Australian rations in Vietnam

[rationtin440]

In the book that I referred to in my post on "interesting info on MCIs" it was mentioned that the Australians had their own rations until they were eventually issued with MCIs, much to the disappointment of US troops who, according to the book, very much enjoyed the Australian rations and actually preferred them over the MCIs when they could trade for them. Of course this kinda makes me wonder about the acuracy of the book because I'm not sure the Australians would want to trade for our MCIs based on all of the negative feedback about MCIs at the time. I'm wondering how much of a difference there was between the Australian rations from that time and what is issued now. If I were to guess, I'd say probly more canned stuff back then, but not sure. Anyone know?

[dirtbag]

IIRC, there was mentioned (somewhere) that the Aussies had US rations for quite a while, when they first came to Viet Nam.
They also used US ammo, at least at first...
I would guess that we were so glad to have them come into the fray, that pretty much everything was provided gratis!

[rationtin440]

Thanks for reply dirtbag, and my apologies for not getting back to you. I agree that the assistance was likely very welcome and appreciated at the time. Another interesting thing about the book was the photos of Australian Defense Forces personnel carrying M-16A1s and L-1A1 rifles, two different caliber weapons, which I imagine made for some interesting logistics issues.

[alcockell]

Thanks for reply dirtbag, and my apologies for not getting back to you. I agree that the assistance was likely very welcome and appreciated at the time. Another interesting thing about the book was the photos of Australian Defense Forces personnel carrying M-16A1s and L-1A1 rifles, two different caliber weapons, which I imagine made for some interesting logistics issues.

Not so difficult, if you consider that the L1A1 chambers 7.62 NATO...

[dirtbag]

[quote="
Not so difficult, if you consider that the L1A1 chambers 7.62 NATO...[/quote]

Mmmm, M-14's and M-60's used 7.62x51 (.308) , so ammo probably wasn't a problem...
Delinking the M60 belts was tedious, unless you had a linker/delinker.
I vividly remember the sore hands after delinking a bunch by hand (For my M1A)
Ammo is good!
Free ammo is great!
I can't shoot the tracer though, big no-no because of the fire hazard here in sunny, very dry California. (where, If you start a forest fire, you get to pay millions for the priviledge!)

Also, i found the link to the Ozzies eating C rats..
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-food/c-rations.htm

[Ruleryak]

Ozzies?

[dirtbag]

No, not that mumbling retard...

[Stef]

he's got a Vietnamese Army ration on his shoulder...

[housil]

he's got a Vietnamese Army ration on his shoulder...

[Ruleryak]

he's got a Vietnamese Army ration on his shoulder...

Oh man that was a good one