This is a story about NOT using a piece of TA-50.

A friend of mine just left the 3rd Special Forces Group and had to turn in a metal mess kit with knife, fork and spoon. He'd never used it in more than a decade of service; when was the last time you used it?

Other than being thrown around the barracks by OCS TAC officers, the mess kit/utensils are not used by the modern U.S. Army. Why?

Field use in Vietnam discovered that no matter how you try to clean them, Soldiers in the mud will get sick using them since they cannot be completely sterilized. This is why we have T-rations with hygienically-sealed paper plates/plastic utensils. More Soldiers have died in history by sickness than battle wounds. Even when a mess section cooks a hot meal in Mermite cans, they bring paper plates/plastic utensils. The mess kit is not used; they're more hassle than they're worth.

Not only is the metal mess kit a bacteria risk, it's a tactical noise and camouflage handicap. They're noisy to use and their bare metal is easily detected at long range. While T-ration paper plates/plastic utensils are not the right color for camouflage (they should be brown), they're silent and don't reflect light. Metal mess kits don't belong on the modern, sensor-swept battlefield. Their metallic construction can be detected by ground/air surveillance radar and set off magnetic mines.

The solution is this: don't issue them to Soldiers. Those that have them should turn them in and let's be done with these dinosaurs. The kits can be collected and kept at the unit level if we think they could be needed in the future. If so, put the burden of transporting them to the battlefield on the mess section, not on the backs of fighting Paratroopers, who need to travel at four to seven miles per hour on foot.

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