Ensign Expendable posted:

Yeah, problems that there's nothing else to drink. Drinking everything that's even slightly alcoholic has been a thing with enlisted men since probably forever.

quote:

A final note against the aircraft was not exactly its fault. It required a high amount of maintenance after each flight, and since the Foxbat replaced many Soviet aircraft it was often operating out of existing bases. Unfortunately no corresponding increase in maintenance personnel was forthcoming, so some aircraft maintenance was neglected by the overworked crews. Further, the MiG-25 famously used a considerable amount of pure alcohol (500 litres) for cooling, hydraulic and de-icing systems, for its heat-resistant qualities. It wasn't called the "Flying Restaurant" for nothing. Since there were few entertainments permitted to enlisted men on base they frequently got drunk with it. Hardly ideal maintenance conditions for your nuclear bomber-interceptors.

chitoryu12 posted:

Not even close. Wayne's World of Paintball in Ocala, FL.

chaos rhames posted:

I know from a museum I went to that Australian Subs had beer rations. According to a vet running the exhibit, trick of smuggling them out was to not change your clothes for a while, then chuck it in your laundry. The guy checking luggage would never look hard after smelling it.

ACES CURE PLANES posted:

That actually reminds me of one of my favorite 'soldiers trying to get drunk' stories, about the MiG-25 Foxbat

HEY GAL posted:

yo, chitoryu12, if you're still interested in what military forces from history ate, Carla Rahn Phillips has a detailed table of what early 17th century Spanish sailors' nutrition would have been like based on their rations, and it's pretty good, except for a lack of retinol, b2, and vitamin C.

(You can easily replicate this yourself, if you're still into that, with chickpeas, whole grain hardtack, and bacalhau.)

Fish days are because Catholic, cheese days are because when there's a battle or a storm, no open fires are allowed.

Despite the lack of vitamin C, Spanish observers almost never report scurvy. It's not a problem in the Atlantic fleets. According to a contemporary Spanish physician, "Spanish sailors, of all Europeans, have the least propensity to scurvy, which is only seen on voyages to our possessions in the Pacific." It's not a problem in Spain either: some Spanish called scurvy "the Dutch disease" because either only Dutch people got it or because Spaniards only got it once they had spent a long time in Flanders. Phillips thinks those guys would have been eating well enough when they were in Spain, with plenty of citrus fruits, onions, bell peppers, and garlic for every social level, that they could sort of "coast" on reserves from Spain to the New World.

There's one problem here, which is that the treasure fleet and war fleets travel in convoy and they load up with this in mind because it simplifies storage and logistics--so one boat will have all the cheese and one will have a thousand pounds of cider. If you get separated in a storm, better hope you're not the boat with all the vinegar on it and no meat!

Ensign Expendable posted:

There are endless stories of officers trying to add poo poo to the ethanol to stop the men from drinking it and conscripted chemistry students discovering ways of purifying it again.

Internet Wizard posted:

Maybe if officers spent less time poisoning the alcohol and more time making decisions that don't drive the enlisted to drink this wouldn't be a problem.

chitoryu12 posted:

The galley for an Essex-class aircraft carrier is like a restaurant kitchen quadrupled or quintupled in size (I can post pictures later). The galley was responsible for preparing thousands of meals a day, and consequently had huge storerooms with freezers and refrigerators. Combine that with not being an impromptu setup in the field and rarely under threat of direct attack after World War II, and you've basically got a floating garrison mess hall.

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Ooo, ooo, please post pics! My DFAC does upwards of 1000 people/meal, but we also get the convenience of a USFoods truck bringing us 3 deliveries a week (plus in a real pinch we've been known to borrow stuff from the other DFAC on base). I'm so curious what a carrier kitchen looks like, they must have walk-ins the size of my house.

Also, question for you, OP (or anyone): do they make specialty MREs, like kosher or halal ones? Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing an MRE that had pork in it. ... Y'know, I did a stint in jail, and we were never served anything with pork in it, because it was just easier than meeting individual inmate needs. I'll bet it's the same idea at work.

Fake edit: I stand corrected, there is Meal 16, "Pork Rib". I guess if you're in the field and don't do pork, you trade with someone? How does that work?

JacquelineDempsey posted:

Also, question for you, OP (or anyone): do they make specialty MREs, like kosher or halal ones? Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing an MRE that had pork in it. ... Y'know, I did a stint in jail, and we were never served anything with pork in it, because it was just easier than meeting individual inmate needs. I'll bet it's the same idea at work.

ArchangeI posted:

Aren't vegetarian MRE's halal/kosher by default?

HEY GAL posted:

Spanish sailors. Soldiers get ~two pounds of pan de munition a day, because they're not stuck in a wooden box for a few months.

McSpergin posted:

So I have just ordered an MRE out of my own curiosity, a Russian one. I'm slightly concerned after seeing the posts, but am interested to know how/where people are getting their American MRE. I can get Korean, and some European as well as the general ones from camping stores etc but am curious to try a few after reading this thread.

chitoryu12 posted:

This is the crew of a British Vickers Mk. VIB light tank (if you can call it that, since it was only armed with two machine guns) having tea and beer in North Africa, 1940.

BurningStone posted:

"Ammo bread?" I hope that's just an old name for hard biscuits.

MikeCrotch posted:

You can buy US MRE's on eBay, there are people selling them on there from the UK so I imagine you can get the same from your country. You just have to watch out for the fact that MRE's are packed by the meal instead of per 24 hours like most other rations.

HEY GAL posted:

Edit: It's mixed wheat and rye unless the Spanish and Italians are quartered separately from other ethnic groups, in that case they get full-wheat bread because the Army of Flanders is humorously racist. What's your ethnicity, chitoryu12?

chitoryu12 posted:

So inevitably, his experiment resulted in him growing steadily more exhausted and pained with every day's passing.

chitoryu12 posted:

Half and half mix of Scottish and Polish.

BurningStone posted:

Ancient Roman and Greek soldiers generally got about 2 lbs of wheat a day, plus whatever they could buy or steal. Usually they boiled it. So you could try that, if you like boring mush.

quote:

Pulmentum
½ cup of really good wholemeal flour
pinch of salt
'some' water

The gruel of the plebs, soldiers hated it, but must have consumed it in quantity. Dump the flour in the mixing bowl and add the salt. Add water at a trickle, mixing briskly with pointy finger to get a soupy consistency, switch to a fork and, adding water, whisk the mixture to eliminate lumps. You do NOT want lumps in your pulmentum, believe me! When ready, pour into a hot pan on the stove or fire and continue to stir, add extra water if needed and try to produce a wheat-grain 'porridge'. Pulmentum is not easy to eat, but a nice dose of salt and a good, rich, tasty wholemeal flour will make it more palatable. Forget dormice and snails in milk. Most Romans ate this dish. My first batch was nauseating (too many snotty lumps), but my second was very nice due to a delicious flour mix!

chitoryu12 posted:

chitoryu12 posted:

There was also an instance recounted in the military history thread (which I'll try to find) of Soviet soldiers shooting up a bunch of wine casks in a cellar with their submachine guns and going crazy filling their helmets with wine. They were found dead after drinking so much that they fell unconscious face-first into the pool of wine they created.

MrYenko posted:

When "drinking partially distilled torpedo fuel" doesn't even rate in the top five most dangerous aspects of your life, it's time to drink some loving torpedo fuel.

Libluini posted:

Apparently this thing happens again and again in war. One of my CDs contains music by some kind of mysanthropic weirdo and one of his songs is allegedly based on a story of French soldiers during the Napoleonic wars looting a German farm and finding a wine cellar with lots of wine casks in it. They went crazy and just ripped everything open and drank themselves to death. The song then explains why this was God's punishment for their looting, but that's maybe a little bit biased.

chitoryu12 posted:

This particular incident was documented in the occupation of Budapest in World War II.

Ensign Expendable posted:

Yeah, problems that there's nothing else to drink. Drinking everything that's even slightly alcoholic has been a thing with enlisted men since probably forever.

quote:

When Vikto Belenko reached the West, he related how officers and men often drank the alcohol used for the coolant and braking systems in aircraft. In fact, he told John Barron that the MIG-25 base he was assigned to north of Vladivostok was often immobilized, so rampant was the consumption of aircraft alcohol there. Observing that the MIG-25 needs half a ton of alcohol, Barron notes that in the Soviet Air Force it is popularly known as the "flying restaurant."

bringmyfishback posted:

I would try to find some Chinese army rations, but after seeing what passes as cafeteria food here, I'm not sure it's a good idea.

Grand Fromage posted:

You posted this on a whim and as a result I just bought two PLA rations. We will be filled with regret.

HEY GAL posted:

The christian science monitor is, and has consistently been, one of the best papers in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Christian_Science_Monitor#Notable_reporting

Steve Yun posted:

Yeah, name aside they're a great paper.

Grand Fromage posted:

You posted this on a whim and as a result I just bought two PLA rations. We will be filled with regret.

Shooting Blanks posted:

I always wrote them off because of the name, happy to know that I was wrong for doing so! Thanks!