What a Mess the Navy Had

[Subdeacon Joe]

 

[Chantry]

I forget where I read it, but I recall reading during WWII that British officers who had visited American battleships were amazed at how well the average American seamen lived, both in sleeping accommodations and mess halls.  Of course they didn't like that American warships were alcohol free.

[Dawg Hair, SASS #29557]

Been out of uniform since 1979 and I still fondly remember SOS. 

[Pat Riot]

When I was in the Navy my ship used these same trays shown in this video that came into being in WW2. 
 

Pic from the video

 

When the ship was rolling these trays weren’t bad to eat from. Trouble is they don’t have a round bowl indent which made for some pretty dramatic spillage when one had a bowl of soup or something on their tray and the ship took a quick roll. It didn’t take a sailor long to figure how to keep from “losing his lunch” when trying to eat on the Mess Decks. 
 

We also has cups made of that crap Melmac. I think that’s what it was called. It may have been Melamine. Within short order new cups smelled like bad Navy coffee with a hint of dish soap. No matter what you put in them, water, bug juice, tea, one could smell coffee. It was okay if what you had in them was coffee. Otherwise, not so much. Enlisted E-6 and below didn’t get ceramic or porcelain to drink from. We had Melmac / Melamine cups. 
I do believe those cups were the reason the ship’s store’’s number one seller were plastic or ceramic coffee cups. Everyone on my ship carried their own coffee cups to mess and about the ship. 
 

We also had stainless silverware, like in the video. We only had butter knives, teaspoons, tablespoons, and forks. No steak knives. One brought and used their own knife for cutting meat or mystery meals that required cutting. Mine was a Kabar lock blade folder. It was a tool at work and an eating utensil at chow. 
 

Mine looked very much like this one. I have it somewhere around here. I need to find it. 

[Forty Rod SASS 3935]

36 minutes ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

Been out of uniform since 1979 and I still fondly remember SOS. 

Which kind?  I still make it at home.  Stouffer's shredded chipped beef over white toasts a pretty fair replica.

[Pat Riot]

46 minutes ago, Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 said:

Been out of uniform since 1979 and I still fondly remember SOS. 

You obviously had Mess Cooks that didn’t serve aboard the USS Virginia. Our SOS close let resembled the first “S” in SOS. 

 

We had an ABUNDANCE of canned roast beef aboard our ship. When I say “canned” I mean huge cans of roast beef. The cans were about 2’ tall by 10’ wide. They were square, not round. We ate A LOT of roast beef. 
 

You see, we had 2 main “reefers” (refrigeration units) onboard our ship. One on each side about 1/3 back from the fo’c’sle 3 decks down.  They were about 8-10’ wide and 25 or 30’ long. Shortly after I got aboard my ship when we were in the IO the port reefer had a rupture and a fire. So not only did we have a shipboard fire were had a coolant leak. Freon in fire becomes Phosgene, a poisonous gas. Luckily no one was killed, there were a couple injuries. One guy was med-evac’d due to lung damage. 
Because of the phosgene the reefer unit cooling systems were destroyed because the fire burned longer because the firefighters evac’d when phosgene was determined so they could regroup and re-attack the fire. 
Thus the reefer’s ability to cool food was destroyed so it became a storage room that housed cans and cans of roast beef and coffee. 
The only way to replace that reefer was to cut a hole in the side of the ship to swap it out. So, for the whole time I was aboard we are a lot of roast beef, but the plus side was we had a Supply Officer that figured coffee was important and we had the room to store it so our ship never ran out of coffee like other ships did. 
We had so much coffee that it became a trading commodity with other ships. I had my own coffee mess in my Missile Launcher. I got 10-20 pounds of coffee a week. We only drank about 5 pounds a week between 3 guys. I had plenty to trade and trade I did. I always had red lead and paint for my launcher. We never wanted for PD-680 or molybdenum grease. I also traded for cassette tapes and tools. 
 

Our SOS was made with roast beef, something someone called gravy and, I am sure, several dirty socks. 
 

EDIT: It was nearly 20 years after I got out of the Navy that I couldn’t eat roast beef.  I love it now. Of course the roast beef I eat now doesn’t have an  iridescent green sheen to it. 

[Tex Jones, SASS 2263]

We also has cups made of that crap Melmac.

 

It was melamine.  Alf came from Melmac.

[Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life]

When I was in the Army  (1963-65) our SOS was made from hamburger with lots of fat in it. The pot with the creamed GROUND beef had at least an inch of grease on the top. They used to serve it over really great hot biscuits. I used to grab 2 or 3 hot biscuits, butter and jelly and have them with a bowl of cold cereal. Just couldn't get the greasy stuff down!

[Joke 'um]

When I was in the Navy they fed us gruel, with weevils.  Moldy bread on holidays.

And we were glad to get it!

[Utah Bob #35998]

7 hours ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

When I was in the Army  (1963-65) our SOS was made from hamburger with lots of fat in it. The pot with the creamed GROUND beef had at least an inch of grease on the top. They used to serve it over really great hot biscuits. I used to grab 2 or 3 hot biscuits, butter and jelly and have them with a bowl of cold cereal. Just couldn't get the greasy stuff down!

Yup. This is the official QM Corps recipe.  https://quartermaster.army.mil/jccoe/Operations_Directorate/QUAD/Menu/recipes/section_l/L03000.pdf

[Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967]

11 hours ago, Pat Riot, SASS #13748 said:

When I was in the Navy my ship used these same trays shown in this video that came into being in WW2. 
 

 

If ya miss 'em, Pat, you can get 'em from Amazon~!  

 

Mess Trays   

 

 

 

[Pat Riot]

1 hour ago, Hardpan Curmudgeon SASS #8967 said:

If ya miss 'em, Pat, you can get 'em from Amazon~!  

Haha...no, institutional china isn’t my speed any more. 
 

But thank you. 

[J.D. Daily]

11 hours ago, Big Sage, SASS #49891 Life said:

When I was in the Army  (1963-65) our SOS was made from hamburger with lots of fat in it. The pot with the creamed GROUND beef had at least an inch of grease on the top. They used to serve it over really great hot biscuits. I used to grab 2 or 3 hot biscuits, butter and jelly and have them with a bowl of cold cereal. Just couldn't get the greasy stuff down!

Was the same in 1969-1971.  The SOS my mother made was like the video recipe.  I never ever let the crap the Army severed pass my lips; so, I have no idea how it tasted.  It looked like an infant's chunky dirty diaper.

[bgavin]

My understanding is the submarine sailors have the very best food.
My eldest daughter is Surface Warfare, but she believes this is true.

[Phantom Falcon, SASS # 46139]

Half the stuff in that picture looks like it's already been et once. I gather from the subsequent posts that it's sos. Sorry, folks, I never got hungry enough to eat that stuff.  It's as gross as pasta and turkey on airliners. 

 

The best chow I ever had, bar none, came from the SeaBee messes. A Marine's 2 favorite sailors are Corpsmen and Seabees.

 

PF

[Trailrider #896]

"GI beans an' GI gravy,

Gee, I wish I'd joined the Navy!"

[watab kid]

my wife grew up in japan in the VN era , her fater had filled their storage with outdated MEALS that she swears will never - ever- enter our home , im thinking the squills in the back yard might want to make themselves scarce , with both the owls and me looking for them they could become extinct right quick , 

[Larsen E. Pettifogger, SASS #32933]

My dad's WWII Boatswain's pipe and one of his cups.  It was big, thick and heavy and as noted in the video was a comfort on cold nights as it acted as a beverage holder and hand warmer.

 

 

[Pat Riot]

10 hours ago, bgavin said:

My understanding is the submarine sailors have the very best food.
My eldest daughter is Surface Warfare, but she believes this is true.

 

3 hours ago, Phantom Falcon, SASS # 46139 said:

The best chow I ever had, bar none, came from the SeaBee messes. A Marine's 2 favorite sailors are Corpsmen and Seabees.

The best military chow is in the Air Force. Their food service kicks butt on all the rest. You’ll never hear a Zoomie complain about the food they had. If they do it’s because they just don’t know any better. 

[bgavin]

I spent 4 years at Falcon AFB in Colorado Springs (civilian) upgrading their systems.
Dunno where the service folks ate, as I always brought my own... working off shifts.
I was surprised to see they hired out the cleaning of the rest rooms.
 

[J. Mark Flint #31954 LIFE]

It is Melmac and Alf did come from Melmac. Melamine was the resin used to make Melmac.