The inside of my backpack?
1 Like
Well, I donât know about solid fuel tablets in the US military, but the Brit variant - hexi - when used, left a horrible sticky burnt-on mess on the outside of whatever cooking vessel one was using; the adhesive properties would attract all sorts of detritus, and it would obviously foul whatever it was carried in; far better, and good husbandry to clean it after use.
1 Like
That can be an issue, but remember we were mounted 90% ofthe time so BV was the weapon of choice, and if dismounted, was only used when needed, and out of a 4 man or 2 man CTR, patrol or OP nearly everyone had gas stoves in their belt kits âŚ
1 Like
And that moving to a different side of the fire causes the wind to shift so the smoke follows youâŚ
3 Likes
Times past I would take my P38 and put a small hole in the lid of what was to be heated in the C rats. You would put it back in the box, light the box and when it had burnt down, the contents were warm. Canteen cups went in front of the diesel heater exaught. Gave it a certain essence that is hard to find today along with a sooty cup. I never used C4 to heat with because they didnât trust Marines not to play with the C4. Later the coleman fueled single burner back pack stoves became popular. If you were an armor crewman, you cared less about any additional weight.
This stayed with me until retired. Made things hot and burned clean. Used it camping and still is in my shed.
2 Likes
Oh, it doesnât matter which side of the fire you sit on, the smoke is going to blow into your face no matter what⌠LOL!
Nope. If youâre worried about that, then youâre not worrying about whatâs really important.
Such as a perfectly made bed?
We were taught to maintain our equipment
even the cooking stuff, insides and outsides
since the parts were packed inside each other
so the outside of one touches the inside of another.
Yes agreed, I had two metal mugs picked up at the PX in Heidelberg which lasted me the rest of my career. TopSmith I had one of those on my wagon instead of using the issued burner. Ran it on naptha which you could get in 20 litre drums from the POL store.
1 Like
I have ton of field gear leftover from my time as a WW2 reenactor and from my time in the service.
I have both WW2 and modern (90s era) mess kit, canteens (plastic and WW2 aluminum), and a German Esbit cooker (postwar). Always used the Trioxane fuel tabs to heat up water.
I just used to plug the kettle in.
(just being smart arse, but with a Box Body (office truck)you could make yourself very comfortable indeed).
2 Likes
Being an equipment operator, both in the Army and civilian life, we often warmed c rats or things like Beenie Weenies or soup on our engine manifolds, with a vent hole, very important! A young guy saw me doing it and put a can of spagetti on his without one and it exploded all over the motor. You could smell him coming by every round. Also saw a guy would run the hand throttle on his dozer at half and drop a can down the stack, wait about a minute and pull it full and out shot the hot can. You guessed it, another guy tried it but shoved the throttle the wrong way and put it through the turbo! Nobody was allowed to do that again. Wayne
2 Likes
So, making a proper âcuppaâ was no problem for you then. 
No, none whatsoever; or watching TV, while waiting for the toaster to pop-up.
1 Like
I mean, try and get this lot in your rucksack:
Tough? Iâll give you tough!
Which is why these were so handy:
2 Likes
At SFQC during phase I, after a hot breakfast we grabbed two C ration cans from a pile on a table. If you stopped to try and see what you got you got punished. The boxes were simply opened and the cans were spilled onto the table. As I said, we tossed them into a fire. We dented them first. Supposedly, the dent would pop out before the can exploded. I was usually impatient and didnât wait for the dent to pop out. In fact, I donât remember it ever happening. Even so, the ham and eggs (which I originally traded away because I thought there was no way it could be any good) became my favorite, and If i had waited for the dent to pop back out that would probably have scorched. Beans and baby dicks were always piping hot as well. I never saw a can explode, even though things got inadvertently left in the fire sometimes.
And yes, we did use C4 and cheese charges to heat water once in a great while, as a novelty. In practice, there was not need. We learned to start fires in a downpour.
Often there was no time. We simply ate cold rations. Coffee meant opening the packet and dumping the contents into your mouth, and swallowing it down with canteen water. Same went for in class. where you dared not fall asleep.
2 Likes
Smoke gets in you eyes - The Platters
Well known phenomena, sung aboutâŚ
Mal
1 Like