By May 1941, I had completed basic and was assigned to my unit. Every morning, we fell out for roll call and "announcements." One we feared most, was KP. Guess who got it for a week? Yes sireee bob! So, at 4:00 AM the C Q came in, got us up and we were at the mess hall by 5:00 AM. The first day, after breakfast was over and pots and pans were cleaned, The Mess Sgt. lined us up and introduced himself and told us what he expected for the next 7 days. After he was done talking to us, he asked if anyone could type. The whispers went that it was a trick! I got the message too late and raised my hand. "Come with me, he said." A million things went through my mind. We came to a small room that turned out to be an office. He told me that I would be making out requisitions and commissary orders for the mess hall. He started calling me "son"… He had been in service since 1916 and was getting ready to retire. After the first day, he called me in and said, "Son, you don't have to be here at 5:00a.m. He said get your breakfast, stand formation and roll call and then come over after... I will let your 1st Sgt. know. And he gave me permission to go in the cooler any time I wanted for something to eat. Naturally, the other ones on KP wanted to know if he was my uncle... I had good hours and working conditions, That was the only time in five years I had KP. After the week was up, the Mess Sgt. called me in and told me I had done a good job for him. But he said "I hope I never see you again. You almost ate me out of house and home... March 11, 1941, I entered the service.
You all have a good day.
Bernie
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Milton Long
Jim, I can’t let this chance go by without telling you about my first KP experience.
On october 3, 1942, I was inducted into the Army at Ft. Hayes, Columbus Ohio. My dad was a WWI veteran and prior to leaving home he gave me some advice. He said "Son, you will be among a lot of strangers, so keep your eyes open for the soldier that may need a friend. Become his buddy and let him know you will be with him. Second watch for the NCO that is running things and give him a bottle booze. Let him know you are his friend. He will be of great help during those early days." Well I spotted the fellow to make friends with and I spotted a Corporal that was running the details. I went to his cadre room and I asked his advice about some things and I made him a present of a bottle of Old Crow Whiskey. He said, "I see you are scheduled for KP tomorrow, so here is what you do. When you go to the mess hall you eat chow with the KP’s but don’t report to the Mess Sgt. As soon as your done eating, go grab a stool and 3 dish pans and go over by the exit door. As the men come out, tell them to put their knife in one, their fork in another and the spoon in the 3rd pan. As soon as they close the doors take the three dish pans over to the sink where they are doing silverware sit them down and then get the heck out of the place." So that’s what i did. And he let me sleep in his room so no one would bother me. Best advice i ever received, and i was thankful for it.
Milt Long
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I remember going on KP and being assigned to peeling potatoes. We were supposed to dump the potatoes in the automatic potato peeler, let them spin for a while, then remove them and dig out the eyes by hand. Well, we decided that if we left them in a little longer, the eyes would be removed and we wouldn't have to worry. So we left them in. When they all came out the size of marbles, the mess sergeant was a little upset and put us on pots and pans. I know what you guys are going to say, yes, in the 50's at Fort Dix we were lucky enough to have automatic potato peelers, all the comforts of home.
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Milton Long
I believe we all had fun with the total recalls and shared experiences so long ago most of us had forgotten about it...Somebody did mention pots and pans and suddenly I remembered having to scrub those huge "vats" cooky used for mass boiling soup. Sgt. Trala, a mess sergeant, had a masochistic pleasure at making me crawl in them headfirst to make sure "the bottom's gotta shine, soldier..." I hated him.
Doc Ellis
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You haven’t lived until you had the job to clean out the grease trap in the kitchen. This job was promised to the KP that messed up or gave the Mess Sgt. a problem. If none of the above applied they gave the job to the KP that had enlisted in the Army and had a "1" for the first number in his serial number, me.
Milt long
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Bernie
If I recall correctly, the "old timers" serial number started with a "6." Current enlisted men's serial number started with a "1," and draftees serial numbers started with a three. Mine started with a "1." There were many in the outfit that started with a "6." Many of them had been in the service for many years, some of them going back to WWI. Our First Sgt. and Mess Sgt. were both getting ready to retire after 25 years service, and that was in 1941. I'll never forget our Executive Officer, Capt. "Pappy" Grimes. He saw service in WWI. Many of the EM's had been in for several years and saw service in Panama, Hawaii and the Philipines during the late 20's and 30's. When the expansion began in the services during 1939 and 1940, they put in for transfers to Staeside with newly formed outfits.
Bernie
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Jim
While in the Navy waiting for assignment we had KP and I was on the pots and pans when the grate over the grease trap was removed and I turned around and fell in the pit up to my neck.
Jim in Georgia
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HHASI
Jim; In the Air Corps we ate "Grease Crap" is that where they got it? I never cleaned one but I believe I ate some!
Howard HHASL
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Dr Kirby
While in the infantry and dirty and wet and eating K-Rations my poor heart cried for you Air Force types and the poor food you got. Even Kilroy didn't like K-Rations for days on end.
Jim
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Old Tiger
Slick,
In 1942 while I flew with the RAF in North Africa several of our Bat Men (orderlies) had contact with US Forces where they could barter for K rations. The K Rations were a feast to us. It persuaded me to transfer over to the US Army Air Corps back in England.
Adios, Old Tiger
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hoffcarl
Hi DrKirby,
Being a U S Army Air Corps original in 1943 it was in Basic Training at Amarillo, Texas our Mess Halls (not Air Corps Dining Halls yet) were as cruddy as they come down the pike.
We had a Mess Sargent with these reenlistment stripes from his wrist clear up to his shoulder (old timer) who was in the service off Noah’s Ark. When it came time for inspection he paraded thru the Mess Hall with a 2nd Louy on a leash. The 2nd Louy was a Ninety Day Wonder and what that Sargeant said was Gospel Truth. Those old enlisted men carried more clout than officers of any rank.
It so happen during Basic I pulled KP twice. The first time in the kitchen, it looked like the (Greasy Spoon) around some of the towns back home. I cleaned out that dirty stinken grease trap and I would swear it had not been cleaned since the beginning of WWII. Even the body of a drowned deteriorating decomposing mouse . For an old farm boy it was not too bad after shoveling all that horse, cow and pig shit back on the farm. At least that fermenting farm manure cleaned out your sinuses that grease did nothing but hang on you. Looking back it was no wonder that sargeant steared that 90 Day Wonder 2nd louy every where but the kitchen. That kitchen would not pass inspection those days or any other day up to present day. When I came out of the service after WWII knowing what starvation was like in POW Camp I worked in the Food Service Industry for 38 years. But we never, I say never experienced anything in my Food Service like that kitchen.
Found out later most of these Air Corps Basic Training Kitchens were staffed by groups of Army Infantry hurriedly placed for the sole purpose of feeding hungry troops whether they be Infantry or Air Corps.
I always wondered while in the service the probability of food poisioning. But thank God it did not happen.
hoffcarl,
Marion.
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So actually, you joined the Air Force simply because of their food? I can think of worse reasons! I must confess that I ran into some very good mess halls in the army, at Fort Dix, Fort Devens, and even the consolidated mess at the Gutleut kaserne in Frankfurt were top flight. Yes, today they have it made with civilian KP's, etc. In Kassel, Germany, we had civilians who were supposed to be employed only as KP's but for the breakfast meal, usually the army cooks were still hung over and so the elderly German lady, Mutti, would take over and make a nutritious breakfast for "her boys". As a result, no complaints about the chow there either. In fact, I found that the smaller the unit, the better the chow. Speaking of eating "C" Rations army regulations in Germany in the 50's decreed that each unit would have to have c-rations one meal a week, usually on a Thursday noon meal. The English troops in the area would always find some excuse to come to our kaserne to eat on that day, they loved our rations. However, anyone who has ever eaten in a British mess hall can readily understand their reasoning.
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Published in U S Legacies Magazine March 2004
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