Posted on Nov 9, 2014
Whats the weirdest thing you ate while in the military?
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Survival
Food/Chow
Responses: 163
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LTC Leonard M. Manning, Sr
First iteration of MREs during Desert Storm had Chicken Ala King as a choice; I think I lived on of those for several months.
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MSG David King
The first MRE’s were the worst. They had dehydrated pork or beef patties that never did rehydrate well and they were ridiculously small. They also had chicken loaf and ham and chicken loaf. Those were horrible cold and there was no chemical heating pouch back then.
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The most exotic thing I ate was down in the Philippines back in the 80's. I tried a Balut (chicken egg that had a partially formed embryo in it). I successfully ate it and it came back up about five minutes later.
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CPO Bill Penrod
Actually ferterizied baluets are duck eggs. Loved those damn things.....Many drunk Sailors went crazy over "monkey meat" on the stick which was Bar-B-Que chicken or pork. living the past.
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SFC Darryl Shelton
CDR Rob, Bad Choice !! Ha! !!! U live and u learn, if u were in the Army u woulda known better!! HaHa
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PO2 Danny Bush
CDR Rob Eidsmoe - never be ashamed of eating balut it's a shellbacks right to enjoy the finer foods overseas. remember the monkey meat on a stick?
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SGT Michael Glenn, I will offer what may not be the weirdest, but is certainly the worst thing I ever ate while in the Army, and made in the U.S. for goodness sake! Specifically, it was a can of Ham and Lima Beans, which was absolutely the most disgusting and revolting stuff I ever put in my mouth. Even if heated, it was awful. If you don't know what everyone really called them, believe me, it was a bad name! They were in a Meal, Combat, Individual (MCI) unit, which everyone still called C-Rations at the time.
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1stLt Michael Sagehorn
My favorite meal in C-Rats was Chicken OR Turkey. The US Government wasn't sure what fowl was in the can. Heat it, put on a Cheese spread with Tabasco and spread it on the crackers that came with it and that was living! Once, we had cold beer in the field-Budweiser and Miller High Life in cans iced in a 416 trailer AND C-Rats. My Marine Corps infantryman concept of heaven .
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1stLt Michael Sagehorn
Ham and mother&$@&! Hated it but it was better than cold Scrambled Ham and Eggs!
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SPC Chuck Ousley
This is a eating/food post....lol.......It was 1994 I think. It was an anniversary post run at Ft Lewis. It was a payday weekend as well. We were over in a staging area waiting for our turn to join the huge train of soldiers running. I was in the back rank as always. In front of me was this one troop, she was easily grossed out on anything. Since we had been doing pushups and stuff, the rhythmic motion of us had the nightcrawlers coming up around us, i looked at my buddy next to me and while we were in the push up position, I picked one up and put it in my mouth, he smacked the back of her shoe, and she looked back and i showed her i had the worm in my mouth, she shrieked and almost jumped up...i chewed on it a few times and then swallowed it....the Top looked up and asked what was going on....the gal told him what i had done....he just yelled back and asked me why i couldnt wait for breakfast.
It was every 4 day weekend's safety brief that the Top told people not to go fishing with me because I was gonna eat the bait. It was a joke because I had a 4 door F350 long bed Ford. Everyone went fishing with me.
It was every 4 day weekend's safety brief that the Top told people not to go fishing with me because I was gonna eat the bait. It was a joke because I had a 4 door F350 long bed Ford. Everyone went fishing with me.
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Bugs, snakes, alligator, and other such delicacies at Jungle Operations Training in Panama (1976). Eating that stuff was part of the training.
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CSM Charles Hayden
CW5 Scott Montgomery, Years ago, one of my PSGs, a 1962 era Jungle School graduate would take offense @: "SGT XXXX ate bugs and snakes, now he wakes up with the shakes".
Later on, brother, next junior to me, went thru the "short course". He told of how, on having an hour to prep for the E & E phase, he simply hauled ass! He did the long course a few years later.
Later on, brother, next junior to me, went thru the "short course". He told of how, on having an hour to prep for the E & E phase, he simply hauled ass! He did the long course a few years later.
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SGT Thomas Lewis
1983 Azores Portugal, Locals held a party for our unit, and AFTER I tried the pudding, was advised that it was "Boiled Cows Blood!! AKA Black Pudding.!!
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I have to stop reading this page. It is like a train wreck-- I cannot look away. Lol!
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SFC Darryl Shelton
Come on CSM (Army way) u ate steak and lobster every night !! Just funning, don't lock my heels!! HaHa!! Plus I'm retired !! Ha !
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SFC Darryl Shelton
I was a First Sergeant (Frocked) but had a bad injury and went and laid my diamonds on my CSM's desk!!! Will never do that again!! Ha!! TY for ur service !!
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I are some strange unknown meats in Iraq and it cleaned me out. I lost like 7 lbs in 2 days. Like a morbid type of cleanse.
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Marine chow hall, I don't know what half the stuff I ate was. After working a week on mess and seeing the black goo on the lettuce, it's scary. Some of it was never alive and I think some of it still was. Remnants of failed pod people.
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SGT Michael Glenn
Cmon... did you ever try ARMY food??? Lol...yours had to be a lot better than ours and having said that the ARMY food was not that bad, I also got to try Air Force and Rangers food... they ate like kings !!!
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SSgt Scott Skelton
RSGT Michael Glenn - In my 6 yr of flying in the USAF, I transited Navy, Army and USMC air bases and I can tell you the Air Force food is far superior to the other services. Although the O club and NCO clubs at Fort Bragg and NAS Rota Spain had chow that could not be beat. S Skelton
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MCPO Kurt Stauff
You never ate submariner chow hall food, then. It was the best and you could eat all you wanted. I was in the Navy for 29 ½ years and the best food I ever ate was on USS GEORGIA, the chow hall on the sub side in Pearl Harbor (below the barracks), the chow hall at Naval Station Bangor WA, and SUBASE Groton in CT. The AF chow halls I have eaten at are good, esp at Kadena AFB on Okinawa, but they never met the quality/quantity standards of the aforementioned Navy places. The "sandwich lady" at Naval Base Ingleside (TX) would never disappoint--you could have a sandwich exactly to your liking that was way better than Subway!
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MAJ Joseph Parker
True story SGT Flickinger: Our INF CO once deployed to Camp Pendleton for amphibious training with a Marine BN. The mess hall chow was extremely bad, and our 1SG took one of the pancakes - hard as a rock - to the Marine SMAJ to make a point about the extremely low quality food. Our 1SGT was a tough old bird, and looked a lot like SGT Snorkel from the Beetle Bailey comic. The Marine Battalion SMAJ, also a very tough old bird, grabbed the pancake and said, "What's the matter? Don't your troops like cookies?" He then took a bite, almost breaking his teeth and chewed a minute and said, "Well, it's not a very good cookie, is it?" He then took our 1SGT to the Mess Hall, and made him watch a world-class Marine SMAJ butt-chewing of the Mess Hall staff (including the OIC), making every cook eat all the leftover pancakes ("cookies"). Magically, lunch was totally palatable!
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Sheep butt-fat in Afghanistan.
I ended up living in a port-o-john for a few days.
I ended up living in a port-o-john for a few days.
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Maj (Join to see)
I agree. In Iraq they would give us advisors that butt-flap-fat since it was considered an honor. I almost threw up in my mouth several times until I learned to offer more to the sheikh or senior Iraqi officer....
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SSgt Michael Cox
you would know dog was $50 a plate in 1999 since it was a male only delicacy. Dog was good though.
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In OIF II, I had a Spaghetti MRE in my fanny sack after clearing houses for a couple hours I was huddled in a corner of some room tired and hungry. Then all of a sudden I remember I had the best MRE ever with me so in the dark I took out my MRE and sliced my cheese packet and poor into the Spaghetti with a little smile on my face I dug in. WELL it was peanut butter I was pissed off but I didn't care I was so hungry I just dug in.
V/R
V/R
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SGT (Join to see)
All that was missing were the crackers that go with peanut butter cheese crackers.
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SGT Michael Glenn
We were digging fox holes in Ft Lewis in 84 when I uncovered an old position from 71, the floor was lined with the old C rats, as you... I was tired and hungry as well as cold to boot, our Plt Sgt told us not to eat them and said we would get into trouble if we did... Sorry SFC Waldren.. they were a feast fit for a king... can we get an article 15 all these years later for disobeying??? Lol...
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