Parachute Emergency Ration
The predecessor to the parachute emergency ration used in the latter part of World War II was the bailout ration procured by the Air Forces in 1942. The bailout was designed as a survival item to be contained in the parachute pack and used after emergency parachute landings. In the final procurement in 1943, it included a combination of D bars, fruit bars, hard candy, lemon-juice powder, and K biscuits. After 1943, the bailout was abandoned in favor of the "ration, parachute, emergency," a pack designed to fit the pocket of the Air Force emergency vest. The components for the new parachute pack included sweet chocolate, hard candy, dehydrated cheese and crackers, bouillon cubes, sugar, cigarettes, water-purification tablets, soluble coffee, chewing gum, and a small cellophane bag to contain the uneaten food after the can had been opened. The ration weighed 11½ ounces and contained about 1,062 calories.69 The parachute ration went through the war without major change and remained in official standing until February of 1952 when the specification was cancelled.70
Airborne Lifeboat Ration
An airborne lifeboat ration was developed in 1944 to meet an Air Force requirement for a ration suitable for stowing in lifeboats dropped from aircraft to survivors of airplane ditchings or parachute drops over water. Initial requirements of the ration were governed by the storage space allotted for the purpose within the lifeboat. As standardized, the packaged ration contained food for two men for one meal, each package including a breakfast and supper unit. Two menus or component groupings lent variety to the units. The breakfast menu included a B unit from the C ration, a canned meat-food combination (four types were specified), condensed soup, matches, and toilet paper. In the supper menu, the B units and meat items were augmented with liferaft rations. Each menu was packaged in a fiberboard container and stowed in the lifeboat at the boat manufacturer's plant.71 The ration was unchanged in composition during the period it was in production. Procurement was halted in 1944 and development discontinued. The specification was cancelled in 1949.
Liferaft Ration
The request of a commercial airline for a ration to be used on liferafts has been cited by a World War II historian as the origin of the Liferaft ration.72 Although the quartermaster Corps produced a four-pound ration comprised of nine items suitable to the purpose in view, the ration was not adapted to Army use because of its bulk. A highly concentrated ration, weighing less than one pound and occupying a space not greater than 6 by 2 by 4 inches, was suggested as a substitute for the commercial prototype. To meet these physical requirements and on the supposition that food of high carbohydrate content was most satisfactory for sustaining life when water intake was restricted, the quartermaster Corps developed the confection Ration, Liferaft. The confections selected were fruit-flavored hard-candy tablets. Ten packages of these candies were contained in a key-opening, rectangular metal can approximately 4 by 3 by 3 inches in size. Chewing gum and six B-complex vitamin tablets were included to utilize all the can's space.73 Directions for use printed on the can declared that "one to two packages of candy and one vitamin pill should be eaten each day by each man-chewing the gum will help keep your mouth clean." Additional instructions appeared on a printed sheet placed in the can. They assured the user that the contents were "the best solid food for eating while living on a liferaft," directed him to eat two packages of candy and one vitamin pill each day, informed him how long the ration would last and how to open the bag for unused components, and instructed him not to open a second can until the contents of the first were used. They also told him to conserve the ration if he was successful in catching fish.74
A "lifeboat and liferaft ration" was procured as early as 1942 for use by the Coast Guard and the merchant marines. Components included C biscuits, pemmican, chocolate tablets, and milk tablets. Packaging was in airtight containers. Components were purchased by the Chicago quartermaster Depot for shipment to depots or ports where the complete ration was assembled under the supervision of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation.75
Army Rations-Historical Background