The best meal from Uncle Sam

[navdocret]

Seems like whenever we transitioned from winter blues to whites, we always had "soupy" spaghetti... and of course an inspection shortly afterwards!

[joem]

My very best meal was when I got back to base from the hospital ship. I got back on last flight at dark so no food. Breakfast was the best. All I could get down on ship was half cup of black coffee.

[comm pogue]

If there was 1 thing and i mean only 1 thing i miss. it has to be the bread pudding i ate in the Corps, have never found anything close to it it had like a Vanilla sauce, now Golden Corral comes the closest but not quite. now i never met a former Marine cook since then, do they even have them now? is it all civies?, is there still mess duty?.....Semper Fi

[High Plaines Doug r]

I remember a couple of steak dinners when they pulled us back to the rear when I was in RVN. Then I remember a turkey dinner for T-giving on styrofoam plates in the field. The turkey came out of mermite cans and tasted kinda normal but we got a little ice-cream which was a rare thing.
Those 3/8" thick steaks came off a real 55 gal drum charcoal grill and seemed like a pretty good treat at the time.

[Guamsst]

I was just thinking it might have been the 7-1/2lbs of snow crab legs I ate on Diego Garcia. They thawed too much out for the lunch meal ( I think it was a Holiday) so at the dinner meal it was all you could eat. I had mentioned I could eat a heack of allot of crab or shrimp so the guys pushed me to see how much I could eat. 15 plates later I told them I was satisfied....LOL

[Former Cav]

I was in 4 years 4 months and 4 days in the Army. I spent the last roughly 1-1/3 years in the hospital as a result of wounds recieved in "the vietnam experience".
A pretty Nurse 2nd LT Dietician came by my beside and I was just an E-5 (SPEC five which is even LOWER SCUM then a buck sgt). She was nice and professional and absolutely BEAUTIFUL and about maybe 22-24 years old. I was 21 or 22 at the time. She asked how I liked my food cooked, how much, large medium small proportions etc. She had a long check list.
I can tell you that if you went to the mess hall at Fitzsimmons Army Hosp in Denver (Aurora) CO in 1968 or 9 that their hamburgers were GOOD stuff. BUT... by the time they got to ward 5E or 5W (orthopedic ward for leg injuries) they were COLD and the grease had re-congealed back into the LARD format.
About a month goes by and this pretty Dietician shows up and asked me how was the food?
I said to her (politely) "well mam , is there any change I could get some c-rations"
she just GRUNTED, turned and walked away and I never saw her again.
too bad. I'd have like to "fraternized with her" GRIN

[kcw]

In my late uncle's belongings (I was his estate administrator) I found the Thanksgiving menu for "First Company, Armored Force School Detachment, Fort Knox, Kentucky". (My uncle was drafted in June 41' and sent to Camp Pine NY (now Ft. Drum), were he trained as a tank mechcanic in the 34th-37th? armored. I know he spent the fall of 41' in NY, I believe that the menu was from 1942.) Officers in charge; Lts. R.L. Whitcomb & E.H. Cox. 1st Sergeant A.V. Barsotti. They started off with "Green & Ripe Olives, Celery and Sweet Pickles" then moved on to the important stuff, "Roast Turkey and Sage Dressing, Gilblet Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Mashed Potatoes, Broccoli w/ Hollandaise Sauce, Hot Rolls & Butter, Fruit Salad, Mince Pie, Pumpkin Pie , Dinner Mints, Mixed Nuts, Cider, Coffee w/ Fresh Cream & Sugar" and finally finshed off with, "Cigars & Cigarettes".
I don't know if my uncle was impressed with the dinner offerings, or the menu itself, which is printed on a 5.5"x8.5" high quality, shiney, white "cardboard" material, with raised red lettering; a VERY nice/fancy printing job.

[broom jockey]

I agree with Mr. Shapiro. The steak dinner at Oakland, CA when I mustered out. They also served seconds.

[pcox]

I remember being on duty on two Thanksgiving Days. Those were the two best meals that I had while on active duty in the Army. The cooks seemed to take that day personallly and always did a good job.

[DMark]

C Ration pound cake with a match on top for my birthday.

Presented to me by the soldiers of my platoon. They sang Happy Birthday and then we geared up.., loaded up.., and moved to contact.

Island of Grenada, Oct 1983

[louis]

there were thre of us I was driving the truck, the other two went into the officers mess hall and liberated a real turkey for thanksgiving, we barely got away and when pulled over by the mp's searching for a turkey we covered it with our field jackets. we brought the turkey to our small unit and enjoyed a real turkey dinner instead of turkey roll!!

[40mmgunner]

Best Meals Uncle Sugar Fed Us (Me)

Before I joined the Army, I served a hitch in the Coast Guard as a 40mm AA gunner on a weather cutter (look it up, kids) in the North Atlantic, based in Boston, MA. Our Storekeeper Warrant Officer would ask the crew if we would eat beans 'n' franks for a while so he could afford lobster for a couple of meals -- Hell yes, sir!! So, for the first two Fridays at sea, we got all the lobster, steak and fresh bread that starving teenagers could eat. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
War Story: In those days, USCG personnel in the Northeast were almost all from New England or the Outer Banks of Virginia/North Carolina. Going through the mess line on one Lobster Day, I was behind a kid from Okracoke, NC, who had never seen a lobster before. When the cook flopped two of them on his tray, he looked at them in horror and said "I ain't gonna eat no Goddamn' BUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!" As a native New Englander, I swapped him my steak -----------------------

[coastie]

So, the CGC Gentian is tied up at Gaveston commercial wharl #12. 1969.
Next to us are tugboats.
As the Quartermaster of the watch, 0400-0800, this QM3 was in the phone booth sized shack at the gangway busily involved in the logbook proceedings-[or was it Analog Sci-Fi magazine, I forget].
An old deckhand from the nearby tug wandered over and began talking.
I didn't pay much attention to his ramblings, but he needed an ear and I listened somewhat.
Finally he realized he had duties at the tug and oh, by the way he was making himself a steak sanwich for breakfast, did I want one too?
Sure.
Some time later he showed with a wad of tinfoil and said thanks for listening.
I put it on the writing suface.
The...smell began to roll off the wad of foil.
I carefully unraveled the foil and found a T-bone steak between two slices of white bread.
IT WAS GREAT!
And I didn't get too much grease on the shack surfaces!
Simple, not expansive, but memorable.
Thanks, Paul

[jon_norstog]

The best meals I remember were when I was in USCG Engineman school in Groton, CT. I think it was every other friday they would have "lobster day" and boil up enough shorty lobsters for everyone. A lot of the guys were scared to eat the "bugs" so I could usually eat 5 or 6 of them. Wit all the usual trimmings. URP!

jn

[LARscout]

As a grunt I couldnt resist the topic. This is universally the best part of a ground pounder's day and every meal is a feast.

Steak and lobster on a late Nov 10th 2007 (Marine Corps birthday) at the School of Infantry. They called us out to the quad so we had to eat while on the cold concrete. The other time was when we stood in the army's chow line expecting to be fed at Ft Irwin. It was like a scene out of Oliver Twist. The army had steak every thursday night apparently.

There was another funny episode everyone remembers that was there. My platoon visited a nearby COP for hot chow after a month long operation outside the wire. Since it was only a 45min pit stop we didnt even have a chance to wipe the sand off our faces and so headed right for the chowhall. While in the chowline, one of the soldiers that was stationed there complained "oh.....microwaved pizza for dinner again!?" Everyone burst out laughing. He was pretty embarrassed because of the company he was in at that moment. We couldnt believe it. We were just glad to be in air conditioning and to use flush toilets for the first time in a month.