Comments on: Fishing With Grenades and Cooking With C4: A Veteran’s Vietnam Food Memories

By: Jim Scarborough

Jim Scarborough — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:02:53 +0000

Ahh, what memories this brings back. I served in a mechanized infanrty batallion with the 25th Infantry Division, 1968-1969.

At first, the C-Rats were okay but after a while you could hardly eat most of them. I was at top physical and weight when I went to Nam after two years of intense training and physical conditioning (basic training followed by advanced infantry training and jungle warfare school, plus serving as cadre with a training command in the Staes for a year).

I lost about 15 pounds in my year in Nam due to undereating and bad diet. My teeth also suffered and I needs a lot of dental work at the VA hospital when I returned.

Some units were able to set up field kitchens and get hot meals in the bush. We almost never could because we were always on the move, and set up overnight positions in unsecure areas. Our resupply helicopters could get in about half the time, but we freguently went without resupply.

Sometimes the resupply included a beer ration (2 cans of 3.2% beer per soldier.) We occasionally used our CO2 fire extinguishers from our armored personnel carriers to chill it, but if we did it too often we got in trouble for requesting too many extinguisher refills.

Some of the C-Rats came with canned pound cake and others with sliced peaches but never in the same ration pack. We used to save one until we had the other, then make peach shortcake. After a while, it was just about the only thing I ate from the C-Rats. We all got a few “care packages” from home, which we always shared with our buddies. My sister used to regularly send me homemade Chex party mix.

About once a week we were allowed to select one or two guys from each platoon to go back to the Division base camp on the resupply helicopters and go shopping in the PX for everyone. The most popular purchase was Tabasco suace. We used it on everthing to kill the taste and give the food a little flavor.

Occasionally we ran into wild hogs, which we killed and ate. Also, at times we were able to buy a few fresh fruits from village markets, most commonly watermelons. They were a real treat.

By: Gerald Jesch

Gerald Jesch — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 23:59:00 +0000

C-rats were still around Da Nang in 1968. We were pretty sure they were left over from Korea. One nice thing about them is that they could be dropped from a moving C130 on skids with minimal damage. I think I may have been the only one in our outfit that liked cold, canned ham and eggs… and could always get someone to trade.

Nothing like fishing with grenades to skim the cream and fill a creel.

By: In the News: Weekly Roundup | I Eat.

In the News: Weekly Roundup | I Eat. — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:06:29 +0000

[...] to Turkey is this veteran’s account of the food he remembers from the Vietnam War. Reading this, I was glad that my meals are comparatively [...]

By: Joel

Joel — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 15:25:17 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing this. My father was a Vietnam Vet and this made me think about him.

By: Lansete » Blog Archive » Fishing With Grenades and Cooking With C4: A Veteran's Vietnam …

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:08 +0000

[...] Read this article: Fishing With Grenades and Cooking With C4: A Veteran's Vietnam … [...]

By: Sidney

Sidney — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:13:32 +0000

“not a kernel, a colonel”

What a touching post. Thank you!

By: TheCalmCook

TheCalmCook — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 18:01:23 +0000

What an amazing article for veterans day… It’s good that the rations are improved these days, but I doubt any of us would want to live on MREs. Cheers to our veterans and to their safe, soon return.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:37:45 +0000

Great stories. Thank you for serving our country.

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Wed, 10 Nov 2010 22:25:26 +0000

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