Whats the weirdest thing you ate while in the military?

While on a tour of duty in Viet Nam I was assigned to the Military Provincial Health Assistance Program, a team of 2 MDs, an Admin officer and 16 Navy Hospital Corpsmen. Our job was to work with the Public Health Service to improve health faciling fish and saltties, develop new ones and train personnel in the use of modern medicines and techniques of providing medical care to their communities. In my District, Kien Tan, they held a magnificent celebration to mark the opening of a new clinic. Dignitaries from all over the country were there along with a couple members of my team and myself. The menu included the usual pork, chicken, duck and beef (Water buffalo) and fish. Other delicacies included dog, monkey and snake. I ate some of everything that was put on my plate and found it all very good. Dessert was another story. They brought out little tiny bowl with what appeared to be like a bright red custard with fresh mint leaves and peanuts garnishing the bowls. I asked my host what it was and he laughed and showed me how to put the bowl to my lips, use the mint leaves to push the gelatin into my mouth and swallow. It had a salty, minty taste but a sort of slimy texture that I didn't care for. I found out then that it was congealed duck blood. The other weird thing that I ate and learned to love there was a fish sauce called Nuoc Mam, made by layering fish and salt into big earthen jars, sealing the tops and then burying them at the beginning of the dry season and then digging them up at the beginning of the wet season and pressing out the juice with a cider press like contraption. Muoc Mam had a very powerful aroma so when putting it on the dinner table, they would serve in in a very shallow dish with sliced red Thai peppers.

I always hated the green corn beef served on the ship. I'm still leary of corn beef to this day.

Fried Rat Sandwiches in Vietnam. We used to joke about them being fried rat until one day, we actually saw the vendor cutting little strips of meat from some dead rats hanging behind his stand. Actually they didn't taste that bad if chased down with a ba mươi ba beer

God only known we made do with what ever we could find and we found a lot of things.

Not really a weird thing, but a weird method. This was back in 1968 at Baumholder Germany. Our CO was a special forces wannabe. During one overnight field problem in the local training area, he issued each tank crew one each LIVE chicken. We had to kill it, pluck it, clean it and cook it. The cooking part was the hardest, we used the "tanker's stove" from the OVM kit. Without an pot or skillet it was hard to roast a whole chicken. And that scrawny bird was not enough to feed four guys.

good looking chow... here... and Through out the world I have eaten a lot of strange things... Blood pudding in Thailand and Balute' in the PI...

Live eels and street rat in Korea, The pepper whiskey made it all good.

Bow-wow in the Philippines. Only happened once. Out in the province I was invited to the "neighborhood eatery"(only one in town) and sat down to an oval platter of whole rice w/ meat,gravy, local spices, and sea salt. The smiling bastards began to gather round and pile up behind the counter chattering and giggling. First fork, I KNEW EXACTLY WHAT THIS WAS(WOOF!)! I realized they had taken bets on how fast I would turn as green as my tiger-stripe trousers and hauke up my liver in the street(street? you ever seen this damn place?). I REFUSED TO GIVE THESE M..........F............s THE SATISFACTION!! Not ONE penny was going to be made off of my ass!!! I finished off the tray, got another half-tray, finished it, ordered a fifth of 65proof Viejo Rum, downed 1/4 of it--slid the bottle into the side pocket on my trousers, nailed 2 fist-bottles of SanMiguel, stood up, walked out and was handed 910.00 Pesos($123.00). Earned a little street cred--I was no longer a visiting anomaly.

an MRE. LOL

Part of a cooked whole sheep's head in rural Kazakhstan. Luckily someone else got the eyes!