[Leica] OT: Real SPAM

[msmall at aya.yale.edu (Marc James Small)]

SPAM is a Hormel product, developed immediately before the advent of the
Second World War.  The US military glommed on it big time:  it is SPiced
hAM (how cute!) comprised of junk bits of pork left over from the
conventional processing of pigs -- Scrapple has been described as "all of
the leavings of the pig save for the oink", and SPAM comes close to this
same stature.  For non-USians, SPAM is heavy in fat, salt, and all sorts of
similarly unhealthy items.  It is also capable of long storage in cans and
can be readily held for distribution to troops.

Now, for a story.  My father wintered over in Alaska from 1942 to 1943 in
command of G Battery, 543rd CA (AA) at Fort Randall, a small post of no
special strategic significance, its main raison d'etre being the existence
of an emergency airfield.  On the day before Thanksgiving, 1942, the Navy
pushed a supply convoy through with the assistance of ice-breakers, as the
bay was rapidly freezing up.  They unloaded the supplies for the next five
months, and sailed off.  The next day, the entire post (which also included
an Infantry battalion, an Engineer company, an Airfield squadron, and a
small hospital, and not much else) had the customary military lush
Thanksgiving Day feed.  And, as the troops belched out their repast of
turkey and all the fixin's, the reefer warehouses burned down, the fresh
frozen food all being destroyed in the conflagration.  

The first reaction was that of the Post Commander, who raked my father over
the coals, as a number of his troops (all from his Radar Detachment, a
section of the 258th CA (AA) from Chicago attached to his command only on
his despatch to Alaska) had been spotted looting copper piping from the
ruins -- there interest was in the use of said piping in the construction
of stills to produce drinkable alcohol and, yes, this led to complications
at another day and to the near-death of a junior officer, but that is a
tale for a different time.

The second reaction was from Alaska Command, which simply advised the Post
Commander that he had adequate canned food and to rely on that during the
time when the post was frozen in.  The meat portion of this was, of course,
SPAM, for the most part, and, so, Dad survived on three meals of SPAM a day
for some five months.  They did fly in a decent Christmas meal but, for the
rest of the meals, the guys survived on a diet of, well, as Monty Python
did say, "SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, and SPAM".  Dad's second-in-command, when I
knew him in the 1950's, would not even allow the word to be said in his
presence, while the next-senior officer only began eating it again in the
1970's.  Mom liked SPAM but would normally only seve it when Dad was
working or teaching a class.  

I enjoy SPAM and eat it from time to time, generally with some fried eggs
on the side, but I can never eat it without recalling my father's heartfelt
horrors about the monotone diet he endured for that one winter.

(Dad's Radar Detachment had another distinction, in addition to their
interest in alcohol distillation.  These guys were from Chicago but all of
them were Puerto Ricans, and Dad, naturally, assigned a northern Minnesota
lieutenant as their Platoon Leader, a fellow Scandanavian enough to have
spent summers in Norway before the War.  As the Radar Detachment was
stationed outside of the unit, this Lieutenant instructed his men in
cross-country skiing, so they would make quite a sight at Mess Call, a
group of swarthy, short Hispanics gliding effortlessly across the snowfall
to the Mess Hall.  I have Dad's movies of this, all shot, of course, on
Kodachrome 25, and a hell of a sight it is -- these folks were GOOD.)

Marc



msmall@aya.yale.edu 
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!

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