Either one of you guys ever drink army field coffee> You know where they fill a 32 gallon garbage can, for coffee only, I hope, and pour a pound of coffee in the boiling water, heated by a mermite, gasoline heater. The cooks always told us that after the coffee had cooked awhile, they just turned the heat down and put one large ladle of cold water in the can and ALL the grounds would go to the bottom.
I've chewed to many cups of that stuff to believe that lie. Now just about any cup of coffee taste good to me..
I always skipped the chow hall in training - the smell of the mess hall on humid Texas mornings was too much.
The privacy of a solitary smoke and a Dr. Pepper on the parade ground was a joy, as the sun came up. (privacy, and my cute 19 yr old SoCal wife, were the two things I missed most while in the Army)
Later, in the monsoon of the Central Highlands, I was taught how to make a wonderful morning brew using rain water, off of the foliage*, coffee, creamer, sugar and cocoa packets in a c-rat can heated over a c-rat stove using a bit of C-4 from a Claymore mine. You do all this under a poncho - which only a few carried due to the noise they make in the rain (like, sure, you could hear the bad guys in a downpour?)
Bam! the stuff got hot right now! Blistered lip was worth it!
*As the medic I carried the halazone and/or globaline tablets - but nobody liked the taste. So, rainwater straight off the big leaves was readily avail. and better tasting in the monsoons. (Guys would use too few tabs in the water from the blue features - and then get pretty sick.) Medivaced more than a few - - plus a couple who ate the C-4 to get off the line. They were surprised to discover that their recovery period was, "line of duty -No!"... so it did not count towards their 12 mos tour. Nor did sun-burn! V-D, yes - had to - to get them to go for treatment.
OK - what was the question?
Stig
