top of the can and put it next to the combiner transmission. Wait about 10 minutes & it'd be hot enuf to eat.

Nice thing about being aircrew was when it got to be around lunch time, we'd just grab a case of C's out of the internal load & take what we wanted. Then toss the rest in a Mini-gun can for munchies.

We took a couple of rds. coming out of an LZ and my Crewchief started hollering over the intercom. I looked over & he was covered with red/orange stuff and he thought he was hit bad. Turns out two of the rds. had hit his M60 and one of them had exploded the can of spagetti he had clipped to his gun. He didn't think it was all that funny.

Bruce

Peaches and pound cake! Ham and mothers - UGH! Cold spaghetti at 3:00 AM. Instant cofee, UGH!

I agree on the ham and mothers, someone would have to beat me. In 75-76 they were dated early 50's. We'd heat them by putting a dent in the side of the can, and heating them over a pinch of C4. When the dent popped out, they were ready.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

OK lets hear from a former chow SGT. Any out there?
Heres my understanding and it may be wrong:
Class A rations: made from fresh ingrediants(good luck)
Class B: made from a combination of fresh and canned ingrediants.Most dining facilities use this.

Class C: ration,combat,individual.
K rations were WWII and into Korea.
D Rations-never exposed to them.

There was some unidentifiable meat mixed with noodles that was not too bad (not the spaghetti & meat-bad)
We had unlabeled cans, There was some kind of heater that the cooks put into GI cans full of water then threw in c rations, got the whole works hot, you went along (at appropriate intervals of course) and picked out a can or two of mystery.
Some people (?) would trade partial cans, mix many together, and claim great culinary success, not!

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Ipsis Rebus Dictantitbus

I was in the Army Reserve from 1958 through 1962. We were an arty untit and shot WWII vintage 8" howitzer ammo as well as M2 ball in our M1s dated about 1943.

C rats were of the same vintage also. I remember opening up a package that had green label Lucky Strike smokes in it. Now that dates them.

I also opened a package that contained a candy bar and maggots were enjoying it!

Ok, best and worst. Everybody wanted beanie weenies and try to avoid corned beef hash.

Other items of the time were pound cake, peaches, fruit cake, scalloped potatoes and beef stew.

The one item I never saw used...as the directions called for...was the "hot chocolate".

One of the cans contained "accessory items". Among the items in this can was a hockey puck looking tablet of chocolate with direction to the effect of:..."place in canteen cup, pour hot water over it, stir and..."enjoy"!

I even tried going after one with a bayonet one time and that didn't even phase it.

To my knowledge, no one in the entire history of the U.S. Army was ever able to make hot chocolate out of that damn thing. I don't even think they would have made good clay birds for trap or skeet. You could have hit them dead on and the wouldn't break. They were harder than the hubs of hell!

I did see some cooks in a field kitchen once collect a large quantity of them, put them in a giant pot, cover with water and put on a stove, boiling... for a day.

It didn't make hot chocolate!

The other usless item in the pack was the "biscuits". These were pale white, hard little "cookies" that were stack three or four deep as part of a can. They had all the attraction of eating bad carboard. I don't think anyone was ever able to get them down.

Other than that, they were wonderful.


Bon appetite.

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G.P. Charlie

The P-38 was the best useful item and I still have one. You could kill someone or something with it too.

In the early 70s I was with 2nd Armored at Ft Hood. Standing order was that all units would spend one week of each month in the field. I was there for almost two years. Yeah, I ate a bunch of C-Rats.
Most of the ones we got were dated in the 1950s.
I kinda liked 'em. Or at least I didn't hate 'em. I considered them to be an acceptable meal. Even liked the ham and eggs. I'd eat the lima beans, but I'd say they were the ones I liked least.
Ah, but the fruit cocktail! That was the prize can everybody wanted. It was actually quite good!
IIRC you looked for boxes marked "B2 Unit". Those were the ones with the canned fruit and the candy bar.
An 8V-71 Detriot Diesel engine would indeed warm up C-Rats very nicely.
Anybody ever do the trick where you warmed up the coffee using the peanut butter?

Wish I could join in on this "C Rats" thread... my memory is getting bad...
but I remember some of the USMC food I ate out in Iwakuni and Kadena kept you pretty regular...
Hardly C Rats but have just spent two nights in an RAF Officers Mess and they do a darned good "Full Fry" cooked breakfast but you can't get a evening meal after 1830.

DCC

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DCCUK

One other thing I hated about them - once commissioned I had to pay for them, and when in the field "they" (I think the Battalion S-1/PAC pukes) submitted paperwork so our BAS (Basic Subsistence Allowance) was suspended, we had to buy the things even if we didn't eat them. After every field exercise I ended up with a case or two of them.

Somone mentioned dumping the cans in hot water to heat them up, this was always done, as I recall, using immersion heaters in garbage cans. I, and many others, always enjoyed watching the cooks light the immersion heaters. The heaters had a fuel tank holding about a gallon of MOGAS, and dripped the gas on a burner plate in a submerged donut shaped heating chamber, at least as I recall. The cooks were supposed to light the heaters with a wick on a long metal rod; being Army cooks they preferred to turn up the fuel flow to max. and throw buring matches into the heaters, this usually worked, when it didn't the fumes would ignite, a big bang would be heard, and the cook would have his helmet or cap blown off and be covered in soot.

I think when we were in the field we were supposed to get one Class A/hot meal a day, and it was supposed to follow the "14 Day Menu", never did, the mess sergeants always screwed it up and we would have 4 hot meals one day then famine and C rats for three days. The mess sergeants I had also always screwed up the headcount sheets and cash collection sheets and I recall catching hell from the old man over that - my battery could displace 5 times in a day, execute perfect convoys, smooth day and night occupations, but God help you if the ration paperwork was screwed up.

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William H. Smith

the stuff I ate in 67 WAS dated during WW2

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ASA/NSA 67-71
NRA Benefactor

There were stories in VietNam about guys getting Lucky Strike Greens in some of the rations.

Good Lord Charlie, I forgot about the corned beef hash. I STILL won't eat it.

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner