Pirate Riffs on Helmets, C-Rats and Books

Military people who love reading war stories will love Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried.

This collection of short stories speaks for the infantryman in Vietnam. This work of autobiographical fiction is filled with details from O’Brien’s actual Vietnam War experience. Here’s a sample from a chapter titled “Love”:“I remember Mitchell Sanders smiling as he told me that story. Most of it he made up, I’m sure, but even so it gave me a quick truth-goose. Because it’s all relative. You’re pinned down in some filthy hellhole of a paddy, getting your ass delivered to kingdom come, but then for a few seconds everything goes quiet and you look up and see the sun and a few puffy white clouds, and the immense serenity flashes against your eyeballs—the whole world gets rearranged—and even though you’re pinned down by a war you never felt more at peace.” (Tim O’Brien. The Things They Carried. NY: Broadway Books, 1990. pp. 35-36)

During the Vietnam War, BGen Walter Stauffer McIlhenny (Founder of Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas and scion of McIlhenny’s Tabasco Sauce) issued The Charlie Ration Cookbook for “C” rations. The cookbook came wrapped around a two-ounce bottle of Tabasco sauce in a camouflaged, water-resistant container. (Info courtesy Marine Corps League Yellow Footprints Det #1154, Parris Island, SC)
Headgear of choice during the Vietnam War era was the steel helmet. During my first years in the Corps (1978-1998), we wore steel helmets. On many a deployment my helmet served as washbasin, carryall, and cook pot. I know, sounds gross to wash your face & make your coffee in the same hellhole. In my case, there weren’t many folks sharing my hooch, so there weren’t multiple helmets that could be designated for one thing or another as the men often did.

With one helmet and, more often than not, as the lone woman among a crew of men, when I set up my cot under cammo netting for an extended stay in the Arizona desert or on a mountainside in South America among foreign military men, I was on my own. With no artificial light to dim eternity the stars sure do shine. C-Rats were replaced by MREs during the 1980s, but Tabasco sauce in a mini-bottle still came packed with the chicken surprise and a modified chocolate shit-disk candy bar. I really missed the C-Rat shit-disk candy, and the cans! Yes, cans made humping food harder, but cans had a million uses. You can imagine…. On many a night I prepared coffee, and sometimes hot chocolate in my steel helmet, cooking the brew over sterno in the desert or on a kerosene stove in Norway. I never thought about heating my food in my helmet, and no one volunteered the information. When I was lucky, Top Stone would share a shot of Jack and a hand of poker. When Kevlar replaced steel helmets I was pissed. Couldn’t cook in the damn things. The straps inside the helmet rendered the Kevlar helmet useless for duty as anything other than a paperweight on my field desk – never did have a helmet fit my head correctly.

Anyway, I thought you might enjoy one of the Marine Corps League Yellow Footprint Det’s recipes for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. If any of you helmet chefs out there have recipes to pass along, send them on – I’ll post them here. And, by the way, if you don’t have Microsoft Word, feel free to send your work in the body of an email. I’ll take care of the rest!

Beef and Dumplings aka Ranger Stew
1 Beef Stew main meal
1 pkg MRE Crackers
Water

Heat main meal for a minimum of 10 minutes. While cooking, crush crackers while still in package into a uniform powder. Open package and add a small amount of water to form pasty dough. Form dough into dumplings. Add dumplings to hot beef stew. Cook a few minutes. Add Tabasco sauce to taste.
Enjoy eating or use the dumplings for slingshot ammo.

If you are a military person dealing with PTSD, and love reading and literature, you’ll want to check out Dr. Jonathan Shay’s two books on living with PTSD. Emergency response team members have told me they believe anyone who experiences a traumatic event incurs PTSD to some degree. It’s true for me. My symptoms aren’t as intense as some of my friends, but the dead zone is just as real. Dr. Shay’s breakthrough book on PTSD recovery, Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character, was published in 1994.

Dr. Shay contrasts the soldiers’ experience in ancient Troy during the Trojan War with that of the grunt in Vietnam. He uses The Iliad as a metaphor to explain PTSD, the trials of living with it, and the soldier’s response to grief. This book taught me to live with PTSD, and to accept the condition. Through Dr. Shay’s book, I learned to see PTSD as not a disability but as a different way of perceiving the world with authenticity and emotional connection. Dr. Shay’s book also introduced me to the idea of writing as an act of self-healing. In fact, I found his book while working with a Vietnam Veteran who wanted to write about his experience with PTSD.

Dr. Shay’s follow on book, Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming, compares the Greek hero Odysseus’s ten-year journey home from the Trojan War to the combat veteran’s journey home. Shay describes how The Odyssey can be read as a metaphor for the obstacles combat veterans encounter as they attempt to return to civilian life. Senators John McCain and Max Cleland wrote the foreword to this book.

Both books are excellent tools for anyone, and I repeat, anyone, dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic experience. Odysseus in America is also essential reading for any military person attempting to make the transition from military to civilian life, no matter length of service or trauma of duty. I have found that beginning a second career after retirement is terrifically difficult and frustrating. After reading Odysseus in America, I realized that many of the obstacles I’ve encountered on my journey toward excellence are metaphorically similar to those encountered by Odysseus on his journey home. I also came to believe that, no matter length of service, military people and family members usually require about ten years after service to finally feel they’ve come home in civilian life. Striking a balance between military experience and civilian life is always difficult – no matter how well prepared we feel we are for the mission. Some of us get lost along the way to home after military duty. Dr. Shay’s books help veterans understand their experience. In Achilles in Vietnam, he also recommends two books for family members: Recovering from War by Patience Mason (Viking 1990) and Vietnam Wives by Aphrodite Matsakis (Woodbine House, 1988).
In Achilles’ in Vietnam, Dr. Shay shares a cautionary word:

“To any veteran of any war coming to this book, please pace yourself and take care of yourself while reading, even if this means stopping and putting the book down. Some of the experiences described here by your fellow veterans may trigger reaction in you that can disrupt your life. Take it slow….”
—Dr. Jonathan Shay, MD, PhD. Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character. NY: Touchstone Books, 1994. (xii).

The same cautionary words are true when reading Milspeak Memo. Some of what you read here may stir old grief. You may become angered by others’ opinions. Milspeak Memo is dedicated to Freedom of Speech. Whether or not I share contributors’ opinions, any member of the military family can find a home for their creative work at Milspeak Memo with one caveat: the material should be suitable for a general adult readership, and national security and troop safety are not threatened. Right or Left, Believer or non-Believer, Gay, Lesbian, or Straight, Head or Greaser, Angry or Mellow, come one, come all. Milspeak Memo is a place for open dialog about the Volume’s theme. Experience is the best teacher. If we veterans want to assist new veterans by sharing our experience, we should be able to discuss issues openly while honoring the other’s right to have his or her say. I’m always willing to post work anonymously or under a pseudonym. Tell me who you are and what your military connection is in the email you send to me. I will never release anyone’s personal information or email address without his or her permission.