P38 Can Opener 100 Pack Shelby USA f/ Military Army USMC Mess Kit Scout Ration

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100  each  US Shelby P38 Can Openers,  great for campers, scouts, hobbiest , door prizes at VFWs, Legions, veteran organizations.
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We sell these also in quantities of 25 to  500 also great for militaria, sports show venders, etc.  See our other listings
The Greatest Army Invention:  History of the P38
Story by Maj. Renita Foster
It was developed
in just 30 days in the summer of 1942 by the Subsistence Research Laboratory in
Chicago. And never in its
history has it
been known to break, rust, need sharpening or polishing. Perhaps that is why
many soldiers, past and present, regard the P-38 C-ration can opener as the
Army’s best invention.
C-rations have
long since been replaced with the more convenient Meals, Ready to Eat, but the
fame of the P-38 persists, thanks to the many uses stemming from the unique
blend of ingenuity and creativity all soldiers seem to have.
“The P-38 is one of those tools you keep
and never want to get rid of,” said Sgt. Scott Kiraly, a military
policeman. “I’ve had my P-38 since joining the Army 11 years ago and kept
it because I can use it as a screwdriver, knife, anything.”
The most vital use of the P-38, however, is
the very mission it was designed for, said Fort Monmouth, N.J., garrison
commander Col. Paul Baerman.
“When we had C-rations, the P-38 was your access to
food; that made it the hierarchy of needs,” Baerman said. “Then
soldiers discovered it was an extremely simple, lightweight, multipurpose tool.
I think in warfare, the simpler something is and the easier access it has, the
more you’re going to use it. The P-38 had all of those things going for
it.”
The tool
acquired its name from the 38 punctures required to open a C-ration can, and
from the boast that it performed with the speed of the World War II P-38
fighter plane.
“Soldiers just took
to the P-38 naturally,” said World War II veteran John Bandola. “It
was our means for eating 90 percent of the time, but we also used it for
cleaning boots and fingernails, as a screwdriver, you name it. We all carried
it on our dog tags or key rings.”
When
Bandola attached his first and only P-38 to his key ring a half century ago, it
accompanied him to Anzio, Salerno and through northern Italy. It was with him
when World War II ended, and it’s with him now.
“This P-38 is a symbol of my life
then,” said Bandola. “The Army, the training, my fellow soldiers, all
the times we shared during a world war.”
Sgt. Ted Paquet, swing shift supervisor in
the Fort Monmouth Provost Marshal’s Office, was a 17-year-old seaman serving
aboard the amphibious assault ship USS New Orleans during the Vietnam war when
he got his first P-38. The ship’s mission was to transport Marines off the
coast of Da Nang.
On occasional
evenings, Marines gathered near Paquet’s duty position on the fantail for
simple pleasures like “Cokes, cigarettes, conversation and
C-rations.” It was during one of these nightly sessions that Paquet came
in contact with the P-38, or “John Wayne” as it’s referred to in the
Navy.
Paquet still carries his P-38,
and he still finds it useful. While driving with his older brother, Paul, their
car’s carburetor began to have problems.
“There were no tools in the car and, almost
simultaneously, both of us reached for P-38s attached to our key rings,”
Paquet said with a grin. “We used my P-38 to adjust the flow valve, the
car worked perfectly, and we went on our merry way.”
Paquet”s P-38 is in a special box with
his dog tags, a .50-caliber round from the ship he served on, his Vietnam
Service Medal, South Vietnamese money and a surrender leaflet from Operation
Desert Storm provided by a nephew.
“It
will probably be on my dresser until the day I die,” Paquet said.
The feelings veterans have for the P-38
aren’t hard to understand, according to 1st Sgt. Steve Wilson of the Chaplain
Center and School at Fort Monmouth.
“When
you hang on to something for 26 years,” he said, “it’s very hard to
give it up. That’s why people keep their P-38 just like they do their dog tags.
… It means a lot. It’s become part of you. You remember field problems,
jumping at 3 a.m. and moving out. A P-38 has you reliving all the adventures
that came with soldiering in the armed forces. Yes, the P-38 opened cans, but
it did much more. Any soldier will tell you that.”
items since more and more people are putting them in their
military & medal displays or their P-38 collections. P-38 collections don’t
cost too much and don’t take up much space and they’re a lot of fun finding the
hard to get ones.
I’ve had the same P-38
on my key-ring ever since my first Boy Scout camping trip when my Scoutmaster
gave it to me to open the big cans of peaches for the delicious cobbler he
would make over the campfire in a huge cast iron skillet. I can still taste
that delicious cobbler as we sat around the campfire before crawling into our
sleeping bags. My Scoutmaster was a WWII and Korean War veteran that knew how
handy the little P-38s were and he gave one to every new member of the Scout
troop on their first camping trip.
Recently
P-38s have added a new role to their long list of uses. Shelters and
organizations that aid the homeless hand them out and also they were included
in the humanitarian relief packets dropped into Afghanistan. I’ve also been
told they have been handed out here in the USA by relief organizations after
natural disasters (hurricanes, tornadoes, storms and floods) for when the power
is out and electric can openers no longer work.
A P-38 is a lesson in simplicity at it’s
best.
Don’t you wish everything in life could be as simple and
useful as a P-38.
List of P-38 Uses By Steve Wilson, MSG Proponent NCO, Dept
of the Army
Office of the Chief of Chaplains, The Pentagon
1. Can Opener
2. Seam Ripper
3. Screwdriver
4. Clean Fingernails
5. Cut Fishing Line
6. Open Paint Cans
7. Window Scraper
8. Scrape Around Floor Corners
9. Digging
copied from surplus yes
10. Clean Out Groove on Tupperware lids
11. Reach in and Clean Out Small Cracks
12. Scrape Around Edge of Boots
13. Bottle Opener
14. Gut Fish (in the field)
15. Scale Fish (in the field)
16. Test for ‘Doneness’ When Baking on a Camp Fire
17. Prying Items
18. Strip Wire
19. Scrape Pans in the Field
20. Lift Key on Flip Top Cans
21. Chisel
22. Barter
23. Marking Tool
24. Deflating Tires
25. Clean Sole of Boot/Shoe
26. Pick Teeth
27. Measurement
28. Striking Flint
29. Stirring Coffee
30. Puncturing Plastic Coating
31. Knocking on Doors
32. Morse Code
33. Box Cutter
34. Opening Letters
35. Write Emergency Messages
36. Scratch an Itch
37. Save as a Souvenir
38. Rip Off Rank for On-the-Spot Promotions