|
Post by sittingduck on Jan 24, 2019 17:45:58 GMT -6
Didn't want to clog up the Waiting for March thread so please forgive me for starting a new, non RTW thread.
To all you vets out there, whatever the nationality, I'd like to ask a question - what was the best (non-holiday) food you can remember from a military facility, and the worst? Not talking about on liberty/leave, just on duty/base/station/ship. Has to be something you remember, if not fondly, as being good. And there has to be something that was so bad as to stick in your memory.
(I'd have asked about liberty/leave experiences but there are some tender minds here so we couldn't do that without potentially stunning somebody.....)
|
|
|
Post by garrisonchisholm on Jan 24, 2019 17:51:56 GMT -6
Well if I may post a memory from my father instead of my own, he always used to say the steak he was served back in New York the first night off the return trip after VE was the best steak he ever had.
The other part of that story is that as they disembarked the wharf was filled wing-tip to wing-tip with brand-new gleaming aluminum Stearman bi-planes, intended to go to England for training, and there was such a glut of aircraft expected that they were just left there on the dockside and were being sold for $50 each. He regretted not buying one to his dying day. (despite having no way at all to do anything with it right there and then)
|
|
|
Post by sittingduck on Jan 24, 2019 18:21:25 GMT -6
My father-inlaw (DD WW2) said they had beans 8 days straight, breakfast, lunch and dinner... A co-worker (Constellation in the mid/late 60's) while on a Med cruise had a shipment of eggs they "had" to use up that were on the verge of hatching... a friend in the Marines in Vietnam was in a base in the middle of a wide open plain, no shade, no water, in the direct sun. The only fluids they had were skids of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Almost boiling. For drinking, cleaning and washing. (Needless to say I bought a six pack and left it on his porch just for the look he gave me next time I saw him).
|
|
|
Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 24, 2019 19:05:23 GMT -6
Well as an USAF veteran, I cannot complain one bit about our food, it was excellent. It was so good that at Fallon, the Navy and Marines would come to our chow hall for breakfast and lunch, but were not allowed at dinner. We actually had steak and lobster one or twice a month.
My dad would not eat rice after the war, luckily my mother was Italian and made pasta instead. But we understood, he had been on Guadalcanal and they had plenty of Japanese rice but also spam. Luckily we all liked spam.
|
|
|
Post by chainsawjoe911 on Jan 24, 2019 22:11:29 GMT -6
Always trade for Chili Mac and always get rid of the breakfast Veggie Omelet, also called the "Vomlet"
|
|
|
Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 24, 2019 22:33:38 GMT -6
Always trade for Chili Mac and always get rid of the breakfast Veggie Omelet, also called the "Vomlet" I don't know, we always had good chili mac and I always got scrambled eggs made to order at Fallon in the evening before mid shift. They made it special for me. As to the Chili Mac, we got chili on Monday, mac and cheese on Tuesday then Chili Mac on Wednesday. It was always good.
|
|
|
Post by director on Jan 24, 2019 23:03:17 GMT -6
My father served in the Philippines. He still liked rice - our family farm grew soybeans, rice and cotton - but what little he did say about his service was confined to discussing the horrors the Filipinos suffered, and how after the landings they gave so much Army food to the civilians that the Army was eating a lot of left-over Japanese rice.
|
|
|
Post by sittingduck on Jan 24, 2019 23:34:26 GMT -6
Always trade for Chili Mac and always get rid of the breakfast Veggie Omelet, also called the "Vomlet" I've heard that about the omelet, and you're right about the Chili Mac. I always look for the the Spaghetti. Some employees of the Wornick Company were in some Management classes I had to attend, they brought in some MREs they made for the Canadian Military. They were hands down, far and away, superior to US MREs.
|
|
|
Post by sittingduck on Jan 24, 2019 23:45:44 GMT -6
My father served in the Philippines. He still liked rice - our family farm grew soybeans, rice and cotton - but what little he did say about his service was confined to discussing the horrors the Filipinos suffered, and how after the landings they gave so much Army food to the civilians that the Army was eating a lot of left-over Japanese rice. When I got out of school and started working there were a lot of WW2 vets still there. One of my co-workers was in the Bataan March and in a mine in Japan. Even in the 70's you had to keep any Japanese Visitors away from him. He wouldn't even eat carryout Chinese food. The GI's weren't the only ones involved in the March. The Philipinos were really roughly treated too.
|
|
|
Post by JagdFlanker on Jan 25, 2019 5:27:45 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by goodwood on Jan 25, 2019 5:57:08 GMT -6
Well as an USAF veteran, I cannot complain one bit about our food, it was excellent. It was so good that at Fallon, the Navy and Marines would come to our chow hall for breakfast and lunch, but were not allowed at dinner. We actually had steak and lobster one or twice a month. My dad would not eat rice after the war, luckily my mother was Italian and made pasta instead. But we understood, he had been on Guadalcanal and they had plenty of Japanese rice but also spam. Luckily we all liked spam.
|
|
|
Post by goodwood on Jan 25, 2019 6:01:50 GMT -6
Well as an USAF veteran, I cannot complain one bit about our food, it was excellent. It was so good that at Fallon, the Navy and Marines would come to our chow hall for breakfast and lunch, but were not allowed at dinner. We actually had steak and lobster one or twice a month. My dad would not eat rice after the war, luckily my mother was Italian and made pasta instead. But we understood, he had been on Guadalcanal and they had plenty of Japanese rice but also spam. Luckily we all liked spam. My dad was a 2nd AIF vet and he never ate rice after WW2 either. Spent time in Africa and the Middle East, but I think it was his time in the pacific that gave him a dislike of rice. Never had a kind word to anyone that dished him up rice mains or dessert.
|
|
|
Post by vonfriedman on Jan 25, 2019 7:38:22 GMT -6
Obviously the "polpette" (meatballs) offered to young visitors by the cook of the battleship Duilio in 1948.
|
|
|
Post by tbr on Jan 25, 2019 8:28:58 GMT -6
Best food was duck breast with red cabbage and potato dumplings, a "holiday" dinner aboard ship. Worst food that I actually ate was a Gyros style pot roast. What was bad was not really the taste but that it was -off- and caused me to request relief as OOD to complete barfing it up. The last time I threw up aboard ship and no seasickness involved.
|
|
|
Post by oldpop2000 on Jan 25, 2019 12:44:21 GMT -6
Well as an USAF veteran, I cannot complain one bit about our food, it was excellent. It was so good that at Fallon, the Navy and Marines would come to our chow hall for breakfast and lunch, but were not allowed at dinner. We actually had steak and lobster one or twice a month. My dad would not eat rice after the war, luckily my mother was Italian and made pasta instead. But we understood, he had been on Guadalcanal and they had plenty of Japanese rice but also spam. Luckily we all liked spam. My dad was a 2nd AIF vet and he never ate rice after WW2 either. Spent time in Africa and the Middle East, but I think it was his time in the pacific that gave him a dislike of rice. Never had a kind word to anyone that dished him up rice mains or dessert. My dad also suffered from jungle rot on his feet and malaria for years. Did your father suffer anything like that in the Middle East. I am certain with the different climate, things were different.
|
|