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Thanks Joe

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Just remebered one small funny incident that falls under the "combat food" category.

In early '70 Nixon had "officially" sent us into Cambodia. Our squadron were the first Americans to "officially" enter in about April of '70.

I know it upset many Americans but we had wished for it for my whole my whole first year. We were actually sick about Kent State and wished those students could see what we saw. We flew hundreds of our searches along that southern border of Cambodia getting shot at a lot by moslty NVA (North Vietnamese Regulars), but not being allowed to pursue them across that border. We actually did slip over the border occaisonally in wide open areas - there was no black dottted line with different colored countries like my geography book. Even a few times seeing them just looking back at us across the border. And at night they would enter the "South" and proceed further down into South Vietnam, where, if we found them, we could "engage" them.

During that period, we often based our day's search out of a little base called Chau Doc ("chow duck" - about 40 minutes up to our Noorthwest). We refueled from there and parked our alternate teams there. Chau Doc was just inside the Vietnam border and the Mekong ran right along side the border. And there was always a US Navy River Boat (about 80 or 100 feet long) anchored on the Mekong just inside that border.

One day we had been "working" just inside Cambodia - I was then flying a Huey as the AMC pilot and we got caught up in a longer engagement than usual. I was the last ship to break off and head back for fuel at Chau Doc. As we headed back down river, I was worried about how low our fuel was and I remebered that the Navy boat had a single landing heliport on it's deck and they carried plenty of fuel.

We landed on the heli-pad and while we were refueling, they asked if we would like to go below deck and share lunch with them. We said "Yes".

We were escorted down steep steps to a deck or two below and into a tiny - and I mean tiny room that sereved as their "Mess Hall". There we were squeezed into a "booth" - our crew of 4 and several of their guys - barely room to move. And through a samll pass-through from the kitchen they handed us out plate of food.

The meal was the finest, most perfectly cooked Filet Mignon I have ever had, with a Bernaise Sauce that was delicious!

All I could think of was - "We live down river in a large base with full kitchen and staff, and we get mediocre slop. But they live out here at the end of the world with this tiny kitchen and they can get this food from heaven!

08/30/25 04:03 PM

#16099

Arch who?

08/31/25 10:20 AM

#16100

OK Dave. Quiz time:
"An army travels on its stomach."

Guess who said that.

I will give you a hint. An infamous military egoist wack-job genius who went by a single name and can be visualized at least in my memory as standing proudly with an odd-looking hat and his hand across his chest.

And he was right.

I never ate better than I did when I was in the service.

08/31/25 12:42 PM

#16101

Wild guess Mike,

Napoleon?

And then you should be glad your Mess Hall was staffed by different guys than mine.

08/31/25 02:24 PM

#16102

John Maxwell

Mike, Dave,
Which Army were you gourmets assigned, to have such epicurian feasts! Our Army had mystery meat swimming in motor oil. The oatmeal that tasted like sawdust. Sounds like you guys were really lucky. I just don't recall any meals I could eat. I figured that's why meals are referred to as "the mess". Sounds like fake news guys.

08/31/25 03:17 PM

#16103

Jack,

I think my food was closer to yours than Mike's. It was the definition of mediocrity. That's why my Navy riverboat "filet" was such a pleasant shock.

I had grown fond of two of the C-rats choices - Spaghetti and meatballs - and even more so, the Beans and weiners. But I could not always get those.

I had an occasion to have to got to a smaller airfield way south of us at a place called Soc Trang. It was a much smaller and quieter airfield that we went to for one of my semi-annual "check rides" - where one of our specilly trained pilots would put us through a bunch of our emergency proceedures. While we were there we took a break and went inside to use the rest room. We noticed they had a tiny little PX and went in for a look. On the shelves a saw stack of little individual VanCamps Beanie Weenees.

If they were in my home PX there would have been a limit on how much I could buy. I asked the guy if there was a limit and he said I could buy as much as I liked. I grabbed 2 whole cartons (about 96 cans if I remember right) and hauled them back out into my ship. They rested on the back seat floor while we finished my flight exam and then we headed back home.

I had my favourite meal so many times I eventually got sick of it and started selling cans to other guys in the field when we broke for lunch and they were carrying a meal thye did not like that well.

I think I actually turned a small profit.

WARNING - If this Forum gets any more fascinating, I may have to forfeit my membership.

08/31/25 05:15 PM

#16104

Joseph Gentilini

David M - I think if I had had to go to Vietnam, seen what you did, and eat what you did, I would have had a nervous breakdown for sure. I admire all the men who did go and thrived as you did. Thanks for your service to our country. Joe

08/31/25 05:22 PM

#16105

Mike, Dave, Jack and all you who served,

Although I never served in uniform, my 40 years of working with the Army (and the occasional Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard service members) introduced me to several aspects of military life including a lot of personal stories. Yes, some involved food 🥑.

One thing about food that stuck out was that the food and food service in (at least our) Army Hospital (MEDDAC) was quite excellent for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, this was not a "field" hospital or dining facility (DFAC) like a MASH unit or the mess hall type structures that you and your fellow soldiers were used to, and we were not in a combat zone.

Even when the vast majority of our uniformed personnel were called up and sent overseas during the Gulf War, we had enough civilian employees and some Reservist soldiers who were brought in to backfill such needed positions in the hospital.🍔

No "Beanie Weenies" were served there!

Jim

08/31/25 08:31 PM

#16106

Dave, John: And Jim.

Here's what I really meant when I said I liked army food.

When I was in the army the only time I felt normal was when I was eating. It tasted good, too, more often than not, as Jim pointed out, and it was free, but that wasn't the main attraction for me. Eating was the only time I felt halfway normal, doing something human, having personal time, just me and my taste buds and my tummy, not taking orders but taking in an order of, say, halfway decent french fries. It was a break from being just another cog in the machine and missing family and friends and not being able to let my hair grow long. Sitting down with just my own self and a plate of good food was almost as familiar and reassuring as a phone call from home. But I gotta point out that I luckily wound up in a relatively frilly duty station: I worked in a mail room at a nato headquarters complex near Heidelberg Germany, carrying documents back and forth. So my experience with army food was a lot like Jim's. Though I never had any impulse to re-enlist once I put in my time, fact is being drafted was one of the best things that ever happened to me, in part because I got to learn a little german, see europe on the cheap, and wound up getting a masters degree in journalism from osu paid for by the gi bill when I got out of the service.

So I second what Dr. Jim says.

And speaking of army food, hey, here's a famous quote from a dude who would have known what I'm talkin' 'bout.

"An army marches on its stomach," attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte, means that food and proper sustenance are crucial for an army's effectiveness and morale. Hungry soldiers have low morale, lack the physical capability to fight, and can succumb to disease or starvation. The phrase emphasizes that logistical aspects, particularly food supply and distribution, are as vital to military success as battlefield tactics.

09/01/25 11:10 AM

#16107

Mike McL.,

Glad you had a good experience with the food served at your Army facility.

One change though, at least as a civilian I did pay for my meals. As I recall, the Active Duty soldiers had some sort of "meal tickets" to cover at least part of their chow.

But it definitely was worth the cost, less than a restaurant.

Just to clarify, the first few years that I was at Ft. Carson, our old hospital was a two story, "barracks" style structure that was spread out over a very large area of land with about 5 miles of hallways to get from various areas to others. (The patient care areas were fairly close together but things like the mess hall were more remote.) Some officers - usually the MSC (Military Service Corps) - the administrators - had access to "golf cart" type of transportation to navigate them, but not us docs, military or civilian. During my years in that facility I usually "brown-bagged" my lunch from home but on rare occasions - if time permitted - I would trek on over to the DFAC (Dining Facility) and the food there was as excellent as it was when we moved into the new Evans Army Hospital In 1986.

Jim

09/01/25 12:16 PM

#16108

I don't suppose we had any classmates at the "shoe" for Saturday's game?

Too bad for Notre Dame, John

09/01/25 01:04 PM

#16109

good lord. just got back inside from pulling up crabgrass out back for the first time all summer.

and florida is the nfl of crabgrass.

09/01/25 03:25 PM

#16110

I'm still chuckling about the phrase "ontogeny recapitulates philology." CORRECTION: PHILOGENY!

This is the difference between Jim and me.

I don't CARE what the phrase means. It just sounds so cool! I'm the kind of guy that will walk up to you half drunk at a party and say it to to you just for fun.

Jim is on the side of science. He sees it as a significant phrase that summarizes the parallel between evolution in general and the stages of growth a fetus goes through. ALSO HE IS A BETTER SPELLER THAN I AM!

All in all, and all joking aside, it is a beautiful sentence that sums up the spleandor and mystery of life itself in just three words.

I just think it's beautiful. I have half a mind to have it tatooed on me.

09/01/25 04:48 PM

#16111

Mike Mc.L.

Knowing that you are an erudite wordsmith, I must correct you as to the word that is used in evolutionary science and thus, makes that famous saying of which we speak, make sense.

The word is "phylogeny, not phylology". The later is a word but has to do with language, not evolution.

I would hate to have you tattooed with the wrong word!

Jim 😯

09/01/25 04:55 PM

#16112

Joseph Gentilini

David M - I wasn't in the shoe, but I watched every minute of it. Great game.

09/01/25 07:43 PM

#16113

Mike McL.,

As Perry White might say "Great Caesar's Ghost, Kent, I couldn't let that go on forever here at the Daily Planet, a Great Metropolitan Newspaper!"

Jim (not Olsen)

09/02/25 11:08 AM

#16114

Mike McL.

Unlike some jobs, careers or professions writing is an art - the art of verbal expression. That allows others (readers) to see the world, or at least a part of it, through someone else's view. If you think about it, that is what all forms of art are all about.

You often discuss on this forum the beauty you see around you in your yard, the flowers, sunsets, the buildings and streets that you have in your area and the feelings that you have from the Florida climate.

Perhaps you should try to capture those things in some other form of artistry such as painting, photos, poetry or just short essays on the feelings that you have about the environment that you experience on good days and not-so-good days.

Explore yourself! You may have talents which can be expressed that have been overshadowed by your chosen career.

Jim

09/02/25 01:30 PM

#16115

Janie, or anybody on the site,

I have not been getting any class (Forum) inbox notices since July. I have to keep going back to the last one on July 7th to log back onto the site.

Any help would be appreciated.

09/02/25 04:06 PM

#16116

Thanks for the correction and the suggestions, Jim. That is excellent advice indeed.

And I apologize if I've been previously whining about this - about what on earth I can do with myself now that I am retired. Sorry if I'm repetitive. I'm bemoaning the loss of a love. I loved what I did for a living, which is not to say it was easy. Writing well never got easy for me. It was a rewarding pursuit -- and just as humbling as rewarding, I promise you. I'm not saying I was never full of myself. I'm just saying the difficulties of writing were always there to say: ok, smarty-pants. If you're such a hotshot how come you just spent a half hour wrestling with one stupid paragraph and you still don't have it right?

09/03/25 01:08 PM

#16117

"Trump family raises another $5 billion in Bit Coin".

Gosh, before long He will be able to buy another golf course - or just all of Scotland.

09/03/25 04:28 PM

#16118