General MacAuliffe was an artillery officer: he was in command while the CG of the 101st was home on leave.
Have my own story of illicit drinking - while I was in Vietnam, anything alcoholic was hard to get where were, but one of my buddies snagged a gallon size can of pineapple from the mess hall. We poured the juice into a large glass bottle and threw a handful of yeast into it.
Three days later, it was well fermented and we drank the whole thing while a corpsman stood by with an aid bag, in case.. Great stuff!
Hah! How are you, Chainmail? Funny, your name popped into my head while I was driving home, and for some reason it immediately translated into Charlie Mike...:)
There is something about military people and all things pineapple, including the juice. When I read your account of creating that primitive fermented brew, it brought back memories...:)
When I was a kid, my dad used to serve us pineapple juice all the time, but...since then, the only time I see it is when I seek it out. Nobody in the civilian world seems to drink it.
Just last week, my weight just dipped down below 185 for the first time in at least 35 years, and that particular weight made me think of when I was aboard ship as an 18 year old, I got sent for a month or so to the Chief’s Mess. Those guys always had the best food on the ship, and I had been 165 before I reported to duty there.
I was eating like a hog! When I was working in the scullery, I remember taking those huge shallow aluminum baking trays, full of pineapple upside down cake with the cherry in the middle of each ring on each square, and using a spatula to scrape them off into that huge garbage disposal that was at least a foot wide. As I tilted it on edge to shove them into that gaping black hole, I grab off great handfuls of that cake and shove it in my mouth, eating the whole time! (such a shame to put it down the disposal, but...that was what was done. I guess they didn’t want to keep it around or share it with anyone else)
Then one day, as I sat eating breakfast, I looked down towards my feet and realized with horror...I had a huge gut! I weighed myself, and I weighed 185 lbs!!!!
Well, when I got out of Mess Hall duty, I did drop back to about 170, but my days of being 165 were gone forever!
USN 1951 sub service here. One of the guys told me that during WWII they used the 200 proof alcohol reserved for torpedo fuel to lace grapefruit juice. Tied on some marvelous benders.
Said he swore off it after waking up one morning and couldn't move a muscle for about an hour. Scared the Hell out of him.
The stuff killed or blinded many, so the military added a foul-tasting pink dye to make it undrinkable. Still, "pink Lady" made a great deodorant before hitting the beach though.