Combat Food: Fresh Food and Lightweight Rations

During the initial period of American involvement in Vietnam, the provisioning of troops was on a par with that of the Korean War, but as the war intensified and the American buildup continued, the ability to feed the men became so sophisticated that it almost seemed incongruous for wartime conditions. Refrigerated vans and helicopters darted around, moving fresh fruit, vegetables, and eggs. Trucks that had been loaded with food were driven onto Sea-Land ships in the United States and driven off in Vietnam. During one stretch of the war that began in October of 1967, 2,600 trucks—480 refrigerated and 2,120 dry-cargo vans—were unloaded every fifteen days. In addition, there was major food processing going on in Vietnam. At one point there were no fewer than forty small ice cream plants in the country for the benefit of American forces. The result of this massive effort was that soldiers at fire-support bases could begin their day with fresh eggs cooked to order and end it with a double-dip ice cream cone. Sometimes, however, weather, hostile action, or terrain made it impossible to get these hot, freshly prepared meals to units in the field. At such times there were combat rations, the two most important being the MCI (for Meal, Combat, Individual), which was a more nutritionally balanced descendant of the C Ration of World War II and Korea, and the new Long Range Patrol Ration (dubbed “Lurp”), a remarkably lightweight, compact ration that could be flexibly packaged because it had no cans. The key components were eight precooked, freeze-dried entrees (such as chicken stew or beef hash) that could be turned into hot meals with the addition of hot water. But this ration could also be eaten cold with cold water or dry, like popcorn. The Lurp also came with a sweet, cereal, coffee, cream, sugar, toilet paper, matches, and a plastic spoon; it was found to be highly acceptable to the men who lived on it for as long as ten days at a time. Former GIs often wrote to Natick Laboratories after the war, attempting to buy these rations for their own use on camping trips. (Freeze-dried foods much like those in the Lurp packages began showing up in catalogs and stores selling to campers and backpackers in the 1970s.)