I'm Eatin' in the Rain
After writing about the magnificent latrine yesterday, somebody asked what came next. Actually no one asked but I decided to write the story anyway.
We had spent only a couple of days at the camp when the order came, "We're moving out in five minutes." A steady rain added to the excitement, anticipation and joy as we climbed aboard open trucks for the short ride to the Southampton docks.
Before reaching the ships waiting to take us across the channel to Normandy, we stopped at an open field where a chow line had been set up despite the typical English weather. It did not seem to occur to the men in charge that the truck ride had lasted a mere 15 minutes and back at camp was a warm and dry mess hall. No one complained because rather than the usual Army food we were served fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, fruit cocktail and apple pie. This was dumped in our messkits as the same cold and steady rain continued to fall. Then at the end of the chow line each man was handed a Clark bar, a carton of cigarettes and ten clips of rifle ammunition, each clip containing eight rounds.
Only the Army could have expected men with a rifle slung over one shoulder and a blanket roll containing all his worldly possessions hanging from the other to somehow hold a full messkit in one hand and a candy bar, carton of cigarettes and ten clips of ammunition in the other.
We ate at picnic tables set up in the open field. Despite the soggy fried chicken, rain-soaked mashed potatoes and wet apple pie, everyone ate with gusto. Remarks were exchanged about the unusual quality of the food until Mike Spinelli, an 18-year-old rifleman from Cleveland, said, "They're fattening us up for the kill."
Who could argue?
We had spent only a couple of days at the camp when the order came, "We're moving out in five minutes." A steady rain added to the excitement, anticipation and joy as we climbed aboard open trucks for the short ride to the Southampton docks.
Before reaching the ships waiting to take us across the channel to Normandy, we stopped at an open field where a chow line had been set up despite the typical English weather. It did not seem to occur to the men in charge that the truck ride had lasted a mere 15 minutes and back at camp was a warm and dry mess hall. No one complained because rather than the usual Army food we were served fried chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, fruit cocktail and apple pie. This was dumped in our messkits as the same cold and steady rain continued to fall. Then at the end of the chow line each man was handed a Clark bar, a carton of cigarettes and ten clips of rifle ammunition, each clip containing eight rounds.
Only the Army could have expected men with a rifle slung over one shoulder and a blanket roll containing all his worldly possessions hanging from the other to somehow hold a full messkit in one hand and a candy bar, carton of cigarettes and ten clips of ammunition in the other.
We ate at picnic tables set up in the open field. Despite the soggy fried chicken, rain-soaked mashed potatoes and wet apple pie, everyone ate with gusto. Remarks were exchanged about the unusual quality of the food until Mike Spinelli, an 18-year-old rifleman from Cleveland, said, "They're fattening us up for the kill."
Who could argue?
posted by Dick Stodghill | 3/14/2009 10:49:00 AM
2 Comments:
ok Stodghill. that settles it. I have to buy your book about the war. Which way puts more money in your pocket: ordering through my loval bookstore or online or what?
Rob
The cheapest way to buy a copy is from the oft-defamed PublishAmerica. Barnes & Noble's online site seems the second best. Either way comes out the same for me. Hope you enjoy it.
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