Vietnam c-rations #1.mpg

1967 Vietnam c-rations box being opened for the first time in 43 years. I was an infantry radio operator with the 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division, located in the Hiep Duc Valley (LZ West), Vietnam in 1968 & 1969. We survived on these rations flown to us by Huey helicopter in the jungle. We did receive a hot meal flown to us about once or twice a week if we were lucky. We also ate LRP rations which was a "bag" of dehydrated meals where you would just add hot water, stir, and eat. My favorite LRP meal was chili con carne(I can still taste those crunchy chili beans, yum-yum). My favorite c-ration meal in Vietnam shown like the ones in this video was beans and frankfurters with fruit cocktail as desert, pound cake, and the 4-pack of Marlboro cigarettes. When viewing this video, the meals seem yucky, but when you were 12,000 miles from home as an 18 year old fighting a war and hungry, this was steak on the grill! Enjoy the video!

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Vietnam
• rations
• #1

[namdogtag]

Hi reddevilparatrooper

I never had a MRE, but it seems that they were pretty good and more convenient to haul around.....They quit packing cigs in the "C ration" MCI meals starting in 1972....heck in 1985, you had at least a meal (with the cigs) that was 12 years old.....but well preserved....I can remember some c's that I got in Nam that was packed in the early 50's!.....I only spent 3 years in Army (besides Nam) spending 8 months in Germany in Hanau...Thanks for your post!!!

[namdogtag]

MrSmoshed

Good question! Back in that time period in the 1960' s, our country called on us to help out a country whose freedom was in jeopardy....in this case, it was fight against Communist aggression, at that time was spreading throughout Southeast Asia....We, as very young American soldiers, were called up by our country to help defend another nation in the name of freedom....Freedom is the foundation of our United States of America which gives us all the right for freedoms including speech

[namdogtag]

Highcountrytimber

Looks are deceiving (lol) looking at these rations....If I was out in the desert starving for food and had a case of these things, I would maybe try the pound cake and the contents in the cracker cans for survival, but not any other of the meat cans, fruit, cakes, or peanut butter....the cigs would be ok maybe if I was desparate, but still I wouldn't recommend to anyone to consume any part of these rations for health reasons. Any canned meat cans over 40 yrs old is not safe.

[namdogtag]

JohnnyMurata

Yes, these ones in this video did have the 4 cigarette pack of cigarettes.....The last time these accessory packets was in 1971....starting in 1972, the accessory pack did not contain cigarettes......if you go to my second part of this video titled "vietnam c-rations#2.mpg", at the end of that video, I did open up an accessory pack where you can view the contents including the cigarettes...thank you for watching the video!

[namdogtag]

Hi Fastbackdon

Thanks for your comments sir.......Alot of these rations I check out are mostly spoiled with leaking cans....The accessory packet which contains the 4 cigarette pack is vacuumed packed pretty good so if anything from the 60's MCI's that still is in pretty fair shape, it probably would be the cigs.....but I would strongly recommend not to consume no part of these things, including smoking the cigs....in 1974, these rations would still be ok to use....Thanks again for your comments

[namdogtag]

theliberator1.....thanks for your comments on the FRED, the P-38.....that ol' P-38 was the best device ever invented by the military as far as personal convienance goes....thanks again...take care

[reddevilparatrooper]

My unit in Germany in 1985 had the last C-Rats without the cigarettes.My favorites were ham slices,ham and eggs,spagehtti and meatballs,and the turkey.The "John Wayne candy" toffee candy were awsome like the "Combat Birthday Cake" pound cake and fruit cake were also good.We also had these during JROTC spring camp in the early 80s too.Brings back memories.They had at one time brought back ham and eggs in MRE form too.

[MrSmoshed]

Did you fight Against Vietnam or Fight for Them ?

[highcountrytimber]

They look ok to eat.

[JohnnyMurata]

Did that accessory pack contain cigarettes?

[FASTBACKDON]

Great Video

My Uncle was a Master gunney im the Marine Corp. He used to snag the C-RATS for my BoyScout troop it was great we ate them up my Scout Master was a Marine would steal the pack with the smokes LOL he was reliving memories I guess. The food in the C-RATS IN 1974 where still ediable