Or 10 ways Veterans drink coffee, in or out of the military.
1. Black – Because additives are a luxury and suffering builds character.
2. Black – No cream, no sugar, no feelings.
3. Black – Drank it this way downrange. Never changed back.
4. Black, but aggressively hot – Skin graft temperature. Must burn.
5. Black, reheated three times – Microwaved until legally questionable.
6. Black, from a mug older than the marriage – Chips add flavor.
7. Navy Sludge – Thick, burnt, oily, and somehow alive. Drinkable by law, not by choice.
8. Black, in a Yeti that’s been through hell – Coffee tastes like memories.
9. Black, brewed too strong on purpose – “If my eye isn’t twitching, it’s weak.”
10. Black, but cut with enough sugar to make Pablo Escobar proud – Still technically black. Don’t argue semantics…
100. Shitty Army Coffee (warehouse-aged, 3+ years). It’s black.
Milk/canned cow/powder is fine, if you have it.
Sugar is fine, if you have it.
My crew would go through TWO of these pots in a 12 hour flight. And woe unto the idjit that actually CLEANED the ##@$%@) coffee pot!!!
And any leftover coffee was used to clean up the galley!
h/t Mike K and Don C
I remember coming in on day shift and our shift supervisor at a test reactor that no longer exists (a mustang retired LCDR) standing in the middle of the hall shouting “Who the f##K didn’t make any f##king coffee for the oncoming crew!” plus a few more expletives. Regular day workers including secretaries were also coming in for work. It was expected that the off going crew would make a fresh pot for the oncoming crew, and yeah I and everyone else on crew drank it fierce, hot and black.
I like the plane pic of the coffee mess . Looks maybe like a little oven/microwave strapped down and a little fridge below . If that is a seat by the coffee pot , I’d never fit in there these days . Recognize the table edge popup lips to keep sliding shit somewhat under control . Remember putting wet napkins under the four corners of food tray on a ship to keep it from sliding around . Great Navpic thanks Sir .
Just a pinch between your cheek and gum for MRE coffee packets during extended evolutions in The Big Green Amphibious Gun Club.
I’m having a cup of #6 at this moment. The mug has a 1986 calender printed on it and we tied the knot in ’91.
I heard something about a pinch of salt. Legal? Still black?
Just making up for not making it from reverse-osmosis seawater, so you’ve got about the right content (less the thin skin of leaking diesel on top), right?
LOL.
No comments about the coffee.
I have thoughts about handles I do not recognize, making statements obviously incredible, or obviously unnecessary for choir, fishing on the fairly unwise for the left bets on domestic US politics.
Apparently a lot of state actor idjits with money to pay people to put stupid stuff on the internet.
Lots and lots of bad nation state actors with some challenges in front of them. Russia, China, and Iran have the obvious problems strongly suggested by RumINT. UK, France, etc., are less obnoxious in their idiocy. Anyway, the whole UN is a bunch of whiners, and many of them have done some very bad things. Right now, they are complaining about US dues, and at this point I am fairly confident that our UN spends have been propping up many terrible regimes.
I drink coffee black, but only in small amounts or very watered down.
Yeah. I’ve had to start adding more and more decaf to my morning coffee if I want more than one or two cups and no normal coffee at all past about 2 pm or I don’t sleep well. I used to be able to drink 8+ cups and sleep like a baby. But that was 50 years ago.
Yeah, the sleep doc told me that two mugs worth of high-test was one too many. I put one cup worth of grounds in the coffeemaker and a spoonfull of decaf powder in the carafe. I’ve been hooked on the first cup being mocha since Carter was president, but the second cup is always black.
I’m getting an hour more sleep so I guess he was right.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/Screenshot%202026-01-30%20at%209.17.29%20AM.png
“Ranger Pudding”
1 packet instant coffee
1 packet sugar
1 packet non-dairy creamer
1 packet cocoa powder
Add just enough ambient-temperature water to turn it into a thick slurry. Eat it with a spoon that’s just a little too short, so you get some on your fingers. Don’t clean anything afterwards, because the morons in charge refuse to put a second wet-wipe in the MRE packets.
Black and cold — The C-141 galley was low priority on the repair list.
If it won’t float a nickel it ain’t done.
Spent a few hours drinking my coffee in that galley and a few hours in the bunk on the other side. Fun times…
All- Well, other than the spammers I deleted, thanks! Boats, that was our ‘oven’ for our ‘TV dinners’… sigh…
McC- Never heard of that!
Bob- THAT would be a down gripe on a P-3!
Flugel- LOL, figured you had!
You need to try coffee made with Missile LCF site well water. Freshly brewed it looks and tastes like it’s been boiling for 3 days. One of the first things Missile Combat Crews learned was to bring at least a gallon of potable water with us on alert.
Gourmet hint: If the water tastes and smells of Navy distillate, so does the coffee.
Yup. When I reported to my first sailing as a Mishipman, the CPO on board assured me that coffee was available 25/7 and that one must NEVER clean out the urns or baskets. I do believe he was correct ’cause the brew tasted like 1965 which is when the boat was commissioned. Mind I was on board in 1970 and there was not a single bit of un-dented sheet steel on it, let along water tight hatches.
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Midwatch Coffee. We had a new 0 that tried to remove the coffee mess from CIC while we were standing port and report watches in the Straits of Hormuz. He was informed that he was expendable but the mess wasn’t. Straight from the Old Man who liked to shoulder surf the Radars. By the end of the cruise we had him pretty well trained.