On Sat, 08 Mar 2008 03:15:38 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

Stealth Pilot wrote:

On Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:21:38 -0500, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:

cavelamb himself wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:

Can opener?
http://images.google.com/images?q=p38+can+opener&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7GWYA&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi


I still have - and use - my P-38 - from my last case of C-Rats in RVN.
It still works great!



The hole in mine finally wore to the point it broke and fell off my
key ring. OTOH, a gernade ring was probably too big for it, anyway.

You're right about the P38, though. It, and the classic Swingaway
manual can opener are the two best I've ever used. Mine was from cold
weather survival training in Alaska, in the '70s. Once you got the can
open, you had to thaw it out before you could eat whatever was inside.
Except the crackers. A slight breeze, and they turned to dust and blew
away.

during my time as an army mapping surveyor I remember just 4 pieces of
kit that worked perfectly.
the P38 can opener was the premier one.
then there was the prismatic compass.
the 1917 issue heliograph.
the Wild T2-56 theodolite.
and the dress belt buckle.

the most useless was the army pocket knife but to be honest it was
totally reliably blunt :-) ...even after an hour of sharpening :-) :-)


Which knife are you talking about? The army issue Camillus knife I
had would shave the threads off a 1/4" bolt. A guy who worked in the
parachute repair shop at Ft.Rucker used the same knife to cut away
damaged nylon rigging, all day long. He said a knife lasted a little
over a year, with all the abuse he gave it.


no that little camilus is a decent knife. btw my favourite these days
is the swiss army tinker.

the australian army had some abortion of a thing. all soft stainless
steel. two blades, no screwdrivers and a useless fid on the back face.
utter rubbish.