C's were great, regardless of the meal, you ended up with little cans for ashtrays, noisemakers on the wire (try getting an MRE bag to rattle) & all sorts of other handy things -- C-rat can & two hose clamps will patch a broke/leaky exhaust, etc, etc ...

Along with the ham/egs & cheese combo, the poundcake & fruit cocktail were another good one -- of course it was the only way you could eat the poundcake, which had another use in that it could be used as final protective fire in an emergency.

MRE's worked their way to being pretty good meals. Did anyone every try the Arctic ones -- something like double the calories of normal, came in two packages/meal. Did that once, I think I was too cold to appreciate what all those extra calories were doing for (or to) me.

John

On a Vientam vet's site, I found the Tobasco Cookbook for C-Rats. Who'd of thought they issued a cook book!

Yeah the fruit cocktail was great!

The only C-Rat I found hard to choke down was the cubed meat and sauce....I'm sorry, it looked like Alpo, smelled like Alpo...and assumed it tasted like Alpo.

Best mess halls we found were, The Air Force one on Flak Kaserne in Augsburg, (Surf and Turf once a month!) The Bavaria House (I think that's what it was called) on Sheridan Kaserne -Augsburg, I can't recall if I ate in the one on Flint Kaserne -Bad Tolz, we ate at the NCO club a lot. And last but not least, the new hospital on Ft.Polk. (new in 1983)

I believe that last year, the last commemoration jump was made... not many veterans are still alive, and from those that are, too few are still in jumping condition.

I am not sure about the march. I had the privilege to be in one, in the vehicles display drive.

I do know that this year will be the last year that veterans will take the liberation march in front of Hotel 'De Wereld' in Wageningen, where on may 5th 1945, Germany signed an unconditional surrender to the Dutch.

I'll see what I can find out, and will let you know..

The USAF mess halls I ate in were great Except at Norton AFB in Ca. For some reason their green beans were always to dry for some reason I love green beans but couldn't eat theirs
At Thanksgiving the Wing King and the vice Wing King (Wing Commanders) would serve the troops
As far as permanent bases go Minot ND and RAF Lakenheath had the best food
Every sunday at Lakenheath they'd serve steak and chicken

Had the misfortune to have to survive on C-rats for 10 days. Most weren't too bad, but I got ham and mothers 3 meals in a row. also opened a can that said "beef patties in gravy" and saw what I assumed was a wax seal like home canners do....WRONG!!!!!! It was congealed grease. Not only that, but the patties were rejected hockey pucks. I lived on canned fruit and crackers for a few days cause noone would trade.

Best ration packs I ever ate were the old RP-4 (don't know if any canadians remember them from the early 70s) followed by the IRP. Hated the Lurps.

I didn't have the time to check it fully, but if there is any info, it should be on marketgarden.com

That's ok Richard, thanks for what you did find!

Best wishes