I found my old P-38 can opener from 37 years ago

[commanding]

I found my old U.S. Army P-38 can opener today, as it was stuck in a tray of an old fishing tackle box, that I hadn't opened in years! Yeah I know you can buy "new" P-38 can openers at army surplus, but this was "the one" (at least I think so) that I had on my dog tags. I even found a photo of an identical one when I googled P38 can opener.
Mine is marked : US (and then a little delta looking mark) then : SHELBY CORP.
The pix from the website:
http://i39.tinypic.com/33y6deo.jpg

and the website that has a jillion P-38 openers with all kinds of history and patents etc...pretty cool....
http://www.georgia-outfitters.com/page52.shtml#latestP38story

even a page on there for C-rats, and gosh I remember those round crackers like yesterday....

[goat89]

Always awesome to find old stuff thought long lost. Congrats.

[Panchito12]

I still have mine from an old C-rats from the mid 80's. That thing is so good one can probably cut his way out of an underwater submarine.

p.s. Now all I need is a good supply of the "lemonade" powder to bleach my undies perfect white!

[Ngati Tumatauenga]

Wow.............

[Henry's Fork]

Great site. Thanks.

"Lessons of a Vietnam Helicopter Crewman" list was a good read to say the least.

[socom6]

Im disappointed.:( I thought it was a can opener shaped like a P-38 fighter.

[big_les]

I was thinking Walther.

[commanding]

I still have mine from an old C-rats from the mid 80's. That thing is so good one can probably cut his way out of an underwater submarine.

p.s. Now all I need is a good supply of the "lemonade" powder to bleach my undies perfect white!

Seems I remember the can opener was only in every fifth or so box of rations, and so once you got one it was like the prize in a box of Cracker Jack, and you hung it on your dog tag chain. my P38 is pretty used, you can see the scratches on it from opening a lot of cans, but still useable. I thought the Patent drawings of the P38 on that website were cool.

[Eztyga]

I still have mine from an old C-rats from the mid 80's. That thing is so good one can probably cut his way out of an underwater submarine.

p.s. Now all I need is a good supply of the "lemonade" powder to bleach my undies perfect white!

Underwater submarine? Is that like a panzer tank?

[Dragonscript]

I always keep a P-38 on my keyring. Not a military original, but works wells. Can opener, flat head screwdriver, box cutter, pants ripper...

[dave81]

Some great stories there. I don't think there's anything comparable in today's military that could unite and (someday) bring back a flood of memories for "future old soldiers".

The mini Tabasco bottle just doesn't have as many uses.

[oldspice]

Bought one a few months ago at a surplus store (never experienced the real ones) and the guy said, "That's the best selling thing I got!"

[Tikvah]

We get those in the IDF in our combat rations. It was always such piss off opening a box and not having one inside lol.

[jtv3062]

my dad gave me his from Vietnam when i was in HS. It had GO ARMY on it, pretty cool bt I lost it. I've bought 3 since then and keep them on my key rings

[Creampuff]

One of my co workers is ex Army and while in Fiji he picked one of these up but with a spoon on the end.

[Slouch]

One of my co workers is ex Army and while in Fiji he picked one of these up but with a spoon on the end.

Thats not a P-38 then. Was is a slightly greeny-gold colour? If so, thats an Australian FRED.

[Creampuff]

Thats not a P-38 then. Was is a slightly greeny-gold colour? If so, thats an Australian FRED.

hmm i think zinc coloured definitely not greeny-gold.

[dave81]

I have an Australian "FRED" straight out of the box of Aussie rations that they gave me.

...What's "FRED" stand for?

[LineDoggie]

Mine never lasted through Basic.

I was wearing it on My Dogtags chain while running the obstacle course.

While jumping from the low log to the high log on the Hurdle?, my chest hit the log and I impaled myself on the P-38. all the way into my Solar Plexus.

As you can imagine, that hurt like ****. And the Drill damn near threw up on me when he removed it.

After that I borrowed them in Basic, when I got to my first unit I got the big Cooks version and kept it on a key chain

[Tabak]

Oh... so that's called a P-38 can opener. My mother has one in her keychain.

My grandpa worked for the US base in Subic many years ago so i'm thinking he got it from there.

[LineDoggie]

I have an Australian "FRED" straight out of the box of Aussie rations that they gave me.

...What's "FRED" stand for?

Field Ration Eating Device ?

[realbigo]

Thats not a P-38 then. Was is a slightly greeny-gold colour? If so, thats an Australian FRED.
They were also made in stainless commecialy in the States. I have a couple, but I don't think there was ever an official military Designation

[bd popeye]

Those things came in C-rations..which we only ate during an extended GQ(General Quaters) drill.

We called them a "John Wayne" can opener.

[digrar]

I have an Australian "FRED" straight out of the box of Aussie rations that they gave me.

...What's "FRED" stand for?

****ing Ridiculous Eating Device.

[Eztyga]

One of my co workers is ex Army and while in Fiji he picked one of these up but with a spoon on the end.

They are called FRED's, Aussie rat-packs had them.

[Eztyga]

hmm i think zinc coloured definitely not greeny-gold.

Just means that the coating was worn off.

[GETSOME]

I still have one i found in1986 on base and used it for the two years of national service.
Simple but functional.:)

[LaoSexMachine]

I still have mine. Got it from supply. Even though we had MREs. Still sharp and cuts up cans failry fast.

[Eztyga]

I have got a couple laying around, I think they were from boarding ops, they would give us a single meal rat-pack just in case we missed the meal time. Usually the chefs would put aside something for us until we got back onboard, so we rarely needed them.

[KB]

Neat story. I had a HSLD one that was very large; it came with some British rations I was issued in 1983 while attached to one of their brigades. Unfortunately my home was burglarized some years ago and I lost it, together with my dog tags.

[Mousepad]

Still got my custom self-made can opener from a tip of AK-bayonet, cuts like lightsaber without any lever. How the feck humanity can produce good durable things for killing purposes from scratch materials, and miserably fails when doing something civvy, with all this lazor-plazma tech of lately.

*grumbles sharpening set of IKEA knifes*

[commanding]

From the website I posted on post one, they say the name of P-38 for the opener, came about this way...it supposedly takes 38 punches around the rim to open a can of C-rations...thus P= punch and 38 is the number of times you rotate the punch.

[Spagga]

Hahaha......love it !!!

Never would have guessed the old FRED would have made an appearance.....

And they weren't that bad ......Wont be long till there all gone......

Only kraft bunghole left in a tin I think?

[dave81]

Do you mean Aussie rations Vegemite?

[digrar]

The tinned cheese, it's well known as a bowel binding agent.