If Carlsberg did jungle soldiers!

In the 1980s, I did a jungle trip to Sarawak in Borneo.

The team included a squadron from 22 SAS, members from other squadrons, SBS, Oz SAS, Para Patrols, Delta…and the all important attached ranks to keep everything flowing.

It was one of the top trips to the jungle in my military career.

With so many lads from different units, it was a terrific time to swap ideas from experiences, and thoughts for the future.

During one of the get-togethers, we were discussing the UK’s School of Infantry’s idea of changing jungle rations, and what they were deciding to entail.

There was talk of a more palatable choice of rations. I sat there supping my Milo, thinking that they haven’t taken jungle patrolling whatsoever into account.

The International choice, getting away from the glum but routine Brit menu made it obvious to me that members of a patrol would be shitting at different times of the day. Causing pandemonium to the patrol routine.

At the end of the day, food is pretty low in the pecking order of what needs to be carried on an operation in the jungle.

Food is fuel…that’s it. There’s no sitting down to a table with a candelabra and being waited on. Most of the time, it’s boiling up the bag of food in your mug and using the boiled water for a brew… basic but workable within the patrol routine when not operating under a hard routine (close to the enemy and eating cold).

One of the lads (nationality rhymes with tank) said that he would love the thought of the new proposed rations, if he could get hold of them back in his homeland. I doubled down on the thought of remaining regular and the fact that food is only fuel when it comes to ops.

I explained that every morning on patrol, I evacuate my bowels at 4.50am precisely.

I then went on to say that the only problem is that I don’t wake up until 5am.

Laughter all around, but everyone agreed on the reality of keeping regular, and the fact that for jungle patrolling…food is only fuel.

Keep what works.