Are You Hungry

[Mrs Glockrunner]

Interesting.

https://www.wimp.com/cooking-breakfast-for-1500-sailors-on-a-u-s-navy-ship/

[janice6]

By all Navy standards, my ship was a little one, the smallest that typically crossed the ocean when I was in the service.  We were a wooden Mine Sweep Ocean class, MSO.  With such a small crew, you worked together and survived.  This was late 1950's.

Our cook was a drunk, our galley was very small.

That said, we got the best food you could imagine.  The cook was a miracle worker, drunk or sober.  The best cuts of meat, the best bakery goods (we were too small to bake our own, so we bought them from local bakeries).

I never had one complaint about our food quality and service.  Weekends in port were "open galley", where we could go into the galley and make anything we wanted to eat for ourselves.  Many people cooked their own steaks with 1/2 lb of Butter.  If you wanted a whole cake, it was up to you.

When the weather got rough at sea, the cook would demonstrate his sense of humor by making Blueberry Pancakes for breakfast.  He would then dump all the juice from the berries into the mix, to turn it all Green.  After you learned just how violent the ship could move in a storm, you picked a slice of fresh bread with your meal.  When you got to the mess hall you dropped the slice of fresh bread on the table and mashed the tray onto it.  This glued the tray to the table and it never moved no matter how much the ship rolled.

When a new guy got on the ship, everyone would notice if he took a slice of fresh bread with his meal.  Many did not.  As soon as they got seated at the table, when the ship took a good roll, everyone would pick up their tray and watch the new guy's tray full of food slide down the table onto the deck.  Then the new guy would get bread with his meal after that.

Unless you were transferred from another MSO, everyone new to the ship got seasick to varying degrees.  We would pitch and roll violently in heavy seas.  It was exhilarating.  John Wayne bought an old MSO and converted it to a yacht for himself.

The Navy was a great time, I would recommend it to anyone.

[Mrs Glockrunner]

Thanks, janice6, for the insight.  Very interesting.  Being retired military myself, I like hearing about military adventures.

Thank you for your service.  Maybe you should write a book.

[Ramjet38]

I've had both good and bad navy chow.  Best I ever had was on the USS New Orleans on a Skylab recovery mission out of Pearl.  We had steak and lobster tail 3 times a week.  Worst I ever had was on Yankee Station Tonkin Gulf when we went short on supplies before an UNREP and had rabbit four nights in a row cooked every way imaginable.

[janice6]

1 hour ago, Mrs Glockrunner said:

Thanks, janice6, for the insight.  Very interesting.  Being retired military myself, I like hearing about military adventures.

Thank you for your service.  Maybe you should write a book.

No, I didn't do anything of any consequence.  Many others did.  When my squadron of ships (5) left the Mediterranean to go home, 3 of our 5 were assigned to go to Viet Nam via the Suez Canal.  My ship wasn't one of them.   This was in the very early beginnings of the war.  I went home and had an easy life.  I doubt that they did.

I enjoyed the service because nothing was expected of me other than doing my job.  I did love my job, it was like my hobby at home.  Electronics and Amateur radio was what I did.  I got out because I wanted to do things on my schedule, not theirs.  But, it was a very interesting time for me.

[janice6]

6 minutes ago, Ramjet38 said:

I've had both good and bad navy chow.  Best I ever had was on the USS New Orleans on a Skylab recovery mission out of Pearl.  We had steak and lobster tail 3 times a week.  Worst I ever had was on Yankee Station Tonkin Gulf when we went short on supplies before an UNREP and had rabbit four nights in a row cooked every way imaginable.

The only thing I was "subjected to" for Navy chow was Grits.  My ship and, except for three of us were from the South.  As a child, I helped my father clean and hang wall paper in the apartments.  Grits were the closest thing I have ever tasted to Wheat paste used to glue up wall paper.  It wasn't for me.

 

I forgot!  When in the Med, we ran out of milk.  I hated milk after we ran out and had to make do with local Goats milk.  It's not the same!!!!!

Edited April 11, 2019 by janice6

[Ramjet38]

On 4/11/2019 at 4:04 PM, janice6 said:

The only thing I was "subjected to" for Navy chow was Grits.  My ship and, except for three of us were from the South.  As a child, I helped my father clean and hang wall paper in the apartments.  Grits were the closest thing I have ever tasted to Wheat paste used to glue up wall paper.  It wasn't for me.

 

I forgot!  When in the Med, we ran out of milk.  I hated milk after we ran out and had to make do with local Goats milk.  It's not the same!!!!!

Yes we also had reconstituted milk whatever that was, and the bug juice had the flavor of JP4.  ?

[Citra47]

I have always heard that Navy food is the best of all the services, but Air Force chow must run a pretty close second.  Most of the food I had wherever I was, was pretty good - especially at Kadena AB, Okinawa.  Midnight chow was always the best as I could order almost anything I wanted and get it as long as it was available.  I remember one month, the supply plane that was supposed to deliver seafood to all basses on its route screwed up and dropped all the shrimp on board at Kadena.  For the next few weeks we could have all the shrimp we wanted (mostly larger medium size) and however we wanted them.  One night at midnight chow I ordered a boiled shrimp omelet without the omelet and got a large bowl of boiled shrimp filled to overflowing with dipping sauce on the side. ?