Thread: U.S. Mess Utensils- Knives

I go by what the Army says. I see what you are talking about, The box said Meal, Combat' Individual with a
C below it and we called them C-rats. There wouldn't have been much chance for leftovers when you were in because like you said, they modified the original WW2 rations 3 different times between '48 and '58 and had another ration that they called E rations briefly before they went over to the MCI's. The can sizes were not the same in the old C's, be they 1, 2, 3 or 4 as what we would have had post 1958.My dad said that the K's were the ones that had leftover ib 1960 because they were freeze dried and they weren't using them much. They were using the canned rations at a pretty good clip. Did you ever actually see any OLD boxes of rations? I saw a 1963 box on E-bay and I know if was from 1963, well, because it had a manufacturing date stamped in large letters on the end of the case. But, for all of the joking, the oldest C-rations that I recall seeing even in reserve units were maybe a year or so old. We didn't really keep any rations "in stock" at the reserve center even after the switch to MRE's. As for the cigarettes, a website i found said that the DOD eliminated them in 1975. Also, the Lucky's were not the only smokes available. They also had Pall Malls' LOL. But seriously, during the Vietnam era, there were apparently 11 different brands of cigarettes from all of the major manufacturers included in the rations. From what I can find and was told, by the time they eliminated them in 1975, Marlboro may have been the only brand they were buying.

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

Ya I guess technically they were the MCI,s. But they were still marked with the "C" big bold letters on the case. And they were Definantly canned rations, and so also technically your dad didn't have c-rations, he had c-4 or maybe even c-3 ,, so if we're going to get technical lets do right , instead of correcting a common slang term used though the military for many years, what is always been c-rations , and yes some were older than snot, and none of them were good, do you always call a Chevrolet a chevrolet or a Chevy? And 1978, I don't think you would have known what we had in 67-72. Just a thought. Tc

sorry John

I never smoked so I,m not sure but there was a couple different brands ,, I just traded them foe peaches and pound cake ,,mand nomi never paid attention to the dates ,, I,m sure most were recent additions, but at times the military and government at the time was clearing everything they could that was in old warehouses so they could spend more money on the locals. Over there I only ate what was needed to survive, even in base camp hot chow sucked. ,, John indont even remember the mess kit utensils ,, never did use them it was something you didn't want with you, might have to go up in the attic and look through that foot locker to see what they had. My memory isn't what it used to be. Tc

LOL. By the time i was around, we weren't even using the mess kits. Hot chow in "the field" meant the cans of food and paper plates. C-rats came with a fork and spoon and our canteen cup was surely the only metal utensils that we had. By thr time we got to the 80's, all of the mess hall employees on post were civilians and the only Army cooks were typically the E7 in charge of the typically battalion sized consolidated mess facility and one or two Spc 4's as their assistant.The guys who were being trained as cooks at Ft. Jackson at that time were mostly reservists and Guardsmen as you sill had to have at least one of them in each receive center or guard armory..

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I never smoked so I,m not sure but there was a couple different brands ,, I just traded them foe peaches and pound cake ,,mand nomi never paid attention to the dates ,, I,m sure most were recent additions, but at times the military and government at the time was clearing everything they could that was in old warehouses so they could spend more money on the locals. Over there I only ate what was needed to survive, even in base camp hot chow sucked. ,, John indont even remember the mess kit utensils ,, never did use them it was something you didn't want with you, might have to go up in the attic and look through that foot locker to see what they had. My memory isn't what it used to be. Tc

At one of the yard sales I went to today,,, I found this wooden block to put my steak knife collection in,,, it cost .25 cents,,,,, now got to fill the rest of the holes this year sometime,,,,,,,,,,,

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

I never smoked so I,m not sure but there was a couple different brands ,, I just traded them foe peaches and pound cake ,,mand nomi never paid attention to the dates ,, I,m sure most were recent additions, but at times the military and government at the time was clearing everything they could that was in old warehouses so they could spend more money on the locals. Over there I only ate what was needed to survive, even in base camp hot chow sucked. ,, John indont even remember the mess kit utensils ,, never did use them it was something you didn't want with you, might have to go up in the attic and look through that foot locker to see what they had. My memory isn't what it used to be. Tc

That brings back memories. I smoked at the time and could leave for the field with two packs of Marlboros and return after two weeks with more than I took. And then there's peaches and pound cake. If we got one or the other we'd save them until we had both. Actually, any fruit was good. One exercise in Alaska we seemed to get a lot of Apricots, and since no one else cared for them, I wound up with a whole case.

Being in the Navy on board a ship we only ate "C" rats once as part of an exercise. I know they had a bunch of them stored on board but thank God we never had to eat them but that once.
I had a friend who was in Korea in the thick of the fighting & he said you could always tell the old "C" rats because the Cig's. would sometimes burn up before you got 3 or 4 drags.
I never smoked & one time they rationed Cigs in the ship store so I made some money buying them for other guy's that needed them badly.
Late note I found my knife & it says OM 1953. Wonder if that was Ontario. For some reason my pictures wont down load from my phone The other side just has US on it. Weird but the OM 1953 is upside down from the U.S.

Dave H.