All Purpose Survival Crackers and Nuclear War

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[chrisfallis]

We found survival rations in my college dorm attic in 1977. No one tried the water but there were cans of candy balls. Think of a tootsie pop without the tootsie roll inside or a stick. They were just plain sugar blobs that stayed dry for twenty plus years. We ate most and tossed the rest up and down the halls. No ill effects. I am glad we didn’t find crackers.

[chriswaters]

Like finding pallets of WW2 c rations they could maybe not kill you but time did not make them taste better.

[ronaldlebeck]

When I was serving in the Navy, our ship had to go in for a Complex Overhaul at PSNS in Washington state back in 1982-83. We got a box of beef patties marked for Vietnam from back in 1968. We immediately got the Mess Chief and showed him, then he got the Supply Officer who agreed with everyone that there was no way that box was going to be opened. It got sent back to the supply depot with a "nastygram". Who knows how many times that box of beef patties might have been thawed and refrozen, or just simply freezer-burned beyond recognition. (*YUCK!*) Btw, by "box", it was a heavy waxed cardboard box that was about 2.5 feet long, 18 inches wide, and maybe 10 inches tall. Looked like it'd been tossed around a lot. :^0

[snydedon]

I was in the military in the early 80s. We were given canned rations produced in the early 1940s. Stuff was disgusting but I never heard of anyone getting sick.

[jimfarmer]

In the 80s I helped clean out a basement containing hundreds of boxes of these biscuits. None of us were brave enough to try them. One of the guys was a hog farmer. He took all the biscuits home and fed them to his hogs. The hogs loved the biscuits.

[jeffsmith]

In my hometown of 9K folks, we had a Civil Defense fallout shelter in the basement of the town hall. When the decision was made in 1986 to clear it out for renovations it was found that there was only food and water for about 30 people, no toilet, no air filtration, no Geiger counters, and most of the space was used to store old files. The food was rancid and the water as undrinkable.

[cms]

"Severe gastric disturbance"

That make you run out of the bomb shelter.

[johnlshilling]

I find it hard to believe that scientists and nutritionists didn't know that ALL fats go rancid with time... Animal fats last longer, but still go bad. That's why medieval sailors ate -- Hard-Tack -- "ship's biscuits" made without fat.

[gravelydon]

The military did regular tests on stored supplies on anything from Ammo to Food. Food was tested by the base veterinarians.

[ramjam]

In high school in the 70s I was a photographer. Whe had a darkroom in the basement of the science pod, which was accessed through a small dark hallway. There was a large storage roon next to the darkroom that was filled with CD (civil defense) rations. To my knowledge, nodody ever sampled them, but we discussed them with the chemistry teacher a couple of times.

[rubywingo]

In the early 1970’s, my dad bought a few big shiny tin canisters of hard candy from army surplus. It was all different pastel colors and tasted so good!❤

[rgr]

Some of the best aged cheddar cheese I ever had eaten was the stored US Government 5lb blocks from the late forties, early 50’s. The gave it away to the military in the early 80’s, we fought over it ! Never had the crackers to go with it.

[PlatinumEagleStudios]

The horn thing on the pole is a Federal Signal Thunderbolt, specifically a single toned model Thunderbolt 1000. Federal made 3 models of this siren. The single toned 1000, the dual toned 1000T and the dual toned 1003 that can do coded High-Low signals. The 1003 was meant for fire departments because the High-Low signal was used for fire calls. The Thunderbolt uses a blower to compress air which results in louder sound compared to other sirens. There are still Thunderbolts that are still working but Federal no longer makes them anymore. The Thunderbolt came out in 1952 mainly during the war which is why many Thunderbolts have the Civil Defense logo on them

[lanedexter]

I have several cans CD survival crackers packed in October 1962. They are bland but still good. I eat them regularly.

[javaskull]

My father, who was in the National Guard at the time, brought home some of these crackers in the 50s and 60s and stored them with our “camping supplies.” (I later learned he and mom were deeply unsettled the prospect of nuclear war, and the camping supplies were really emergency evacuation and survival supplies.) Anyhow, I still remember the taste. Not unpleasant, not pleasant, just weird. We ate them with grape jelly.

[joshuacaleau]

Doomsday biscuits would be a great band name

[michaelc]

I remember those when we were cleaning out our middle school, bringing out 5 gallon cans of water and canned beef we had for the school lunch in our cafeteria .back in the 70s

[datra]

As a kid in the late '50s, my buddy and I used to eat those in his family's bomb shelter. Spam, too. We were surviving!

[RichardGreen-ubdb]

Emergency operations man was to dispose of bunker food. He wanted it to not be wasted so offered it to agricultural operations. After so much was given he started at the list again. He called the farmer with an offer for more. He said the man got hot saying it made his pigs sick!

[JvmCassandra]

Feel sorry for the Honduran people unwittingly participating in the Quality assurance testing.