Army chow...SOS in particular.

[Art]

It's one of those things folks professed to dislike just because it was military chow. Overall I thought the chow I had in the army was pretty good institutional food and in some chow halls was very good. I liked the stuff (S.O.S.) and still make it sometimes. it's a great, quick and easy way to use some leftover beef and I find leftover roast, chopped up, to make outstanding S.O.S. My lovely wife isn't wild about it though :-(

I read an article about it and it seems an awful lot of militaries have a variation of it. The Brit Royal Navy has a version using, I believe, kidney instead of beef that they refer to as S&!# on the Raft.

[Michaelp]

I did 4 years, 66-70 in the army.
20 months overseas on local rations.

I don't ever recall having SOS in a chowhall. We had it at home-ok as I recall.
I did a lot of KP-backsink man all the way!

My recollection is the messhall chow of those days was abysmal.
Makes me sick thinking about it.
CIDG "PIR" indigenous rations were the worst thing I ever ate, including the can of fish parts.

Best was from a Chinese cook they had at at a B Team I was at.

At a unit reunion I attended at Ft Bragg 20 years ago, they gave us lunch at a new messhall.
The food was great-like a big buffet.
Also civilian KPs-shame.
I thought KP sucked, but it was good training.

[Griff Murphey]

Good training for marriage!

[cwartyman]

Never ate in an Army chow hall but if i had to rank them the first were the Air Force bases I was at. The second would be the Naval Air stations and lastly would be the Marine Corps Air Stations. The Air Force chow halls were like going to huge restaurant quality buffets. The Navy were slightly less in quality but if you were hungry they never questioned your amounts. The chow halls in El Toro and Iwakuni were certainly edible but nothing near the quality of the Air Force and Navy and they were very stingy about quantities everything was either weighed or measured and that was all you got unless you wanted salad, you get all you wanted there. Now the chow while in the desert served by MWSS-373 was abysmal, I actually preferred to eat in the mess of CB7 which was housed next to us or eat MRE's. CB7 didn't care about us jarheads eating in their mess as long as the CB7 guys got to eat first. Those guys took great care of us. As far as S.O.S. my first experience with it was at NAS Memphis and it was good. After that when ever it was served I would eat it and still do when i can get it. There is a place in Ocean City Maryland that make s the best S.O.S I have ever had its a place called the Generals Kitchen right on the strip.
Mack
USMC
1988-1995

[John Sukey]

EGGS.Watched the cooks open a No10 can and pour the contents onto the grill, First time I had ever seen liquid eggs.
Coffee, one day the guys were pouring it out into the garbage cans. You REALLY have to WORK to make coffee so bad a G.I. won't drink it!

[Art]

The first thing I learned in the Army was to not eat the scrambled (dehydrated) eggs

[RED]

I remember one time when we didn't have any ice cream for nearly 2 days! It was tough on those Carriers.

[Shooter5]

They still serve it! I see it most every morning in chow halls. Toast isn't so common nowadays, they usually have regular biscuits but you can get the toast over by the coffee.

[BEAR]

Up all night, raining buckets, cold, shivering ... Top arrives in the jeep with the mermites full of breakfast. Nothing more satisfying than a mess tin full of steaming SOS and a canteen cup full of joe.
Thanks for the memories.
BEAR

[Redleg13a]

I always hated the stuff and can't stand it to this day. Same with my dad. He told me one time not long after he and mom got married, mom fixed SOS and he told her never to fix it again. She never did either. I think my first exposure to it was Ft Benning and I tried it once. That's it. That and lima beans were the only thing I wouldn't eat while in Basic. We had to eat everything else because we didn't get snacks! Still, I couldn't bring myself to eat those two items.

Now, sausage gravy is a mighty fine meal. Just leave the beef out of it.....