icanhearthat: Are you allowed to be vegetarian in the armed forces? however impractical it is that someone unwilling to eat flesh would be willing to kill another person, please humor me.

Yeah, one of officers in my unit is a vegetarian.

neomatt
/stopped drinking it after my first crank tour.
//if you've ever cranked, you know why.

i have never done crank, please explain.

on the other hand, most of the crankheads i have worked with say they like to 'polish brass' a lot.

Hmmph..MREs bah. Should of fed 'em Ham and Limas C-rations now that was truly abysmal fodder.

/never got MREs
//best I got were LRRPs
///yeah I'm old now get you and your MREs off my lawn

The economy really is in the shiatter, huh?

LegalizeThoughtCrime:
i have never done crank, please explain.

on the other hand, most of the crankheads i have worked with say they like to 'polish brass' a lot.

Every E-1 to E3, at their first command out of boot camp, must pull some time in the galley doing the scut jobs that the cooks don't have to do. Serving, making coffee and bug juice, scrubbing pots and pans, swabbing the galley, etc. It's unofficially called mess-cranking, and almost every enlisted sailor has had to go through it.

Seacop: Are you allowed to be vegetarian in the armed forces? however impractical it is that someone unwilling to eat flesh would be willing to kill another person, please humor me.

Almost every unit I've been to has a vegetarian item in the chow line
theMagni I'm a vegetarian for health reasons, not ethical ones. I realize and understand that humans are omnivores. Further, I know that some animals, like cows, chickens, etc. were selectively bred specifically to be food.

Now, if someone was to fire a gun at me, for health reasons, not ethical ones, I would realize and understand that that person had to die first. Further, I know that some people, like people firing guns or professing other forms of violence against me, etc. are specifically selected to be corpseified.

Also, in any survival situation, I'd eat meat with no qualms. If it's me or the pig, bacon ahoy! If it's you or me, long bacon ahoy!

The fact that we have so much food available that I can choose not to eat an entire group of food is boggling. Imagine explaining that to my caveman ancestors. That and, "Oh, hey, we've basically wiped out tigers."

That top part was suppose to be in italics, I was just answering the question.

Rabid Gerbil: Hmmph..MREs bah. Should of fed 'em Ham and Limas C-rations now that was truly abysmal fodder.

/never got MREs
//best I got were LRRPs
///yeah I'm old now get you and your MREs off my lawn

You ate Long Range Recon Patrols?

I've had some good MRE's... and some not so good. My friends used to bring home extras from training. I guess they crack down on that stuff these days.

I thought bug juice was that mystery party drink that makes everyone puke.

zinethar: It's unofficially called mess-cranking a month long pain in the ass, and almost every enlisted sailor has had to go through it.

Fixed.

/Only mess cooked once for 1 month, my buddy pulled 3 times in a 6 month period.

My dad was in the Army so I was an army brat. My mom used to make S.O.S. for dinner sometimes. It's still one to best things I've ever tasted....at least the way mom made it.


Psumek: icanhearthat :Are you allowed to be vegetarian in the armed forces?

Sure, just don't be an atheist.

/or Muslim

Oh, shut up. You can be an atheist all you want but if you believe in nothing you don't have to go around saying, "Hey, look at me. I believe in nothing. I'm special. You are not! Look at me! Look at me! I want attention for my lack of beliefs."

It's really pathetic to see people devote so much time to NOTHING. It's more pathetic to see them spew so much hate for those who believe in something. It makes you look irrational and mentally unwell. People don't dislike you because you are etheist. They dislike you because you're needy and try to force your beliefs on everyone else. Enjoy your nothing and stop being obnoxious.

zinethar
doing the scut jobs that the cooks don't have to do.

thanks for clearing that up for me. it sounded like something else at first, and i was hoping i was wrong.

maybe somebody should make a law that all slang terms can have only one, and the same, meaning. that sure would be cool. or hot. or wickid.

You know who else liked SOS?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=V4JEmz4FoJE (pops)
Not a RR...

Oh I should add those self heating packets are cool shiat. you can use em with those indian packets you get at trader joe's, which are really just upscale mre's. even packaged the same.

Seacop:
Fixed.

/Only mess cooked once for 1 month, my buddy pulled 3 times in a 6 month period.

I cranked for 3 months, but I got off lucky. I was the only night crank. Worked alone from 1900 to 0600, had the keys to the Chief's mess, made whatever the hell I wanted to for my own meals, and earned sooooo many return favors for hooking up drunk shipmates with some grub when they stumbled on to the ship at 0200.

Chief's mess ALWAYS had ice cream!

The Malingerer: I thought bug juice was that mystery party drink that makes everyone puke.

Jungle juice.

MRE = Meal, Ready-to-Excrete

strathmeyer: The Malingerer: I thought bug juice was that mystery party drink that makes everyone puke.

Jungle juice.

JOO Juice at the Carter compound.

zinethar: Chief's mess ALWAYS had ice cream!

Amen, if you wanted anything with sugar after the messdeck closed, head to the chiefs mess.

What I would do for a Chicken Tetrazini (sp?) MRE. Lemon Pound Cake, oval candy coated chocolates and some bread and jalapeño cheese spread and orange drink. I ate at least three a day for a week once and still lost 20lbs.

3500 calories per meal

I grew up on SOS, my mom made it, she learned how pulling KP; dad (retired Army E7) loves the stuff and it's cheap so it was a regular part of our diet growing up. I'd say half the hot breakfasts I ate in a chow hall when I was in were SOS....made it almost like home (ok I'm an Army brat, any post was like home).

I was in when they made the change from C-rats to MREs. MREs were a definite improvement, though the only thing that changed about the crackers was the shape, and the only thing that changed about the peanut butter or cheese spread (those were the days of one-flavor-only cheese spread) was the packaging. The MREs were a lot lighter and easier to cram into a ruck, and I was already carrying Tabasco around so when they introduced the little bottles it was a cute novelty.

Heated them just the same as C's, set 'em on the engine block of my track for little while, and bingo, hot chow. Loved the corned beef hash, and the ham omelette could even be good with cheese spread mixed in.

There are times I miss all that. Usually lasts for a few seconds, then I remember what it's like to fix a thrown track in calf-deep mud when it's pissing down rain in February.....

SOS -- or, as a George Booth cartoon put it -- fine meats and tasty gravies served on a shingle.

Bug juice?!

"Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bug hunt*?"

*Blatantly stolen from Starship Troopers (the Heinlein novel), along with 'drop ship' and other concepts/terms

Mija: Oh, shut up. You can be an atheist all you want but if you believe in nothing you don't have to go around saying, "Hey, look at me. I believe in nothing. I'm special. You are not! Look at me! Look at me! I want attention for my lack of beliefs."

It's really pathetic to see people devote so much time to NOTHING. It's more pathetic to see them spew so much hate for those who believe in something. It makes you look irrational and mentally unwell. People don't dislike you because you are etheist. They dislike you because you're needy and try to force your beliefs on everyone else. Enjoy your nothing and stop being obnoxious.

1. They make decaf brands that are just as tasty as the real thing
2. I was in the military and am an atheist all that really happens is you get NRP on your dogtag for No Religeous Preference. I never brought up religeon in conversation my entire time in because it doesn't matter to me. Oddly enough the only people who it seemed to matter to were REALLY religeous people who would insist that they would pray for my soul to which I'd reply "ok"
3. Bug Juice is a mirical worker on geting salt water corrosion off of brass fittings.

The people quoted in the article said the food wasn't half bad. And compared to the crappy food people in Iowa usually eat, that's probably true. Go to any Perkins in Des Moines and that place just packs them in. They can't get enough of deep-fried starch and beef cooked to hockey-puck consistency.

These are people for whom Red Lobster is a twice-a-year fine dining experience. Mushy tilapia with a side of fried starch and a Budweiser. Yum.

They taste Army food and think they've never had it so good. And they're right.

Soldier's terms for coffee, depending on how long it's been sitting since being brewed (starting with freshest):

Coffee
Java
Jamoke
Joe
Rust Remover

(Courtesy of author Robert A. Heinlein, novel "Glory Road")

goofass: Is bug juice anything like "pimp juice," only more annoying? And would someone please post a "Beetlejuice" pic?

It's showtime!

The Air Force had SOS on the serving line just about every day.

We thrived on it.

The only thing better was when they served steak or hash with eggs to order.

LegalizeThoughtCrime

on the other hand, most of the crankheads i have worked with say they like to 'polish brass' a lot.

As George Carlin liked to put it: "A little something to make you want to wash the garage."

Whenever I get cranked, I want to clean everything in sight.

Never drank the bug juice while I was in the Navy.

What was hard to come by were the choice cereals, like Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes and others like that.

The mess cranks would grab them up and we'd be left with corn flakes, special K, and Raisin Bran (if we were lucky).

Can't speak for American MREs, but some of the Canadian IMPs are quite good.

The bread you get is a loaf of utterly strange tasing inedible matter. Most of the other odds and ends are practically straight off the shelf stuff like Lipton cup-o-soup and life savers.

But the scalloped potatoes and ham breakfast was really quite good. Franks and beans weren't bad. One of them was vile, but I can't remember which...

//MRE > IMP from what I've heard.

Guy I know that just came back from Iraq not long ago said they used to save the pork chop MRE's to toss to the Iraqi's begging for food.. lol

Drink the Kool-Aid, citizen, drink it up.

Mija: It makes you look irrational and mentally unwell.

I lol'd.

SOS or FS on toast is nothing. That's the good stuff. I say have them eat Vietnam era C-rats (espcially chicken loaf or eggs) or dehydrated pork or beef patty MREs. Then they can work up to half cooked spam and french toast in a marmite can three hours old.

Wow no one posted yet

While I was in the navy we used bug juice to clean those metal AC filters.

Sgt Otter: I always got stuck with either the Vegetarian meals or the crap meals nobody else wanted.

Why?

Sgt Otter: The Spaghetti, Chicken & Noodles, Vegetarian Manicotti, Chicken Tetrazini, Chili Mac, and Beef Ravioli are pretty decent.

I still think the Department of Defense did a disservice to servicemembers everywhere when they phased out Tuna and Noodles.

OK, maybe just a disservice to me. Best MRE ever. But no, it had to go. Ham Slice had to go. The Five Fingers of Death had to go. And for what?

Country Captain Chicken, and the Cheese and Vegetable Omlette. That's what.

wolfzr2: FTA: The group's president and founder, Tom Clegg, was dressed in World War I attire.

Yes, but was he a corporal?

(I can't believe I'm about to do this. I really can't believe no one else has...)

You know who else was a Corporal in World War I?

Teriaki Beef, cold FTW! One time in Iraq instead of the lemon poppyseed spongecake, I got pumpkin spongecake. Gross. The mint-chocolate spongecake was interesting though. Whoever says MREs have 3500 calories each needs to read the packaging. Even if you ate and drank every single thing in one of them, it's still like 1500 at most. Besides who wants to drink those nasty milkshakes? Yuck. Not even this guy:

The tuna MRE is back. not much weight to it, though. All this mess duty is getting phased out, since civilian contractors are doing our meals. Sodexo in the states and KBR overseas. I guess you navy dudes will still always have it on ship.

scalpod: Bug juice?!

"Is this gonna be a standup fight, sir, or another bug hunt*?"

*Blatantly stolen from Starship Troopers (the Heinlein novel), along with 'drop ship' and other concepts/terms

And yet still 1000x better than the abortion that was Starship Troopers the movie.