MREs (Meals, Ready to Eat) are the current field standard in military food, though not the only things troops eat. With access to a kitchen, soldiers at New Jersey’s Fort Dix eat from metal trays, while officers at Portsmouth’s naval hospital once indulged in alcohol, an ancient maritime tradition.
The venerable recipe of creamed beef on toast has long been the butt of jokes among US armed forces who dubbed it “Shit on a Shingle” (also known as “SOS,” “chipped beef” or, by Blank’s mother, “dried beef gravy”). A version occasionally surfaces at Deux Cheminées staff meals. Despite the ingredient change, staff have upheld the nickname…
An Army mess sergeant gave knives to Captain Blank in exchange for slaughtering two pigs raised near Fort Lewis, Washington, 1966.
