vietnam c ration cigarettes

Mostly they were awful but I was lucky. New Reproduction C-Rations Available. "Peanut butter and crackers was the best," Orbell said. Potable water ( without iodine tablets mixed) was difficult to obtain in the field. This stove was satisfactory, but did not allow enough oxygen to enter which caused incomplete burning of the blue Trioxin heat tablet, causing fumes which irritated the eyes and respiratory tract. God bless you and I hope that this note finds you well, Sir. In addition to the two carboard parts, you will need four cigarettes & two pieces of foil. Often got Cs that had been packaged right after the Korean war. During World War II, C-Rations included a cigarette packet of nine cigarettes. And my brothers. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for VINTAGE VEITNAM ERA MILITARY " C" RATIONS PACK OF CIGARETTES UNOPENED at the best online prices at eBay! Read about all of these, noticed that none of you brothers mentioned using the tin of peanut butter as a stove. This stove was satisfactory, but did not allow enough oxygen to enter which caused incomplete burning of the blue Trioxin heat tablet, causing fumes which irritated the eyes and respiratory tract. I spent my early Navy years aboard the Lexington in the South China Sea and the worst meal I can remember was Spam in fruit cocktail glaze!! With the water pouring down on us. after this became the way of doing it. Everything was always better with Tabbasco Sauce to spice it up. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. When did the military discontinue cigarettes in the C ration? Cigarettes were bad for your health along with bullets. There wasnt a USMarine anywhere near Saigon. Jerry. Today Gover keeps a . I just put the pound cake into one of my scenes. It had a flavor I can not duplicate to this day. We took them camping, my sister wanted corn dogs, which the bears ate as they passed thru our camp. We were at the end of the supply line so we ate a lot of C-rations. The 10-in-1 Ration included packages with 10 cigarettes each. Got to Nam in July 68 an assigned as a pilot way down in the Delta. Hill 55 out of DaNang. Did not see mention of toothpick that you chewed one end for toothbrush ( sucked). I lived on peaches & pound cake for breakfast with hot chocolate. (Ham and eggs) they were the worst. Vietnam c-rations #1.mpg - YouTube The blue heat tabs emitted a gas that would burn your eyes and c-4 was harder to locate for us. Great article, I was USMC 1966/67 Vietnam. Dan DMZ M/co 1969 USMC Hill 461 Sieara Rock Pile , Stud, LZ MAC chopper down! loved getting the ham and eggs or beanie weenies pound cake with a melted John Wayne bar over it was heaven crackers were really funky l thought. All individual empty cans and trash were buried prior to leaving the table unless he had another use for one of the cans. I would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to you, and every single veteran for your honor, your valor, and for sharing what little you had with my father and our family. Semper Fi. Brings back a lot of memories. That was the beginning of the Tet Offensive and the hot meals were few. Who could ever forget about C-Rations? Left the nam brought one home should have seen the looks I got. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); My c-rations in 1965 that I ate in Vietnam were dated 1945 being 20 years old ! Shop with confidence. So the food on a paper ;~) Spent almost 2 yrs in Northern I corps. It consisted of three meals sealed in a plastic bag together with items such as a can opener/spoon, matches, toilet paper, etc. or four? I have great memories of C-Rations. Vietnam C Ration Cigarette : Top Picked from our Experts C Ration Cigarettes For Sale - gradewinstonred Cigarettes were eliminated from rations in 1972. Fishing? just outside of Da Nang, we were working with the KMC. If you read this and you would like to try it,just give me a call at 1-800-347-2823 and i would be happy to send you a free bottle. (LogOut/ Dont have any Cs any more, but still got several P-38s, three still sealed in the brown paper. Since your audience is mostly nam vets, Id guess ALL OF THEM remember c-rats. It was great when someone got a care package from homewe all shared. Thanks again. My father used to grumble about C-rations from his service in WWII, also, so it was interesting to read this site. Yes I remembered those olive canned food because my dad, VNs regime Officer before 1975, let me tried > canned of chocolate in foil, cake, peach, M&M, shredded pork ( ? My favorite recipewas to get a can of bread from the B-3 unit and a can of cheese from a B-2 unit; open both cans but do not take off the lid; place both cans in an empty B Unit box; light the box on fire until it burns completely; remove the bread and open it; pour the melted cheese over the bread and voila a toasted cheese sandwich. At times we actually had to buy cases of C-rats in Phan Thiet where there was a thriving black market. It was a great job. The brands I remember are: Marlboro, Winston, Camel, Pall Mall, Old Gold, Raleigh, Salem, Kool, Chesterfield, Newport & Lucky Strike . C-Rations | Charlie Company Vietnam 1966-1972 The cigarettes were even contaminated with bugs ! 2.03M subscribers Subscribe 129K 9.7M views 6 years ago Check out this full review of a Vietnam War MCI or "C Ration"! In 1975 they stopped putting cigarettes in rations which raised hell with US troops everywhere. Well presented and will share with fellow Vietnam veterans and family. Sounds like a lot of B S to me. Photos of dissected original pack & other info is included in the pdf file. Yuck. I was a dog handler in Vietnam 67-68. The next thing I got was the MREs. It was intended to be issued to U.S. military land forces when fresh food (A-ration) or packaged unprepared food (B-Ration) prepared in mess halls or field kitchens was impractical or not available, and when a survival ration (K-ration or D-ration) was insufficient. B9719 VIETNAM ERA US Military C Ration Spoon in plastic bag IR19A - $16.35. Cases of C-Rations are assigned and split among a squad of soldiers theres an ample supply to cover three meals per person 4.5 pounds of canned wet food for each days adequate nourishment. all were palatable, but the peaches were outstanding. Some of the guys cannot stand to watch me eat one. I was a helicopter crew chief in 1967 with the 25th Infantry out of Cu Chi. Sir, thank you for your service in Vietnam and for the insightful information you provided in this article. Was in army boot basic in 1980 Jan I Remer those c and b rations still have my P38 on my Dog tags from boot camp. Its characteristics emphasize utility, flexibility of use, and more variety of food components than were included in the Ration, Combat, Individual (C Ration), which it replaces. Vietnam war C-Ration Cigarette Pack Winston Repro | eBay In 1968-69 I ate c-rations that were older than I was. Typical commercial brands issued in the cigarette rations in Vietnam were: Camel, Chesterfield, Kent, Kool, Lucky Strike, Marlboro, Pall Mall, Salem, . And one day I plan on working as a flight RN / EMT-P as well as continuing to either work or volunteer as a firefighter. I never went away hungry! Funny story, Buzz. would love to find a rec for them now 1 for 5 5 for 20 20 for 40 Keep an . This is the official Quartermaster's description of C-Rations used in Vietnam "The Meal, Combat, Individual, is designed for issue as the tactical situation dictates, either in individual units as a meal or in multiples of three as a complete ration. Each usually consisted of a can of some basic course, a can of fruit, a packet of some type of dessert, a packet of powdered coca, a small pack of cigarettes, and two pieces of chewing gum. . I was with the 173rd Airborne/2ndBn 503rd Infantry. The only thing I find myself craving from time to time was the instant coffee with of course dry creamer and sugar although I think it was making it in one of the C ration cans that gave it that special flavor. In the field 90% of my tour. Through some investigation he found the manufacturer of it was Sara Lee. Ahh, comfort food in the middle of the jungle. The Red Cross also distributedletters from school children, church groups and others for us to read and respond in kind. | dng sng c. The new menu (late 1968 onward) included good stuff like beans & weenies. These reminiscences take me back. Ham and Limas was the favorite for this purpose. Give me an address and Ill send you one. Not sure how the armor units split their meals. We had the dubious honor of being the first Army ground unit deployed to VN in early May of 1965 from Okinawa and all enjoyed consuming our fair share of those gourmet C rations. Replace with VO or whatever whiskey you can find. The 4 meals I remember are 1- chopped ham and eggs 2 beans and wieners 3- ham and lima beans 4- beefsteak and potatoes. Of course it was not their faults, soldiers , at first and second to be fair they needed to go home with their families. l drove a 5 ton dump and heated meals for everybody on the manifold a hot can of SOS in your belly goes a long way towards boosting your spirits. Thanks for your interesting accounts, and for your service. This establishment made Beans and Meatballs in Tomato Sauce shipping thousands of cases a month out. Tasted like TNT from the powder charge. It smells good, Moak said as he put a handful in his mouth. Typical commercial brands issued in the cigarette rations in Vietnam were: Camel, Chesterfield, Kent, Kool, Lucky Strike, Marlboro, Pall Mall, Salem, or Winston. On the way we had C-Rats, I liked the Ham and Lima beans, they were easy to trade for as a lot of guys like you did not like them. I REMBER C-RATS I LIKED POUND CAKE AND RANGER PUDDINGDENNIS 4TH INF DIV 69-70, So cool, i love your post, I am from Vietnam. My father told me that it was a food container, made of stainless steel, where the lid doubles as a frying pan of a sort, and the strap handle could extend into a handle for the pan (I hope that made sense..). Id get an onion from FSB mess tent and chop them up into whatever meat I was eating, thank god LURPs became widely available for the 2nd half of my tour because I just couldnt stomach Cs other than the fruit. I thank each of you for all you have done and all the countless sacrifices you made. I was the lucky one that LIKED ham and Lima beans! Barges were loaded with ammo and stores, I especially like the little flecks of OD paint mixed all through the food from opening the can with your P-38. Wow brings back a lot of memories. Moak got the drab olive can as a Marine helicopter pilot off the Vietnamese coast in 1973. Silly me ! In Thailand, sriracha sauce was even better than Tabasco. guy came by and collected all our heating tabs said they caused cancer. I WONDER IF HE DIED FROM AGENT ORANGE. The daily ration of 3 meals provides approximately 3600 calories., 1 Beef w/Spiced Sauce, Halved Apricots, Peanut Butter, B-1 Unit crackers, candy, 2 Tuna Fish, Quartered Pears, Peanut Butter, B-1 Unit crackers, candy, 3 Ham and Eggs, Chopped, Quartered Pears, Peanut Butter, B-1 Unit crackers, candy, 4 Pork, Sliced, Cooked with Juices, Halved Apricots, Peanut Butter, B-1 Unit crackers, candy, 5 Beans w/Frankfurter Chunks in Tomato Sauce, Blackberry Jam, Fruitcake, B-2 Unit crackers, cocoa beverage powder, 6 Beef Slices and Potatoes w/Gravy, Pineapple Jam, Orange Nut Roll, B-2 Unit crackers, cocoa beverage powder, 7 Spaghetti w/Beef Chunks in Sauce, Peach Jam, Cinnamon Nut Roll, B-2 Unit crackers, cocoa beverage powder, 8 Beans w/Meat Balls in Tomato Sauce, Grape Jam, Pound Cake, B-2 Unit crackers, cocoa beverage powder, 9 Beefsteak, Sliced Peaches, Cheese Spread, Cheddar Plain, B-3 Unit crackers, candy, 10 Chicken or Turkey Boned, Cheese Spread, Cheddar Plain, Fruit Cocktail, B-3 Unit crackers, candy, 11 Ham Sliced, Cooked with Juices, Cheese Spread, Cheddar Plain, Fruit Cocktail, B-3 Unit crackers, candy, 12 Turkey Loaf, Cheese Spread, Cheddar Plain, Sliced Peaches, B-3 Unit crackers, candy. Loved the article brought back a lot of memories. Brand New. Tastes just like it always did, Mikolashek mumbled with a mouthful of cake as Moak laughed and clapped. $100 VE-546 Choice Vietnam Jungle Boots, size 12. Never ate either one of these meals while in country. WW2 Reproduction U.S. Rations | Frontline Crate Co. Food was of secondary importance. Ah! C-ration - Wikipedia They were the best canned peaches Ive ever had. Four can openers are provided in each case of 12 meals. A stove was usually carried in the back pack or cargo pocket and used repeatedly until the metal began to fail. Reflections: Smoke 'em if you got 'em - The Campaign for the National While serving in the Central Highlands with the 1/12th Inf. It would explain a lot of the stupid decisions Ive made over the years. B-unit: (3) 12 ounce cans of bread, coffee and sugar. Most of us knew there were others who had it harder than than we did. The coffee, sugar, creamer and hot cocoa came in paper envelopes. Voilatoasted cheese sandwich. Web Printable Paperwork - HardScrabble Farm Toilet paper and mosquito juice in band on our steel pot to keep them dry. Meals such as beef stew, spaghetti and meatballs, chili and others were a wonderful diversion from the mundane canned food we were subjected to. I can't find my links right now, but a little bit of searching should turn them up pretty easily. Same when I came out of the field and started eating mess-hall chow regularly. I miss the guys I hope all are doing well. I agree almost entirely with you assessment of taste and quality and preferences, with one exception: I was a combat photographer with the First Air Cav, and made it my personal mission to photograph an op from each of our original 8 infantry battalions , all of our artillery battalions, and the engineer and cavalry units, plus every company in the Aviation brigade. , Just looking at a can of Ham and MFers makes me wanna puke. USMC 2/9 DA NANG , DONG HA, Smoking the local product might fool Mr. Charles. Hey, I think your website might be having browser compatibility issues. Only down fall was it was instant heart burn. The History of Military Rations - vfwpost2913.com the military mess kit also comes with a military fork, knife and spoon. The C-Ration was replaced in 1958 with the Meal Combat Individual (MCI). Change). Now I know why I lost 40 LBs. Life-saving use of rations! Anyway, you made my day this morning. Do you remember your special recipes? ham and turkey loaf and the peanut butter, our c rats came in a white case I remember the date on them then was like 20 years old in 1968, I liked the sterno heater, they were much better warm than cold. We, the Army Inspectors, condemned them all. Only once was stupid enough to eat the WHOLE LRRP ration at onne, swells up pretty big after the water goes down! 98 the LEMCO Cha Rang Valley 66 67. I destroyed my taste buds eating my Moms cooking. Every thing else not to bad. We would punch a few holes in the top of the can using a P38 and add a small amount of water and heat it for a bit with a piece of C4. At the time no one wanted the egg (Obviously some supply sergeant made himself a bunch of money.) The dream of being a SEAL, US Marine, PJ, Delta, Recon, and the like is still very much alive within me to this day. Our operation moved from the Air Force sector to the other side of the Air Base about a million miles away from our Mess facility. Beef and Rocks, Scrambled Rubber Eggs, Chili, Applesauce, and Shit Disks. BTW, I did some shows with Justin Wilson in New Orleans. Using a John Wayne (a P-38) pierce a series of closely spaced holes around the top and bottom rims of the can. Little known or unpopular brands. In 1975 they stopped putting cigarettes in rations which raised hell with US troops everywhere. I know heat tabs were around but c4 burned hot and fast. Meatballs and beans! So it was c-rats for at least two meals a night. To eating our faithful C rations. Great articlebrings back many memories of the bad old days. Old wolfhound hereA/1/27.66,67,68..no one mentioned the hobo stove which when out of heat tabs or C-4 we would open a can of peanut butter. It was reported in the media that each soldier in Vietnam had a hot meal each day. Give me pears or apricots any time. Dear Chrissy, He was not overly fond of them, but did eat to stay alive. Stand tall and thank you for your service. Hey me too other good ones were Beans and Balls Beans and Dicks Beef and Potato couldnt eat the egg thing spaghetti could not be cooked in the can, it would just rise up as a blob, cold top and burned bottom Ive got peaches, whos got the pound cake, I saved my ham & lima beans until we returned to the rear, then put the on the stove, boiling hot with a little hot sauce made me happy, Wow, how did we survive. If I admit to actually liking and trading for ham & lima beans, does that imply Im strange beyond? TM 21 1965. There are several websites dedicated to US military combat rations that show all the brands. Once lit it would put out a decent flame..my favorite was spiced beef.but had to be served hot.cold it sucked. Vietnam C Rations and Stuff Cigarette Coupons Free Printable Free Coupons By Mail Newport Cigarettes Nostalgia Marlboro Cigarette Vintage Metal Signs Okinawa American History Vietnam War - included in each C-Ration; great for batering if a non-smoker Military Life Military History Military Food Veterans United Military Signs Military Ranks If you want to learn more about the Vietnam War and its Warriors, then subscribe to this blog and get notified by email or your feed reader every time a new story, picture, video or changes occur on this website the button is located at the top right of this page. Marvin J. Wolf, author of Abandoned In Hell, The Fight for Vietnams Firebase Kate.. I could not find a meat and beans recipe. Reunion 2006 Grand Lakes O The Cherokees,OK, Audie Murphy Presidential Medal ofFreedom, https://charliecompany.org/2012/04/20/c-rations/, http://1-22infantry.org/pics4/richard.htm, Army C Rations: 21 Cool Facts - Citizen Soldier Resource Center. I was at Pleiku AB 67-68 and we used to open up the tin of peanut butter, take a match and light the top layer of oil, and it burned excellent! I get a lot of the cans of fruit cake. Plate. We learned how to cook rice in an ammo can and that Ham & MFs with greens, heated and served hot over the rice with some kimchee as a condiment was a decent meal. A generation full of Peace&Love did not belong in Vietnam ever! Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. You could take a rats head off at 20 feet with them. Each menu contains: one canned meat item; one canned fruit, bread or dessert item;one B unit; an accessory packet containing cigarettes, matches, chewing gum, toilet paper, coffee, cream, sugar, and salt; and a spoon. Then mix a bunch of mosquito repellent in about a half of can.use the rest of the peanut better on the very thick (hard tack) crackers!! George Newport dynamite and dirt merchant Combat Engineer. Would turn to soup. Thank you for taking the time to write this article. Vietnam C Ration Cigarette : Top Picked from our Experts Hey Fred, I was with the same unit as you except I was in B Company, August of 69 through June of 70. Pall Mall, Luckies, Winston, Salem and Benson & Hedges Menthol were five of the brands found in Vietnam era field ration packets. You could buy cases of beer and soda too. I would have beer almost every day. My last CO loved them. Free shipping for many products! Stumbled across this interesting site. Enjoy! I have the greatest respect for the grunts they did it with ingenuity and a lot of common sense. Beat the heck out of what we scrounged up to eat with our counterparts. To you and to all the crew chiefs and gunners, from the bottom of my heart, I say thank you. I wish that cigarettes were never part of those C-rations. I got ham and eggs. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of these posted messages about C rations, even though Ive never tasted even one bite of food from one of those cans. Right? The only thing I miss was the instant coffee with the creamer and sugar. Vintage Meal Combat Individual Accessory Packet It was just what I needed. Gentlemen, I was wondering if you ever ate at a local shack/stall in town or did you ever go fishing? Glad to be on my way back to Goliad, TX so many of my buds were not so lucky. Contents:12 ounces of bacon or one pound of meat (usually canned Corned Beef), two 8-ounce cans of hard bread or hardtack biscuits, a packet of 1.16 ounces of pre-ground coffee, a packet of 2.4 ounces of granulated sugar, and a packet of 0.16 ounces of salt. When out on missions, infantry units were re-supplied with food, water, ammunition, clothes and other items by helicopter every three to five days. Cut the canned roll in half, spooning the can of cheese inside, put back in can, fold over the can top, put back in c-rat box and light the box on fire. The popular meals and cans of pound cake, peaches and fruit cocktail were prized and worth their weight in gold many soldiers hoarding them to barter for items during evening chow breaks; only one of each are included in every case of meals. But, Nuac mam still sucks ass! You can live a long time on just water, so I do not recall being hungry.