101 Vietnam Veterans
  • About Us
    • Board of Governors >
      • Elected and Appointed Officials
      • Past Presidents
      • Want to Run for Office?
      • Voting Ballot
    • Constitution and Bylaws
    • Memberships
    • Founding Fathers
    • Brief History
    • Eulogy to a Paratrooper
    • Thua Thien Province Base Camps/Firebases
    • General Order #1
    • The Challenge Coin
    • Army Donation 2010
    • YOUR WAR STORIES
    • John Gertsch
    • BATTLE OF PHOUC YEN
    • November 28, 1971
    • Our First Patrol
    • Award to a hero
    • Mountain Tales
    • Duty in the Sky
    • Ambush
    • These Colors Didn't run
    • POPCORN!
    • BATTLE OF AP DONG LAM
    • Monkey Man!
    • "MadMonk" >
      • Letter Home
    • My Bestest Buddy
    • The Chat
    • The Day it Snowed
    • Just Last Night
    • C-Ration Cook Book
    • The Truth of it all
    • Almost got Blown up
    • A SHAU VALLEY
    • 40 Years Ago This Week!
    • Comradery
    • Operation Lamar Plain
    • The Iconic Huey
    • THE DEATH OF LIEUTENANT PERSHING
    • FNG's Prelude to Our First Patrol
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 1
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 2
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 3
    • A Personal Memoir
    • Poems and Tributes >
      • I am the Flag
      • The Airborne Creed
      • Paratroopers Theme Song
      • Why please
      • Reciprocity
      • Burnin' the shit
      • Aquarius
      • LZ Jane
      • I am a Soldier
      • It's been some time
      • Dedication by Dwight Lane
      • Taps
      • The Old Unit
      • AMERICAN SOLDIERMAN
      • REMEMBRANCE DAY
      • A Grateful Nation
      • Airborne History
      • LESLIE TOWNES HOPE
      • Pow / Mia
      • The Wall
      • The Wall
      • Escape
      • Killed in Action
      • Another Year
      • Women of Valor >
        • Sitting in the Dark >
          • Dear Larry
      • A Tribute to Veterans
  • Policy Letters
  • History
    • Airborne History
    • Going Back to Fort Benning
    • Branch Anniversary Dates
    • Order of Battle 65-72
    • Unit History 67-72
    • Unit Awards
    • Battle Campaigns 65-72
    • How to Fold the Flag
    • Memorial Dedication
    • 101 Dedication
    • Proper Flag Display
    • Distinctive Unit Insignia
    • Video Tribute
    • VIET CONG TERROR DOCTRINE
    • Unit Citation Pamphlet
    • Pocket guide to Vietnam
    • Awards
  • Historical Photo Gallery
  • Useful and Important Veterans Links
  • Contact Us
  • Memorial Dedication
  • A Veteran
  • Vietnam Service Medal
  • Fallen Eagles
  • Special Notice Items
  • UPCOMING REUNION 2025
  • Past Reunions
    • Reunion 2024
    • Reunion 2023
    • REUNION 2022
    • 2019 Reunion
    • 2018 Reunion
    • 2017 Reunion
    • 2016 Reunion
    • 2015 Reunion
    • 2014 Reunion
    • 2013 Reunion
    • 2012 Reunion
    • 2011 Reunion
    • 2010 Reunion
    • 2009 Reunion
    • 2008 Reunion
    • 2007 Reunion
    • 2006 Reunion
    • 2005 Reunion
    • 2004 Reunion
    • 2003 Reunion
    • 2002 Reunion
  • NEWSLETTERS
    • Januray 2025
    • Spring2024
    • January 2024
    • SEPTEMBER 2023
    • June 2023
    • APRIL 2023
    • Summer 2022
    • 2021 NEWSLETTERS
    • 2020 Newsletter
    • SPRING 2022
    • 2019 Newsletters
    • 2018 Newsletters
    • 2017 Newsletters
    • 2016 Newsletters
  • Update Honorary Air Assault Badge
  • Chaplains Corner

The C-Ration CookBook By:

As a career infantry soldier I was fortunate to have served all over the world.  The American G.I. has a history of being inventive when it comes to improving the basic comforts of life while in the field or combat.

C-Rations were boxed canned meals comprised of various meat, vegetable and assorted desserts.  Pork and beans were an added treat.  Desserts consisted of crackers, chocolate, fruit cake, fruit cocktail etc., also included was a pack of toilet paper, several cigarettes and two pieces of Chicklet gum.

For the purpose of this offering I will address my tour of duty in Vietnam.  I had the honor and privilege to serve in a Long Range Recon Unit and the 101st Airborne Div. Ranger co. as a sniper.  We operated in 6 man teams far into enemy territory to conduct various types of missions.  We did eat C’s when in the rear area and when we were to lazy to go to the mess hall or could do better.

The problems with C-rations in combat were many.  They added extra weight to a 60 pound plus rucksack.  When cooked in the field the enemy might smell what you were cooking and become an uninvited guest.  The empty cans were used as improvised weapons and booby traps against us.  These concerns were widely ignored by most larger infantry units since there were few alternatives.

In our, for lack of better term, elite unit we took the best of the C-Rat. offerings, crackers, cheddar cheese, and the small cans of peaches and such with us, we either brought the empty cans back or buried them.  We, for our main meals, carried dehydrated meals that we added hot water to.  We heated them using a pinch of C-4 explosive that burned super hot and fast.  If you stepped on it to put it out, you would blow your foot off.  These meals would stay warm using body heat, then we would take a few bite when it was safe.  These meals, like C-Rats were pretty bland until G.I. ingenuity took over.

Many a package from a loving mom or wife contained socks, beef jerky and various taste enhancers.  More important than a recent picture of Fido were bottles of A-One Sauce, Hinze 57 or Tabasco along with small bottles of spices we couldn’t even pronounce.  I have seen, boys, not yet men, who have been in the jungle for ninety days hunting the enemy sit around a fire making gourmet meals out of C-ration ingredients.  The recipe was simple, Add This, Add That, Taste, repeat if needed.

Relationships are like C-Rations.  When opened, they contain things we like and those we don’t like. 
. Can become extra baggage such as old affairs, past mistakes…..if we let them. 
. Things left behind can be used to hurt others…things buried should stay buried. 
. Like the meals, you try in life the things you like and improve on them. Remembering that tastes change.  
. Besides A-One Sauce your family and friends can offer more….Advice…Experience...Love. 
. The best meal made is one shared with a friend.  
. C-rations are like old values, rare to find but most endearing to those that remember them.
“Both my daughters ate C-Rats as infants and are so much better for it”. 

Michael Monfrooe USA Ret
(E/3/506th-“L” Co. 75th Rangers 101st (70-71).
Dedicated to Sarah and Mitch McCoy wed on 8, July 2006
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • About Us
    • Board of Governors >
      • Elected and Appointed Officials
      • Past Presidents
      • Want to Run for Office?
      • Voting Ballot
    • Constitution and Bylaws
    • Memberships
    • Founding Fathers
    • Brief History
    • Eulogy to a Paratrooper
    • Thua Thien Province Base Camps/Firebases
    • General Order #1
    • The Challenge Coin
    • Army Donation 2010
    • YOUR WAR STORIES
    • John Gertsch
    • BATTLE OF PHOUC YEN
    • November 28, 1971
    • Our First Patrol
    • Award to a hero
    • Mountain Tales
    • Duty in the Sky
    • Ambush
    • These Colors Didn't run
    • POPCORN!
    • BATTLE OF AP DONG LAM
    • Monkey Man!
    • "MadMonk" >
      • Letter Home
    • My Bestest Buddy
    • The Chat
    • The Day it Snowed
    • Just Last Night
    • C-Ration Cook Book
    • The Truth of it all
    • Almost got Blown up
    • A SHAU VALLEY
    • 40 Years Ago This Week!
    • Comradery
    • Operation Lamar Plain
    • The Iconic Huey
    • THE DEATH OF LIEUTENANT PERSHING
    • FNG's Prelude to Our First Patrol
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 1
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 2
    • Sgt Flaherty Unsent Letters 3
    • A Personal Memoir
    • Poems and Tributes >
      • I am the Flag
      • The Airborne Creed
      • Paratroopers Theme Song
      • Why please
      • Reciprocity
      • Burnin' the shit
      • Aquarius
      • LZ Jane
      • I am a Soldier
      • It's been some time
      • Dedication by Dwight Lane
      • Taps
      • The Old Unit
      • AMERICAN SOLDIERMAN
      • REMEMBRANCE DAY
      • A Grateful Nation
      • Airborne History
      • LESLIE TOWNES HOPE
      • Pow / Mia
      • The Wall
      • The Wall
      • Escape
      • Killed in Action
      • Another Year
      • Women of Valor >
        • Sitting in the Dark >
          • Dear Larry
      • A Tribute to Veterans
  • Policy Letters
  • History
    • Airborne History
    • Going Back to Fort Benning
    • Branch Anniversary Dates
    • Order of Battle 65-72
    • Unit History 67-72
    • Unit Awards
    • Battle Campaigns 65-72
    • How to Fold the Flag
    • Memorial Dedication
    • 101 Dedication
    • Proper Flag Display
    • Distinctive Unit Insignia
    • Video Tribute
    • VIET CONG TERROR DOCTRINE
    • Unit Citation Pamphlet
    • Pocket guide to Vietnam
    • Awards
  • Historical Photo Gallery
  • Useful and Important Veterans Links
  • Contact Us
  • Memorial Dedication
  • A Veteran
  • Vietnam Service Medal
  • Fallen Eagles
  • Special Notice Items
  • UPCOMING REUNION 2025
  • Past Reunions
    • Reunion 2024
    • Reunion 2023
    • REUNION 2022
    • 2019 Reunion
    • 2018 Reunion
    • 2017 Reunion
    • 2016 Reunion
    • 2015 Reunion
    • 2014 Reunion
    • 2013 Reunion
    • 2012 Reunion
    • 2011 Reunion
    • 2010 Reunion
    • 2009 Reunion
    • 2008 Reunion
    • 2007 Reunion
    • 2006 Reunion
    • 2005 Reunion
    • 2004 Reunion
    • 2003 Reunion
    • 2002 Reunion
  • NEWSLETTERS
    • Januray 2025
    • Spring2024
    • January 2024
    • SEPTEMBER 2023
    • June 2023
    • APRIL 2023
    • Summer 2022
    • 2021 NEWSLETTERS
    • 2020 Newsletter
    • SPRING 2022
    • 2019 Newsletters
    • 2018 Newsletters
    • 2017 Newsletters
    • 2016 Newsletters
  • Update Honorary Air Assault Badge
  • Chaplains Corner