KSV News: Short Round 011
Khe Sanh Veterans
Short Round Newsletter #011
Honoring Our Fallen And Their Families.
We have no higher obligation and duty. For decades, we have honored our Khe Sanh Fallen by publishing their obituaries and details about them in our Red Clay magazine. Moving forward, with your help, we will continue this tradition. In addition, we will try to directly contact the family members to express our condolences and to seek to involve them in our KSV organization. Without new, younger members, our organization will be left to we older “dead men walking”, and will perish.
Our Jack Haigwood has stepped up to be the Manager for this most important function. Thank you, Jack. Please see his new “Passages And Families” Bunker in our khesanh.vet web site.
Our mission is to first find any obituaries of our Fallen. If you know of any we are missing please contact Jack at admin@khesanh.vet Attn: Jack.
Then we want to enhance the obit with memories from our members. Adding whatever details of their Khe Sanh service we can. Making their obituary more appropriate for our USMC / military community. Only our members can do this- please make it your personal obligation to contribute to the memory of our Fallen. We want to tell their story with a focus on their Khe Sanh military activities. It is unlikely that anyone else in their family structure will be able to add this information. It’s our duty to share this chapter in their life.
To accomplish this takes a team. We can all use Internet sources to track down obituaries that are not otherwise reported. To include churches, local newspapers, and funeral homes. All of these including the search term “Khe Sanh”. Having done this for a while, it’s surprising how many “hits” we will get. Please, help with your searches for news of our Fallen. Whatever the source, please connect with Jack if you find a Fallen brother we have missed.
The next step is for all of us who knew the Fallen to reach out to his family. And to convey the condolences of each and every KSV member- so they know our full membership mourns the passing along with the family.
You are authorized to offer the family a free membership in our KSV organization so they can continue being a part the legacy. Just let us know the family contact info and any particulars by emailing admin@khesanh.vet Attn: Passages. We will take it from there.
Only if our entire membership becomes part of Jack’s team and mission, can we properly honor our Fallen.
I found the following history of that Marine Corps breakfast of all breakfasts SOS compelling. Hope you will as well.
SF
Bob Koury: Website & Digital Manager
The S.O.S Story
By M/Sgt Dick Mangum USMC (Ret)
It’s said that an Army fights well on a full stomach and the Marine Corps is no exception. Always and foremost, in training or in combat, the breakfast meal is number one.
For every “grunt”, “MREdale” and or “Pinky” at the start of the workday, breakfast is the link to “making it” that day.
And a breakfast without S.O.S is like a day without sunshine.
We can only imagine or guess at what the meals and types of food were being served at Tunn’s or with O’Bannon in Tripoli. But I bet you they had some sort of S.O.S. The original creamed ground beef now served at every Marine breakfast hall.
There are many stories of its origin.
The story that I was told was that it was first served during World War I m France.
The Marine forces on the line were served meals that were prepared by the Army, from field kitchens in the rear.
On this one occasion during a battle, the Marines moved so last forward that the Army Mess Company couldn’t keep up with the advancement.
For that particular evening, the cooks had prepared a meal which was roasted beef with a cream gravy (Boeuf le Creme de la Région) and sent it up to the front lines.
It took the mess men all night to find the location of the fast moving Marine Brigade, and the meal was not delivered until the next morning. Not wanting to waste the food and not having the tools to serve it properly, the Marine First Sgt. ordered that the meat and gravy (sauce) be placed on the dry bread and handed to each man. The men being very hungry, did not complain. But instead requested that this meal be served again, but with the proper utensils.
Over the following years the recipe changed depending on the availability of supplies and the mood of the cook. Due to the lack of mess funds given to the Marine Corps by the Navy, especially in hard times, many of the cooks could not afford to purchase the beef roasts in the original recipes for “Boeuf le Creme de Argonne” and other beef dishes.
They thereof substituted the less expensive ground beef in place of the roasts. This was quite popular as an evening meal and was served a number of times a week.
One big advantage that the cooks liked was that there was little or no waste: leftover could be served the next morning.
It grew in popularity more for breakfast than for the evening meal, and today it is never served other than for breakfast.
Other branches of service (Army, Navy, etc.) will also serve their version of S.O.S, but they haven’t mastered the Marines’ technique of preparing this marvelous breakfast presentation. The Army uses chipped and salted dried beef (yuk!). And the Navy uses beans and tomatoes in their recipe (barf !). The Air Force gave up trying and our friends in the Coast Guard now eat breakfast in the nearest Marine mess hall.
A number of years ago (back in the 70’s), San Francisco’s own Marine Artillery General (Brigadier) Tiago, requested / ordered that a recipe for the Manne Corps famous S.O.S. (creamed beef on toast) be developed so that it could be served to a small group of about eight (8) persons. This way the General could have his wife make it at home. The official recipe for the mess halls is for serving 300 or more. This challenge was taken up by his chief field artillery cook, M/Sgt Remic Parker. Alter many tries and a few mistakes ” Pop” Parker came up with the following, near perfect recipe:
“Marine Breakfast”
(Serves two hungry Marines)
1/2 lb Ground Reef (ground chuck for flavor)
1 tbs. Bacon fat (lard, Crisco or butter)
3 tbs. Flour
2 cups Whole milk (add more milk if you want it thinner)
1/8 tsp. Salt
Pepper (to taste)
8 slices of dry, crisp toast
Using a large skillet (12”+) crumble and brown the ground beef with the fat and salt
Remove the pan from the heat and let cool slightly
Mix in the flour until all of the meat is covered, using all of the flour
Replace the skillet on the heat and stir in the milk…… keep stirring until the mixture comes to a boil and thickens (boil a minimum of 1 minute).
Serve over the crisp toast
Salt & pepper to taste.
“Semper Fi”