40-year-old C-rat pound cake still “good”
I watched a short clip on Fox News last night that made my mouth water a little. It was about Colonel Henry A. Moak, Jr. who retired from the Army yesterday. According to the story, while he was a helicopter pilot, someone gave him a C-ration pound cake that he vowed to eat when he retired.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the pound cake was the most prized item out of all of the C-rations’ delights. Second was a can of peaches. If you had them both at the same time, you knew you were in for a real treat when you mixed them later on – out of sight of the rest of your squad, of course.
Anyway, Col. Moak cracked open the can of heavenly sweetness in the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes after his retirement ceremony and pronounced it “good”. I’ll bet it was.
But what do I know – I look forward to my Saturday morning SOS breakfast at the messhall – and lament that the eggs aren’t dehydrated.
Category: Military issues
In related News, the Col was last seen heading for the last Stall with a case of shitpaper and several Gatorades
I always liked the chocolate cookie and the tin or peanut butter, but yeah… the pound cake was tasty, especially with a cup of black coffee.
Still have a P-38 hanging off my dog tags…. 🙂
Pound cake, peaches and Lucky Strikes. MMMMM..
I’ve said this to TSO before, and I mean it…I love the vanilla pound cake you find in MRE’s. That shit is awesome on the trail with a cup of coffee.
When, in 91, I was getting ready to go to Basic Training, my Great uncle showed me all the stuff he brought home from Europe in WWII. I smoked a 50 year old Lucky Strike.
While the poundcake was the best (of course, anything was better than the orange, or chocalate, choke roll), I have to disagree on the peaches. Fruit cocktail was the holy grail of the canned fruit. If you had pound cake, fruit cocktail, and John Wayne bars (actually discs); you were the shit and could trade up for your own CUCV or 5/4 ton.
God I loved helicopter pilots.
The first batch of ‘C-rats from WWII came in gold cans… We have one in our archives. I shook it and it felt like balsa wood & dust… Won’t be taking a bite outa that one!
“Fruit cocktail was the holy grail of the canned fruit. If you had pound cake, fruit cocktail, and John Wayne bars (actually discs); you were the shit and could trade up for your own CUCV or 5/4 ton.”
WHAT??? Nobody wanted to throw in a Gama Goat? That was the funnest ride for us Army brat kidlets on unit organization days!
i remember the peaches and fruit coctail as the best deserts in those c-rats. i could not handle the SOS – can’t see how you did – god it was aweful – to this day i can’t eat anything with white gravy all over it. that was some horrible stuff out in the field. the beans and those little hot dogs were popular, but they did have some serious side effects.
Would always save my fruit cocktail for just before we came back in from the field. Does bring back some memories,pound cake and melted John Wayne bars w/peanutbutter hmmmm hmmmm good!I also took the boned chicken or turkey and mixed it w/ramen noodles,wasnt so bad then.
The “beef with spiced sauce” looked like Alpo, when you first opened the can, but if you heated it up and put it on the crackers, it wasn’t bad at all. The Turkey Loaf, on the other hand……….
I still need to find the best all around tool in the military arsenal; the P38 (no, not the airplane, but the can opener/cutter/screwdriver/weapon). I used to have several, but over the years, they would get lost in moves. They dont have any at the surplus stores around here, either.
AW1 Tim:
Re: #2 You have an airplane hanging from your dogtags?
P-38. As OldTrooper says, was the world’s first multi-tool.
See here:
http://www.p-38.net/
I’ve had mine since ’73
Never ever leave home without one.. 🙂
The sad part is the stuff was probably 40 years old when he first laid his hands on it. C-rats are why the Army did not have a weight control program in the late 70’s, when I joined, until the MRE’s came about.
I liked the fact that the fruit in the C rats did not require adding water but the MRE’s were sure a lot easier to pack and carry.
Nothing could beat the “Dead Duke Disc” formerly known as the John Wayne Bar.
All I can say to all the wonderful responses is : Good times, good times.
AW1 Tim: Lucky bastard.
J A G: I couldn’t agree more.
Oh gawd, do I remember C-Rats…and the little pack of cigarettes (Pall Malls, Camels) that used to get issued in the box. The pound cake was the bomb. Beanie weenies and the spagetti was probably the worst. We used to poke holes in the cans and set them on generators to heat them up when we were in the field. You had to keep a close watch, though. I can’t remember how many times our 1SG screamed at the company for all the over-heated C-Rat cans that exploded and made a mess.
AW 1 Tim:
That makes more sense. My grandfather was an engineering officer working on P-38 lightnings during WWII. He talked about that air frame more than any other.
I remember them using a field kitchen made out of two steel trash cans filled with water, and set on propane burners to bring them to a boil. The mess crew would open all the C-ration boxes and toss the entree cans into one of the trash cans, then hand everyone the remainder in the box. You’d open up your mess kit, and they’d ladle a hat canned entree onto it, and you could get hot water for coffee from the other trash can. When everyone was finished, they poured soap into one of the trash cans, and you could wash your mess kit in it and then rinse in the other one. Pretty neat system, and oh so portable.
I liked the “Ham & Eggs, Chopped”, and the “Pork Slices in Juices”.
AW1 Tim, Yeah, they usually just grabbed the largest can from the box. Which wasn’t always the entre’. More than once I received a large hot can of something that wasn’t a mystery meat. You guys with better memeories than me can fill in the blanks, what the heck was that now?
Anyway, long after C’s had been eliminated I found a box that must of been lost years before while out on maneuvers at Ft. Hood. Most of my E-5’s and below had never even seen such a thing, so we cracked them open. Ooh and Ahhs all around.
Jane: We would pull the end off of 20mm shells (blue dummy rounds) and pour the powder in the end of a TOW storage tube (it worked like a bbq grill) and then put the can on top of it and light the powder. In 15 seconds you had very hot C-rats, way better than a microwave and twice as fun!. Or, if nothing else was around we would improvise with the old standard (any of you old timers will remember that).
I’ve had a case of c-rats since 1972. The last time I opened any was about 5 years ago to show a friend. We ate the food and smoked the cigs. The cigs were really strong but the food was fine.