In 1966 no one was joining the Army for its fine cuisine, though for some, the all you can eat buffet served three times a day in stateside mess halls must have come as a pleasant surprise.
When we got to Vietnam, not surprisingly, the quality and quantity of chow was not what we had become accustomed to, but still not all that bad, considering we were in a war zone. That, of course, was in base camp.
In the field, food was primarily C-rations. On my first couple of LRRP missions, we carried C-rations. One day's rations weighed 4.5 pounds, so, for a 6-day mission, it was 27 pounds. The solution, for me, was to carry less food. The solution for the Army was to introduce what we called Lurp rations. They were freeze dried packets that needed 1½ pints of water to reconstitute. The water sources in the field were usually teeming with parasites (e.g., blood flukes and tapeworms) and viruses, so that was not an option. It meant carrying not only the water we needed to drink, but additional water for the meals. On top of that, even under the best circumstances using hot water to reconstitute (we didn't heat the water on a mission), I could NOT force one down. Just the smell triggered my gag response.
I must have written to my mom complaining about the food because one day I received a care package containing a case of Chef Boyardee beef ravioli. After trading a few cans of ravioli for my favorite C-rations (I got two cans of peaches, crackers and cheese, and two Tootsie rolls for one can of ravioli) I went on my next mission supplied like I'd been catered by a Michelin star restaurant. Mmmm Chef Boy-Ar-Dee.
This story was left out of my book "The Cherry Boy Chronicles," I hope you will order your autographed copy soon and I’ll even through in a free CD!